- STMicroelectronics Unveils Automotive NFC Reader
- Alfred, Wi-Charge Offer Wirelessly Charged Smart Locks
- UROVO Debuts UHF RFID Fixed Reader, POS System
- Sunlight, Litmus Partner on Industrial IoT Deployments
- Swissbit Intros Hardware Security Module for AWS IoT Platform
- Memfault Joins the Bluetooth SIG
Oct 13, 2022Presented here are recent news announcements in the radio frequency identification and Internet of Things industries.
STMicroelectronics Unveils Automotive NFC Reader
STMicroelectronics has introduced the latest generation of its automotive-qualified NFC reader ICs for Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) digital-key applications, with features designed to increase performance and ease product certification. The ST25R3920B is used in car-door and center-console locations for keyless entry and starting, as well as Qi wireless-charging control and smartphone pairing. The chip comes with ST's Heartbeat algorithm for NFC card protection on Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) applications, which can differentiate between an NFC card and a smartphone in card-emulation mode, to ensure phones can charge while cards stay protected.
Features include active wave shaping (AWS) to ease certification according to the latest NFC Forum Certification Release 13 (CR13), which promotes interoperability between CCC digital-key solutions and smartphones. AWS helps to remove undershoot and overshoot from the received signal by adjusting parameters, and thus avoids repeatedly rematching the antenna during development.
The ST25R3920B supports automatic antenna tuning and low-power wake-up. It features output power up to 1.6 watts, as well as high sensitivity to boost interaction distance when installed in a location such as a car door handle, where space constraints call for a small antenna. The output power is dynamically adjustable to comply with upper and lower limits expressed in NFC Forum and EMVCo specifications, the company reports.
With a noise-resistant input structure and noise-suppression receivers, the ST25R3920B is intended to offer immunity against external interference, STMicroelectronics reports. The solution is designed to pass car manufacturers' stringent proprietary injected-noise tests, in order to ensure safe operation in worst-case conditions. Samples of the ST25R3920B are available now.
Alfred, Wi-Charge Offer Wirelessly Charged Smart Locks
Smart lock provider Alfred International and long-range wireless power solutions provider Wi-Charge have announced that their over-the-air wirelessly charged smart locks are now generally available to commercial real-estate developers in the United States and Canada. Alfred's ML2 smart mortise locks with wireless power options are designed to provide safety, security and automation in commercial and residential markets, according to the company, and they have been validated after rigorous internal testing and live pilot installations.
Alfred produces residential- and commercial-grade smart door locks. The ML2 is intended for use in high-end homes, apartments, condominiums, and commercial and vacation rental properties. Its patented design enables the ML2 to be retrofitted to most North American-style mechanical mortise lock chassis. This, the company reports, avoids the need for lock or door replacements, while reducing the amount of time required to install. Building owners and tenants can upgrade to a cloud-connected lock that is perpetually powered.
The lock features Bluetooth, RFID and PIN code access, as well as optional Wi-Fi, Zigbee and Z-Wave connectivity. Users can manage access to their locks remotely via the free Alfred Home app, or through one of Alfred's integration partners or compatible smart-home hubs. With Wi-Charge wireless charging options, the companies explain, this can be accomplished without users having to deal with dead batteries or the costs, logistics and environmental concerns associated with ongoing battery replacements.
The ML2 is powered wirelessly by Wi-Charge's over-the-air wireless charging solution, which can charge devices at a 30-foot range, with no cables or batteries required. Wi-Charge's products have been deployed in various multiple commercial venues throughout the United States, Canada, Israel and worldwide.
UROVO Debuts UHF RFID Fixed Reader, POS System
UROVO, an automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies company, has unveiled new hardware and software products, including its Payment Terminals Series and Mobile Computers Series (DT40&DT50), along with RFID solutions and enterprise tablets. Its latest offerings are a UHF RFID fixed reader, the FR1000, and a mini point-of-sale (POS) solution, the i2000. "The new release of FR1000 is appreciated by customers for its powerful reading speed, versatile connectivity and compact footprint for easy installation," said Jeffery Huang, UROVO's managing director, in a prepared statement.
The FR1000 is designed so that users can change IPV6 addresses manually. This function proactively monitors a network, for the purpose of improving security and protecting privacy. It features a PoE+ (802.3 at 25.5W) supply mode and can be deployed without the need for additional power sockets, the company reports, reducing the time and deployment costs required to connect each reader to a power supply. The FR1000 comes with an Octa-core 1.6 GHz CPU and an Android 10.0 operating system, while self-jammer cancellation technology allows a higher read rate.
The i2000 measures 17 millimeters (0.7 inch), and is lightweight and compact in design, UROVO reports. It features a Quad-core 1.3 GHz processor, allowing the device to manage all applications centrally. The i2000 offers a range of connectivity options and supports various communication methods, such as 4G, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS positioning. Transactions are protected, the company indicates, and payments can be made anytime and from anywhere.
