NFC leader NXP propels technology into 4G age

Mobile World Congress 2012, SINGAPORE: NXP Semiconductors announced its newest flagship NFC solution, the PN547. Following on from the overwhelming success of the PN544, by far the industry’s most widely adopted Mobile Transactions solution, the next generation PN547 incorporates NXP’s proven leadership and expertise through over 130 projects across a variety of handsets, operating systems and with both SWP-SIM secure elements and embedded secure elements. Its cutting-edge performance provides smart phone and tablet OEMs with a springboard to create breakthrough Mobile Transactions user experiences.

The PN547 outperforms any NFC radio controller in performance and offers doubled RF range, a 50 percent smaller footprint, a 5x improvement in wireless data throughput and a 50 percent lower power consumption than the current market benchmark PN544. It delivers perfect interoperability worldwide, working with any contactless reader and NFC tag, supporting new, revolutionary user experiences in the devices of the future.

NXP’s next generation Mobile Transactions solution delivers these improvements with robust multi-application support including full MIFARE family compatibility (Classic 1K, Classic 4K, DESFire, Plus) and native reader device mode functionality for expanded NFC use cases such as secure, mobile contactless POS applications and mobile ticketing.

As part of NXP’s strategy to enable openness and choice, the PN547 will be available with multiple interfaces to secure elements, offering flexibility to MNO technology preference and OEMs around secure element form factor (µSD, UICC, eSE). Its benefits are available to all MNOs and OEM customers that market advanced mobile devices designed for the 4G era.

The benefits stem from NXP’s unique NFC experience and from its clear leadership position across the identification market overall. As the co-inventor of NFC in 2002, NXP enjoys a head start of several years with unmatched NFC knowledge and IP, delivering market leading Mobile Transactions performance to Google, Microsoft, almost all major OEMs and leading mobile network operators.

NXP’s core security and contactless expertise within its NFC portfolio incorporate its understanding of advanced applications and complete end-to-end solutions derived from its identification business. NXP is the leader in converging traditional contactless and security applications into exciting mobile transactions applications.

“We are at an exciting inflection point for smart phones and the NFC market in particular with an attach rate of 47 percent in 2015,” said John Devlin, Group director, Security and ID for ABI Research. “As more sophisticated NFC applications are deployed, mobile users expect exceptional user experiences delivering trusted reliability and interoperability across secure identification, payment, ticketing, access and proximity marketing use cases. By continuously advancing the state of the technology, NXP is responding to end user needs.”

“NXP’s proven interoperability, leading technology and Mobile Transactions success story form the most powerful NFC radio in the market that sets a new benchmark for performance, footprint and lowest power consumption,” said Henri Ardevol, VP and GM, secure transactions, NXP Semiconductors. “Handset manufacturers demand exceptional performance to satisfy their customers. The PN547 is the industry’s only solution that meets those needs.”

PN547 solution highlights
o Supports smaller mobile devices via 50 percent smaller footprint.
o Supports longer battery life; power consumption reduced 50 percent.
o Reliable tapping action - best In Class RF performance with a 2x increase in RF operating range and unique, embedded MIFARE crypto for expanded interoperability.
o Faster tapping action - increasing the system data through put by a factor 5.
o Improved OEM profitability, lower total cost of integration through support for smaller antennae and reduced count of external component.
o Leverages NXP’s OpenSource OS integration, 130+ NFC design in projects, and end-to-end expertise.

NFC is a market proven, standardized technology co-invented by NXP and Sony in 2002. NXP is at the center of this ecosystem, fuelling its development by partnering with almost all major handset manufacturers, mobile OS providers and applications developers. NXP is the No1 supplier to the Identification market globally, and leverages its leadership in contactless and security technologies to provide complete Mobile Transactions solutions: NFC controllers, Secure Elements in all form factors, NFC tags and infrastructure reader ICs. Currently OEMs have selected NXP’s NFC technology for more than 130 mobile devices.