Lapis Technology and antenna maker Shanghai Amphenol Airwave are working together to solve wireless charging problems for hearable and wearable devices that are trending towards greater compactness and sophistication.

Antenna customisation technology is letting Amphenol provide compact antennas that meet the needs for smaller, thinner housings in the hearable and wearable device markets. At the same time, Rohm subsidiary Lapis provides compact wireless power supply ICs that use wireless digital and analogue circuits cultivated over many years through LSI development.

With technical support provided by Lapis, Shanghai Amphenol Airwave will provide wireless charging that overcomes design constraints regarding housing. This reference design – that matches power transmission and reception centred on the antenna and wireless charger IC – can contribute to rapid device development by providing one-stop support to help users achieve wireless charging functionality.

Going forward, both companies will continue to combine their technologies to add value to compact wireless charging products, including the use of NFC communications and other functions required by the market.

“Partnering with Lapis Technology allows Amphenol to provide value-added wireless charging,” said Sally Yin, general manager at Shanghai Amphenol Airwave. “This will enable customers to further reduce size along with development lead times. Shortening development lead time in particular is one of the major advantages for new product development. We are extremely pleased to be able to improve customer satisfaction even more through these benefits.”

Sumihiro Takashima, president of Lapis Technology, added: “We are honoured to work with Amphenol, a leader in the antenna industry. By combining with our products, we are confident that we can meet the challenges facing the market.”

Amphenol’s thin, compact antenna design is made possible through expertise cultivated over many years. A key strength is the ability to propose antennas suitable for 3D enclosures, centred on LDS and FPC types. This makes it possible to place the antenna along the housing, which is difficult to achieve with PCB antennas. The result is not only improved design quality, but greater space savings that contribute to set miniaturisation.

Lapis wireless charging chipsets incorporate the control circuitry necessary for transmitting and receiving power, leading to smaller size along with shorter lead times by eliminating the need to develop MCU programmes. What’s more, using the 13.56MHz frequency band (same as NFC) for power transmission and reception supports even smaller antennas.

Lapis Technology develops MCUs along with a number of ICs for wireless communication, video, battery monitoring and more. Its strengths lie in high-frequency circuit and digital and analogue mixing technologies.