Thai IC Developer's NFC RFID Chip Has Ability to Enable New Interactive Products

03 Mar 2014
By Claire Swedberg 

Thai IC developer Silicon Craft Technology (SIC) has launched a dual-interface Near Field Communication (NFC) chip that can be embedded in an electronic device, thus enabling that device to communicate with—and be controlled by—a smartphone or other NFC reader. The firm's NFC Enabler SIC4310 passive RFID chip, now being sampled by several companies and their customers worldwide, can be integrated with sensors and other peripheral devices via a UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) interface.

The SIC4310 chip, for example, can be integrated with a passive e-ink display, a capacitor to connect to sensors and a microcontroller. The chip harvests energy from RF transmissions and, therefore, does not require a battery. This interface enables the system to transmit such data as temperature measurements or the pressing of a button, to an NFC reader in a phone or tablet. It can also receive and display a picture or text message from a phone on its own e-paper display, or instruct a device—such as a toy with a built-in NFC reader—to flash a light-emitting diode (LED), or to beep or play a tune.

The NFC Enabler can be built into a variety of larger devices, for applications that can include capturing data from a home appliance (for example, a refrigerator's temperature reading), obtaining readings from a health-care device (such as a blood-pressure monitor), or capturing and managing data collected by vending machines. All use cases would require that a user have an application loaded onto his or her NFC reading device.

Silicon Craft Technology was founded in 2002 as an integrated circuit (IC) manufacturer offering low-frequency (LF), high-frequency (HF) and ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID tags, explains Apiwat Thongprasert, the company's business development manager. In November 2013, the firm launched the SIC4310 IC, which consists of an RFID analog-front-end interfacing circuit supporting the ISO 14443A standard, a UART controller and 196 bytes of user memory to capture and store data and forward it to a reader built into an NFC phone or tablet PC. The SIC4310 supports a wide variety of applications that are now being trialed in the commercial and health-care sectors, Thongprasert says. The company offers five different development kits, along with a related demonstration app at Google Play, enabling potential adopters to sample the technology for their own use cases, or those of their customers.

One version of the development kit has an e-paper screen and built-in sensors for measuring temperature or other variables, according to Kris Rerkrai, SIC's NFC product specialist.

The SIC4310 chip can be used for a variety of solutions, depending on a customer's particular use case. For instance, several companies that market toys are currently testing the chip for use with toys that would come with their own NFC reader, antenna and LED- or sound-based technology. Toys can receive transmissions from the NFC Enabler when placed within a few centimeters of it (when placed directly on its flat surface, for instance) and then provide a response (such as blinking LED lights or making a sound).

In another use case, a temperature sensor integrated with the NFC Enabler would allow an electronic device to be programmed, via an NFC phone or tablet, to provide sensor data. That information can then be displayed and stored on the phone or tablet.

What's more, the NFC Enabler can display information on a device's e-paper screen, based on the transmission of data from a reader. A user could simply pull up a picture on his or her phone and then place that phone on the device, and the picture will be automatically loaded and displayed on the device's screen. Alternatively, an individual could type data into his or her phone, and that information would automatically be displayed on the screen wired to the NFC Enabler. Firmware can also be upgraded on the device, via an NFC connection with a phone's or tablet's NFC reader.

SIC also offers its solution for a passively powered interactive poster that would include capacitive touch buttons that a user can press, thereby controlling what data is transmitted from the tag to the NFC reader built into the user's phone. For example, the poster could offer coupons for a variety of products, or information about multiple films. A user would press the button in the poster corresponding with the item he or she found that interesting, and then would tap the NFC phone or tablet next to the poster in order to receive information related to that specific item.

Additionally, Silicon Craft Technology is releasing another version of the NFC Enabler, as a prototype, using the SIC4330 chip and featuring its own capacitive-sensing capabilities.

The company intends to release a new NFC product each year, Thongprasert says, and to increase the technology's adoption by providing creative solutions.

"Some of our customers have already applied this solution to the baubles or toys they or their customers make," Thongprasert states, "with the intention of making the toy light up or make sounds for a child when it is placed in a base with a built-in NFC Enabler." He predicts that some of these toys will be available on the market in the near future.

There are other passive RFID chips available on the market that can be wired to sensors as well. Impinj's UHF Monza X Dura (see Impinj Releases Embedded RFID Chips for Consumer Electronics, E-Labels) and NXP Semiconductors' UHF I2C chips (see NXP to Unveil New UHF, HF Chips) operate in the UHF band, accomplishing the link between the chip and a peripheral device via an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) rather than a UART interface for serial communication with peripheral devices.

Silicon Craft Technology chose to design the SIC4310 with a UART interface in order to meet customers' requests, Thongprasert says, but the company plans to offer a product to meet demands for I2Cs and serial peripheral interfaces (SPIs) by the end of 2014. UART technology offers advantages for many customers, he explains, such as the ability to prompt sounds. "Since our target markets are toy, game and advertising," he notes, "we believe that this will be a good feature that is very cost-effective to those industries."