Following swiftly on the heels of the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC)’s Qi 1.3 specification, Microchip has released a compliant reference design. It includes everything needed to quickly develop a Qi 1.3-certified transmitter, says the company.
The Qi 1.3 specification requires authentication for improved safety when transmitting up to 15W of power between a transmitter and a receiver. To meet these requirements, Microchip’s wireless charging reference design includes the necessary tools and support for the seamless integration and certification of wireless charging systems in automotive and consumer applications.
The three-coil Qi 1.3 reference design integrates secure storage subsystem software with the wireless power microcontroller and enables custom topologies and foreign object detection (FOD) implementation.
Microchip is a regular member in the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) and provided expertise during development of the recently released Qi 1.3 specification. Qi 1.3 mandates hardware-based authentication between transmitter and receiving devices for power transfer above 5.0W. By adhering to the new authentication standard, designers can ensure phones receiving 15W are receiving it from a Qi-certified authenticated transmitter to ensure safety.
The reference design includes a Qi controller, Qi application software, provisioned authentication controller that is a WPC-approved secure storage subsystem and crypto software libraries that execute on the Qi controller. It also includes complete schematics, bill of materials, software and design guidelines. Microchip is partnering with Avnet to make evaluation boards for the Qi reference design available to qualified customers around the world.
The reference design also incorporates MIC4605 and MCP14700 gate drivers, MCP16331 and MCP1725 regulators, an MCP6C02 current sense device, an ATA6563 CAN transceiver and an MCP9700 temperature sensor.
Microchip’s dsPIC33C family of devices run the Qi application software and the company also offers the ECC608/TA100 secure storage subsystem provisioned by Microchip as a licensed WPC Manufacturing Certificate Authority.
The Qi 1.3 wireless charging transmitter reference design is available for demonstrations and evaluations for qualified customers. The company will provide a license agreement to access the reference design software. Evaluation boards for these reference design will be available for purchase for qualified customers through Avnet in August 2021.
