Welcome to smart home and buildings that can “hear”, “see” and “smell”.

The trend requires a change of mindset

The smart home & building trend is set to pick up even greater momentum moving forward. Especially during the last years, many private homes morphed into offices, schools, entertainment hubs, fitness studios, and even healthcare centers.

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!

This shift in needs has also driven disruptive changes in terms of the range, functionality, and performance of smart home applications and devices.

What smart homes can do

Today’s smart homes are much more than just a refrigerator that reorders milk.

The interaction of smart devices – such as gesture or voice – will become a major area for improvement in future to make interaction more human like and intuitive.

The interconnection of the devices will create a new infrastructure, automating many tasks and thus, taking them off our back.

Smart home and smart building technologies do not only increase convenience and quality of life. They also support energy-efficiency, warn us early about potential failures of specific systems and they increase safety and security.

What makes homes and buildings smart?

A building is equipped with everyday things such as heaters, ventilators, air conditioners, elevators, and lights with powerful electronics. If these thing are “smartified” with sensors and connectivity, they and therewith the building becomes smart.

They can then autonomously process information, make decisions, and set chains of action in motion.


There are several functional blocks required to build this kind of intelligence into smart home systems:

Sensors

I can focus on my work - thanks to CO2 sensors monitoring air quality at all times.

 


Sensors mark the starting point of any IoT system as they capture environmental information and convert it into digital data. Intuitive sensing capabilities are enabling humans to interact with smart devices in a more natural and seamless way than ever.

This is being made possible by XENSIV™ sensing solutions that give a smart sense of touch, vision, hearing and even smell to new and innovative use cases. Typical examples include gesture control or presence detection for household appliances and lights or air quality monitors that automatically adapt indoor ventilation.

Our XENSIV™ 60 GHz radar chip, for instance, is enabling new forms of touchless human-machine interaction. It turns the human hand into a natural, intuitive interface that is inspiring next-generation mobile devices. It can even look after your physical health by detecting your vital signs. In addition, XENSIV™ sensors are making it possible for robots to increasingly see, hear, feel and interact like humans, paving the way for safer, more interactive collaboration.

Augumented reality turns our school day into an adventure

 



Microcontrollers are the nerve center of an IoT device, processing this data and generating control signals.

Microcontrollers process data in all types of building components. Infineon has numerous such solutions in its portfolio, based on a variety of architectures. XMC1000 microcontrollers with an Arm® Cortex®-M0 core and cutting-edge 65 nm technology are used in connected LED power supplies, or in wireless-charging solutions.

Potential applications in smart homes and smart buildings for XMC4000 microcontrollers powered by Arm® Cortex®-M4 with a built-in DSP instruction set range from solar converters to sense & control and lighting networks. With their dual-CPU architecture, PSoC™ 6 microcontrollers bridge the gap between high performance and low energy consumption and are tailored to applications in IoT devices.

Finally, Infineon’s PSoC™ 4 is a true problem-solver: Functions such as analog sensor integration, capacitive touch, and wireless connectivity are all integrated as standard.

 

Actuators use the data and information received to control and actuate the connected devices in the relevant building.

 

 

Actuators set things in motion by converting the control signals into actions. They connect the real and the digital world.

Infineon’s OptiMOS™ N-channel power MOSFETs are designed for high-performance applications, boasting high efficiency, high power density, and optimization for high switching frequencies. Highly integrated ICs for motor control applications like the iMOTION™ series and intelligent power modules (IPMs) from the CIPOS™ family have been developed to keep motors running efficiently in household appliances, fans, and pumps, among other things.

Power management applications for main power supplies to home appliances, set-top boxes, or even telecommunications systems/servers with a maximum rated output power of 43 W can be realized with robust CoolSET™ AC-DC power stages. Infineon’s portfolio is neatly rounded off by a wide variety of discrete IGBTs.

Connectivity is the heartbeat of the IoT, linking all of these things to each other and to the cloud.

 

 

 It is a crucial feature of smart homes and smart buildings: It is what transforms building elements into smart connected devices that can send and receive data. Infineon’s AIROC™ Wi-Fi + Bluetooth combos integrate IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WLAN and Bluetooth into a single-chip solution to enable small-form-factor IoT designs. Many of the Wi-Fi + Bluetooth combos are supported by ModusToolbox™ software and tools that provide code examples, tools and development support.

Infineon’s AIROC™ Bluetooth & Multiprotocol portfolio consists of purely Bluetooth Low Energy-only and dual-mode Bluetooth solutions that support Bluetooth Classic (i.e., Basic Rate (BR) and Enhanced Data Rate (EDR)), as well as Bluetooth LE. The Bluetooth SDK contains everything you need to build dual-mode applications (BR + EDR + Bluetooth LE). The Bluetooth SDK, along with the ModusToolbox™ software and tools, and Bluetooth configurator tools all combine to form a powerful but easy to use toolset that will help you create amazing, Bluetooth-enabled IoT solutions.

We love our smart home - especially as we can trust that our data and privacy are secure

 


Security solutions for devices, networks, and data create the all-important consumer trust in the digital world by protecting data transmission and ensuring the integrity of the connected devices and networks.

With an increased number of connected devices in a smart building, the threat of cyberattacks is rising.

To arm a smart home or smart building against cyberattacks, hardware embedded IoT security is crucial. Infineon is addressing this challenge with its wide range of tried-and-tested, and certified hardware-based solutions, aiming a strong protection of data and devices in smart homes and smart buildings: Infineon’s OPTIGA™ family offers a broad product portfolio for embedded security solutions and secured cellular connectivity designed for easy integration.

These hardware-based security solutions scale from basic authentication chips to sophisticated cloud implementations. With our OPTIGA™ Authenticate family we give “things” an identity to verify authenticity. This is the prerequisite to create trust in the digital world, especially within the IoT.

The OPTIGA™ Connect product family enables our customers to connect their products via secured cellular connectivity. Enabling trusted data to empower integrity and enabling trustworthy communication to foster confidentiality are the clear goals of our OPTIGA™ Trust and OPTIGA™ TPM families.

Finally, SECORA™ Blockchain is a fast, easy-to-use Java Card™ solution supporting best-in-class security for blockchain system implementation. It makes the application more secure and easier to designing for the customer’s block chain system easier.

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