The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has approved a baseline physical-layer spectrum for the new wireless draft standard 802.15.4a.

Germany-based fabless semiconductor house Nanotron Technologies led the standardisation of the specification, the chirp spread spectrum (CSS) physical layer (PHY). The new standard targets applications such as real time location systems (RTLS), industrial control, sensor networking and medical devices.

After winning several letter ballots, the IEEE 802.15.4a standard passed its first sponsor ballot with a 94 per cent approval rating. Sponsor ballot is the final level in the IEEE balloting process. The final standard is expected to be published by the IEEE in March 2007. 802.15.4 is also associated with the Zigbee Alliance's standard.

"The standardisation progress is a further step on our roadmap to satisfy the market demand for suitable chips for wireless personal area networks (WPANs)," Nanotron's CEO Jens Albers said in a statement.

The first CSS solutions based on the new standard will be launched by Nanotron Technologies in 2007, the company said. Nanotron claims these products will offer both robust communication with minimal power consumption and "location awareness", precise localisation based on Nanotron's SDS-TWR technology.