STMicroelectronics ST25R3916 NFC universal device

The STMicroelectronics ST25R3916 NFC universal device contains innovative features to simplify the design of payment terminals and ease compliance with EMVCo 3.0 contactless interoperability tests for cards, mobiles and wearables.

The device builds on features of the preceding ST25R3911B, which offered dynamic power output (DPO) to keep the field strength within EMVCo limits and avoid damage to cards and phones from overpowering in zero distance. The device adds active wave shaping (AWS) that manages the energy continuously to improve waveform robustness versus antenna detuning. Together, DPO and AWS help terminal designs pass the latest EMVCo 3.0 certification faster, easing the tests performed with dissimilar-reference proximity integrated circuit cards (PICCs) that emulate card, wearable and mobile devices.

The product adds a noise-suppression receiver (NSR), offering sensitivity that prevents the terminal mistaking noise from its own LCD as a load-modulation signal from the payment device. Designers can select their preferred LCD model for best user experience. They are no longer bound to use shielded low-noise LCDs, thereby easing display selection. The unit delivers an output power of up to 1.6 W, using the internal LDO, or higher with an additional external regulator, ensuring adequate field strength to connect even in set-ups with small antennas.

In addition to payment terminals, the product delivers high performance in a wide variety of industrial and consumer applications, such as access-control systems, gaming terminals, IoT devices, and brand-protection and supply-chain use cases including product configuration, authentication and traceability. Other features include automatic antenna tuning (AAT), automatic EMD (electromagnetic disturbance) handling, power-saving capacitive and inductive wake-up (CWU), and support for reader/writer, peer-to-peer and card-emulation modes, helping designers ensure fast time to market and compliance with relevant NFC specifications.

For more information: www.st.com/st25r3916.