U‑blox has announced the ALEX-R5, a miniature cellular module that integrates LPWA connectivity and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) technology into an ultra-small system-in-package (SiP) form factor. Comprising hardware components designed fully in-house, ALEX-R5 is based on the secure UBX-R5 LTE-M/NB-IoT chipset platform with Secure Cloud functionality and the U‑blox M8 GNSS chip for advanced location accuracy.

According to a Global Market Insights report, the global optical sensor market is estimated to exceed $30 billion by 2026. Optical sensors are broadly utilized in consumer electronic devices to detect events, changes or input signals and pass the information to other components. Adoption of optical sensors is increasing for biometric recognition, high-speed detection, device authentication and other security applications in consumer electronics.

Nordic Semiconductor has announced that Globalstar, a satellite and commercial IoT communications company, has selected Nordic’s Bluetooth LE nRF52832 SoC to provide the processing power and Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity for its “ST100 Satellite Transmitter” module. The module allows companies to rapidly develop satellite-based tracking and monitoring solutions using Globalstar’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network.