Broadcom unveiled its first line of near-field communications (NFC) chips for smartphones and the announcement comes on the heels of Google Wallet, a groundbreaking, if small-scale, step intended to popularize the use of phones to pay for items. Its new family of BCM2079x chips have moved to a 40nm manufacturing process which cuts power use by 90-percent and board size by 40-percent and Broadcom claims they’re the smallest and most power efficient NFC chips on the market, which could be used to quickly pair with other gadgets using Bluetooth or stream media to a connected television…………………
Broadcom Corporation, a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications unveiled a new family of NFC chips designed to drive the mass deployment of NFC in consumer electronics devices. With a powerful combination of power, size and functional requirements, the new chips provide the advanced capabilities required by OEMs to ignite NFC adoption in consumer electronics. Manufactured in 40 nm CMOS technology, the new Broadcom BCM2079x family slashes power consumption by more than 90 percent, uses 40 percent fewer components and has a 40 percent smaller board area, making it the smallest and most power efficient NFC solution on the market. The NFC controllers are platform agnostic with support for multiple secure elements or SIM cards or both at the same time. In addition, Broadcom‘s advanced Maestro middleware allows new NFC applications to utilize Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities in the device to spur new innovations in user interface and media sharing. An accelerated adoption of NFC could transform the use of smartphones, advancing beyond contactless mobile payments and ticketing to enable radically simplified connectivity between the handset and other devices like Bluetooth headsets and Wi-Fi-enabled digital televisions. The proliferation of NFC has the ability to expand the usefulness of smartphones and inspire a range of new applications built on the ability to create simple, secure connections between devices and enable services with a touch of the phone. Craig Ochikubo, VP and GM, Wireless Personal Area Networks, Broadcom Corporation “Broadcom is committed to making NFC as ubiquitous as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are today. These solutions provide the features and performance that enable disruptive innovation that will reshape the mobile consumer experience. Our leadership and proficiency in wireless connectivity influenced the architecture of these new chips to meet the performance required by OEMs, allowing them to more easily add NFC to their designs.”
Advantages:
- Low power target detection mode, which leverages Broadcom’s innovative low-power techniques, reduces polling power consumption by more than 90 percent for longer battery life
- Support for field power harvesting allows the chip to draw energy from the environment so it can support transactions even if the phone battery has expired
- Industry’s smallest size chip integrates more external components, reducing total solution bill of materials (BOM) costs
- Easily pairs with Broadcom’s InConcert® BCM4330 Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and FM combo chip for comprehensive connectivity solution
- Complete Broadcom software stack including MaestroTM middleware rounds out end-to-end solution for reduced design complexity, creative connectivity options and faster time to market
- Only NFC controller to integrate transaction-based Application ID (AID) routing for simultaneous support of multiple secure elements (both SIM and non-SIM) within a single device
- Multiple SWP (single wire protocol) interfaces allow for standards-based SIM and embedded secure element integration
- Broadcom is also working closely with the NFC Forum to define and drive standards to ensure interoperability with other NFC devices
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