The NFC is a short-distance wireless technology that helps devices like smartphones and payment machines chat with each other. It uses special magnetic fields to make it possible.
People use NFC for important things, such as making mobile payments and accessing safe information. The NFC forum establishes rules for these things’ safety and privacy. The NFC is a bit like RFID, another technology on radio waves. But NFC labels are special because they work on smartphones.
Magic occurs at 13.56 MHz, a type of radio wave. NFC labels can be put into things such as products, packages, or even postcards. You can also attach them to posters or advertising fences. These labels have little information on them, such as a web link or a phone number. When an NFC device comes close to a label, it becomes able to read the information.
NFC labels come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The NFC forum ensures that they all work together as different players in a team. We will discover this in our article about NFC Forum Tag Types.
NFC Forums:
The NFC forum (you can find them at www.nfc-porum.org) has an important objective: they want to improve Near Field Communication (NFC) even better. They do it by creating the rules, ensuring that different devices can work together, and teaching people about the NFC.
In 2004, Nokia, Philips, and Sony began the NFC forum. Today, the NFC forum has many members from all over the world. These companies work together to create policies on how NFC devices should be built. They also make it easy to share data between different devices easily, no matter which type of device it is.
Some of the prominent companies in the NFC forum are Apple, Google, MasterCard, Samsung, and Visa. They are like leaders in this mission to improve NFC technology.
NFC Forum Tag Types
- NFC Type 1 tag:
These are the most common tags in which you can read and write information. However, you can configure type 1 tags to only be readable and not write. People generally use them to store basic things such as a link to the website, a telephone number, or an email address.
This type 1 tag complies with the ISO 14443A standard, meaning it works on all NFC devices that meet this rule. They can contain up to 96 bytes of data and send it at a speed of 106 kilobits per second. This is good for maintaining simple information.
But there is a capture. Type 1 tags do not have an elegant way to protect the data from being accidentally messed up. Therefore, you cannot write data on two different parts of the tag at the same time.
Due to these limitations, type 1 tags are not expensive. They are often used in stores for items such as reward programs or to monitor the products they have.
- NFC Type 2 tags:
Type 2 NFC tags are quite different. They follow the ISO 14443A standard, and you can both read and write the data on them. The great part is that they have an intelligent way to protect the data from getting messed up, making sure that nothing erases or breaks accidentally. They do this with the help of something called “lock control TLV.”
These type 2 tags can contain data of 48 or 144 bytes and send information at a speed of 106 kilobits per second. You can choose to read/write or read-only, depending on how you configure it.
The more interesting is that these tags are based on the NXP Mifare Ultralight platform, which is very popular for contactless payments. This means they are excellent for things like access control and keeping your identity safe because they have strong security characteristics.
- NFC Type 3 Tags:
NFC Type 3 tags are special. They use the Sony Felica platform and speak according to the JIS X 6319-4 standard. These tags can read, write, and store 1, 4, or 9 kilobytes of data.
They are super safe, making them excellent for handling credit card information or medical records. The data on these tags is locked up tight with encryption that can only be seen by the right person.
In addition, they are fast, with a data transmission rate of 212 or 424 kilobits per second. You can configure them to read-only or read/write, so they are useful for many tasks, such as electronic and tactile payments.
- NFC Type 4 tags:
NFC Type 4 tags are based on the NXP DESFire system and work perfectly with smartMX-JCOP. These tags comply with the ISO 14443 A and B rules and can be read/written or read-only.
They are intelligent because they have an elegant way to avoid data confusion, so you can write in different parts simultaneously. They can handle 4 kilobytes or 32 kilobytes of data and quickly send it to 106, 212, or 424 kilobits per second.
People use these tags when they need a lot of storage and high security. They are common in electronic tickets, controls, and identification management systems.
- NFC Type 5 tags:
NFC Type 5 tags are greatly improved for better data storage and communication. They stick to the ISO 15693 standard and can read and write the data.
NFC Type 5 tags can hold 256, 896, 1280, or 2528 bytes of information, which is excellent for things such as loyalty points or medical records. They send the data at a speed of 53 kilobits per second.
They work well with ICODE SLI-Xseries, TI 2K, and ST LRI2K. You can configure them in read-only or read/write. People use it for many things, such as marketing, when they are close to a store. They are super safe to store important information because they have great protection against data problems and are considered reliable tags.
- NFC Type 6 tags:
NFC type 6 tags are the latest NFC technology, which follows the ISO 14443A policies. You can read and write on them or configure them just to read.
What’s more great part is that they have more storage, with 1 kilobyte or 4 kilobytes, which is more than most other types. However, the speed for transferring data is 106 kilobits per second.
They are extremely safe and properly protect the data, which makes them perfect for things such as touchless payments and other situations in which data safety is important.