Achieves low power consumption and low voltage drive suited for battery operation

TOKYO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — June 4, 2013 — Toshiba Corporation (TOKYO:6502) today announced that it has launched an RF-IC^[1] for the fast-growing China ETC^[2] market. Samples are available now with mass production scheduled to start from November 2013.

Toshiba: RF-IC for China ETC System "TC32168FTG" (Photo: Business Wire)

ETC sets in China usually operate on battery power and requiring ICs that offer low power consumption and low voltage operation. Toward meet this demand, the new RF-IC, TC32168FTG, contains a wake-up function that starts the microcontroller only when it receives radio signals from ETC toll booths, lowering power consumption. It also achieves low voltage operation, a fast boot sequence and dual channel reception.

In order to reduce traffic congestion, China will start multi-lane free flow (MLFF) service, which allows drivers to pass through toll gates at higher speeds than conventional ETC systems, by the end of 2013. Drawing on its experience of supplying the Japanese ETC market, Toshiba will develop products suited for the growing China market and aim to expand its RF-IC business.

Main Features

1. Wake-up Function
   To reduce power consumption of the ETC set, TC32168FTG features a wake-up function that starts the microcontroller only when it receives a radio signal from the ETC toll booth.
2. Low Voltage Drive
   Operates on 1.8 to 3.6V supply to support cell battery operation.
3. Fast Boot Sequence
   In an MLFF system, the RF-IC must achieve a fast boot sequence, from sleep to RX status, since vehicles pass through the toll gate at faster speeds than in conventional ETC systems.
   TC32168FTG achieves RX status in approximately 500μs due to improvements of the circuit.
4. Dual channel reception
   Able to receive downlink dual channels (5830MHz and 5840MHz, stipulated in the China GBT20851 ETC standard) simultaneously and selects the stronger signal as the desired one.