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Would You Be Interested in RoadTesting an MCU with Integrated NFC

rscasny

Near Field Communication is growing in popularity. It's being used for more than payment processing; and it's even popping up in some of our design challengers' builds (e.g., The Cooker Connector by ). For the most part on the element14 community, projects that have included NFC have used an add-on expansion board or shield. But today I was sent some information on an MCU that integrates NFC.

 

It's produced by NXP, and called the LPC8N04 microcontroller.They consider it an entry-level connectivity solution for embedded applications with integrated NFC connectivity. It contains multiple features, including several power-down modes and a selectable CPU frequency of up to 8 MHz for ultra-low power consumption. The peripheral complement includes 32 kB of flash memory, 8 kB of SRAM, 4 kB of EEPROM, one I2C, one SPI/SSP, and up to 12 general purpose I/O pins. Your can read more about it by clicking here.image

 

NXP also says that it enables developers to quickly implement broad-based solutions that leverage system diagnostics or environmental conditions for a smarter tagging experience. With the added benefit of flexible communication modes, you'd have the ability to push data to an LPC8N04 MCU-based edge-node, for example, in device provisioning, configuration or customization. 

 

I think it has interesting possibilities for Board Games, Healthcare Wearables, Robotics, Industrial Uses and, of course, Secure Payments.

 

What do you think?

 

Would you be interested in roadtesting this product? What would you like to test or build?

 

 

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  • NFC is definitely on my list of technologies to become proficient with. It is already widely used but the applications are still in their infancy relative to what will be implemented in the next few years. I have experimented with RFID and a little NFC trying to get the range out to 1 foot. I could get about 9 inches reliably. I don't know if this road test would fit in my schedule as the dates aren't set, but I would follow the road test activity for sure.

  • in reply to dougw

    Remember that the 'N' in "NFC" stands for Near - so NFC is never going to work for "long" range.

     

    Passive RFID is also essentially relies upon near-field effects - which is quite different from the far-field effects of "conventional" radio links.

    It basically relies upon induction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-field_communication#Overview

     

    If you want long range - which, in this context, probably is about 9 inches or more - then you should probably be looking at active RFID tags.

  • in reply to awneil

    relies upon near-field effects

    I read somewhere that Near Field is within one wavelength.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_and_far_field

     

    13.5 MHz is about 22.2m (71.6 ft)

    125 Khz is about 2400m (7740 ft)

     

     

    I'm thinking they would need to be active for anywhere close to those distances. image

     

    mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    Well, that Wikipedia article actually says,

    The boundary between the two regions is only vaguely defined, and it depends on the dominant wavelength (λ) emitted by the source and the size of the radiating element.

     

    It also notes that "near-field" has different interpretations in different contexts.

     

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_and_far_field#Electromagnetically_short_antennas

    Antenna field regions for antennas that are equal to, or shorter than, one-half wavelength of the radiation they emit, such as the whip antenna of a citizen's band radio, or the antenna in an AM radio broadcast tower.

     

    I think it's the "reactive" part that's meant in this context - so about 0.159 wavelength:

    13.5 MHz is about 0.159 x 22.2m = 3.5m

    125 Khz is about 0.159 x 2400m = 380m

     

    But I guess these are "theoretical" limits - not operating parameters of actual products or systems ?

  • in reply to mcb1

    Near field communications are one thing, but in my case the limiting factor was how far I could project power to run an active tag which used power scavenging to get power to run the tag's MCU. Some would call it  a passive tag if it has no battery, but I think of bar codes and Wiegand wires as passive and possibly some types of RFID.

  • in reply to dougw

    There are some interesting setups used for detecting fish.

    It involved feeding a few amps through the coil which spanned a large stream.

     

     

     

    Tags are either passive and they use parasitic power which then powers the processor, or powered with an on-board power source.

    The range of passive is limited by the power and the size of the tag antenna.

    Obviously tags designed to go under the skin can't be as large as keyfob or card tags, so the detection and more importantly the influence on the transmitter antenna is less.

     

     

    There are also some interesting tag hacks, where they use a processor and coil to simulate the tag.

    These are not passive ... or legal image

     

    Mark.

  • in reply to mcb1

    I worked with fish tags on a fish survey package.  The tags were passive and even with a pretty powerful antenna (RF and Power) the tags would only read reliably at a distance of a few inches.  Notable in this case, the fish tags were very tiny (approximately the size of a DO-214AC diode), which likely limited the ability to receive power (also the return packet was several digits, requiring longer active times).

    Gene

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  • in reply to mcb1

    I worked with fish tags on a fish survey package.  The tags were passive and even with a pretty powerful antenna (RF and Power) the tags would only read reliably at a distance of a few inches.  Notable in this case, the fish tags were very tiny (approximately the size of a DO-214AC diode), which likely limited the ability to receive power (also the return packet was several digits, requiring longer active times).

    Gene

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