Non-Galvanic Contactless Connectors for Power and Data Transfer (WiCon)

Themes: Characterization and modelling up to sub THz

The WiCon project will provide low-cost, highly-integrated system solutions for galvanic connectors replacement in the consumer and industrial market segments.
Wicon will work on:
  • A high-data-rate RF link (e.g. mmWave) for bi-directional multi-Gbps data transfer capability.
  • An NFC link for interchange of security keys and identification codes, and to set up initial (control) data exchange between base-unit and contactless-unit.
  • Contactless RF-power link to provide enough power for operation of the contactless-unit functional elements across the intended operational displacements.
  • Wired data interface (e.g. 10Gig USB, USB3.0, Ethernet 1G) to extract the data from the wired cable and forward it on the high-data-rate RF channel. At the other side it will receive the bits from the high data rate RF channel and transmit them in a way compliant to the next generation wired standards (like 10Gig USB and others).

For more information, see the project homepage.

Project data

Researchers: Marco Spirito, Maria Alonso
Starting date: January 2014
Closing date: January 2017
Sponsor: Agentschap NL
Partners: NXP, Tyco
Contact: Marco Spirito