DW1000 is now NRND: how to plan your move to DW3000, QM33 or QM35

Short answer

Qorvo now treats the DW1000 as Not Recommended for New Designs (NRND), and the DW1000-based MDEK1001 development kit ships for the last time on 15 December 2026. Products already in the field can keep shipping while parts are available, but new designs should start on the DW3000 family, the QM33 family or the QM35825.

Moving is a port, not a recompile: the driver API, channels, security (STS) and calibration all change. Plan it as a 2–4 week assessment, a phased port and side-by-side validation before you certify and ship.

Key facts at a glance

What does NRND mean for a DW1000 product?

“Not Recommended for New Designs” is a lifecycle warning, not a shutdown. In the forum reply that confirmed the status, Qorvo explained that “there is no set End of Life (EoL) date and normally there would be a Last Time Buy – LTB before going EoL”, and recommended “the DW3, QM33, or QM35 devices in your product for the latest software and support”. At the time of writing, the DW1000 product page on qorvo.com still showed “Production”, which is common in the weeks after a status change.

For a product team, NRND means three things:

• Existing products can keep shipping. Nothing forces you to stop production today.
• The clock has started. An end-of-life notice with a last time buy date usually follows NRND, and your migration should be done or well under way before it arrives.
• New features should not be planned on the DW1000. Software investment, new certifications and new markets deliver more on a current part.

The right response is a decision per product: which products migrate, which stay on the DW1000 until end of life with a buffer stock, and which retire.

Why move now rather than at the last time buy?

Four developments make the DW1000 harder to live with, independently of its NRND status.

1. Tooling is going away. The MDEK1001 kit, built from 12 DWM1001-DEV boards, reached end of life in December 2025. Its last shipments leave Qorvo on 15 December 2026, and PCN 25-0154 names no replacement.
2. Regulation is moving to higher frequencies. China’s provisions for UWB equipment, in force since 1 August 2025, permit 7,163–8,812 MHz. All six DW1000 channels (3.5–6.5 GHz) fall outside that band, while channel 9 of the DW3000 and QM33 families falls inside it. Equipment approved under the earlier rules may continue to be sold and used.
3. Phones and standards expect IEEE 802.15.4z. The DW1000 implements the IEEE 802.15.4-2011 UWB PHY. It has no scrambled timestamp sequence (STS), which secure ranging relies on, so it cannot take part in FiRa ranging sessions. Qorvo describes the DW3000 family as interoperable with Apple’s U1 and U2 chips.
4. Security obligations now run for years. Under the EU Cyber Resilience Act, reporting obligations apply from 11 September 2026 and the full regulation from 11 December 2027. Maintaining a product on a part with no future software investment makes those obligations harder to meet.

DW1000, DW3000, QM33 and QM35825 compared

Qorvo describes the DW3120 as FiRa compliant and the DW3000 family as interoperable with Apple’s U1 and U2 chips. For the QM35825, Qorvo quotes up to 104 dB of link budget and a Cortex-M33 with a secure enclave. Its firmware is supplied by Qorvo; your application runs on the host.

What changes when you port DW1000 firmware

The driver API is new

The DW1000 and DW3000 drivers share naming conventions, but not their configuration. A reply on Qorvo’s forum put it plainly: “we do not have an API that works on both the DW1000 and DW3000”. The radio configuration structure shows the scale of the change.

The register map changed too, so any code that touches registers directly has to be rewritten. That includes diagnostics, custom timing and calibration routines. A forum reply describes porting as “fairly straight forward (unless DW1000 specific features are used)”. The exceptions in that sentence are where most of the effort concentrates.

Channels, data rates and range

The DW3000 family supports channel 5 (6,489.6 MHz) and channel 9 (7,987.2 MHz) at 850 kbps and 6.8 Mbps. There is no 110 kbps mode. If your DW1000 product relies on 110 kbps or on channels 1–4 for link budget, rebuild your range assumptions rather than copying them.

Developers on Qorvo’s forum report similar or slightly lower range for DWM3001-based designs than for DWM1001-based ones in like-for-like setups. They point to the DW1000’s low-rate mode and lower-frequency channels as the reason. They also note that channel 9 avoids interference that lower channels can suffer from some cellular and Wi-Fi bands. Measure range on your own antennas before you commit to anchor spacing.

