NFC Reader chip and Discovery kit from STMicroelectronics

     STMicroelectronics Discovery Suite ST25R3911B-DISCO integrates ST25R3911B NFC reader chip and STM32L476RE ultra-low power microcontroller, which can shorten the development cycle of unconnected applications and achieve excellent communication distance, speed and energy efficiency. Simplified design and lower material costs. The Discovery Kit board provides designers with an RF circuit layout reference design, and with the additional STM32 microcontroller software, the board can be quickly powered up and run as an HF reader or NFC initiator.

     At the heart of STMicroelectronics' new Discovery suite, the ST25R3911B NFC reader chip provides designers with product differentiation that helps simplify function integration, streamline product manufacturing and ensure an excellent user experience. The power optimization features of the reader chip are also excellent, including dynamic power output, which provides the minimum power required for the originating device to communicate with the receiving device, thus avoiding power waste, an energy saving feature that is an important advantage for portable devices and payment terminals. The capacitive wake function detects the presence of the card, and the sleep mode power consumption is less than 5µA, helping to save battery power on devices such as hotel room card readers. The reader chip also supports inductive wake-up.

     The RF receiver of the ST25R3911B is about five times more sensitive than a conventional receiver, while the output power of up to 1.4W extends the read/write distance without the need for additional amplifiers. Automatic antenna tuning (AAT) enables Oems to efficiently fine-tune terminal device antenna Settings on the production line. In addition, the ST25R3911B is the only microcontroller on the market capable of enabling a monolithic solution for ultra-high bit rate (VHBR) communications, increasing download rates from 848kbit/s to 6.8Mbit/s, making it the best choice for e-government systems such as passports and other applications.

     The ST25R3911B supports all major disconnected and RFID electronic tag standards, including ISO 18092 (NFCIP-1) Active P2P, ISO14443A, ISO14443B, FeliCa and ISO 15693 contactless standards. Suitable for ticketing, asset tracking, device verification, sensor data collection and access control applications.

     The STM32L476RE ultra-low power microcontroller is an 80MHz ARM® Cortex-M4 core processor based on the built-in DSP extended instruction set and floating point unit. It provides many energy saving features, such as, The smart architecture has built-in FlexPowerControl, dynamic voltage regulation and seven power management modes and sub-mode options for significant energy savings. Built-in memory protection unit improves application security. The Discovery Suite helps developers take advantage of the integrated benefits of microcontrollers and reader chips, as well as the STM32's robust development ecosystem, including routines, IP modules, and expansion boards.