Septentrio N.V. is a designer and manufacturer of high-end multi-frequency

GNSS A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are op ...

receivers. Its main target is to provide GNSS receiver boards and modules for further system integration by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Septentrio's core technology is used in various professional fields such as land and airborne

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...

, mobile mapping, machine control,

precision agriculture Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that gathers, processes and analyzes temporal, spatial and individual plant and animal data and combines it with other information to support management decisions according to estimated varia ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

, offshore applications,

construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

timing Timing is the tracking or planning of the spacing of events in time. It may refer to: * Timekeeping, the process of measuring the passage of time * Synchronization, controlling the timing of a process relative to another process * Time metrolo ...

and

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

etc.

History

Septentrio N.V. was incorporated by Peter Grognard in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, in January 2000 to commercialize the

Satellite Navigation A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are ope ...

know-how developed at the Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center, the largest independent

microelectronics Microelectronics is a subfield of electronics. As the name suggests, microelectronics relates to the study and manufacture (or microfabrication) of very small electronic designs and components. Usually, but not always, this means micrometre ...

and

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

R&D lab in

. In 2007 Septentrio received the ''Trends Gazelle'' award for the fastest rate of growth among Belgian start-up companies. In January 2025,

Hexagon AB Hexagon AB is a multinational industrial technology company. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden,and publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, the company since 2000 has had a particular focus on measuring technology and geospatial tools a ...

announced that they would acquire Septentrio N.V.https://hexagon.com/company/newsroom/press-releases/2025/hexagon-to-acquire-septentrio-revolutionising-positioning-in-missioncritical-navigation-and-autonomy-applications

Location

Septentrio's headquarters are located in

. Operations for North and Latin American are based in Torrance, CA and the Asian-Pacific operations are based in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

and

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

Activities

Septentrio has an international team of experts, who cover all the fields of

technology. The company designs its own

chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components on one or more integrated circuits that manages the data flow between the processor, memory and peripherals. The chipset is usually found on the motherboard of computers. Chips ...

s, hardware,

firmware In computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, h ...

and

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

s. Being a provider of high-end receivers for professional use, Septentrio prioritizes the reliability and precision of measurements as well as high degree of flexibility and user control. Septentrio’s products make use of APME, the company’s original multipath-mitigation technology, on-the-fly ambiguity fixing schemes based on the LAMBDA method, and advanced user-controlled RAIM algorithms. Septentrio is also known to first introduce single-board attitude determination systems based on the multi-antenna version of its

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

receivers. Septentrio’s receivers were used to track experimental

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

signals transmitted by the GIOVE-A satellite and were also the first to track the signals of the first experimental satellite of the future Chinese

Compass navigation system The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS; ) is a satellite navigation, satellite-based radio navigation system owned and operated by the China National Space Administration. It provides geolocation and time information to a BDS receiver an ...

. In the line of user products the company keeps its focus on multi-system receivers that make use of all the navigation signals available in the sky.

References

External links

*
APME multipath mitigation techniqueAttitude determinationTriple-frequency combinations of observables

Tracking Compass signals

''Trends-Gazelle'' award April 2007
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127164356/https://registrations.leuvenmindgate.be/event/36/951/Septentrio_wins_prestigious_Trends_Gazelle_award_for_fast_growing_compan/ , date=2019-11-27
Septentrio's receiver at the MIZU geodetic station records the earthquakesSeptentrio reports the tracking of the GLONASS CDMA signal
see also GLONASS-K
Septentrio receives 2013 GPS World Products Leadership AwardSeptentrio accepts 2018 GPS World Products Leadership Award
Companies based in Flemish Brabant Companies based in Leuven Companies established in 2000 Navigation system companies Belgian brands