Discovery Kit Integrating Ultra-Low-Power Microcontroller with NFC Reader IC Launched
Shortens Development Time, Accelerates NFC Operation Speed?

STMicroelectronics has launched the ST25R3911B-DISCO Discovery kit, which integrates its NFC reader IC ST25R3911B with the ultra-low-power microcontroller STM32L476RE. By providing design efficiency that can drive the design schematics provided on the discovery kit and various characteristics and functional ranges as design begins, it reduces development time when launching contactless applications to market. The board provides a reference for RF circuit layout, and through embedded STM32 MCU software, HF reader or NFC operation can be driven quickly.
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The centerpiece of ST's new discovery kit is the NFC reader IC ST25R3911B. It provides differentiated features to simplify design implementation and production while ensuring superior user experience. In addition, by providing excellent dynamic power output capabilities for power consumption optimization, it minimizes the power required for communication with portable devices and payment terminals, preventing energy waste and is optimized for battery mode. The capacitive wake-up function can detect card presence and human proximity while consuming less than 5μA in sleep mode, allowing products such as hotel card key readers to conserve battery. Inductive wake-up can also detect appropriately in low-power mode depending on mobile phones and tags.

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The RF receiver ST25R3911B has approximately 5 times better reception sensitivity compared to general devices, and with maximum 1.4W output power, it can extend the operating range without adding a separate amplifier. Additionally, through AAT (Automatic Antenna Tuning), antenna settings on the production line can be efficiently adjusted for end-user equipment. Moreover, VHBR (Very High Bit Rate), which improves download speed from 848kbit/s to 6.8Mbit/s, can be implemented as a single-chip solution, making it suitable for applications such as electronic government systems including passports.
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Supporting major contactless and RFID standards, it can be used for applications such as ticketing, asset tracking, device authentication, sensor data collection, and access control. The ultra-low-power microcontroller STM32L476RE embedded in this discovery kit board features an 80MHz ARM Cortex-M4 core providing DSP extension and floating-point unit, and can reduce power consumption through features such as FPC (FlexPowerControl)-based smart architecture, dynamic voltage scaling, and seven power management modes offering sub-mode options.

Additionally, application security can be enhanced through embedded memory protection functionality. This discovery kit enables developers to leverage the strengths of both the MCU and reader IC together, and can connect to the STM32 ecosystem such as sample code, IP blocks, and expansion boards.?