China-based company Aovx has developed a suite of devices designed for tracking and monitoring goods, for example fresh food and medicine storage or cold chain transportation applications. 

The 121 by 61 by 8 mm ‘Aovx G Series’ tracker devices integrate multiple sensors—including a 3-axis accelerometer, light sensor, and temperature and humidity sensor—for monitoring the movement, vibration status, tampering, delay, temperature, and humidity of goods in storage or transit.

Cellular IoT connectivity

The integrated Nordic nRF9160 low power SiP with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS measures just 10 by 16 by 1 mm and is certified for global cellular IoT applications. The SiP provides the Aovx G Series tracker devices with either LTE-M or NB-IoT cellular IoT network connectivity to relay goods tracking data to the Cloud. The nRF9160 combines cellular network location data with GNSS trilateration for precise global indoor and outdoor position monitoring to support the goods tracking applications. The G Series devices also feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® LE connectivity. 

Each G Series device incorporates a rechargeable 2500 mAh Li-Po battery providing one year of battery life at one report per day, thanks in part to the nRF9160’s class leading power consumption. The SiP features PSM and eDRX power-saving enabling it to sleep for longer periods of time. For both LTE-M and NB-IoT the PSM floor current is as low as 2.7 µA, and with an eDRX interval of 655 s the average current is 6 µA for LTE-M and 9 µA for NB-IoT. 

Global network support

“We selected Nordic’s nRF9160 for our G series Goods Tracking devices primarily due to the SiP’s compact size, low power consumption capabilities, and global network support,” says Ricky Guo, CEO of Aovx.

• About Aovx
• About nRF9160
• About Nordic Semiconductor