The NFC Forum has announced the publication of four tag type technical specifications with the aim of promoting interoperability across the entire NFC tag market and enabling low-cost volume production and a cost-effective global mass market.

     More than 1 billion NFC-ready tags have already been deployed worldwide for use in areas such as public transportation, hotel room access, and office access control. 116.30.192.184 This article is copyright 2007 UsingRFID.com.

Interoperability is key
     According to Christophe Duverne, chairman of the NFC Forum, "It is essential to the adoption and growth of NFC technology that all NFC-enabled devices interoperate seamlessly and deliver a consistent user experience."

     Building on existing technology, the Forum''s tags are based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14443 Type A and B standards and Sony''s FeliCa. The four tag types are all based on existing contactless products and are available commercially. The NFC Forum has mandated that the four tag types be operable with NFC devices.

     The tag specifications are the most recent in a series of specifications being developed by the NFC Forum. The original NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) specification and four Record Type Description (RTD) specifications were released in 2006 (and are also downloadable from the NFC Forum web site).

Four specifications
     The operation specifications for the NFC Forum tag types, numbered 1 to 4, provide the technical information required to implement the reader/writer and associated control functionality of the NFC device, enabling interaction with the tags. The four tag type specifications are:

NFC Forum Type 1 Tag Operation Specification
     Type 1 tag is based on ISO14443A. Tags are read and re-write capable; users can configure the tag to become read-only. Memory availability is 96 bytes and expandable to 2 kbytes; communication speed is 106 kbit/s.
 
NFC Forum Type 2 Tag Operation Specification
     Type 2 tag is based on ISO14443A. Tags are read and re-write capable; users can configure the tag to become read-only. Memory availability is 48 bytes and expandable to 2 kbytes; communication speed is 106 kbit/s.
 
NFC Forum Type 3 Tag Operation Specification
     Type 3 tag is based on the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) X 6319-4, also known as FeliCa. Tags are pre-configured at manufacture to be either read and re-writable, or read-only. Memory availability is variable, theoretical memory limit is 1MByte per service; communication speed is 212 kbit/s or 424 kbit/s.
 
NFC Forum Type 4 Tag Operation Specification
     Type 4 tag is fully compatible with ISO14443A and B standards. Tags are pre-configured at manufacture to be either read and re-writable, or read-only. Memory availability is variable, up to 32 Kbytes per service; communication speed is up to 424 kbit/s.
Industry enthusiasm
     The publication of these specifications has opened the door to interoperability and closer co-operation between NFC developers and device manufacturers, and has been greeted enthusiastically by industry players such as NFC chip developer Innovision Research & Technology (R&T).

     According to Innovision R&T''s chief technology officer, Heikki Huomo, "This is an important step forward in the growth and development of NFC. For example, application developers for smart posters need to know how to write the NDEF data on the tags in such a way that the tags can be read by all NFC devices (such as mobile phones). On the other hand, the handset manufacturers need the specifications to ensure their NFC-enabled handsets can read, and in some cases write, the necessary NDEF messages to and from NFC tags."

 

 

 

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