NFC

            Near Field Communication (NFC) is a RFID technology, which is a chip of the size of a sand grain is powered by a reader. However, the difference between RFID and NFC is that the chip must be brought very close to the reader for it to operate, usually under 10cm. The field then causes a high speed link between the reader and the chip for bi-directional data transfer. NFC operates on a different protocol and stores data in a different way than standard RFID. NFC chips usually contain more memory than a standard RFID chip. The standard protocol for NFC is ISO14443A/B.

            Frequency Allocation. NFC operates only at HF (13.56MHz).

            NFC chips are used in mobile payments, smart cards, etc. to ensure no eavesdropping due to its close proximity. Many mobile phones now support NFC hardware and can read NFC tags.

            NFC tags comes at various configurations. Among the many types of tags, the most popular are the following: Mifare, Ultralight, and NTAG. Mifare Class 1K is one of the most popular chips which can hold 1KB of data in its memory. A compatible chip is Fudan 08 1K. Ultralight is a low price chip with with only 64Bytes memory (46B usable). NTAG series have small usable memory starting from 142Bytes.

HF RFID vs. NFC. RFID uses a different set of protocols than the NFC. NFC shares the same frequency of HF RFID (13.56MHz), but communicates with a different protocol. HF RFID uses ISO 15963 standard. Most NFC readers today can also read ISO 15963 RFID protocol. Whether one should use HF RFID or NFC depends on the application. If the application is also written for portable devices like phones and tablets with NFC hardware, then preferably, using NFC instead of RFID is a better choice. Phones and portable devices has chosen NFC instead of HF RFID due to the adoption of NFC by phone manufacturers. HF RFID had been there earlier but never been build with large amount of memory. NFC memory can have over 1MB. Therefore, NFC can be used to embed machine readable features in electronic documents.

Types of Tags. Tags comes in the form of inlays, stickers, cards, wristband, plastic enclosures, etc. Inlays are the most basic form of tags. Inlays are used in stickers, cards, wristbands and other types. Inlays are wet and dry. Wet inlays have a sticky back. Dry inlays does not have any glue. Stickers are used to print labels or barcode. Wristbands are used in hospitals, ticketing, etc. where the band will be disposed off. PVC Cards are used as ID Cards and access controls. Some tags have password protection as well as data encryption. Tags with encryption may be used for some Access Controls, WiFi/Bluetooth setup, or password card. Some tags have only password protection. Tags without any protection are low cost and used extensively in volume applications.

Chip Properties

Applications and Tag Use