OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation announced that it has launched an RF-IC for the fast-growing China ETC market. Samples are available now with mass production scheduled to start from November 2013.

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.