Best MIFARE Reader chip for battery powered appliations

[Brosnan Gomes]

Hi,

I wanted to know which I should be going for if I want to implement a battery powered reader. Please provide multiple options if possible since i need the cost of the chip to be as low as possible.

Thanks
Brosnan

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[Brosnan Gomes]

Sorry Missed the word "chip" there. Which MIFARE chip I should be going for?

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[TapLinx Support]

Hi Brosnan,

The power consumption does not depend from the reader IC, it depends mainly from the operation mode. For instance, if power consumption is critical, then you will let your system sleep a while, wake it up and check, if a card is in the antenna field. For this checking you need to switch the field on. Switching the field on means to drive current into the coil. This consumes power from your battery. If no card is in the field, you switch off the power to the antenna and sleep again.

To be very economical, you might think to sleep longer. But this increases the reaction time! Your client taps the card, and nothing happen, or only after a while. This is not acceptable, and you must find a solution in between saving battery power and acceptable reaction time.

Another question is, for which NFC reader do you find libraries? For instance, our reader PN512 is not the newest product, but it is used widely in projects with Raspberry Pi and similar boards. You will find easily software and low-level driver for this IC.

The TapLinx team

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[Brosnan Gomes]

I agree with you on the type of operation mode part.
I was looking at the MFRC522 and the MFRC630. I was tempted to go with he MFRC522 because of the cost and wide range of documentation available, but it lacked the LPCD mode which cannot be done without in a battery application i think. I'm looking at 4 AA batteries to be running the Micro-controller + Mifare chip over a year, if that is possible with firmware optimization. Hence was looking at the MFRC630. Am I going the correct route? Please suggest more ideas.

Thanks
Brosnan

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[TapLinx Support]

Hi Bosnan,

I had a talk with a reader IC expert. He explained that the MFRC522 has no features for a LPCD. But the MFRC630 allows to implement a LPCD.

For a LPCD the reader will not switch on the field and drive a high current into the antenna. The reader with LPCD check if the antenna field has changed its balanced state. Therefore, a very small current is measured over the time. If a card is moved onto the antenna, it influences the magnetic field and the small current will change. This change is detected by the reader chip. The MFRC630, CLRC663 and the PN5180 have a feature in the reader for detecting this change. But the readers different in its other features. Please check the complete feature list.

The MFRC630 supports ISO/IEC 14443A, MIFARE Classic and NTAG cards. But the CLRC663 supports more protocols and standards like ISO/IEC 14443B and JIS X 6319-4.

I recommend reading:

The MFRC630 datasheet ,

The AN11019 - CLRC663, MFRC630, MFRC631, SLRC610 Antenna Design Guide

AN11145 - CLRC663, MFRC631, MFRC 630, SLRC610 Low Power Card Detection

The TapLinx team

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[Brosnan Gomes]

Hi,

Thanks for the information. The third url seems invalid, says page not found.
Are there any hardware design application notes for the MFRC630 reader, besides the antenna design ones or is there any reference design schematics available for the same?

Thanks
Brosnan

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[TapLinx Support]

Hi Brosnan,

All three links are working for me. Anyway, this are public documents you will find if you “google” for it with the title.

It exists a development board from NXP for the CLRC663 (which is very similar to the MFRC630):

CLEV6630B Customer Evaluation Board

Please use this link for more information.

The TapLinx team

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[Brosnan Gomes]

Thanks for the support. Where can I get a MOQ quotation for 1000pcs for the MFRC630?

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[TapLinx Support]

Hi Brosnan,

Please contact a local sales agent. You will find a NXP partner if you follow the button “partners” in the header.

The TapLinx team

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