Smart home & smart building

We live in an increasingly connected world, shaped by ever more sophisticated technologies as the IoT approaches tipping point. The digitalization and networking of more and more smart devices is transforming all areas of our life, reaching beyond smart factories, wearables, cars and suchlike to also redefine the work in offices and public buildings as well as the home experience. 

The demand for smart home and building devices and applications such as smart, energy-efficient and cost-effective connected lighting systems or home entertainment systems is experiencing dynamic growth as more and more consumers and companies are looking to leverage the comfort, energy efficiency, and security benefits of smart home and building technologies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of smart home technologies. During the various stages of lockdown, many private homes morphed into offices, schools, entertainment hubs, fitness studios, and even healthcare centers. This shift in needs has also driven disruptive changes in terms of the range, functionality, and performance of smart home applications and devices now in demand. Today’s smart homes are much more than just a refrigerator that reorders milk or a coffee machine that recognizes users and knows their preferences. By 2026, ABI Research predicts that “the smart home market will reach $317 billion, up 5 percent over pre-COVID-19 forecasts.”

But the pandemic has also had an impact on public buildings and offices: access controls are being stepped up to monitor the number of people in a building, the air quality inside a building plays a major role, and there are also stricter hygiene regulations. Here, too, smart solutions such as presence detection or sensors like the XENSIV™ PAS CO2 sensor can help.

According to projections by the United Nations, more than seven out of ten people will live in cities by the year 2050. This will push the development of megacities with high-rise buildings, large apartment blocks, and massive office/public buildings. Digitalization will play a defining role in all of these buildings. According to the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, there will be around 154 million active IoT connections in smart buildings by 2025. And that’s just Europe!

Infineon’s semiconductor solutions enable smart home appliances and systems in building services to adapt to their situation and surroundings in operation. Sensors, actuators, and control systems all work together to enable components in a smart home or smart building to correctly collect, evaluate, and process real-time data before executing or initiating the appropriate action or reaction. In this context, security solutions safeguard the system and all of its activities against external cyber-attacks.

Home appliances, also referred to as domestic appliances, electric appliances or household appliances are part of smart home automation networks. Due to rising economies and evolving consumer lifestyles, the home appliances market is expected to register a CAGR of more than 4% during the forecast period. The increase in consumer disposable income, high standard of living and the need for convenience are driving many consumers to purchase smart home appliances. These devices offer advanced features, promise greater convenience, reduce labor and can even save energy. And the market will continue to grow, driven significantly by trends such as effectiveness, variety, sustainability, stylish design and smart functionality of home appliances.

Infineon's products, solutions and tools enable smart and connected home appliances to be securely detected, controlled and connected. For example Infineon’s Discrete IGBTs products designed for induction heating applications, in combination with PSoC microcontrollers for system control, AIROC™ Wi-Fi & Combos products, and XENSIV™ sensors enable highly compact, robust, and reliable systems that consume less power and offer a rich user interface.

The CIPOS™ family is the optimal solution for highly integrated compressor drives whilst discrete solutions are the best choice, whenever the layout flexibility and thermal performance optimization are the major factors. They can all be combined with Infineon’s iMOTION™ products for dedicated motor control. For the auxiliary power supply, the CoolSET™ rounds up the power portfolio by offering increased robustness and performance.

Standard/basic functionality such as stable and smooth start-up plus variable operating speeds and vibration suppression are considered essential must-haves. In addition, cooling systems in private homes must be quiet. Today’s heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems should also be equipped with power devices that make them more energy efficient. In keeping with the smart trend among household appliances, home owners additionally expect smart air conditioners to offer various intelligent features that make life more convenient. And as more and more air conditioning units are connecting to the cloud, secure communication and interoperability within the home automation network are growing in importance.

Infineon provides its customers with the right technologies and innovations to address current and future security, functionality, connectivity and performance demands for smart heating ventilation and air conditioning systems. Examples:

The XENSIV™ family provides manufacturers with best- in-class MEMS sensors to enable e.g. smart aircon systems to “see”, “hear”, “feel” and “understand” their environment and incorporate more intelligence into their designs. CIPOS™ IPMs integrate the latest power semiconductors and control IC technology to create highly integrated, compact power modules to drive motors across a wide range of applications. PSoC™ 6 Microcontrollers provide a secure solution for IoT developments, supporting multiple, simultaneous environments without the need for external memories or SoCs. Infineon possesses a team of strong technical experts and partners to provide its customers with the tools and sup- port they need to design and implement future-proof smart aircon systems.

A smart building or home becomes smart through its connected and intelligent devices that are placed inside of it, for example heating, ventilation and air conditioning, elevators, access control, lighting, energy supply, or water heating systems. These elements itself are not smart. However, when equipped with the right technology, they are able to “see”, “hear” and “understand” their surroundings and perform appropriate actions. Sensors are the neural system of a building that collect in real-time data about a building’s operation, environment and its devices.

Reflecting our holistic approach to IoT design, our vision is to complement our XENSIV™ sensors with state-of-the-art software to create a comprehensive picture of the world around us. Our broad sensor portfolio spans MEMS microphones, plus pressure, radar, environmental, and 3D image sensors (REAL3™). All of which enable designers to create more intelligent, contextually aware devices.

Time and again, malfunctions in heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration technology systems interrupt working processes and increase maintenance costs. Predictive maintenance, which is a data-based maintenance strategy for predicting system malfunctions, can be an effective solution to this. To illustrate the benefits of using a sensor-based solution, Infineon has collaborated with Klika Tech and AWS to develop a sensor-based evaluation kit. It enables the straightforward evaluation of condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. Using a range of sensors, paired with microcontrollers, embedded security, and software, it is possible to monitor various parameters of vital components such as compressors, motors, and fans in real time, so that any potential anomalies can be detected immediately. If this is the case, the respective maintenance technicians can be informed in good time – before a malfunction – to address the problem, e.g. by replacing a wearing part or cleaning an air filter.

Infineon’s broad range of XENSIV™ sensors can be deployed to monitor everything from single components of production machinery to an entire smart building ecosystem. Typical use cases include HVAC equipment where XENSIV sensors monitor current, vibration, and airflow in motors, compressors, and fans. These sensors can be combined with FreeRTOS-certified XMC™ microcontrollers and OPTIGA™ security solutions so the data collected can be processed and analyzed to enable advanced IoT features such as predictive maintenance. Using our differentiated memory solutions including SEMPER^TM NOR Flash and EXCELON^TM F-RAM to reliably and safely store collected data for such analysis, overall system health and safety can be monitored.