Authentication device allows for secured wireless charging

Infineon Technologies AG extends its OPTIGA Trust product family with a dedicated solution for secured inductive charging. The new OPTIGA Trust Charge 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, earbuds, tablets, wearables, or health tech devices with a charging power of up to 15 W.

While wireless charging is convenient and hence an increase in demand and inaccurate power supply can be harmful to the handheld battery lifetime and, in the worst case, the user as well. Device authentication with OPTIGA Trust Charge helps to prevent damaging consumer devices with dangerous, fake chargers and protects consumer brands from reputation issues.

The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) issues the Qi standard and tests and certifies devices accordingly. Over the last few years, Qi growth has been steady with 465 million Qi devices shipped in 2019 and year-on-year growth of 27 percent (Strategy Analytics, Global Wireless Charging Tracker, Sept. 2020). Although the lion’s share is driven by smartphones, the number of wearables with inductive charging capability is growing continuously. The new 1.3 version of this 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 then 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. Furthermore, Infineon is able to inject the certificates and keys mandated by WPC into the security chips at its secured production facilities. As such, security hardware prevents manufacturers from additional investment in security infrastructure.

OPTIGA Trust Charge comes in a USON10-2 package (3×3 mm²) that is optimized for small devices and fits into any charging platform. It is ideal for a wide range of consumer and industrial applications with an extended temperature range of -40° to +105° Celsius. Samples are available now.

In addition, a special version for automotive applications will be launched early 2021.