SLOA246B January   2018  – March 2019 TRF7964A , TRF7970A

 

  1.   Frequently asked questions for TRF7970A and TRF7964A devices
    1.     Trademarks
    2. 1 General Questions
      1. 1.1 What is the TRF79xxA?
      2. 1.2 What protocols are supported by the TRF7960A, TRF7970A, and variants?
      3. 1.3 What evaluation hardware and firmware should I get to evaluate the TRF79xxA devices?
      4. 1.4 What are the expected read ranges for NFC/RFID tags with TRF79xxA evaluation hardware?
      5. 1.5 The TRF7970AEVM is not available anymore, what is the replacement?
    3. 2 NFC/RFID Operating Mode Questions
      1. 2.1 Reader/Writer Mode
        1. 2.1.1 What is the difference between an NFC tag and an HF RFID tag?
        2. 2.1.2 Why is NDEF used? What advantages does NDEF provide?
        3. 2.1.3 How do I read NFC/RFID tags with the TRF79xxA series of devices?
      2. 2.2 Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Mode
        1. 2.2.1 What is NFC peer-to-peer mode?
        2. 2.2.2 How do I send peer-to-peer messages to NFC devices with the TRF79xxA series of devices?
        3. 2.2.3 What is the difference between passive and active P2P?
      3. 2.3 NFC Card Emulation Mode
        1. 2.3.1 What is NFC tag or card emulation?
        2. 2.3.2 How do I emulate an NFC tag or card with the TRF79xxA series of devices?
    4. 3 Hardware and Design Questions
      1. 3.1 Where can I get schematics and layout files for the TRF79xxA devices?
      2. 3.2 How do I design and tune an antenna to 13.56 MHz for the TRF79xxA devices?
      3. 3.3 Does TI provide FCC certification for the TRF79xxA devices?
      4. 3.4 What TI reference designs are available for the TRF79xxA devices?
    5. 4 Software Questions
      1. 4.1 I need to read a non-NFC compliant tag or transponder, what firmware example should I use?
      2. 4.2 Are there any firmware examples available for TI MCUs other than MSP430 and MSP432 MCUs?
      3. 4.3 Is there support for NFCLink with NCI?
      4. 4.4 Are authentication examples available for the TRF79xxA devices?
      5. 4.5 What are the recommended TRF79xxA register settings or device configuration?
      6. 4.6 What does an IRQ status of 0xC0 mean?
      7. 4.7 Are software examples available to read Topaz-512 (NFC Forum Type 1) tags?
      8. 4.8 Are software examples available to read iCLASS or PicoPass tags?
    6. 5 Miscellaneous Questions
      1. 5.1 Is there any support for RF power amplifiers?
      2. 5.2 Is there any TI training collateral for NFC?
      3. 5.3 Are there Energia or Arduino examples for the TRF79xxA?
      4. 5.4 What IDEs are supported for Texas Instruments TRF79xxA firmware examples?
      5. 5.5 What Android handset interoperability is supported?
      6. 5.6 How do I configure the TRF79xxA to output a continuous or unmodulated RF field?
    7. 6 Comparison of TI NFCLink Standalone Firmware and TI RFID Reader Example Firmware
      1. 6.1 NFCLink Standalone Firmware
      2. 6.2 RFID Reader Example Firmware
      3. 6.3 Memory Footprint Comparison
    8. 7 References
  2.   Revision History

1.2 What protocols are supported by the TRF7960A, TRF7970A, and variants?

For this section, TRF79xxA includes the TRF7960A, TRF7962A, TRF7963A, TRF7964A, and TRF7970A.

Each TRF79xxA device includes integrated protocol handling for certain ISO/IEC or NFC Forum standards. Table 1 lists the protocols supported by all TRF79xxA devices in the TI portfolio.

Table 1. Supported Protocols

Standard TRF7960A, TRF7964A TRF7962A TRF7963A TRF7970A
ISO standards ISO/IEC 14443A ISO/IEC 15693 ISO/IEC 14443A ISO/IEC 14443A
ISO/IEC 14443B ISO/IEC 18000-3 ISO/IEC 14443B ISO/IEC 14443B
FeliCa (JIS X 6319-4) FeliCa (JIS X 6319-4) FeliCa (JIS X 6319-4)
ISO/IEC 15693 ISO/IEC 15693
ISO/IEC 18000-3 ISO/IEC 18000-3
ISO/IEC 18092
ISO/IEC 21481
NFC Forum reader/writer standards Type 2 Type 5 Type 2 Type 2
Type 3 Type 3 Type 3
Type 4A Type 4A Type 4A
Type 4B Type 4B Type 4B
Type 5 Type 5
NFC Forum peer-to-peer standards N/A N/A N/A Type A (initiator and target)
Type F (initiator and target)
NFC Forum card emulation standards N/A N/A N/A Type 4A
Type 4B

It is possible to communicate with unsupported NFC/RFID tags and devices by operating the TRF79xxA in Direct Mode 0, which requires the host MCU to run at a multiple of 13.56 MHz to encode and decode the raw subcarrier signal. This allows the raw data to be received by the host MCU, which must process the received data including handling all packet and byte framing, parity checks, and CRC calculations.