company blog about Sony ALT1350 Highly Integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT SoC For 5G/IoT

Shenzhen Mingjiada Electronics Co., Ltd. supplies the Sony ALT1350, a highly integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT SoC designed for the 5G mass IoT market.

Amidst the wave of large-scale 5G IoT deployment, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technology has become the cornerstone for connecting vast numbers of devices. Thanks to their low latency, wide coverage and low power consumption, LTE-M and NB-IoT have emerged as the mainstream communication solutions for scenarios such as smart cities, industrial sensing, smart wearables and remote monitoring. Sony’s ALT1350 is a groundbreaking, highly integrated 5G IoT SoC chip that overcomes the pain points of traditional IoT chips—such as limited functionality, redundant peripherals and high power consumption—by integrating multi-mode cellular communication, satellite communication, local near-field communication, edge intelligence, secure encryption and sensor data acquisition within a single-chip architecture. It is an integrated core solution compliant with 5G Release 15/16/17 standards and designed for all-scenario IoT applications, significantly lowering the hardware cost, size and power consumption thresholds for IoT end devices.

I. Core Product Positioning: Integrated 5G LPWA Flagship SoC

The Sony ALT1350 is the world’s first single-chip IoT solution to integrate LTE-M/NB-IoT cellular communication, Sub-GHz unlicensed band LPWA communication, NTN non-terrestrial satellite communication, edge AI computing power and multi-dimensional positioning capabilities, precisely targeting the requirements of 5G massive machine-type communication (mMTC) scenarios. Unlike traditional discrete chip solutions, this SoC eliminates redundant peripherals and standalone module designs, achieving native integration of five core capabilities: communication, computing power, sensing, security and positioning. It can independently support the full operation of IoT end devices without the need for additional microcontrollers, communication modules or security encryption components.

The chip is compatible with the 3GPP Release 15 standard and can be adapted to advanced 5G IoT protocols such as Release 16 and Release 17 via software upgrades. With its ability to adapt over an extended lifecycle, it not only meets current mainstream 4G/5G IoT networking requirements but is also capable of adapting to future iterations of lightweight 5G IoT technology, making it an industrial-grade IoT core chip that balances practicality with forward-thinking design.

II. Highly Integrated Architecture: Minimal Hardware, Comprehensive Computing Power

The ALT1350 employs a proprietary, highly integrated heterogeneous architecture that combines a dual-core MCU, large-capacity storage, an intelligent sensing hub and various communication RF interfaces, achieving full-featured coverage on a single chip and significantly simplifying terminal hardware design. Its core hardware architecture is industry-leading, featuring an Arm Cortex-M4 main processing core, paired with 1MB of NVRAM and 752KB of high-speed RAM. This enables the independent execution of various IoT applications, data processing algorithms and communication protocol stacks, eliminating the need for an external main control MCU and meeting the requirements for lightweight edge computing at the terminal. It also integrates an Arm Cortex-M0+ ultra-low-power sensing hub, which acts as a resident sensing core dedicated to round-the-clock sensor data collection, status monitoring and low-power wake-up control, balancing real-time performance with extreme power efficiency.

In terms of interfaces and storage expansion, the chip natively features a 4-wire SPI flash memory and PSRAM expansion interfaces, supporting flexible adaptation to mainstream storage peripherals. It also integrates iSIM embedded SIM card technology, eliminating the need for an external SIM card slot and card, thereby further reducing the device’s footprint and enhancing its shock and moisture resistance, making it suitable for harsh environments such as industrial and outdoor settings. Furthermore, the chip incorporates a dedicated hardware security element, a multi-mode positioning engine and an AI processing unit, truly realising the integrated concept of ‘one chip = controller + communication + sensing + security + positioning + intelligent computing’. This completely resolves the issues of complex hardware stacking, high failure rates and high costs associated with traditional IoT devices.

III. Comprehensive Communication Capabilities: Ground-based + Satellite Global Networking

The core strength of the ALT1350 lies in its ability to integrate multiple communication protocols, covering three major networking systems: cellular wide-area networks, local low-power local area networks, and satellite communications. This enables seamless, gap-free connectivity across all regions, catering to the communication requirements of diverse scenarios. In terms of cellular communication, it fully supports dual-mode operation with LTE-M (Cat-M1) and NB-IoT. Under LTE-M, the downlink speed can reach up to 588 Kbps, whilst the uplink speed is optimised for stable, low-to-medium data transmission, balancing low latency with wide coverage; the NB-IoT mode focuses on ultra-low-speed, ultra-long-range, and ultra-low-power transmission, making it perfectly suited for high-frequency, small-data-volume scenarios such as meter reading, monitoring, and alerts.

In addition to basic cellular communication, the chip innovatively integrates a customisable Sub-GHz LPWA/FAN transceiver, supporting local networking in licence-exempt frequency bands. This enables low-power inter-device coordination at close range and regional LAN data aggregation, thereby addressing the shortcomings of local cellular network coverage. It also features NTN non-terrestrial satellite communication capabilities, supporting automatic switching to satellite links in areas where ground base stations are unavailable. This completely resolves connectivity challenges in scenarios without cellular coverage, such as remote mountainous regions, the ocean, open-pit mining areas and high-altitude equipment, enabling comprehensive IoT networking across land, sea and air. The various communication links operate independently without interfering with one another and can switch intelligently based on network conditions, ensuring the stability and continuity of terminal communications.

