2025/1/7
The Internet of Things is transforming the world through powerful technological innovation. By connecting devices and systems, it enables seamless data flow and intelligent decisions, driving change across industries. IoT applications extend from manufacturing and workplace safety to transport logistics and smart cities, creating smarter and more efficient lifestyles. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) play a vital role in this process. As one of the most mature technologies for outdoor positioning and navigation, GNSS provides accurate location information for applications ranging from real-time wearable tracking to precise electric bicycle positioning.
Market and technology drivers: continually improving GNSS modules
Only a few years ago, pervasive positioning systems were mainly a feature of science fiction films. Today, products with these capabilities are part of everyday life: wearable tracking, worker safety monitoring and precise tracking of assets. Positioning has become indispensable in modern society. According to the GNSS Market Report, the global satellite navigation market was worth €150.7 billion in 2019 and is forecast to reach €324.4 billion in 2029. Market expansion creates opportunities throughout the industry, while use cases are diversifying across smartphones, automotive navigation, livestock tracking and electric bicycle positioning.
Advancing technology and smart city development also increase performance requirements for GNSS modules. China is a major producer and consumer of electric bicycles. Enterprises above the designated size produced 42.28 million electric bicycles in 2023, while the market is projected to grow from US$17.2 billion to US$24.2 billion by 2028. To improve active safety, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released a revised Safety Technical Specification for Electric Bicycles in 2024, further clarifying the need to add BeiDou positioning.
Consumers and businesses require higher accuracy, faster response, lower power consumption, smaller dimensions and greater reliability. End-device manufacturers therefore need more flexible hardware designs for GNSS modules that improve energy efficiency while preserving performance and meeting increasingly diverse demand.
Quality craftsmanship and innovation support a connected future
As an Innovator in Electronics, Murata uses deep industry experience and proprietary technologies to advance electronic components and deliver better products through careful design. Responding to market needs, it developed the Type 2GQ GNSS positioning module to accelerate a fully connected world.
Murata Type 2GQ GNSS positioning module
The Type 2GQ integrates a powerful dual-core ARM Cortex-M33 processor. Its multitasking capabilities eliminate the need for an external SoC/MCU, helping customers reduce end-product BOM costs. One core handles satellite positioning while the other independently runs user-defined applications, supporting efficient, stable system operation.
As the system's central controller, Type 2GQ supports smooth program execution. Its metal-sputtered resin packaging achieves uniform coating and improves reliability. An integrated Murata-manufactured SAW filter provides ultra-low insertion loss and strong out-of-band rejection, improving reception quality and interference resistance for stability in complex environments. The mature modular design simplifies design and assembly and improves ease of use.
Compared with similar products, Type 2GQ combines exceptionally compact size, high reliability and ultra-low power consumption. It receives five major satellite systems — BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS and QZSS — for accurate positioning worldwide. Developed in close collaboration with a Chinese chip manufacturer, it provides open interfaces including UART, SPI, I2C, PPS, GPIOs and ADC.
In addition to stability, durability and safety, Type 2GQ performs strongly in practical applications. In rigorous baseline-based validation, it maintained continuous stable operation and high positioning accuracy even on routes with complex obstructions, outperforming several other tested products and meeting customers' needs across different use cases.
Applications of Murata's Type 2GQ GNSS module
Type 2GQ has been successfully deployed in several fields and received positive feedback from multiple customers, particularly in wearables, positioning and tracking.
Wearables
Applications combine health monitoring with positioning. Workers equipped with Type 2GQ wearables can receive additional safety support in factories and open work areas, with monitoring of whether they remain within safe zones. Sensors can also monitor vital signs. The devices can support everyday care for older and vulnerable people, helping reduce the risk of people with Alzheimer's disease and young children becoming lost.
Positioning
The product has helped a well-known Chinese manufacturer launch an electric bicycle mobility solution. The integrated solution uses low power, compact modules and supports GNSS and GPS. The new-generation LTE module uses the powerful ALT1350 chipset, offering very low power consumption in a compact, feature-rich solution suitable for IoT applications including iSIM/NTN and supporting high precision, fast-start satellite positioning and navigation.
Tracking
Tracking monitors the movement of assets in livestock farming, logistics, production equipment and other fields to help protect asset security. In racing pigeons, positioning products monitor flight paths, orientation and passage across geographical obstacles, helping identify flight patterns and assess performance. They can also reveal causes of delayed returns and loss and help prevent cheating. Such applications demand low power, high accuracy and compact size, requirements that Type 2GQ can meet.
Murata's approach: efficient support for a connected future
In competitive markets, reliability and support services are central to earning customer trust. Murata's advantages extend beyond performance and quality to comprehensive, efficient follow-up support and a precise understanding of industry needs.
To help customers reduce costs and improve efficiency, Murata provides a complete support process beginning with early-stage experiments. Testing and evaluation tools, including EVKs, can be supplied according to customer needs to save project time. Its after-sales support system provides timely, professional assistance, with technical teams responding quickly to different issues and offering effective solutions.
Rapid IoT development and widespread adoption will transform traditional operations and create new business models and market opportunities. Murata recognizes that this progress depends on efficient, stable and secure components and solutions. It will continue building on its expertise in components and modules, advancing technologies and products to respond to changing markets and provide more stable, secure solutions for the future IoT world, supporting sustained industry development.