Maintaining operational reliability and reducing development time in harsh environments

NXP Semiconductors, a co-developer of NFC technology, heralded a new era of NFC technology evolution with the announcement of its flagship solution, the PN5180. This enables the use of intuitive near-field communication technology anywhere. The PN5180 is an advanced multi-protocol (ISO/IEC 15693, Felica™, MIFARE™, ISO/IEC 14443A/B) NFC front-end technology that boasts more efficient and robust performance, providing high reliability even in harsh environments. Developed based on the successful PN512, the PN5180 offers four times improved output and supports the latest readers without the need for additional boosters, enabling contactless payment functionality.

Pradip Mistry, Vice President of Research and Development at Cubic Transportation Systems, stated, "NFC is increasingly expanding into new and more demanding applications. Recently, transportation terminals are required to support EMV payment systems. Furthermore, they must be able to interact with various form factors, such as new payment systems, NFC-enabled mobile phones, wearables, and even rings. This is leading to increased requirements for performance, reliability, and compatibility." He added, "NXP has succeeded in taking NFC technology to the next level with the PN5180, which incorporates new technologies such as Dynamic Power Control and Adaptive Wave Shaping." "These new technologies can provide customers with an unrivaled user experience," they stated.



Increase in effective transmitter current by 30%
Introduction of automatic adjustment function to prevent damage from over-output

Dynamic Power Control (DPC), currently under patent application, is a technology that enhances communication stability and reliability. This new technology increases the effective transmitter current by more than 30% under the same maximum specification conditions. This maximizes the performance of the RF system and optimizes the effective output. Additionally, it automatically corrects for interference caused by nearby smart cards, NFC-enabled smartphones, or metal objects, thereby minimizing overall energy consumption. The communication range is also extended, and an automated calibration function is introduced to prevent damage to cards or phones caused by excessive output at close range.

Furthermore, the combination of DPC, powerful RF output, and hardware-based EMD error handling makes authentication significantly easier. The PN5180, pre-certified for contactless EMVCo L1 and the NFC Forum, will be an ideal solution for designing payment applications. Additionally, the TFBGA package incorporates extra security features, making PCI terminal authentication much simpler.

The PN5180 is supported by advanced design-in software tools. The PC-based 'NFC Cockpit' software environment adopts an intuitive GUI, enabling the tuning of antenna register settings regardless of the type of software. Consequently, hardware designers can optimize antenna properties, while software developers can simultaneously perform integration work on embedded systems. The PN5180, which includes a completely revamped NFC Reader Library, can be ported to various controller cores. This library has undergone EMVCo L1 and NFC Forum pre-certification and is compatible with all ISO/IEC standard-compliant applications.

Equipped with various advanced features, the PN5180 has been adopted in the TWR-POS-K81, the latest POS standard design. The TWR-POS-K81 is a point solution released by the recently integrated NXP and Freescale.

Rafael Sotomayor, Senior Vice President of NXP Secure Mobile Transactions, stated, "The PN5180 is an essential element in realizing NXP's vision of making NFC available everywhere. This is because it simplifies the authentication process, which is the biggest obstacle in NFC design. It also reduces the time and effort required for antenna tuning, attribute setting, and software adjustments during the design process." He added, "Over the next few months, NXP will introduce new products sequentially, all focusing on the NFC category, NFC frontends, controllers, and connected tag solutions. These products will all feature new capabilities that improve communication performance and streamline the design-in process."