UWB technology empowerment: Four new ways to charge electric vehicles, do you know?

UWB has proven to be a disruptive technology in the automotive industry, with Smart car access being one of the most popular use cases. But UWB is not just about opening your car with a digital key on your phone. New advances in the combination of security, precise real-time positioning, and short-range radar have enabled automakers to transform a single UWB-based system into a multi-purpose platform, enabling multiple use cases using the same hardware.

Thanks to advances in ultra-wideband technology, automakers can use smart car access systems to provide features such as child left behind detection (CPD), seat belt reminders, and trunk kick-sensing. This simplifies the development process and allows features to be added through software updates, thereby reducing total cost of ownership and accelerating time to market.

Soon, UWB will be available for electric vehicle charging. If UWB is already used for other functions, the same infrastructure can be used to park a car on a charging pad to charge it without the added hardware cost.

In manual charging of electric vehicles, UWB technology is used to determine the relative position of the charging infrastructure to the car and guide the driver to use the manual charger. The driver then connects the charger to the car. In this case, the charger can provide personalized information after verifying the driver's identity. UWB can also be used to automatically unlock, open, close and lock the charging cover.

With UWB transceivers installed on the car and the charger, the exact position of the charger relative to the car can be estimated. The car can then be parked precisely within the robotic charger's operating area. Once the car is parked in the correct position, automatic charging can begin.

This charging method is similar to automatic charging under the car. The main difference is that the connector for manual charging is often reused and used in conjunction with a robotic arm. The robotic arm uses UWB technology to accurately locate the charger on the side of the car and charge it.

In wireless charging of electric vehicles, UWB aligns the magnetic coils on the bottom of the car with the charging coils in the charging pad. It then uses resonant electromagnetic induction to transfer power. This process is called inductive charging. Because there is an air gap between the charging coils, it is more critical that the car and the charging pad are aligned. Using UWB technology helps ensure that the two are aligned.

Since UWB can also be used in radar mode (such as child left-behind detection and kick sensing use cases), the technology can be used for liveness detection. In this application, the system will shut down when a dangerous object approaches. This is an indispensable function for wireless charging systems.

UWB technology enables accurate, secure, real-time positioning required for electric vehicle charging. Although there are other methods to achieve positioning for electric vehicle charging, UWB offers very high security, performance, positioning accuracy and cost-effectiveness. In addition, UWB is already a mature technology in the automotive industry (smart car access control) and has existing standards.

NXP offers UWB technology through its Trimension portfolio, a rich set of UWB solutions that enable secure and precise ranging in automotive, mobile and IoT devices. The precise ranging and positioning capabilities of Trimension products bring precise positioning and convenience to a variety of application scenarios, including secure access control, indoor positioning, device-to-device communication and item tracking.

Trimension NCJ29D6 is the first UWB single chip for the automotive market, combining secure positioning and short-range radar functions with an integrated MCU, allowing automakers to use one UWB system to meet multiple use case requirements. Mainstream automakers will deploy this series of single-chip devices and it is expected to be put into use in 2025 models.

Smart car access is undoubtedly one of the most popular application scenarios for UWB technology, but the technology has much more potential.

Automakers should consider UWB as a core technology that enables multiple current and future features. In addition to smart car access, child left-behind detection and kick sensing, electric vehicle charging is also an important feature.

To learn more about UWB and how it can be used to advance EV charging use cases, visit nxp.com/uwb or contact your local NXP sales representative.