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Innovision publishes highly anticipated third NFC White Paper: "NFC in the real world - Moving to System on Chip Integration" at WIMA 2007
Widespread adoption of Near Field Communications (NFC) is dependent on simple, low-cost integration of the technology into a wide range of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, point of sale and ticketing machines.
According to Innovision Research & Technology, creators of Topaz® for NFC, the most effective way to integrate NFC into mass-market electronics devices is through System on Chip (SoC) implementation in other common chipsets, for instance: Bluetooth, WiFi and Ultra Wide Band.
The business case for SoC implementations, highlighting the technical and commercial advantages, is outlined in Innovision’s White Paper, ‘NFC in the real world – Moving to System on Chip Integration’, published and presented today by Heikki Huomo, CTO of Innovision R&T at WIMA 2007 in Monaco.
‘NFC in the real world – Moving to System on Chip Integration’
Innovision’s White Paper – the third in a series of authoritative papers on NFC – examines the issues facing electronic product designers and manufacturers today, particularly how, when and where NFC can be integrated into new products.
“When to integrate NFC with other technologies is a key consideration, especially at this early adoption stage,” according to Innovision Technical Director, Heikki Huomo, speaking at this week’s event.
“Integrate too late and you could be left behind in the race to meet volume demand from a mass market cost –effectively, but time it right and you will see significant cost and commercial benefits in high volume production. ”
In the paper, Innovision discusses how NFC is currently going through the classic integration cycle, with initial prototype implementations in mobile phones developed as cover units clipped on the back of the phone. Cumbersome and expensive, they were never going to take off as mass consumer products. Now, as NFC moves to the next level of integration, product designers have the choice of developing NFC chipsets to sit on electronic device motherboards, or moving to SoC implementations.
The attractions of SoC
§ Financial – SoC implementations of NFC make sound financial sense. The cost of including a standalone NFC chipset on a typical motherboard can be as much as $3-5 per unit. Implementing the same NFC functionality as a custom IP block on a Bluetooth chipset, for example, adds less than $1 per unit, which comes down even further in high volume production.
§ Motherboard ‘real estate’ – around 99% of silicon is now digital, which provides little room to build additional processes like NFC on it. Since NFC needs a certain amount of analogue circuitry for transmitting and receiving analogue radio waves, there are obvious advantages for combined digital/analogue chipsets – such as Bluetooth, WiFi and UWB – in mobiles, PDAs, etc, to play host to NFC. The NFC IP block can be placed easily in a corner of the Bluetooth chipset.
§ Technical advantages – integrating NFC with Bluetooth, WiFi or UWB chipsets makes sense technically, as many of the processes and components needed by RF technologies, such as antenna, power and data bus, are the same.
With one of the fastest growing dedicated NFC engineering design teams in the industry and detailed knowledge and experience of NFC SoC requirements, Innovision Research & Technology is already using its unique design process capabilities to work with a number of major clients to provide custom NFC IC design. A copy of the White Paper - ‘NFC in the real world part III – Moving to System on Chip Integration’ from Innovision Research & Technology is available from http://www.innovision-group.com/white_papers.php About Innovision Research & Technology plc Innovision Research & Technology plc, is a leading NFC/RFID IC Design and solutions provider. At the heart of the emerging Near Field Communication (NFC) market, designing and developing solutions for the mobile handset and consumer device sectors the company also focuses on RFID and ultra low-cost Integrated Circuit (IC) and electronic design. Innovision R&T develops innovative technologies and technology applications for commercialisation and then licenses the technology on to its customers who incorporate it into their own products. The company’s work with customers includes pre-engineering studies, building of prototypes and complete product development through to production, including full custom silicon chip design. Innovision R&T products include Topaz, mandated by the NFC Forum as the NFC number one tag format, Jewel for mass transit ticketing applications, and “io”, the world’s smallest standards compatible near field RFID reader. Headquartered in the UK, the company was established in 1994 and is listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: INN). About Innovision Research & Technology plc
Innovision Research & technology plc, is leading the next generation of NFC/RFID solutions. As the leading fabless developer of Short-Range Data Communication semiconductor and system solutions, with particular focus on NFC/RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and ultra low-cost Interated Circuit (IC) and RF electronic design, IRT is pushing cost performance to enable clients to get maximum utility for minimum cost.
The company develops innovative semiconductor technologies, ICs, RF systems (HF/UHF) and complete end product applications for mass volume commercialisation and then licenses customers for its incorporation into their own products.
At the heart of the emerging Near Field Communication (NFC) market, Innovision R&T designs and develops NFC/RFID IC solutions for the global mobile handset and consumer device sectors.
Products include Topaz, mandated by the NFC Forum as the NFC number one tag type format, Jewel for mass transit ticketing applications, and io, the world's smallest standards compatible Near-Field RFID reader.
Headquartered in the UK, Innovision R&T was listed in 2001 on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol:INN). |
