RFQ DRAFT

Supplier RFQ | Custom RF LED Wristbands

10,000-unit production order · sub-GHz broadcast · rigid PCBA + over-moulded wristband

Rev: 0.3
Date: 24 AUG 2026
Sheet: 1 of 1

Quantity10,000

Band869.4–869.65 MHz

Modulation2-GFSK · 38.4–50 kbps

Sensitivity≤ −104 dBm @ PER 1%

RF SoCCMT2380F32W

Lighting2 or 4 × RGB 5050

BuildRigid PCBA, over-moulded

LinkReceive-only broadcast

Quotation basis

Quote unit price at 10k and 25k, with NRE, mould/tooling, fixtures, samples, transmitter, packing and freight itemised separately. A single all-in figure will not be assessed.

1.1

Commercial scope

ItemRequirement

Order10,000 finished production wristbands; quotation must also cover pilot units.

SupplierOEM/ODM custom manufacturer; state which PCB assembly and over-moulding steps are in-house.

LightingRGB LEDs, 5050 common anode, wired in parallel per colour channel — three PWM channels and three drive transistors regardless of LED count. Quote 2-LED and 4-LED populate options of the same board, not two designs.

BuildSmall rigid PCB assembly, RF SoC/MCU, antenna, battery, wristband housing and over-moulding. The board does not flex — quote the smallest rigid outline that carries the parts.

SamplesQuote 1–5 engineering samples and a 200-unit validation pilot before mass production.

PricingReturn MOQ, 10k/25k price, NRE/tooling, test-fixture charge, packing and Incoterm.

1.2

Supplier response

Complete and return with quotation

01Manufacturer/company + factory location

02RF IC / frequency / quoted LED count

0310,000-unit EXW price + Incoterm

04NRE / tooling / fixtures

05Sample fee + sample lead time

06Pilot lead time / mass lead time

07Available compliance reports

08Exceptions or proposed changes

2.1

RF and electrical baseline

Preferred RF SoC: HopeRF CMT2380F32W — Cortex-M0+ at 32 MHz, 32 kB flash, 4 kB RAM, integrated 127–1020 MHz transceiver, QFN 5×5. One part covers both regional SKUs and carries the pattern engine. State any alternative and the reason for it.
Primary regional SKU: 869.4–869.65 MHz for UK/EU — the SRD sub-band permitting 500 mW ERP at 10% duty. Do not default to 868.0–868.6, which is limited to 25 mW. Quote a 915 MHz variant for US.
868/915 variants must differ only in crystal and matching network, not board revision or firmware image.
Proprietary 2-GFSK/GFSK broadcast, nominal 38.4–50 kbps; supplier to propose final channel plan and legal TX power.
One transmitter to 10,000 receive-only bands. No acknowledgements or connection setup during the show.
Conducted receiver sensitivity: packet error rate (PER) at or below 1% at −104 dBm, measured at the quoted production data rate. Datasheet headline figures at lower rates will not be accepted as evidence.
Transmit path disabled in production firmware. Bands are receive-only: this removes the dominant current draw and keeps radio type approval off the band, leaving EMC only.
Sleep and wake behaviour must be stated explicitly, including any keep-alive frame the transmitter is required to send and the worst-case time to wake a sleeping band.
Supplier must state RF IC, antenna type, cell chemistry/capacity, measured cue-stack runtime, dimensions and weight.
Buyer to confirm final wristband size, colours, logo/artwork, clasp, IP target, packaging and destination market before PO.

2.2

Required application frame

Field set is the requirement; order is negotiable

FieldMinimum purpose

VERSIONProtocol compatibility

SHOW_IDReject frames for other shows

SECTION_MASKGroup targeting; 0xFF = all bands

SEQCue identity and duplicate rejection

EXEC_TIMESynchronized cue execution

PATTERN_IDDocumented rendered effect

PAYLOADRGB, intensity, duration and pattern data

CRC-16/32Frame corruption detection

2.3

Mandatory receiver behaviour

Invalid CRC: discard the complete frame and hold the previous pattern; never blank or partially update.
Duplicate sequence: the same SEQ sent three times causes exactly one logical action.
Addressing: ignore frames for other sections; accept SECTION_MASK 0xFF.
Timing: execute timestamped cues together; repeated transmissions may use separate RF channels.
Sequence wrap, missed-cue recovery, power-up state and watchdog recovery must be explicitly documented.

