Panasonic begins licensing HD-PLC patents, technologies

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Panasonic Corp has begun licensing its patents and technologies for designing large-scale integration (LSI) chips that support its HD-PLC high-speed powerline communicationntechnology.

The technology was jointly developed by Panasonic and its subsidiary, Panasonic System Networks Co Ltd. They have proposed HD-PLC as an international standard to the IEEE Standards Association, aiming for a wider adoption of PLC technology among consumers through the deployment of HD-PLC LSI and HD-PLC compliant devices by many manufacturers.

The PLC technology – Panasonic’s proprietary Wavelet OFDM technology – presentednby the two companies to the IEEE, has been ratified as one of the technologies in IEEEnP19013 through the IEEE standards committee’s sponsor review process. In Januaryn2010, HD-PLC technology was published as a draft specification, and in the currentnreview, the technology that allows HD-PLC to coexist with other PLC technologies,nproposed by Panasonic with CEPCA, was also approved.

Specifically, Panasonic’s patents and technologies now available for license include itsncircuit technology for designing IEEE-compliant, HD-PLC LSI chips and its software tonexecute functions on those LSI chips. Panasonic also plans to license to manufacturersnworldwide its PLC module-related technologies used in the HD-PLC adaptors that havena share of more than 85% in the Japanese PLC market. Panasonic estimates that atnleast 50 million sets of HD-PLC products will be sold in the world by 2015.