Low-Cost NFC Reader & Chip Recommendations with Anticollision for STM32

[MERSI]

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations on setting up an NFC system that meets the following requirements. I’m aiming to keep the project as cost-effective as possible, and I would like to utilize both NFC readers and chips. I’d appreciate any insights on suitable NFC reader types (e.g., NFC Type 4) as well as potential components or modules from STM32.

NFC Reader Requirements:

• Anticollision System: The NFC reader must support anticollision to handle multiple tags being present in the field at once. This is essential for our use case, where multiple tags may need to be read simultaneously.
• Inductive Change Detection: I’m interested in whether the reader can detect inductive changes (though I suspect this might be challenging since only one antenna or line is connected to the reader at a time, especially with multiplexing). To work around this, I’m considering the possibility of periodically switching between antennas and continuously scanning.
• Mobile Compatibility: The NFC reader should be able to read tags from a smartphone as well (e.g., using a mobile phone to read data from a sensor or similar). Alternatively, I would like the system to automatically open a webpage (e.g., showing measurement data) on the smartphone when scanned, provided the phone and system are connected to the same network.

NFC Chip Requirements:

• Multiple Simultaneous Reads/Writes: The most important requirement is that the NFC chip must support reading and writing to at least 6 chips "simultaneously", using either one or multiple antennas close to each other. This most likely means that the chip should have anticollision functionality.
• Mobile Compatibility: Just like the reader, the NFC chip should also be readable by a smartphone (for example, to display the chip's lifespan or data).
• Security: The NFC chip must be encrypted and secure to prevent unauthorized copying, modification, or writing to the chip. It should ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the data stored on it.

I would greatly appreciate your thoughts or any product recommendations that could help fulfill these requirements while keeping the cost low.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Brian TIDAL]

Hi,

can you clarify what you mean by NFC Chip? Do you mean NFC Tag?

Regarding the requirements: The collision resolution aims to detect the presence of multiple devices and to enumerate the different identifiers. Then, the reader can sequentially communicate with each tag. Thus the collision resolution is not used to handle simultaneous read from tags: this is not ethernet Collision Detection nor Wifi Collision Avoidance.

I would suggest you have a look to the ST25R3916B NFC universal reader.

Rgds

BT

[MERSI]

Thank you for your answer @Brian TIDAL.

So by using the UID i am able to communicate (read and write) with a specific tag selected from multiple tags in the magnetic field - right? If the NFC reader and tag fullfill the requirements of ISO 14443 the anti-collision (ISO 14443-3) should be implementable. 

[Brian TIDAL · Accepted solution]

Hi,

By definition, an NFC reader supports what is required by the NFC standard. And same for an NFC tag. A reader that indicates support for NFC-A / ISO14443A implements the collision resolution (so called anti-collision in ISO standard). And tag that indicates support for NFC-A / ISO14443A  supports the Bit Oriented Single Device Detection (SDD) Frame (so called anti-collision frame in ISO standard) for the collision resolution process.

For example, our ST25R3916B NFC universal reader supports NFC-A / ISO14443A as well as NFC-B / ISO14443B,  NFC-F / FeliCa and NFC-V / ISO15693. Ready to use demos to retrieve the UIDs of the tags inside the operating field are available in X-CUBE-NFC6 package.

To learn more about NFC, visit https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/support/learning/st25-education.html%20.html

Rgds

BT