2.4

Supplier deliverables

Protocol document, packet-field definitions, every PATTERN_ID, timing diagrams and golden frame vectors.
Reference transmitter, or transmitter built from the protocol document, sufficient to reproduce all tests.
Firmware version record, production programming method, fixture specification and UID lot-map format.

2.5

Rigid PCB — design options

Price the preferred option regardless

Buyer preference is marked below. You may propose an alternative, but must also price the preferred option so the comparison is like for like.

Option A — rigid board, antenna into the strap

Preferred

Small rigid board carries everything inside the pod. The antenna is a separate radiator — a wire or thin tail — routed out into the strap, away from the cells and off the wrist.

+Recovers most of the strap-length advantage a pod-only build gives up, which is the cheapest RF performance available
+Puts distance between the radiator, the battery and the body — which is where sensitivity is actually lost
+Board stays small, rigid and cheap; standard FR4 assembly throughout
−One off-board interconnect, which becomes the wearable failure mode to strain-relieve
−Radiator position must be fixed by the over-mould tooling, or performance varies unit to unit

Option B — rigid board, chip or helical antenna in the pod

Viable

Everything inside the pod. A discrete chip or helical antenna sits on or beside the board, with no off-board element at all.

+Simplest to assemble and over-mould — no interconnect and least material flowing around the circuit
+Smallest pod and the most repeatable build unit to unit
−Antenna sits next to the cells and against the wrist, which is the worst available location
−Detuning against skin is severe and varies per wearer
−Hardest route to the −104 dBm gate — expect to prove it on the hand phantom, not the datasheet

Option C — rigid board, etched trace antenna

Not without justification

A meander or inverted-F etched on the board itself. No antenna component, no off-board element.

+No antenna part and no interconnect — lowest BOM and fewest process steps
−A quarter wave at 869 MHz is about 86 mm; on a board small enough for a wrist pod the radiator is electrically small and inefficient
−Performance is dominated by the ground pour and the body, so it varies with the wearer and with how the band is worn

Board construction requirements

LED drive: three PWM channels, one drive transistor and current-limit resistor per colour, all LEDs paralleled. Adding LEDs must not add channels — the 2-LED and 4-LED options are the same layout with a different populate.
The board is rigid. FR4 or equivalent laminate — state material, finished thickness, layer count and surface finish. The pod envelope is the constraint, so quote the smallest outline that carries the parts.
Two copper layers minimum, with a continuous ground pour beneath the RF section acting as the antenna counterpoise. On a board this small the pour is part of the antenna rather than just a return path, so the stack-up is a controlled change under the no-substitution clause.
Double-sided placement is acceptable now the board is rigid, where it saves outline area. State which side carries what, and quote any additional reflow separately.
Antenna keep-out: no copper, no cells and no other metal within the stated keep-out around the radiator. The supplier defines the keep-out and it is frozen at golden sample.
Test pads must remain probe-accessible before over-mould, and UID must be read again after — the moulding step is where identities get corrupted, and it is unrecoverable afterwards.
Wherever the antenna leaves the board — wire, tail or connector — state the joint, its strain relief and how the over-mould locates it. This joint is the single largest reliability and repeatability risk in a rigid build.

Stack-up

3.1

Design verification and production gates

Numerical acceptance — not best endeavours

TestNumerical acceptance

Golden framesEvery PATTERN_ID plus 0x00/0xFF on every field; rendered optical output matches approved golden set.

Corrupt CRC10,000 injected corrupt frames: zero pattern changes, partial updates or blank outputs.

Repeated SEQTransmit each test SEQ 3×: exactly one logical action for every case.

Section maskZero responses when not addressed; correct response to 0xFF in every case.

UID integrity100% of all units read at test pads before and after over-mould; zero mismatches and zero duplicates vs lot map.

RF sample20 randomly selected finished bands: PER ≤1% at −104 dBm conducted, at the quoted production data rate. Repeat with hand phantom and record sensitivity delta.

Soak test200 bands, real 2-hour cue stack: ≥99.5% of band-cue observations correct within 100 ms; each band ≥99%; zero desync >1 s.

3.2

In-line and shipment evidence

100% outgoing functional test: power-up, all LED channels, RF receive, programmed UID and current consumption.
RF/soak reports must state equipment, firmware, packet count, attenuation threshold, failures, dropouts and desyncs.
Before shipment provide UID CSV lot map, inspection report, test summary, sample photos, RF results and deviation list.
No substitution of RF IC, LEDs, battery, antenna approach, board stack-up or moulding material without written buyer approval.