Secure ranging with STS

IEEE 802.15.4z adds the scrambled timestamp sequence. In Qorvo’s datasheet wording, “the STS provides for secure receive timestamping and secure ranging”. STS is what makes UWB distance measurement resistant to relay attacks, and FiRa and phone ecosystems expect it.

STS also brings key management into your product. Keys must be generated, provisioned and protected, which affects your manufacturing flow, your security documentation and your CRA obligations.

Two antennas, PDoA and the DW3120/DW3220 end of life

If you plan angle of arrival with phase difference of arrival (PDoA), choose the part carefully. On 3 August 2026 Qorvo announced end of life for the two-antenna DW3120 and DW3220, with a last time buy on 28 February 2027 and no replacement named on the product pages. The QM33120W, which also has two antenna ports, remains in production.

Qorvo’s DW3000 datasheet documents two trade-offs worth knowing: the PDoA variants have about 1.4 dB lower receive sensitivity, and the QFN variants (DW3210 and DW3220) output 2 dB less maximum transmit power.

Calibration starts from zero

Antenna delay, crystal trim and transmit power are unit-specific values that new hardware needs from day one. The DW3000 datasheet quotes ranging accuracy of about ±6 cm after calibration and roughly ±15 cm without it. Budget calibration into the migration instead of discovering it in the field.

Mixed fleets during the transition

You will probably run DW1000 and newer devices side by side for a while. Qorvo’s DW3000 datasheet states that the “DW3000 is backward compatible with DW1000 on channel 5 and for data rates of 6.8 Mb/s and 850 kb/s”. The QM33110W product page also lists backward compatibility with the DW1000 on channel 5. A Qorvo reply on the forum lists the practical conditions: channel 5, a preamble length of 64 or 128, and no STS.

Three consequences follow:

• Secure ranging must be off in every session that includes a DW1000.
• Mixed sessions run on channel 5, which is outside China’s band for new approvals.
• The QM35825 is not the right bridge. Its radio can talk to a DW1000 “with the right settings”, but FiRa ranging requires STS, and Qorvo’s forum reply suggests the QM33120W instead.

Modules: DWM1000 to DWM3000, DWM1001C to DWM3001C

At module level, Qorvo states that “the DWM3000 module is pin and size compatible with Qorvo’s DWM1000” and that “its channel 5 operation is compatible with DWM1000”. That can save a PCB respin. The module is not register compatible, though, so the firmware port described above still applies.

The DWM3001C is a different architecture. It combines the DW3110 with a Nordic nRF52833 Bluetooth LE SoC, a planar UWB antenna and an accelerometer.

Which target should you choose?

A four-step migration plan

1. Assess (2–4 weeks). Inventory every UWB part, module and SDK version in your products, with lifecycle status and the latest PCNs. Map your field fleet, the features you rely on (data rates, channels, timing, diagnostics) and the markets you sell into. Choose the target part per product and size the work. The output is a risk map and a sequenced plan.
2. Port in phases. Move the driver and radio configuration first, then the ranging stack and timing, then STS key handling and host integration, for example Bluetooth LE on an nRF host. Keep a DW1000-compatible mode only if the transition plan needs it.
3. Validate side by side. Run old and new devices through the same TWR, TDoA or AoA scenarios on hardware-in-the-loop benches, compare field logs and fix regressions before release. A protocol sniffer that captures both generations takes the guesswork out of interoperability problems.
4. Certify and ship. Plan FiRa, CCC or CE/RED testing where needed. Write the transition plan for mixed fleets: which sites change first, how long the compatibility mode stays on and how you will retire it.

Mistakes that make migrations expensive

• Treating the port as a recompile and finding register-level code late.
• Copying range and anchor spacing from a 110 kbps design.
• Choosing a two-antenna DW3000 variant for a new PDoA design after its end-of-life notice.
• Leaving STS key provisioning out of the manufacturing plan.
• Skipping calibration of the new hardware.
• Forgetting that mixed sessions with a DW1000 run without STS on channel 5.

