October 31, 2024 
Professional magazine and portal dedicated to electronics 
Panasonic Industry Europe is now offering PAN-MaX, a multi-tier Matter Certificate Service designed for device manufacturers selling in the smart home market, to simplify Matter enablement for smart home devices.
The Matter standard from the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) is a major industry-led effort to address the highly fragmented market of connected smart homes. It aims to solve 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, allowing 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. This is why big and small players alike in the smart home industry see the Matter technology as the bedrock for the consolidation of the smart home market.
Panasonic Industry is a well-renowned supplier of component-level solutions servicing PCB designs for device manufacturers in the industry. In the above context, Panasonic Industry 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. Device manufacturers can achieve hassle-free Matter deployment with manufacturer-specific versions of Panasonic wireless modules. In doing so, 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 organized by Panasonic upon request.
Acknowledging that one size doesn’t fit all, the PAN-MaX service can 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 simplifies an otherwise complicated multi-vendor setup, such that device manufacturers or their EMS partners don’t have to plan for additional production-related investments for a Matter project, and avoid all risks of escalating hidden costs.
“Panasonic’s dual-pronged approach to Matter enablement is a unique effort in our industry,” states 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.” Emphasizing the importance of the efficiency gains stemming from the one-stop shop set-up, he goes on to say, “Panasonic Industry seeks to democratize 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.”
