February 28, 2014, Seoul — NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI) announced that it demonstrated a new innovative Qi wireless charging transmitter at the Mobile World Congress. This product integrates all the circuitry required for a 5V mobile phone charger into an ultra-small package measuring just 5 square millimeters. Powered by NXP's solution, a low-power 5V Qi A5/A11 wireless charging transmitter can be fully implemented with Qi coils and resonant capacitors using fewer than 10 external components. NXP's NXQ1TXA5 system-on-chip is so compact that the entire transmitter fits onto a PCB smaller than 1.5 square centimeters. Furthermore, components are positioned on only one side of this PCB. This opens up various possibilities for designing wireless charger pads in innovative ways, such as placing the transmitter inside the center of the Qi coil. The demonstration video can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/ehGBI4blOtU

In addition, NXP is demonstrating two 'smart' wireless charging reference designs equipped with NFC technology for 12V and 19V Qi transmitters. The addition of NFC technology to wireless chargers can provide a variety of additional features. Consumers can set up the wireless charging pad regardless of the type of NFC-enabled phone or tablet, and since the wireless charger can be 'wake-up' via NFC, standby power consumption can be completely cut off when not in use. In addition, it offers smart features such as automatic Bluetooth pairing and launching applications and websites when an NFC-enabled phone is placed on the charging pad.

Rick Dumont, Marketing Director of Wireless Charging Solutions at NXP Semiconductors, explained, “NXP’s new wireless charging solution for 5V Qi transmitters enables our key customers to manufacture ultra-small Qi transmitters, allowing them to significantly reduce system costs and design portable wireless chargers with great freedom. Thanks to the substantial reduction in the size and cost of Qi transmitters, the possibility has also opened up for mobile phone manufacturers to offer wireless charging pads as a standard feature. In addition, 'smart' wireless charging solutions utilizing NFC are receiving a tremendous response in the market. Using next-generation Qi wireless charging pads equipped with NFC allows users to play music through Bluetooth speakers and transfer useful content to mobile devices while the device is charging, while overall power consumption will be reduced.”

The NXQ1TXA5 system-on-chip integrates a power controller, digital signal processing (DSP), voltage regulation, foreign object detection (FOD), a full-bridge power stage to drive the transmitter coil, and circuitry for on-chip current and voltage measurement, so only a very small number of external components are required to fully configure this solution. This device utilizes NXP's CoolFlux™ DSP technology and boasts very high power efficiency, such as achieving standby power of less than 2mW.

The reference design of the NXQ1TXA5 consists of a complete wireless charger designed to meet the low-power Qi A5/A11 specifications of a 5V charger, and can use a universal USB outlet charger or a USB port for a PC as a power source. In addition, this low-power reference design can be complemented with NXP's high-efficiency GreenChip™ TEA1720 SMPS controller to achieve overall low-power standby performance.

Other reference designs included in the NXP wireless charging transmitter family are the NXQ1TXA6 and NXQ1TXA1. The NXQ1TXA6 is designed to comply with the Qi A6 standard for 12V, while the NXQ1TXA1 is designed to comply with the Qi A1/A10 standard for 19V charging transmitters. Both of these reference designs feature 32 pins spaced 0.5 millimeters apart in a small 7 square millimeter package, facilitating PCB design. NXP fully implements low component count reference designs based on the NXQ1TXA1 and NXQ1TXA6, and also provides other high-performance components from the NXP family, such as the GreenChip NWP2081 half-bridge driver and the NX2020N2 low RDS(on) trench MOSFET for coil-driving power bridges.

NXP's reference design for wireless charging transmitters is scheduled to be provided to some customers in the second quarter, and the component is expected to pass verification for mass production in the third quarter.