How Sigma Connectivity Is Designing Ruggedized 5G Phones Built for Extreme Industrial Environments with Qualcomm Technologies
Customers
BARTEC & HMD
Solution Partner
Sigma Connectivity
Application
Ruggedized 5G Smartphone / Smartscanner / Security-Focused Handheld
Qualcomm Platform
Dragonwing QCM6490 & Dragonwing Q-6690
Featured Offering
5G Industrial IoT / Ruggedized Handhelds
Overview
When smartphones have to survive a drop onto a factory floor, keep working in a volatile, explosion-prone oil field, or meet the security bar of a government agency, "off-the-shelf" isn't an option. It takes a design partner who can solve problems most phone makers never have to think about and a chipset platform flexible enough to support them.
That's exactly the space Sigma Connectivity operates in. The Swedish-owned design house has spent 13 years building devices for customers who need hard problems solved, and Qualcomm Technologies is, by its own account, its single biggest technology partner.
With its 700 strong-employee base, deep in-house expertise in wireless and antenna engineering, imaging, and audio, Sigma Connectivity is one of the few design houses capable of comprehensive "chip-down" phone design, building devices from the silicon up rather than modifying an existing reference platform. Together with Qualcomm Technologies, Sigma Connectivity also develops reference designs that form the foundation for multiple commercial devices, helping enable customers to accelerate development while retaining the flexibility to build differentiated products. That capability is on full display in two recent projects built on Dragonwing platforms. One is a ruggedized phone for BARTEC, designed for explosive-prone industrial environments, and a ruggedized 5G device built for HMD, demonstrating how a common foundation of high-performance 5G technology can be adapted for very different mission-critical requirements.
The Challenge: Designing an Ultra-Compact EX 5G Smartphone and Smartscanner for BARTEC
The BARTEC SP9EX1 5G smartphone and scanner, built on the Dragonwing QCM6490 SoC, was designed by Sigma for one of the most demanding and volatile environments imaginable, that of oil and gas fields, where the device itself cannot risk being a source of ignition or explosion. Meeting that bar meant re-engineering what a smartphone even is. A typical smartphone has around 1,500 components, while Sigma’s BARTEC design required double that to satisfy intrinsic safety requirements while still delivering full 5G performance.
The Dragonwing QCM6490 Reference Design is designed to pair the platform's 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth® 5.2 wireless connectivity with an integrated AI accelerator delivering up to 13 TOPS of combined AI performance, all within the low-power envelope required for a sealed, intrinsically safe enclosure.
Sigma Connectivity was responsible for the device’s end-to-end engineering, including its industrial design, electronics, printed circuit boards, wireless implementation and Android integration. The team also integrated the dedicated barcode/RFID scan engine for asset tracking and inventory use cases, without compromising size, weight, or Ex certification.
The project also had to clear carrier certification with Verizon which is one of the toughest hurdles in the US mobile market. Sigma guided the device through that certification process, giving BARTEC a phone design for not proven rugged enough for hazardous environments and rigorous enough to meet the US's demanding carrier standards.
The resulting EX 5G smartphone is the ultra-compact smartphone and smartscanner for Zone 1 Division 1 hazardous environments. The Dragonwing QCM6490-based design methodology gives Sigma and Qualcomm Technologies a foundation to extend into additional ruggedized, hazardous-area, and industrial handheld programs.
The Sovereign HMD Ivalo XE 5G Phone Designed and Manufactured in Europe for Mission-Critical Use Cases
The HMD Secure Ivalo XE is built to address a different set of operational requirements. Designed and developed in Europe, it is a rugged 5G device created for secure mission-critical communications in demanding government and enterprise environments.
Built on the Dragonwing Q-6690 reference design, closely related to the platform used for BARTEC, the HMD device is a fully ruggedized 5G phone designed to survive drops and rough handling, with a modular Fusion 3.1 connector on the housing supporting accessories such as tactical radios, extended batteries, and customer-specific features. It also carries security requirements designed to meet stringent government security certifications including FIPS 140-3 and NIAP, with security features such as an RF kill-switch, and a specialized software partner integrating security-focused communications capabilities on top of Sigma's hardware and phone design. The device is designed to provide multi-band 5G connectivity across more than 20 bands, spanning public and tactical networks, helping create a foundation for reliable communication in high-demand operational scenarios.
The European development model was an important element of the project. For government and security-sensitive customers, the location of product design, development and manufacturing can be an important consideration alongside technical performance. By combining HMD’s product vision, Sigma Connectivity’s engineering capabilities, specialist security expertise and Qualcomm Technologies’ platform, the project brought together a traceable European-led ecosystem for mission-critical mobility.
The result is a 5G smartphone designed, developed, and manufactured entirely in Europe, engineered from the ground up for government and defense customers who require both mission-critical performance and a fully sovereign, trusted supply chain.
Only a limited number of engineering organizations have the capability to develop a smartphone from the silicon up. As Vesa Korkala, Director of Business Development at Sigma Connectivity puts it, what makes this device truly unique isn't any single spec. "The entire development journey, from platform integration to the finished product, was carried out in Europe."
The Solution: One Platform, Built for Two Extremes
Both the BARTEC and HMD devices trace back to the same underlying reference design work between Sigma and Qualcomm Technologies. An architecture flexible enough to scale across form factors, from small industrial handhelds to full smartphones, and adaptable enough to support two very different sets of extreme requirements.
What connects the two projects are Technologies ability to package advanced 5G and compute capability into a foundation that Sigma could then engineer around highly specific operational demands. The Dragonwing QCM6490 and Dragonwing Q-6690 platforms bring smartphone-class connectivity and computing to industrial and enterprise-grade devices, with support for global 5G, Wi-Fi 6E/7, advanced imaging, and edge AI. Rather than starting each specialized device from a blank sheet, Sigma could build on a proven Qualcomm® Technology base and focus its engineering effort on what differentiated each product.
Conclusion
Together, Qualcomm Technologies and Sigma Connectivity are showing what's possible when proven silicon meets specialized design expertise. 5G phones rugged enough for harsh industrial environments, security-rich enough for government use, and engineered to meet compliance requirements on both sides of the Atlantic, designed and built in Europe, and rigorous enough to pass muster with Verizon.
