STMicroelectronics Completes Most Extensive NFC Product Portfolio

STMicroelectronics has unveiled its second-generation Near Field Communications (NFC) controller. ST says the new IC, in combination with its wide Secure Element portfolio, will speed up the arrival of a new world of secure contactless apps and services accessible through next-generation smartphones. ST’s new NFC controller IC, the ST21NFCA, supports all NFC use cases.

Near Field Communication allows smartphones and other mobile appliances to connect wirelessly over a wide range of contactless cards and devices. Mobile payment is acknowledged as a major near-term application for the technology; transactions made using NFC will exceed $30 billion globally in 2012, according to Juniper Research. With support for reader/writer, peer-to-peer and card-emulation modes, NFC can be used to deliver many additional innovative services and personalized marketing messages through customers’ smartphones.

“Our complete and diversified NFC portfolio now gives us the unique ability to provide a technical answer to all possible NFC business models,” said Laurent Degauque, embedded security business line manager, Secure Microcontrollers Division, STMicroelectronics. “This will maximize freedom for customers to integrate their chosen selection of applications into a smartphone or any mobile device, and thereby deliver innovative contactless services quickly and easily for end users.”

The entire STMicroelectronics Secure Element portfolio comes with optional support for MIFARE Classic and MIFARE DESFire technologies, which allows customers to comply safely with the most popular transportation and ticketing scheme worldwide.