Marquardt chooses RF technology from ams for new contactless car key application
May 27 2015 - 03:43AM
Business Wire
The tiny ams AS3914 NFC reader IC in a car’s door handle
enables ‘touch to open’ function when coupled with a driver’s
smartphone, smart watch or tablet
ams AG (SIX: AMS), a leading provider of high performance
sensors and analog ICs, today announced that automotive equipment
supplier Marquardt is using its AS3914 NFC reader IC in a new
series of contactless door lock and ignition control modules.
Marquardt, a mechatronics specialist and long-standing supplier
to leading car manufacturers around the world, chose the AS3914
because it enables very reliable NFC coupling even when mounted in
close proximity to sheet metal. The device also offers lower
average power consumption than competing NFC reader ICs.
For contactless key applications, the Marquardt NFC module is
mounted inside the door handle, and also in the car’s center
console (inside the cabin). In the door handle, the 13.56MHz module
couples with any standard NFC card (tag) or tag emulator, such as a
mobile phone, smart watch or tablet. The driver simply has to touch
their device to the handle; the system has an operating range of
around 4cm. On recognizing the authorized tag’s identity, the
module instructs an electronic control unit (ECU) to unlock the
car.
A second module in the center console must again perform
contactless coupling with the driver’s tag before enabling the car
to start.
The Marquardt module will be used in the next generation of
production vehicles from one of Europe’s premium car makers. A
pre-production demonstration was on show at the Mobile World
Congress exhibition in February 2015.
In the door handle application, the NFC reader has to operate in
conditions hostile to RF transmissions: the sheet metal of the car
door acts as an unwanted antenna, deflecting much of the RF energy
emitted by the reader. Marquardt’s design engineers found that the
AS3914 offered far more predictable and reliable performance in
these conditions than other NFC reader ICs did.
This is because the AS3914 combines high RF output power of up
to 1W, high sensitivity, and a unique Automatic Antenna Tuning
(AAT) feature which compensates for attenuating and distorting
effects, such as those caused by the metal surfaces in
vehicles.
Using the AS3914, Marquardt is able to achieve a range from the
door handle of 4cm in almost all operating conditions, even in car
designs which have a chrome metal overlay on the plastic door
handle. This range is ideal for the application, since it avoids
the need for the driver to precisely position the tag or tag
emulator next to the handle, making it easy to use, while
preventing the user from inadvertently unlocking the car when
passing near the door at a range of more than 4cm.
An additional benefit of the AS3914 is its low power
consumption: a low-power capacitive/inductive wake-up function
continually scans for tags, and wakes up the high-power NFC
transmitter when it detects that a tag has moved into range. This
low-power wake-up feature draws just 5µA in capacitive mode when
polling every 100ms.
The door handle and center console applications are not the only
uses for the Marquardt NFC module: it is also expected to be used
in aftermarket ‘contactless key’ products designed to be mounted
directly behind the windshield. Here too the module must operate in
a metallic environment, calling for the optimized receiver
sensitivity and high RF output power of the AS3914.
‘The automotive environment is a difficult place for an NFC
device to work in because of the large amount of metal in the
surrounding environment. To succeed in this application, Marquardt
drew on the unique strengths of the AS3914. ams is delighted to
have been able to support such a forward-thinking company in
developing a wholly new product for the automotive market.
Marquardt has opened up a path that many others in the automotive
industry can now be expected to follow,’ said Rene Wutte, Senior
Marketing Manager at ams.
In a statement, Marquardt said: ‘ams and its AS3914 have been a
delight to work with from start to finish. Even with early
prototypes, we were able to achieve far longer range with the
AS3914 than with competing reader ICs, and that meant that our
design team could get to market faster with a greater tolerance for
the difficult operating conditions in which our module will be
deployed.’
The AS3914 is sampling now and will be in volume production at
the end of 2015. The AS3914 is
a variant of the existing AS3911B, and is intended for use in
automotive applications: the AS3914’s test coverage has been
adapted to meet the requirements of automotive product
manufacturers.
More technical information about the AS3911B, on which the
AS3914 is based, may be found at
http://www.ams.com/NFC/AS3911B.
Download press picture and block diagram at
http://www.ams.com/eng/Press/Press-Releases/
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150527005539/en/
ams AGPatricia MoosburgerMedia Relationsphone: +43 (0) 3136 500
31235press@ams.comwww.ams.com
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