How needCode helps

needCode runs DW1000 migrations as an Upgrade project in four stages: a 2–4 week assessment, a phased port, validation and certification. Validation happens on hardware-in-the-loop benches with robotic positioning, where we run side-by-side TWR, TDoA and AoA tests and compare field logs. Certification support covers FiRa, CCC and CE/RED, plus a transition plan for mixed fleets.

Our engineers have worked inside Qorvo’s wireless programmes for more than eight years. They developed firmware, drivers and protocol stacks for the QM33 and QM35, including a MAC layer built to the FiRa specification, and brought up nine hardware platforms for Qorvo, with support for new hardware in Zephyr.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Qorvo DW1000 discontinued?

No. As of October 2026 the DW1000 is Not Recommended for New Designs (NRND), according to a Qorvo reply on the Qorvo Tech Forum. No end-of-life date has been set, and Qorvo notes that a last time buy normally comes before end of life.

Can DW1000 and DW3000 devices range with each other?

Yes, within limits. Qorvo states that the DW3000 is backward compatible with the DW1000 on channel 5 at 6.8 Mb/s and 850 kb/s. Both sides need matching settings, including a supported preamble configuration, and STS must be off. The DW3000 has no 110 kbps mode, and sessions that include a DW1000 cannot use FiRa secure ranging.

Is the DWM3000 a drop-in replacement for the DWM1000?

Mechanically, yes: Qorvo states that the DWM3000 is pin and size compatible with the DWM1000. Its firmware is not compatible. The DW3110 inside uses a different register map and driver API, so DW1000 firmware has to be ported.

Which Qorvo chip should I use for angle of arrival in a new design?

The QM33120W. It has two antenna ports for PDoA and is in production. The two-antenna DW3120 and DW3220 have an end-of-life notice (PCN 26-0105) with a last time buy on 28 February 2027. For four-port designs with 2D or 3D AoA, the QM35825 is the SoC option.

Will moving to the DW3000 increase range?

Not automatically. The DW3000 has no 110 kbps mode and uses higher-frequency channels than most DW1000 designs, and developers report similar or slightly lower range in like-for-like comparisons. Range depends on link budget, antennas and channel. Qorvo quotes up to 104 dB of link budget for the QM35825.

How long does a DW1000 migration take?

The assessment that sizes it takes 2–4 weeks. The port depends on how much register-level and timing-specific code your product has, whether you add STS and FiRa, and which certifications you need. Plan validation and certification time explicitly, because late surprises there cost the most.

Sources

1. Qorvo Tech Forum: “Qorvo DW1000: Recommended for New Designs?”
2. Qorvo PCN 25-0154: MDEK1001 end of life
3. Qorvo DW3120 product page (end of life, PCN 26-0105) and DW3220 product page
4. Qorvo DW1000 product page and DW1000 datasheet (forum attachment)
5. Qorvo DW3110 product page
6. Qorvo QM33110W product page and QM33120W product page
7. Qorvo QM35825 product page and QM35825 product brief
8. Qorvo DWM3000 product page and DWM3001C product page
9. DW3000 datasheet v1.1 (distributor copy)
10. DW1000 API guide v2.4 and DW3xxx API guide v4.9 (forum attachments)
11. Qorvo Tech Forum: “DWM1000 to DWM3000 migration”
12. Qorvo Tech Forum: “Not receiving preamble, TX is DW1000, RX is DW3000”
13. Qorvo Tech Forum: “QM35825 cannot receive SP0, but the datasheet says SP0 gives DW1000 compatibility”
14. Qorvo Tech Forum: “Transitioning from DWM1001 to DWM3001 tips and insight”
15. CAICT: China’s UWB equipment provisions, in force from 1 August 2025
16. Qorvo: DW3000 family interoperable with the Apple U1 chip (2021)

About needCode

needCode is an independent embedded engineering company from Kraków, Poland, and an official UWB business partner of Qorvo. Its engineers have worked inside Qorvo’s wireless programmes for more than eight years, including on the public QM35 SDK. needCode is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and is a member of the UWB Alliance. This article reflects public sources and needCode’s own engineering work; it does not represent Qorvo or Skyworks. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.