IV. Ultra-Low Power Design: Optimised for Terminals with Extended Battery Life

Addressing the core requirements of battery-powered IoT terminals and extended standby periods, the ALT1350 incorporates Sony’s proprietary ultra-low power management architecture. It supports various IoT-specific low-power mechanisms, such as PSM (Power Saving Mode) and eDRX (Extended Deep Rest), delivering industry-leading power efficiency. Power consumption in cellular standby mode can be as low as 3μA, whilst power consumption in normal sleep mode is negligible. Power consumption in active mode is dynamically adjusted on demand, making it perfectly suited for battery-powered or solar-powered passive/low-power IoT terminals.

The dual-MCU architecture enables precise power management: the high-performance Cortex-M4 core is only activated during data processing, network transmission and intelligent computing, and returns to sleep rapidly once tasks are completed; The Cortex-M0+ sensor hub operates in a low-power, always-on state, handling only basic data collection and device status monitoring, thereby avoiding power drain caused by frequent wake-ups of the core processor. Through coordinated hardware and software power optimisation, IoT terminals equipped with this chip can achieve battery life spanning several years or even over a decade without recharging, significantly reducing device maintenance costs and making them suitable for large-scale, unattended IoT scenarios.

V. Intelligent Security and Precise Positioning: Empowering High-End IoT Applications

The ALT1350 overcomes the limitations of traditional low-power IoT chips—namely a lack of intelligence and weak security—by incorporating a lightweight AI engine. It supports low-power AI/ML inference at the edge, enabling operations such as data denoising, anomaly detection, state prediction and intelligent classification to be performed locally on the device. This eliminates the need to upload raw data to the cloud, thereby reducing network transmission load whilst enhancing the real-time performance of data processing. It is well-suited to intelligent scenarios such as smart sensing, fault prediction and behaviour monitoring.

On the security front, it employs a multi-layered hardware and software security architecture, integrating dedicated hardware security elements with a software encryption system. It supports encrypted data storage, encrypted transmission, device authentication and tamper-proof protection, effectively defending against cyberattacks such as data theft, device forgery and command tampering. This meets the stringent standards for data security and device reliability required in scenarios such as Industrial IoT, public welfare monitoring and smart finance.

In terms of positioning capabilities, the chip integrates multi-dimensional technologies including GNSS satellite positioning, indoor-outdoor fusion positioning and Wi-Fi-assisted positioning. It supports high-precision location data collection and is suitable for scenarios such as logistics tracking, asset localisation, outdoor equipment monitoring and wearable personnel tracking. Furthermore, the positioning module works in close coordination with the communication and power management systems to achieve continuous low-power positioning, addressing the pain points of high power consumption and large size associated with traditional positioning modules.

VI. Core Application Scenarios: Comprehensive Coverage of All Categories of 5G IoT Terminals

Leveraging its comprehensive advantages of high integration, low power consumption, global connectivity, high security and intelligence, the Sony ALT1350 is widely adaptable to various 5G IoT terminal devices, offering comprehensive scenario coverage. In the Industrial IoT sector, it can be used for industrial equipment condition monitoring, production line sensor data collection, outdoor industrial control terminals, and remote monitoring equipment for mines and oilfields, meeting the demands of harsh industrial environments and long-term stable operation; In the smart city sector, it supports large-scale low-power devices such as smart water, electricity and gas meters, intelligent street lighting control, environmental temperature/humidity and air quality monitoring, and smart waste sorting terminals.

In the outdoor and specialised IoT sectors, its satellite communication capabilities enable applications in scenarios without cellular coverage, such as marine monitoring, field geological exploration, forest fire monitoring and meteorological data collection in remote areas; In the consumer IoT sector, it supports low-power smart wearable devices, outdoor positioning terminals, and smart home sensor nodes; it also underpins vertical industry applications such as smart logistics asset tracking, smart agriculture soil monitoring, livestock traceability, and hydrological monitoring, making it a versatile core chip suitable for 5G IoT across all scenarios.

VII. Industry Value: Reshaping the 5G IoT Terminal Industry Landscape

Traditional 5G IoT terminals generally suffer from issues such as complex solutions, high power consumption, bulky designs, persistently high costs and insufficient adaptability, which have hindered the large-scale adoption of massive numbers of IoT terminals. Through highly integrated innovation on a single chip, the Sony ALT1350 radically simplifies the hardware design process for 5G IoT terminals, reducing the number of peripheral components by nearly 80%, thereby effectively lowering R&D, production and maintenance costs whilst shortening time-to-market.

Furthermore, the chip combines comprehensive capabilities including low power consumption, global connectivity, edge intelligence, high security and high-precision positioning, overcoming the shortcomings of traditional chips that excel in a single function but lack overall performance. It provides core support for lightweight, intelligent, long-lasting and highly reliable 5G IoT terminals. Its iterative 5G protocol adaptation capability also ensures compatibility with future technical upgrades and network iterations, significantly extending the lifecycle and reuse value of terminal devices, and facilitating the evolution of 5G IoT from large-scale deployment towards refined, intelligent and comprehensive coverage.

Summary

As a new-generation, highly integrated 5G LTE-M/NB-IoT SoC, the Sony ALT1350 redefines the industry standard for 5G low-power IoT chips through five core strengths: single-chip full-featured integration, comprehensive multi-mode communication, ultra-low power consumption, edge intelligence and robust security. It is perfectly suited to the massive connectivity scenarios of 5G mMTC, balancing versatility with specialisation and practicality with forward-thinking design. Capable of comprehensively meeting the IoT terminal requirements across multiple sectors—including industry, public services, agriculture, logistics and smart cities—it stands as a benchmark solution for driving the large-scale implementation and lightweight upgrade of 5G IoT.