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At a time when mobile payment, smart home and wearable technologies are booming, the market demand for NFC reader chips is increasing day by day. In particular, the widespread popularity of contactless payment is becoming a powerful engine for NFC market expansion. As a pioneer in the field of NFC chips, STMicroelectronics re-launched its latest flagship NFC reader chip - ST25R300, which injects new vitality into the industry with a number of innovative breakthroughs.

ST25R300: A Flagship New Product with All-rounded Performance Upgrade

ST25R300 is not a simple upgrade in the traditional sense, it represents the excellent level of the new generation of flagship products, not only in terms of package size innovation, but also in terms of performance to achieve a full range of leap.

The ST25R300 inherits many of the excellent features of the previous generation flagship ST25R3916B, such as active waveform adjustment, noise suppression, dynamic power output, etc., and on top of that, it significantly improves the transmitting power and the reading distance in the low-power card detection mode.

In terms of functional compatibility, the ST25R300 demonstrates strong adaptability by fully supporting all reader operating modes defined by the NFC Forum, covering read/write mode, card emulation, point-to-point mode and NFC wireless charging.

At the same time, it retains useful features such as AWS and DPO, and is designed to comply with the EMVCo® PCD 3.2a analogue and digital standards. This feature allows it to be deeply optimised for demanding POS terminal applications, and even in challenging environments such as installing an antenna behind the LCD display (where the many components and metal assemblies inside the LCD screen can interfere with RF signals), it is still able to quickly complete the EMVCo® certification cycle and ensure stable operation of the device.

Breaking through technical bottlenecks and significantly expanding card reading distance

In recent years, with the deep development of contactless payment, POS card reader antennas are increasingly integrated under the LCD screen, which improves the integration of the device, but also brings RF interference problems.

In order to solve these industry pain points, ST25R300 successfully overcame the technical challenge of balancing high transmit power with excellent receive sensitivity. It is capable of outputting up to 2.2W of power, and at the same time has excellent small-signal reception performance, which is most intuitively reflected in practical applications is a significant expansion of the card reading distance.

The following comparison video clearly demonstrates the advantages of the ST25R300. Under the same antenna environment, the reading distance of the previous generation flagship chip ST25R3916B is about 12cm, while the reading distance of ST25R300 reaches about 17cm, an improvement of up to 40%-50%. This advancement makes the ST25R300 more competitive in application scenarios with higher performance requirements or complex working environments.

Upgraded LPCD functionality to optimise user experience

In addition to the significant increase in transmit power, the ST25R300 also achieves a major breakthrough in the Low Power Card Detection (LPCD) function. The LPCD reading distance of traditional NFC reader chips has a 30%-40% gap with the normal reading distance. If the card is not converted from LPCD mode to normal mode in time when it is read for the first time, the card needs to be read by sticking it close to the reader, which greatly affects the user experience.

The ST25R300 has carefully optimised the LPCD performance so that the reading distance in this mode remains the same as in normal operation. This mode can operate independently without the intervention of the main control MCU, and the instantaneous power consumption of the detection pulse is lower than that of the regular card detection mode, which enables the entire reader system to maintain at a very low power consumption level.

Adaptation to market demand, for wireless charging help

The continued popularity of contactless payment is driving the NFC reader chip market to new heights. According to WGR, the market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 10.29% between 2023 and 2032.

The continuous emergence of devices supporting NFC technology has made the application of NFC technology no longer limited to the field of financial payment, but also continues to create new opportunities in the integration of healthcare, transport, manufacturing, consumer electronics and other industries. Among them, the rapid development of the wearable device market has spawned a strong demand for NFC wireless charging.

The short-term goal of NFC wireless charging is to achieve the power at the receiving end within 1 W, and the future goal is 3 W. However, there is energy loss in the transmission process of wireless charging, and if we want to achieve a higher power at the receiving end, we need to reduce the path loss, and we need to increase the power at the output end.

ST25R300 also performs well in this area, with its high transmit power of up to 2.2W, it can achieve nearly 1W of power at the receiving end, almost doubling compared to the previous generation of chips. This power is enough to meet the charging needs of various types of wearable devices such as rings, glasses, etc., providing a strong guarantee for the life of wearable devices, and the application prospects are very broad.

Looking to the future, ST's vision is not limited to the existing contactless payment and wireless charging scenarios. With the penetration of NFC technology in more and more industries, more life scenes are expected to be developed and utilised. Globally, both POS applications and the expansion of the charging field are continuously broadening the boundaries of NFC technology. STMicroelectronics will keep up with market demand and continue to innovate. With the continuous optimisation of product performance, innovative NFC-based applications are bound to emerge in the future.