Have you been hearing about Near Field Communications, more popularly referred to as NFC? NFC is a superset of RFID that runs at 13.56 MHz. The unique differentiation between NFC and RFID is that NFC silicon chips can communicate in three different ways:
1.) Read/Writer to Tag mode - This is the traditional use case of RFID where you have a reader/writer chip that reads a tag, most often a badge. You see this type of implementation all the time in security access systems.
2.) Tag emulation mode - This is the mode where the silicon device can emulate a traditional tag. So now you could use an NFC enabled phone as your security access to get in the building instead of having to also carry a badge.
3.) Peer to Peer mode - This is the mode that you see on all the Samsung Galaxy commercials where two people are bumping their phones together to exchange music playlists.
So why am I writing about NFC? Well, for one Avnet has great partnerships on this technology with vendors like NXP, TI, ST, Maxim, as well as passive antenna suppliers. Secondly, I am also hoping that we can make this technology more prevalent by having Apple adopt it in its next round of products. Today, Android phones, Android Tablets, and Windows based laptops are shipping with NFC technology enabled.
So before I wrap up, I wanted to highlight a few reasons why you might want to consider NFC for your next device:
1.) Enablement - With cellphones, tablets, and laptops having this feature you can integorrate your products in a straight-forward manner.
2.) Low Power - You can use the energy of the 13.56MHz antennna and power your NFC enablement compeltely through the phone, tablet, laptop.
3.) Short Range - There is a short range (Few cms), but I am finding this is sufficient for most applications. If you need to program your device through packaging or in an enclosure, I have showcased the range to be suitable for NFC.
That's all for now! Have a great Friday!
-Jason
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