On February 4 2026, Silex Technology partnered with NXP Semiconductors to host a live webinar exploring one critical question facing today’s medical and industrial system designers:

Is traditional Wi-Fi still enough?

The session, Built to Perform: Why Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E Is a Requirement for Next-Gen Medical and Industrial Devices, delivered a clear and compelling answer. As wireless connectivity becomes foundational to system operation, performance is no longer about peak speed. It’s about reliability, determinism, and scalability.

Below is a recap of the key themes and takeaways.

Connectivity Has Become Mission-Critical

Modern medical and industrial environments are placing unprecedented demands on wireless networks. Hospitals, factories, and edge deployments now support:

• Thousands of concurrent devices
• A mix of human and machine traffic
• Critical and non-critical data sharing the same infrastructure

In these environments, connectivity directly impacts outcomes. Latency spikes, packet loss, or unpredictable airtime contention are no longer inconveniences, they are system-level failures. Whether enabling patient monitoring, industrial automation, machine vision, or edge computing, failure is simply not an option.

Why Legacy Dual-Band Wi-Fi Falls Short

Traditional dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) was never designed for today’s scale and diversity of traffic. As device density increases, these legacy bands suffer from:

• Limited available spectrum
• High contention and congestion
• Unpredictable latency under load

The result is degraded reliability in environments that demand consistent, deterministic behavior.

The 6 GHz Advantage: Clean Spectrum, Predictable Performance

A major takeaway from the webinar was the importance of the 6 GHz band, enabled by Wi-Fi 6E. Unlike legacy spectrum, 6 GHz offers:

• Significantly lower interference
• More available channels for high-density deployments
• Improved determinism for latency-sensitive applications

For applications such as high-resolution medical imaging, real-time control, XR, and continuous vital sign monitoring, clean spectrum directly translates into reliable performance.

Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E: Not an Upgrade, a Requirement

Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E allows systems to intelligently distribute traffic across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz, creating architectural headroom as wireless becomes embedded into core system design.

This enables a single network to support:

• Low-bandwidth, always-on telemetry
• High-bandwidth imaging and video
• Latency-sensitive real-time control traffic

The conclusion from the session was clear: tri-band Wi-Fi 6E isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a requirement for next-generation medical and industrial devices.

NXP IW623: Built for Medical and Industrial Connectivity

NXP highlighted the IW623, a 2x2 tri-band Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth® 5.3 combo chipset purpose-built for IoT, industrial, and healthcare applications.

Key capabilities include:

• Concurrent operation across 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz bands
• Support for MU-MIMO, OFDMA, and Target Wake Time (TWT)
• Dedicated CPUs and memory for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth subsystems
• Integrated EdgeLock® security, secure boot, and lifecycle management
• Industrial temperature support (-40°C to +85°C)

Together, these features deliver high performance, strong security, and predictable behavior in demanding environments.

Intelligent Features for Real-World Networks

Beyond raw radio performance, NXP shared several enhancements designed to address real-world deployment challenges:

• Low Latency Data Exchange (LLDE): Improves link timing to reduce collisions and latency
• Adaptive Scheduling: Dynamically allocates resources to support large numbers of connected devices
• Agile Channel Switching: Quickly moves to cleaner channels to maintain throughput in noisy environments
• Advanced Power Management: Dynamic transmit power control and optimized sleep modes

These capabilities improve stability, scalability, and power efficiency, especially in dense medical and industrial settings.

Reducing Risk with a Trusted Module Partner

Silex Technology emphasized the value of working with an experienced module partner to reduce complexity and accelerate time to market.

Key benefits include:

• Pre-certified modules that dramatically reduce regulatory cost and risk
• Validated performance across enterprise access point ecosystems
• Production-ready form factors with comprehensive engineering support
• Fully tested Linux software stacks that simplify integration
• Wi-Fi should just work
• Devices shouldn’t have to worry about connectivity
• Outcomes depend on it

With Wi-Fi 6E certification costs approaching $250,000, leveraging pre-certified modules is a critical strategy for managing risk and controlling development costs.

Final Takeaway

As the webinar concluded, one message resonated strongly:

Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, combined with robust silicon, advanced security, and proven module expertise, provides the reliable foundation required for next-generation medical and industrial devices.

Missed the webinar? Catch the replay below.