Learn UWB from the people who build it - not from a datasheet

The RF foundation: how UWB signals are designed and why their characteristics enable precise ranging, object identification, low-latency communication, and accurate time synchronisation. The module works through wireless-channel impairments - multipath and interference - and why UWB's wideband nature is exceptionally robust in hostile radio environments, then the link-budget and processing-gain advantages that deliver reliable range at extremely low transmit power. It closes on the IEEE 802.15.4z/ab standards: the PHY and MAC layer design, scalable throughput, ranging-accuracy and security enhancements.

You'll leave able to: explain UWB's RF fundamentals and signal characteristics; analyse channel impairments and UWB's multipath resilience; explain how UWB achieves high-performance ranging at very low transmit power; and navigate the 802.15.4z/ab PHY and MAC architecture.

The application landscape, mapped to what UWB's strengths - accuracy, latency, security, low emission power - actually make possible that BLE and WiFi can't. Automotive: secure car access and smart keys on the CCC Digital Key spec, and how UWB's distance-bounding defeats relay attacks. Consumer: item finders, point-and-trigger device control, and phone-to-accessory ranging. Industrial RTLS: asset tracking, worker safety, and logistics, with the TWR-versus-TDoA topology trade-offs in scalability, power, and infrastructure cost. And the emerging classes - UWB radar for presence detection, in-cabin child-presence sensing, and gesture recognition; hands-free access and payments; low-latency data links for audio and AR/VR - plus the FiRa, CCC, and omlox interoperability landscape throughout.

You'll leave able to: map UWB's strengths to concrete application requirements; explain secure car-access architectures and relay-attack defence; compare TWR, TDoA, and phase-based AoA for consumer and industrial RTLS; assess UWB radar and in-cabin sensing use cases; and navigate the FiRa/CCC/omlox interoperability landscape.

The developer's path from platform selection to a deployed, certified application. It opens on the commercial UWB ecosystem from a software perspective - chipset vendors (Qorvo/Decawave, NXP Trimension, STMicroelectronics), their SDKs, driver models, and dev kits, compared on host interfaces, API maturity, RTOS support, and ranging-evaluation tooling. The core is the architecture of a FiRa-compliant UWB stack: the UCI interface between host and UWB subsystem, ranging-session configuration, controller/controlee roles, and MAC scheduling - and how UWB is paired with BLE for out-of-band discovery, capability exchange, and secure session setup before ranging begins. It covers smartphone interoperability through Apple's Nearby Interaction framework and the Android UWB (Jetpack) API, then application-level engineering: turning raw ranging data into robust position estimates (filtering, outlier rejection, sensor fusion), designing for power efficiency and session scalability, STS key management and defence against distance-manipulation attacks, and validation through interoperability testing and FiRa/CCC certification - illustrated with real architectures, common pitfalls, and proven patterns.


You'll leave able to: evaluate UWB chipsets, SDKs, and dev kits for software integration; architect firmware around a FiRa stack (UCI, sessions, controller/controlee); integrate BLE for out-of-band discovery and secure setup; build smartphone-interoperable apps with Apple Nearby Interaction and Android UWB; and turn raw ranging into reliable applications through filtering, fusion, security, and certification testing.

Real Qorvo QM33/QM35 silicon, ranging and RTLS exercises, and the UWB protocol sniffer to show what's actually on the air. Theory sticks once a team has run it, and watched it break, on hardware.