Panthronics builds in support for Renesas Synergy MCU platform to new NFC wireless charging reference design to speed up system prototyping

Panthronics' comprehensive SDK ported to the Synergy ecosystem to enable implementation of NFC wireless charging on Renesas microcontrollers out-of-the-box

GRAZ, Austria, Sept. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Panthronics AG, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in high performance wireless technology, announced today that it has added support for the Renesas Synergy™ microcontroller family to its new NFC wireless charging reference design, to enable faster development and easier prototyping of new wireless charging systems.

NFC wireless charging is emerging as the most popular standards-based solution for portable and wearable devices such as earbuds, stylus, smart watches, activity monitoring wristbands, smart rings and smart glasses. NFC wireless charging can be implemented with a small antenna at a low bill-of-materials cost, and the charging circuit supports data communication between the charger and the charged device. 

The new Panthronics reference design uses the company's breakthrough PTX100W NFC Poller to achieve the industry's best wireless charging performance. The reference design's circuit includes Renesas Synergy MCU on the poller (charger) and on the Listener (device) sides to manage dynamically the charging protocol.

Now Panthronics is supplying the reference design's software development kit (SDK) pre-integrated with the Renesas Synergy platform. This means that developers working with a Synergy platform MCU will be able to use the Panthronics SDK out-of-the-box, eliminating the software integration element of the development process and accelerating time-to-market.

The Panthronics reference design is a complete system solution, providing hardware and software for both the PTX100W-based poller and the listener (device). The design provides a ready-made template for wireless charging, which means that the remaining design task for the manufacturer is simply to test and validate the operation of the charger's and device's antennas.

Users of the reference design can take advantage of the comprehensive technical support available through the Panthronics support portal online, which provides access to engineering support provided by Renesas as well as Panthronics.

Markus Vomfelde, MCU Business Development Manager of Renesas, said: 'A handful of the world's biggest OEMs have proved NFC wireless charging is successful in wearable and small portable devices. The time is now right for NFC standards-based wireless charging to enter the mainstream market in consumer, medical and industrial devices. The mass-market Synergy platform MCUs are already very widely used in these markets. Now Panthronics is enabling mainstream OEMs to take advantage of this valuable technology more quickly and more easily when they base their charger designs on a Synergy MCU.'

Superior wireless charging performance

Based on the PTX100W, which implements an innovative sine-wave RF system architecture, the Panthronics reference design offers superior performance and features including:

• 1W received power at the listener, twice that of the nearest competitor, to give faster and more convenient battery charging
• High tolerance of antenna displacement, giving great design flexibility and consistent high charging performance
• Simple antenna matching circuitry to allow for optimal Transmit/Receive antenna matching with little development effort

Panthronics fully supports the new reference design with hardware schematics and Gerber files for both the poller and listener circuits, and separate SDKs for the poller and listener. The SDKs include NFC protocol software, and firmware for controlling charging operations.

The reference design has passed full system validation tests of both the hardware and software. Panthronics provides a world-class customer support service for the entire system, including 24/7 access to applications engineers, a rich set of online documentation, a Knowledge Base, and a security-protected portal for registered customers.

Engineers may request the PTX100W NFC charging reference design via the Panthronics website at www.panthronics.com/contact.

About Panthronics

Founded in 2014, Panthronics AG (PTX) is an established semiconductor product company with over 50 staff headquartered in Graz, Austria. It develops differentiated wireless solutions from the ground up for security and power applications. Panthronics' website is at www.panthronics.com.

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