LG Innotek Develops Digital Key Module for Vehicles
UWB technology increases location recognition accuracy by five times.
Applicable regardless of country, terrain, or vehicle type


LG Innotek announced on the 24th that it has successfully developed a 'digital key module' for vehicles that enhances location recognition accuracy and security.

The digital key module is a communication component installed in a vehicle that enables wireless data transmission and reception between the vehicle and a smartphone. It is a next-generation car key that can be used to open and lock car doors or start the engine using a smartphone.

With the recent growth of the car-sharing industry, demand for digital key modules is increasing annually. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, the number of vehicles equipped with digital keys globally is expected to increase by approximately 360%, from 6.3 million in 2020 to 28.9 million in 2025.

Existing products were not easy to apply due to security concerns such as low smartphone location recognition accuracy and hacking.

This time, the digital key module developed by LG Innotek has improved location recognition accuracy by applying Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, a short-range wireless communication technology, and a proprietary algorithm. Security has been enhanced with our own communication hacking prevention technology.

An LG Innotek official said, “Using UWB technology, we have reduced the margin of error between the actual smartphone location and the module’s recognized location from 50 cm (centimeters) to less than 10 cm,” and “When our digital key module is applied to a vehicle, the smartphone location can be detected about five times more accurately than before.”

If the existing module recognized a smartphone located 5 meters away as being between 4.7 meters and 5.2 meters, this module can relatively accurately recognize it as being within 4.9 meters and 5 meters.

LG Innotek integrated approximately 60 components, including radio frequency (RF) components and power block components, into a clip-sized module. Its compact size allows for flexible installation anywhere, inside or outside the vehicle.

In addition, it can be used regardless of country, terrain, or vehicle type because it follows the latest standards of the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), a global digital key standardization organization.

LG Innotek plans to mass-produce the digital key module in 2022.