At 11:00 on 29th February, the "Find Tag Loss Prevention Programme Online Seminar" held by I Love Audio Network was held in the public number of I Love Audio Network and the online live broadcasting room of Beili Beili, etc. The activity aims to invite industry experts to share the latest industry news and dry goods, and to help more industry brand names, factories, agents, and cross-border e-commerce enterprises to grasp the first opportunity of looking for the checking market.
Mr Xiao Jinhong from OnMicro was invited to share his experience on the topic of "A Peek into the Finding Device Market". Mr Xiao Jinhong has more than 10 years of experience in Bluetooth SoC related work, served as AE/FAE director, assisted 1000+ customers in Findmy, smart home, smart wearable, wireless HID devices, digital keys and other application areas for successful mass production, and has a deep insight into the application of Bluetooth SoC technology. He is now the Marketing Director, mainly responsible for the product and technology promotion of Bluetooth SoC, capturing the new direction of market and technology application.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mr Xiao Jinhong firstly talked about the current market situation of location application and the technical development route. The location application market mainly covers asset tracking, indoor navigation, digital keys, personal belongings finding, etc., and has a very large volume. According to the 2023 market report given by Bluetooth SIG, the annual shipment of the location application market will climb steadily with an annual growth rate of 20% from 2023 to 2027, and it is expected to reach an annual shipment of 515 million in 2027.
Regarding the technological development path of the object-seeking device, the earliest can be traced back to the launch of this type of product positioning tracker, under the auspices of Bluetooth technology, the mobile phone will be connected to the device through the APP, in order to achieve the positioning and tracking function; then Apple began to track and find the function of the mobile phone system, can be bound to the corresponding Apple accessories, equipment, etc.; At this stage, in addition to Apple, Android devices are also gradually making an effort to slowly release the location services related technology to achieve interconnectivity between different systems of mobile phones.
After sharing the recent development of the finding market, Mr Xiao Jinhong also elaborated on the principle of Find My Network.
Find My Network is a service provided by Apple to track individual users' Bluetooth-enabled devices. Users can create their own tracking tags and attach them to physical objects (keychains, backpacks) or integrate them into other Bluetooth-enabled devices (laptops, iPads, mobile phones) in the form of what we know as a Tag.
The above is the basic principle of Find My Network operation.
At this stage, the Find My function has been widely used in mobile phones, computers, school bags, suitcases, as well as keys, wallets and other valuable belongings that are easy to lose. The demand for the Find My function in the electric two-wheeled vehicle and ancillary markets is also growing. By integrating the Find My function in the vehicle battery and dashboard, the two-wheeled vehicle can be effectively prevented from being stolen or lost.
The Tag products shown in the upper right corner of the picture are the different forms of Tag products that OnMicro has now achieved mass production.
It is worth noting that, for the protection of personal privacy, Apple has prohibited the use of the Find My function on living things, including people and animals, so special attention is needed in the process of research and use.
For Find My market, OnMicro has a perfect solution - ultra-low power consumption - OM6626 series.
Ultra-low power consumption-OM6626 series supports both Bluetooth 5.3 and private protocol, -99dB@1Mbps sensitivity, maximum transmit power up to 10dBm, RF indicators have reached the level of the first-class manufacturers; Cortex-M4 core, the highest main frequency of 64MHz, 80KB SRAM, 1MB sFlash, as well as 256-bit Efuse to achieve own key storage when the customer production. customer's production to achieve the storage of their own key.
Low power consumption is the most important feature of the product, in terms of power consumption, OM6626 series receive peak current is about 3mA, transmit peak current is 4mA@0dBm, the power consumption of one-second broadcasting can be up to 9μA, the power consumption of the connection can be up to 7μA, and the ultra-deep sleep current has come to 1.0μA, and the level of power consumption has been comparable to the level of domestic and international first-tier major manufacturers.
Currently there are two packages available for the OM6626 series, OM6626A and OM6626B. The former adopts a smaller 3x3mm package, which is suitable for products with high requirements on internal volume, such as smart rings, charms, cards, etc.; the OM6626B adopts a 4x4mm package, which is suitable for devices such as Find My Tag, mice, smart switches, and so on.
The features of O-Net's Find My Network solution can be categorised into the following three main areas:
Support dual broadcast, O-Net Find My Network supports private broadcast in addition to the Fing My Network connected with Apple, which provides support for subsequent users' APP expansion.
Support OTA upgrade, support dual-zone backup, during the upgrade process can also ensure the normal use of the application, to achieve senseless upgrade.
Support encryption optimisation, with the internal Cortex-M4 core brings encryption algorithm optimisation, can achieve encryption time of less than 1 second, to improve user experience.
The above shows the power consumption performance of the OnMicro OM6626B in each operating mode.
When entering the pairing state after switching on the phone, at this time, the device broadcasting interval is 30ms, and the average current is 304μA.
After the mobile phone searches for the signal and pairs successfully, in the 15 seconds just connecting, the connection interval is 30ms, and the average current is 103μA; when the connection is completed and enters the connection holding state, at this time, the connection interval is 990ms, and the average current is 6.8μA, i.e., the latency is in effect stage.
When the Tag is far away from the device, poor signal or obstruction, the Tag will disconnect and enter the Nearby slow broadcasting state, at this time the broadcasting interval comes to once every 2 seconds, and the average current is 6μA.
If the connection timeout is exceeded in the Nearby state, it will enter the Separated state, where the broadcast interval is 2 seconds and the average current is 7 μA. In this state, the Tag will continue to send out broadcast signals, and when the Apple device passes through the range of the Tag, it will upload the location information to the cloud through the device to realise the function of recovering the lost items.
In addition to the above states, the OM6626B also has a Key Roll state, in which the device is encrypted every 15 minutes for 616ms, with an average current of 3.51mA; and a Power Off state, with an average current of only 1.0μA, which is suitable for long-distance transport such as shipping and other long-distance transport, and reduces the loss of battery power.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Xiao Jinhong highlighted a number of strategic partners of OnMicro, among which Ehong Yihong is the first batch of Apple Find My Network solution provider, which can provide a full set of solutions covering mass production, recruiting, testing, certification process, etc., and now there are a number of successful cases, including a variety of power tools, scooters, Tag, and Maverick electric car module.
In the meeting Chuangyuan Digital is a company with Apple MFI certification qualification, can provide Tag, anti-lost card, anti-lost fingerprint lock, anti-lost keychain and other complete solutions for the production and OEM.
At present, OnMicro's OM6626 series has been opened to mass production, integrated with ultra-low power consumption, support for dual broadcast, support for OTA upgrades, encryption algorithm optimisation and other advantages in one, providing an excellent Find My Network solution for the search market, interested in OnMicro Find My products, you can go to the official website of OnMicro for further For more information, please visit OnMicro's website.