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/
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