NFC charging transmitter offers high output for small consumer devices
Panthronics has increased system efficiency by 18 per cent in its transmitter design for the PTX130WNFC charging transmitter. It is claimed to be the industry’s highest output power for faster NFC charging. It is based on sine wave architecture to offer simpler antenna matching, a smaller bill of materials (BoM) and high tolerance of antenna misalignment.
It achieves on-chip efficiency which is 18 per cent better than that of the earlier PTX100W and harvested power at the listener is 1W, which is twice as high as the best competing system, claimed Pantrhonics.
Higher system efficiency gives further design options to manufacturers of products such as fitness trackers, smart watches, earbuds, hearing aids, smart glasses, smart rings, styluses and medical sensors. The reduction in power losses and waste heat allows designers to shrink a product’s enclosure, and to remove thermal management materials while maximising the power input to the battery.
The PTX130W’s improved efficiency is the result of enhancements to the IC’s power amplifier, and improved packaging including dedicated transmit and receive pins. The device also enables faster charging of bigger batteries to give users greater convenience and more hours of usage on demand, said the company.
The PTX130W includes power saving features designed to extend the operating time of battery-powered charging cradles. In addition to an automated power control loop, the PTX130W also includes a low-power embedded listener detection circuit, drawing just 100 microA at a 2Hz polling rate. In addition, 20-step power negotiation in charging mode is claimed to optimise power dissipation.
The PTX130W sine-wave architecture eliminates the lossy EMC filter required in conventional square-wave NFC architectures, explained Panthronics and allows for a direct connection between the transmitter and antenna.
The PTX130W NFC charging transmitter or poller is supplied in a 7.0 x 7.0mm QFN56 package. Engineering samples are available directly from Panthronics.
Panthronics was founded in 2014. The fabless semiconductor company is headquartered in Graz, Austria. It develops differentiated wireless solutions from the ground up for security and power applications.
