The Matter standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) is a major industry-led effort to address the fragmented market of connected smart homes and the challenge of interoperability, which is considered the biggest impediment for device manufacturers selling to a multi-vendor smart home customer.
Matter establishes interoperability on top of familiar standard wireless communication technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, and Thread, and allows devices from different vendors to interact and understand each other using a common language.
Additionally, the notion of IoT device security comes pre-baked into the standard itself, fundamentally addressing the problem of unauthentic fake product copies that currently plagues the industry. Consequently, large and small players alike in the smart home industry see Matter as the bedrock for the consolidation of the smart home market.
Panasonic Industry is a supplier of component-level solutions servicing PCB designs for device manufacturers in the industry and offers Matter enablement through its portfolio of wireless modules to provide the necessary wireless interfaces (BLE, Thread, and Wi-Fi) mandated by the Matter standard on PCB, as well as PAN-MaX, a digital trust solution for Matter products aimed at simplifying the production-related challenges faced by smart home device manufacturers.
Designed to complement Panasonic Industry’s wireless modules, PAN-MaX closes the loop for device manufacturers by providing all the necessary capabilities required for making a Matter product.
Through PAN-MaX, device manufacturers have access to manufacturer-specific versions of Panasonic wireless modules, while Panasonic takes charge of implementing the digital trust solution, injecting Device Attestation Certificates (DACs) issued from a Panasonic managed PKI infrastructure into compatible Panasonic wireless modules, which are signed against a root certificate issued to a CSA-approved Product Attestation Authority.
Device manufacturers can further leverage Panasonic’s European production facilities by pre-programming business logic and other customer/product-specific information during wireless module production in Panasonic's factory.
The PAN-MaX Matter Certificate Service covers the following items:
- PKI Infrastructure: X.509 certificate injection in Panasonic wireless modules for use as DAC, signed by Panasonic as PAI.
- Programming business logic (device/application firmware) as well as Matter certification declaration on compatible wireless module during production in Panasonic’s European production facility.
- Device certification at a CSA approved Test Service Provider can be organised by Panasonic upon request.
The PAN-MaX service can also be tailored to suit individual customer and project requirements. Available with different service level tiers: Silver, Gold, or Diamond, device manufacturers can choose from multiple price points, underlining Panasonic’s effort to promote Matter and make it accessible to customers of all project types and volumes.
Panasonic is looking to simplify an otherwise complicated multi-vendor setup, so that device manufacturers or their EMS partners don’t have to plan for additional production-related investments for a Matter project.
“Panasonic’s dual-pronged approach to Matter enablement is a unique effort in our industry,” said Dr. Chetan Joshi, Lead Product Manager, IoT Devices at Panasonic Industry Europe. “For an engineering manager setting the project scope for designing a Matter product, working with Panasonic allows streamlining the supply chain, as Panasonic can provide both certified wireless interfaces with an optimal radio performance of the product, as well as PAN-MaX as the chain of digital trust required to go into production for Matter.
“Panasonic Industry seeks to democratise Matter for device manufacturers seeking to play in the connected smart-home market by taking over the bulk of efforts on wireless connectivity and device security, such that device manufacturers can continue to focus on delivering the core value of their business to their customers.”
