Contactless, secure, mobile

The demand for more efficient and secure microelectronics solutions is continuously increasing in view of rapid electrification and digitalization. To meet this demand, the Infineon Development Center Graz is expanding its range of tasks and developing particularly fast, powerful and energy-efficient microcontrollers for use in many areas of everyday life, which is why the Infineon Development Center Graz has become one of four global Infineon competence centers for industrial microcontrollers since 2021.

Both contact-based and contactless security chips are designed to meet a range of standards for data transmission, with the aim of further increasing data transmission rates and finding new form factors for contactless applications.

Product developments from Graz allow for augmented and virtual reality in smartphones. In collaboration with its innovation partner pmdtechnologies AG, Infineon has developed a 3D image sensor chip on the basis of time-of-flight technology. This makes it possible to integrate the world’s smallest 3D camera, measuring just 12 x 8 mm, into a smartphone. Due to the short reaction time, the technology is already applied in various biometric authentication techniques such as 3D face recognition and is ideal for use in augmented reality as well as virtual reality.

Infineon’s image sensor chip plays a key role in the front camera of the LG G8^ThinQ smartphone, which was launched on the mass market in February 2019. Not only does it make the recognition of the user’s face more reliable and faster, the 3D image sensor chip also recognizes individual vein patterns and supports gesture control.

The Graz researchers developed a variant of the 3D image sensor chip for the automotive market. The component is used for interior detection for driver monitoring and drowsiness detection as well as for gesture control.

Since October 2019, Infineon has been a shareholder of the VIRTUAL VEHICLE Research Center in Graz, supporting cutting-edge research into digital mobility. With its microelectronics solutions, Infineon contributes to the development and improvement of intelligent and networked vehicles.