NFC Chip Enables Battery-Free Locks

April 28, 2023
Infineon’s near-field communication tags use short-range RF technology to empower wireless tagging of consumer products as well as support functionality in IoT devices.

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Infineon Technoiogies’ near-field communication (NFC) tags use short-range RF technology to empower wireless tagging of consumer products as well as support functionality in IoT devices.

Important for the development of passive smart devices that need to operate with high accuracy, efficiency, and design convenience, NFC-based sensing controllers with energy-harvesting capabilities are critical for a wide range of IoT applications. The NGC1081 is a single-chip solution for low-cost, miniaturized, smart edge computing/sensing devices, enabling them to be controlled and powered by mobile phones.

The tag-side controller supports a dual power-supply function, operating in battery-free passive mode using energy harvesting, or in battery-powered mode as a self-contained sensing node using a 3- to 3.3-V external power supply. Its galvanically isolated sensing interface can create innovative sensing use cases that require no batteries with minimal maintenance. It's based on a low-power Arm Cortex-M0 microcontroller that's NFC front-end-compliant with the ISO 14443 type-A standard and a motor-control driver that employs an H-bridge circuit with a current drive capability of up to 250 mA.

In addition, the NGC1081 features a sensing unit based on a 12-bit SAR ADC with four analog inputs and a 10-bit DAC with one analog output. The sensing unit also comprises an I2V converter and an integrated temperature sensor that provides an accuracy of ±0.3°C over the temperature range of 0 to 45°C and ±0.4°C from 20 to 0°C and 45 to 85°C.

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About the Author

Alix Paultre | Editor-at-Large, Electronic Design

An Army veteran, Alix Paultre was a signals intelligence soldier on the East/West German border in the early ‘80s, and eventually wound up helping launch and run a publication on consumer electronics for the US military stationed in Europe. Alix first began in this industry in 1998 at Electronic Products magazine, and since then has worked for a variety of publications in the embedded electronic engineering space. Alix currently lives in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Also check out his YouTube watch-collecting channel, Talking Timepieces

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