I don’t know how to play it yet but I have been looking for some time. The problem is EVERYONE will be there. This is a good article I found in my new favorite blog, Chipworks.
NXP’s NFC technology in the PN544 controller
contributed by Sam Thumm
First the smartphone came along and replaced our MP3 players, our paper maps, our portable gaming systems, and our in-car DVD players. Even before the smartphone, they held our kids photos and our contact lists so we no longer needed to carry these things in our wallets. However, they have not been good at holding our money or our official ID cards – never mind the dozens of video rental store cards we used to have to lug around.
Enter Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, and with Apple and others announcing a future mobile payment system, it is about to go big-time. NFC phones are already somewhat commonly used (depending on where you live) to pay for transportation, and share information with other users. However, the power to make payments, improve Bluetooth pairing, or function as the keys to our homes really takes the smartphone to a new level. Perhaps along with the local video store, key cutting kiosks and even the US Mint will soon be a thing of the past.
One of the most recent and technologically advanced entrants into this market segment is the NXP PN544. This NFC controller enables a new range of contactless applications for improved on-the-go experiences (Figure 1, image sourced from www.nfctimes.com).
Figure 1. NXP PN544 controller
NFC technology involves both an initiator and a target. The initiator generates an RF field which enables NFC targets to take information from simple factors such as tags, stickers, or cards that would normally not be able to do such functions. The NXP PN544 NFC is said to be smaller (die size: 3.11 mm x 3.11 mm), more compliant with payment methods (EMVCo and Paypass), have a larger operation distance (10 cm), support more RF protocols, and have a higher level of integration than its competitors (Figure 2).
Figure 2. NXP PN544 die photograph
There are currently a number of high demand and profitable companies producing smartphones with PN544 NFC chips. These smartphones include: the Samsung Galaxy S II (Figure 3), which racked up 3 million pre-orders worldwide; the Google Nexus S (Figure 4) that uses a combination of a PN544 NFC and an embedded SmartMX secure element in a controller chip called the PN65N NFC; and the Nokia C7 (Figures 5). Other devices such as the BlackBerry and Samsung smartphones are expected to be released this year with their own NFC capabilities.
Figure 3. Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone
Figure 4. Google Nexus PN65N smartphone
Figure 5. Nokia C7 circuit board
NFC growth and popularity is expected to dramatically increase in the near future. NXP CEO Rick Clemmer predicts that “between 40 million and 100 million NFC phones will be produced this year.” 2012 looks even better for the NFC market, with predictions by ABI Research that “more than 419 million NFC chipsets will ship in 2012, accounting for a total market revenue of $406 million.” Looking ahead to the more distant future, there are indications that by 2013, 20% of all smartphones will have NFC chips built into them as a standard, equating to around 300 million people across the world, as stated by Juniper Research.
It will be interesting to watch as this market evolves. There are no clear leaders at this point. Apple is already patenting its approach to NFC, while the rest of the patent landscape shows a large number of players, with no one company dominating. In the pie chart below, we see that Sony is the leader in patents applied or granted, but not by any significant amount of the total 1260 we pulled. In fact, the “others” category is made up of 400 different companies (data sourced from Thompson Innovation).
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Additional die photos and reports can be found on the PN544 controller:
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