CEVA extends its RivieraWaves UWB IP to support keyless access to vehicles

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CEVA has announced that its RivieraWaves ultra-wideband (UWB) IP has been extended with the RW-UWB-CCC MAC software package to support the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) Digital Key 3.0 specification.

Already licensed to one of the largest players in the automotive semiconductor industry for their digital key product line, CEVA’s Digital Key 3.0 compliant UWB IP will allow chip vendors and OEMs to create and customise next generation digital keys for automotive keyless entry systems.

The CCC Digital Key is a standardised technology that enables mobile devices to store, authenticate, and share digital keys for vehicles in a highly secure, location-aware and always-private way that works everywhere.

The most recent CCC Digital Key Release 3.0 is built around UWB in combination with Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. ABI Research anticipates that around 25% of cars shipping in 2025 will come equipped with UWB access technology, with UWB expected to become the major mobile car access technology in the future.

“Our RivieraWaves UWB IP is finding strong traction with our licensees, especially in conjunction with our Bluetooth low energy IP,” commented Tal Shalev, Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless IoT BU at CEVA. "With added support for Digital Key 3.0, automotive OEMs and chip vendors can leverage our UWB and BLE IPs to rapidly develop secure vehicle access solutions to address this fast-growing market.”

CEVA’s RW-UWB-CCC MAC software extends CEVA’s RivieraWaves UWB IP to comply with the CCC Digital Key 3.0 specification. The combined IP solution, with its coherent demodulation architecture and advanced ranging algorithms, is able to deliver best in class ranging accuracy in complex, non-line-of-sight (NLOS) real life scenarios. In addition to the standard compliant packet formats, it is able to support customisable packet formats to enable low power proprietary modes to further extend the battery life of key fobs.

Security remains at the forefront, however, with flexible protection against attacks that seek to corrupt the distance measurement verification (such as Cicada variants, early detect\late commit attacks and others) and future potential attacks.

CEVA’s RivieraWaves UWB, along with the CCC MAC software, have been designed to meet the stringent demands of the automotive market, including MISRA (the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association) and AUTOSAR guidelines.

The RivieraWaves UWB IP along with the RW-UWB-CCC MAC software is available for licensing now.