Optiga Trust extends to Qi wireless charging
For secure inductive charging, Infineon Technologies has added the Optiga Trust Charge to its Optiga Trust family. According to the company, it is the industry’s first embedded security solution that is usable for the Qi 1.3 wireless charging standard. It addresses chargers for small personal electronic devices like smartphones, ear buds, tablets, wearables or health tech devices with a charging power of up to 15W.
Qi adoption has grown steadily, with 465 million Qi devices shipped in 2019 and a year on year growth of 27 per cent, according to Strategy Analytics. Wireless charging is popular because it is convenient but an inaccurate power supply can harm the battery life of a handheld device. In the worst case scenario, it can cause harm to the user as well. Authenticating the device using Optiga Trust Charge helps to prevent damaging consumer devices with dangerous, fake chargers.
The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) issues the Qi standard and tests and certifies devices to smartphones, which account for the majority of designs, but the introduction of wearable devices with inductive charging capability is growing continuously. The 1.3 version of the Qi standard mandates strong cryptographic authentication for wireless charging devices. The wireless charger can authenticate itself to the charging device and prove that it is Qi 1.3-certified. Only when authenticated, will the device be charged with maximum power.
Infineon recommends at least EAL4+ certification on the hardware that stores keys and certificates. For that the protection profiles PP0035 and PP0084 could be used as part of the evaluation.
Infineon’s Optiga Trust Charge is a turnkey solution with full system integration support including embedded software, host software, a development board, a reference board and documentation for fast and easy design in.
Infineon is able to inject the certificates and keys mandated by WPC into the security chips at its secured production facilities, using security hardware to save manufacturers from having to additionally invest in the security infrastructure.
Optiga Trust Charge comes in a USON10-2 package, measuring 3.0 x 3.0mm². It is optimised for small devices and fits into any charging platform, says Infineon. It is for use in a range of consumer and industrial applications with an extended temperature range of -40 to +105 degrees C. Samples are available now.
Infineon has also announced that a version for automotive applications will be launched in early 2021.
