STMicroelectronics' NFC Reader offers high performance-to-cost ratio

Combining its high performance and reliability with low power consumption, the 4 x 4mm ST25R100 supports powerful contactless use cases. The tiny outline simplifies integration in products such as printers, power tools, gaming terminals, home appliances, medical devices, and access controls.

“Contactless is a great way for all sorts of products to interact for purposes such as recognising genuine accessories, ordering consumables, and monitoring usage,” said Sylvain Fidelis, Multi-market Business Line Manager at STMicroelectronics. “Bringing an outstanding performance-to-cost ratio, with the added advantage of fast development using our software ecosystem, the ST25R100 delivers an affordable and easily embedded solution to our customers.”

Supporting advanced controls for signal quality and power management, the ST25R100 ensures strong and reliable wireless connections even in space-constrained devices that allow only a tiny antenna. Additionally, the ST25R100 features a new and enhanced low-power card detection (LPCD). This greatly extends the detection range compared to state-of-the-art devices, to ensure a user-friendly experience.

The ST25R100 integrates an advanced analogue front end (AFE) and a data-framing system that supports standard NFC specifications, NFC-A/B (ISO 14443A/B, up to 106kb/s) and NFC-V (ISO 15693, up to 53kbit/s) to read cards.

The reader has a wide power-supply and peripheral-I/O voltage range from 2.7V to 5.5V. Multiple operating modes assist power management by allowing the device current to be reduced to as little as 1µA for longer runtime in battery-powered applications. There is also a reset mode that draws just 0.1µA.

The ST25R100 is sampling now, in a compact 4 x 4mm 24-pin TQFN package that allows small devices to provide contactless card experiences. Pricing starts from $1.82 for orders of 1,000 pieces.