Ohio-based Laird Connectivity has announced the Sona IF573 Wifi 6 and 6E module powered by Infineon’s Airoc CYW55573 chipset.

The industrial IoT module is rugged, small, globally certified, has reliable connectivity, and is said to be easy to integrate.

It delivers a fully featured Wifi 6E radio for wireless IoT applications. Purpose-built for rugged IoT connectivity, it brings access to PCIE and SDIO interfaces and has an industrial operating temperature range. It combines the latest wifi and Bluetooth with pluggable card and SMT M.2 form factor.

“Adding the Sona IF573 to our wifi portfolio demonstrates Laird Connectivity’s commitment to providing the latest technology and wireless capabilities to our customer base,” said Andrew Ross, senior product manager at Laird Connectivity. “We’re really excited to offer this innovative module range based on Infineon’s leading-edge Airoc silicon to our industrial and medical customers who need highly reliable, secure, industrial-grade Wifi 6 and 6E with major performance and feature enhancements.”

Laird’s Linux Backports package ensures compatibility for a broad range of Linux kernels. The module also supports the latest WPA3 security standards.

“Infineon is pleased to build on its strategic partnership with our premium partner Laird Connectivity,” said Sivaram Trikutam, vice president at Infineon Technologies. “Infineon’s Airoc CYW55573 delivers high-performance wifi capabilities that go beyond the Wifi 6 and 6E standard requirements to improve the range, reliability and robustness in congested networks for IoT applications and lower latency for AI applications. The product also supports the latest Bluetooth Auracast broadcast feature to enable new audio use cases with exceptional audio quality. Laird Connectivity’s Sona IF573 module accelerates customers’ time-to-market by speeding up development time. We look forward to an ongoing collaboration.”

The module is available in SMT M.2 form factor and pluggable card, supporting either an RF trace connection or MHF4 connectors for external antennas. It was intentionally designed to meet the demands of harsh RF IoT applications, with integrated power amplifier and LNA with 2×2 MU-MIMO antennas for reliability connectivity.

Laird offers various pre-certified Wifi 6E antennas in the FlexMIMO, FlexPIFA and Mini Nanoblade ranges. Target applications include rugged handheld devices, industrial IoT sensors and gateways, and medical devices such as infusion pumps, HD imaging, beds and blood analysers.

The module will be globally certified to reduce barriers to entry. Pending certifications include FCC, ISED, CE, RCM, Mic and Bluetooth SIG registration.