Morse Micro

Morse Micro is a Sydney-based developer of Wi-Fi HaLow microprocessors.[1] The chips use low-bandwidth wireless network protocols in the sub 1 GHz spectrum, enabling high data rates of 10 megabits per second, at a range of 1,000 metres.[2] The Australian Government provided them with seed funding in 2017 as they believed Morse Micro has the “first WiFi HaLow silicon chip that securely connects smart devices over long distances.”[3] The company says the main application of their technology is machine-to-machine communications, which is “expanding Wi-Fi so it can go into everything, every smoke alarm, every camera."[1] In May 2019, Series A funding was provided in by a suite of investors including the CSIRO Innovation Fund, part of the Australian scientific research agency credited with inventing Wi-Fi in 1997.

Morse Micro Pty. Ltd.
Private
IndustryWi-Fi
Founded2016 (2016)
Sydney, Australia
FoundersMichael de Nil
Andrew Terry
Headquarters
Sydney
,
Australia
Key people
Michael de Nil (CEO)
Andrew Terry (CTO)
Vahid Manian (COO)
Neil Weste (VP Engineering)
David Goodall (VP Standards)
Ray Stata (board member)
Mike Nicholls (board member)
Products
Websitewww.morsemicro.com
David Goodall with founder Michael de Nil, Minister Angus Taylor and co-founder Andrew Terry, at Morse Micro offices in Picton, south of Sydney, soon after winning their seed funding grant in 2017. Taylor holds a prototype of their Wi-Fi HaLow chip.
Co-inventor of the original Wi-Fi, John O'Sullivan, has joined Morse Micro, along with fellow CSIRO alumnus Neil Weste.

Technology

The chip communicates on the 750 - 950 MHz band[4] which allows for higher data speeds than Bluetooth communications operating at 2.4 GHz.[2] It enables a single Wi-Fi HaLow Access Point that can securely connect up to 8,191 devices.[5] Compared to traditional wi-fi, the company claims their chip provides 10 times the range, 100 times the area and 1000 times the volume.[5]

Physically, the company's microchip is one-fifth the size of a traditional Wi-Fi processor.[2] It uses very little energy, consuming 1% of the power consumed by traditional chips, which is achieved by periodically waking and reporting.[2] As such, chips can operate for several years on a single coin-size battery. In 2020, the first generation of Morse Micro chips went into production in Taiwan.[6]  

History

"Wi-Fi was invented over 20 years ago in Australia and over that time we have seen it go into every laptop, phone and tablet, and all of that came from people in Australia. Today we are opening it up and expanding Wi-Fi so it can go into everything, every smoke alarm, every camera." — Andrew Terry, founder, speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald in 2017[1]

The founding partners of Morse Micro, Andrew Terry and Michael De Nil met while working for Broadcom Inc, the largest supplier of integrated circuits for communications.[1] De Nil said they noticed that chips designed for phones and laptops were being used for machine-to-machine communication and “that wasn’t working very well.”[7] They decided to create a new kind of microprocessor, specifically for the Internet of things.[2]

Morse Micro Pty Ltd was established as a private company, limited by guarantee, in August 2016. The founders were later joined by several significant engineers, including:

  • Professor Neil Weste the founder of Radiata Networks who had created the first 802.11a Wi-Fi chip[2]
  • Dr. John O'Sullivan (engineer) radio astronomer who led the team who invented Wi-Fi at CSIRO in the 1980s[8][9]
  • Dr. David Goodall, the design engineer at Radiata, who created the first commercial WiFi chip[10]

Vahid Manian joined Morse Micro in June 2020 as the Chief Operating Officer looking over operations in Irvine, California. He was a founding member of Broadcom's global operations organisation.[11]

References
  1. Waters, Cara (27 May 2019). "Chipping in: Morse Micro raises $24m as it taps next Wi-Fi revolution". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  2. Turner, Adam (29 August 2017). "Aussie start-up's Wi-Fi HaLow chips set to unite the internet of things". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  3. "Morse Micro – reinventing Wi‑Fi for Internet of Things (IoT) | business.gov.au". www.business.gov.au. 26 June 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  4. "WiFi Evolves For The IoT". Semiconductor Engineering. 6 August 2020. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
  5. "Morse Micro Names Vahid Manian as Chief Operations Officer". www.businesswire.com. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  6. "填補戶外移動應用不足 Wi-Fi 802.11ah「悄悄」來襲". 電子工程專輯. 1 April 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  7. ""We can start selling millions of these": How Morse Micro scored $24 million from high-profile Aussie investors". SmartCompany. 28 May 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  8. "How Australian engineers solved one of wireless networking's biggest problems to make WiFi". Create. 12 August 2019. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  9. Sygall, David (7 December 2009). "How Australia's top scientist earned millions from Wi-Fi". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  10. Nicholls, Mike (30 October 2017). "Morse Micro & Main Sequence Ventures". Medium. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  11. "Morse Micro Names Vahid Manian as Chief Operations Officer". www.yahoo.com. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
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