SLOA208B November   2014  – March 2019 TRF7970A , TRF7970A

 

  1.   NFC card emulation using the TRF7970A
    1.     Trademarks
    2.     Terms, Definitions, and Symbols
    3. 1  Introduction
    4. 2  Card Emulation
      1. 2.1 Anticollision
        1. 2.1.1 Card Emulation Type A
        2. 2.1.2 Card Emulation Type B
      2. 2.2 Data Exchange
    5. 3  Configuration and Commands for Type 4 Tag Platforms
      1. 3.1 Overview of Type 4 Tag Configuration
        1. 3.1.1 Tag
        2. 3.1.2 Applications
        3. 3.1.3 Files
      2. 3.2 Firmware Structure
        1.       Example 1. Type 4 Tag Structures Within Example Firmware
        2. 3.2.1 tType4AppDS
        3. 3.2.2 tType4App
        4. 3.2.3 tType4File
        5. 3.2.4 Example Setup
          1.        Example 2. Example Setup of a Type 4 Tag Structure
      3. 3.3 File Structure
        1. 3.3.1 Capability Container
          1.        Example 3. Format of the Capability Container for a Tag With Two Files
        2. 3.3.2 Text RTD
          1.        Example 4. Example of a Text RTD Within an NDEF File
        3. 3.3.3 URI RTD
          1.        Example 5. Example of a URI RTD Within a Proprietary File
        4. 3.3.4 Smart Poster
        5. 3.3.5 V-Card
        6. 3.3.6 MIME
      4. 3.4 Available Type 4 Tag Commands
        1. 3.4.1 Frame Format
        2. 3.4.2 Select
        3. 3.4.3 Read Binary
        4. 3.4.4 Update Binary
      5. 3.5 Modifying Stored Tag Information
    6. 4  Hardware Description
      1. 4.1 LaunchPad™ Development Kit and BoosterPack™ Plug-in Module Setup
        1. 4.1.1 BoosterPack Plug-in Module: DLP-7970ABP
        2. 4.1.2 LaunchPad Development Kit: MSP-EXP430F5529LP
        3. 4.1.3 LaunchPad Development Kit: MSP-EXP432P401R
      2. 4.2 Bundle Available for Purchase
    7. 5  Card Emulation Firmware Example
      1. 5.1 Card Emulation APIs
      2. 5.2 Implementing a Card Emulation Sample Application
        1. 5.2.1 Low-Level Initialization
          1.        Example 6. MCU and TRF7970A Initialization Code Snippet
        2. 5.2.2 Card Emulation NFC Stack Setup
          1.        Example 7. Card Emulation Initialization Code
        3. 5.2.3 Emulation of Different RTDs
    8. 6  Quick Start Guide
    9. 7  Operational Overview
    10. 8  Card Emulation Interoperability Results
    11. 9  Conclusion
    12. 10 References
  2.   Revision History

1 Introduction

The TRF7970A supports three operational modes: reader/writer, card emulation, and peer-to-peer. This document describes on how to use the TRF7970A in card emulation mode. Card emulation allows an NFC enabled system to act as or 'emulate' a tag platform. In the case of the TRF7970A, it is possible to emulate both Type 4A and Type 4B tags concurrently. This feature is a differentiator when compared to static tags that typically offer a single tag type platform.

Card emulation for Type 4A uses ISO/IEC 14443A technology at a baud rate of 106 kbps. Card emulation for Type 4B uses ISO/IEC 14443B technology at a baud rate of 106 kbps. After technology selection for either mode has been completed, the higher layers are the same (as shown in Figure 1).

When configured for the aforementioned mode, the TRF7970A transceiver behaves as an emulated card, so it does not produce its own RF field. When a RF field is presented from a reader, and properly formatted commands are issued, the transceiver load modulates the reader's field to communicate with it.

fig01_card_emulation_layers.gifFigure 1. Card Emulation Layers Including the PHY (TRF7970A)

A 16-bit and a 32-bit microcontroller are used to interface with the TRF7970A to demonstrate a reference example of the card emulation mode. The firmware supports flexible functions that allow the user to enable or disable the supported card emulation modes. Additionally, the firmware demonstrates how to format various NDEF message types for card emulation applications, and allows NFC-enabled smart phones to write custom NDEF content to the device.

Table 1 lists the NFC-enabled devices that were used to validate the firmware.

Table 1. NFC Enabled Devices Used to Test Card Emulation

Smartphone Model (Release Date) Operating System Kernel Version
Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Nov 2011) Android 4.3 3.0.72 Jun 7 2013
Samsung Galaxy S3 (AT&T) (June 2012) Android 4.0.4  3.0.8 Aug 29 2012
Samsung Galaxy S3 (T-Mobile) (June 2012) Android 4.3 3.0.31 Mar 8 2014
Asus Nexus 7 (July 2012) Android 4.4.2 3.1.10 Nov 20 2013
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (Sept 2012) Android 4.4.2 3.0.31 May 23 2014
AU Arrows Fujitsu FJL21 (Oct 2012) Android 4.0.4 3.0.21 Oct 16 2012
Samsung S3 Mini (Oct 2012) Android 4.4.2 3.4.0 Jun 9 2014
Nokia Lumia 820 (Nov 2012) Windows Phone 8 8.0.10328.78 
HP Elite Tablet (Nov 2012) Windows 8 Windows 8 Pro
Samsung Nexus 10 (Nov 2012) Android 4.4.2 3.4.39 Nov 20 2013
Google Nexus 4 (Nov 2012) Android 4.4.4 3.4.0 Apr 16 2014 
Samsung Galaxy S4 (April 2013) Android 4.4.4 3.4.0 Aug 27 2014 
Hisense Sero 7 Pro (June 2013) Android 4.4.1 3.1.0
Asus Nexus 7 (July 2013) Android 4.4.3 3.4.0 Mar 18 2014
Google Nexus 5 (Oct 2013) Android 4.4.4 3.4.0 Mar 17 2014
Samsung Galaxy S5 (April 2014) Android 4.4.2 3.4.0 Jul 22 2014
Sony Xperia Z3 (September 2014) Android 4.4.4 3.4.0 Aug 19 2014