Ixana's New Chip Eliminates the Need for USB Ports on Sealed IoT Devices
Industrial Internet of Things technologies have opened up a new world of data access enabling insights into production that were nearly impossible to achieve not so long ago. Of course, the downside is that we’re all familiar with the expanded attack surface IoT devices create for cybersecurity due to their always-on connectedness.
But there’s another security concern that doesn’t always receive the attention it deserves, and that is: if you’re not downloading upgrades from the cloud directly to the device, you're still breaking the seal and connecting a cable to update device firmware.
Every time a seal is opened, it introduces risk, both to device warranties and potential contamination.
To resolve this issue, Ixana has developed a chip designed to remove this failure point entirely and make USB debug ports on sealed equipment obsolete. This chip, the XA-NFE2001, is a transceiver designed to solve what Ixana’s refers to as the "last decimeter" connectivity bottleneck for the AI era.
By delivering 5 Mbit/s data speeds at less than 1 milliwatt of power, the XA-NFE2001 is approximately 50 times more efficient than standard NFC, according to Ixana. The company also claimed that this chip “creates a new class of fully sealed, maintenance-free devices that can communicate instantly and securely.”
Ixana was founded in 2020 as a Purdue University spinout by engineering professor Shreyas Sen. The company develops physics-based wireless innovations like Wi-R technology, with 40+ patents (granted and filed).
While traditional wireless protocols like Bluetooth and NFC have trade-offs between power, speed and security, the XA-NFE2001 uses Wi-R Near Field Electric (NFE) technology that Ixana said “acts like an invisible wire to couple devices capacitively. This creates a physically local high-speed data channel that eliminates the battery drain and security risks of broadcasting radio waves.”
For industry, this means that sealed factory devices are never opened and provides a way to update smart meters with no external access ports.
In sealed Industrial IoT and datacenters, sensors and server racks are commonly completely sealed against dust and moisture, but the XA-NFE2001 enables them to be updated without the need for physical USB or debug ports.
And in defense industry applications, this means that drones and tactical gear can exchange mission-critical data silently in the field, without the RF emissions that expose location to electronic warfare systems.
"NFE fills the white space between NFC's power drain and the need for real-time, secure near-field links that form the ambient layer for AI devices," said Shreyas Sen, founder and CTO of Ixana. "With Air Force validation and Fortune 500 pilots underway, we're seeing demand across the industrial, medical and defense sectors where cables or battery life determine total cost of ownership."
