- November 05, 2012
November 5, 2012. AMS announces AS3953 Near Field Communication (NFC) chip that operates from energy harvested from an RFID reader. Operating on energy harvested from an NFC reader’s RF emissions, the AS3953 NFiC (Near Field Communications interface Chip) requires no external power source and at most one external capacitor. The device enables system designers to add full bi-directional NFC capability at a total cost less than half that of a typical NFC reader implementation, which can require as many as 20 external components. TheAS3953 is fully compliant with NFC Forum specifications (NFCIP-1 target at 106 kbps) and the ISO14443A industry standard (up to 848 kbps, to Level 4). This means that it can be used in contactless smart cards and as an NFC Forum-compatible interface tag, and can establish instant communication with any NFC-enabledphone in close proximity (<10cm). TheAS3953 is expected to find uses in a wide variety of applications, including contactless passive programming of MCU-based systems, smart cards with displays, sensors and ultra low-power data loggers, medical devices, and secured NFC Bluetooth pairing. It can also enable new innovative approaches to system designs by using an NFC-enabled smartphone as a display host and system controller for normally stand-alone devices, eliminating the requirement for the slave device to have its own display and processor. The AS3953 features a configurable wake-up interrupt, enabling a zero-power system design while in shut down. It also contains a complete analog front end, 1 kB of internal EEPROM, and a 4-wire SPI with a 32-byte FIFO. The device can draw up to 5 mA of harvestedenergy from the external magnetic field, and includes an internal power management circuit that can supply harvested energy to the application. This makes the AS3953 well suited for use with battery-powered and portable microcontroller-based devices. Price & Availability The AS3953 NFiC is available as a bare die or in a 10-pin, 3 mm x 3 mm MLPD package. The device is available for sampling now. It is priced at $1.59 in 1,000 piece quantities as a packaged device, and $1.15 as a bare die. Technical Support A demonstration board for the AS3953 NFiC is available.