Sunlight, Litmus Partner on Industrial IoT Deployments
Edge infrastructure company Sunlight and edge data platform firm Litmus have announced a partnership to simplify how businesses deploy Industrial IoT technologies at scale. Sunlight reports that its Hyperconverged Edge solution is a secure, zero-touch system that converts critical edge data into real-time insights and actions for manufacturing, energy and retail organizations. The Hyperconverged Edge platform is based on Sunlight's Type 1 NexVisor Hypervisor.
The Litmus Edge solution, the companies report, is intended to unify data collection, data analytics, application enablement and data integration in a single edge data platform built for Industry 4.0. With instant connectivity to hundreds of operational technology (OT) assets, Litmus Edge allows users access to OT data, enabling them to provide insights at the edge and across an enterprise.
"We created the Sunlight Hyperconverged Edge Infrastructure and Infrastructure Manager to solve a real problem that we are seeing at the far edge," said Julian Chesterfield, Sunlight's founder and CEO, in a prepared statement. "Leading hyperconverged infrastructure products in the market were built for the data center—where space, cooling and power resources are plenty. But this is not the case in industrial factory environments at the edge. Partnering with Litmus means that our customers not only gain an efficient, reliable, secure and economic infrastructure but a complete platform for all of their edge data requirements."
"Litmus Edge is rapid-to-deploy and scales easily, providing customers with everything they need to collect their OT data and put it to work to improve operations," added John Younes, Litmus's co-founder and COO, in the statement. "This partnership with Sunlight allows us to meet the needs of the Industrial IoT market with a platform that enables use cases like condition-based monitoring, predictive maintenance, OEE improvement, machine learning and AI at scale."
Swissbit Intros Hardware Security Module for AWS IoT Platform
Swissbit has announced the addition of the iShield HSM solution to its range of plug-and-play security products. In the form of a USB-A stick, the hardware security module (HSM) enables secure storage of cryptographic keys and credentials required for the identification, authentication and registration of IoT devices. iShield HSM is designed and qualified for hardware security integration (HSI) in AWS IoT Greengrass.
Systems integrators can upgrade and retrofit existing AWS IoT Greengrass devices like gateways or industrial controllers with a hardware security module. Once connected, iShield HSM provides the maximum level of hardware security for the private key and certificate of the respective IoT device. The secure element (CC EAL6+) is embedded in the hardware via chip-on-board technology, the company reports. This renders iShield HSM tamper-proof, Swissbit claims, while also making the hardware security module suitable for use in harsh operating environments.
Software-based storage of cryptographic keys for securing IoT devices is susceptible to accidental disclosure or deliberate theft of private keys by savvy hackers, Swissbit notes. With iShield HSM, the company says it intends to provide a retrofittable hardware security module that offers flexibility via a standard USB interface. The open-source edge runtime and cloud service AWS IoT Greengrass are compatible with iShield HSM, making it suitable for hardware designs and devices already in use. Device private keys and certificates cannot be copied, extracted or accessed by software, Swissbit reports, since they are stored in the tamper-proof hardware security module.
iShield HSM is based on an industrial-grade USB memory stick, with a compact and robust metal housing, and is manufactured at Swissbit's factory in Berlin, Germany. The plug-and-play security anchor is compatible with the OpenSC software stack and supports PKCS#11 and PKCS#15 cryptographic standards.
Memfault Joins the Bluetooth SIG
Memfault, which offers an IoT reliability platform, has joined the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) as an Associate Member. The Bluetooth SIG has more than 35,000 member companies, which have collectively certified and deployed more than five billion Bluetooth-enabled devices. Membership in the organization will allow Memfault to monitor performance and provide crash analysis and debugging, as well as over-the-air updates to current and future Bluetooth applications.
According to Memfault, the range of Bluetooth use cases has expanded beyond battery-powered peripherals to industrial IoT, smart cities and location services. The company anticipates another step change in Bluetooth growth with the introduction of LE Audio, requiring device developers to seek greater visibility into performance and control of IoT device operations in the field. Memfault offers an IoT reliability platform that gives developers a scalable, sustainable process to build and operate devices, enabling them to accelerate development and improve those devices.
"Empowering teams to build more reliable IoT devices with better software through centralized development, maintenance and improvement is Memfault's mission," said François Baldassari, Memfault's CEO, in a prepared statement. "Joining the SIG allows us to bring device reliability engineering best practices to the standard and enable other members to accelerate their product timelines with better overall device performance and feature delivery from development and, importantly, through post-deployment."
Memfault's platform works across most Bluetooth devices, spanning MCUs, Android and embedded Linux platforms. Bluetooth developers using the platform can monitor connectivity, processor usage, timeouts, retries, battery life and other metrics for visibility into device fleet health. By detecting common Bluetooth connectivity bugs across an entire device fleet, the platform aggregates, de-duplicates and prioritizes issues for rapid remediation, the company reports.
