NXP announces complete automotive qualified NFC portfolio with world’s first NCI-based NFC controller for secure car connectivity

Eindhoven, Netherlands, October 30, 2014 — NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI), co-inventor and number one supplier of near field communication (NFC) and innovation leader in the connected car, today announced it will expand its NFC leadership to the automotive industry. With the launch of a complete portfolio of automotive-qualified NFC products, NXP enables drivers and passengers to securely connect to the quickly growing NFC ecosystem. The new product line-up ranges from NFC tags and transceivers to the new flagship, high-end NFC controller, the NCF3340.

NCF3340 is the world’s first automotive qualified NFC Controller Interface (NCI)-based NFC controller. Applying NCI, a specification created by the NFC Forum, the NCF3340 provides interoperability with other NFC components to save development time and ultimately allow car OEMs to bring their NFC-enabled applications to market faster. NCF3340 is optimized for high sensitivity and low power consumption. It supports all three operation modes: Read/Write, Peer-to-Peer, and Card Emulation.

The automotive NFC market is rapidly emerging, driven by services like car sharing, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi pairing, and the demand for personalization inside the car. Further use cases, such as car access and engine start via NFC-enabled smartphones in addition to traditional car keys, are also in development. Automotive NFC can connect vehicles and car keys to portable devices and infrastructure, opening up the possibility for a broad range of connectivity innovations, for example, payment services or connected displays.

“With the introduction of this complete automotive NFC portfolio, we’re taking our market leadership position and deep experience in NFC to the automotive industry, thus enabling seamless and secure connectivity between consumer electronics devices and the car,” said Kurt Sievers, executive vice president, general manager automotive business, NXP Semiconductors. “ABI Research recently predicted that there will be 418 million NFC smartphones shipped into the market this year, which is expected to increase to 1.5 billion by 2019. As a result, auto OEMs are strongly pushing to integrate the car into connected ecosystems. Our suite of market leading NFC products is an enabler of that vision and confirms NXP’s technology leadership for the securely connected car.”

The revolutionary product family – which also includes tags and register programmable transceivers – means auto manufacturers can not only provide immediate benefits to end users, but can also embrace the innovations of the future. The NCF3340 Flagship NFC Controller is easy to integrate by configuration and control through high level NFC Software (NCI), enabling faster time to market. Application specific software support provided by external partners completes the comprehensive automotive NFC offering.

Technical features:

Automotive qualified NFC Controller with NCI interface and embedded RF contactless front-endHigh sensitivity for a convenient communication range and enhanced user experienceCapability to work in active load modulation supporting small antenna form factors for maximum freedom of designLow power consumptionNFC Forum and EMVCo compliantIntegrated ARM Cortex M0 Core supporting NCI interface communicationPowerful NFC Front End supporting transmission modes NFC-DEP (P2P mode), NFCIP-2, ISO/IEC 14443, ISO/IEC 15693, ISO/IEC18000-3, MIFARE and FeliCa specifications.

The NCF3340 controller is available for sampling and will be released at the end of 2014.