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NFC Chip Types
An NFC tag has an NFC chip inside of it which performs the NFC interactions. There are several NFC chip types available and the choice of which NFC chip type to use is important. Each NFC chip has its own characteristics, features and cost. If you are not sure which NFC chip to use, our recommendation is to get a couple of each type to test with. The NXP NTAG series is typically what customers use. The NXP NTAG series comes in a variety of data capacity sizes and they offer the best device compatibility, speed, availability and cost.
Which NFC Chip to Use?
There are many NFC chip types available. Each NFC chip has its own characteristics, features and cost. If you are not sure which NFC chip to use our recommendation is to get a couple of each to test with. In general the NXP NTAG series is typically what customers use as they offer the best combination of memory, speed, availability and cost.
Guidelines for Choosing an NFC chip
* Make sure the NFC chip has enough memory capacity to store what you are going to encode; encode as little data as possible
* Choose an NFC Forum compliant chip to ensure it will work on all NFC enabled devices
* Use a modern NFC chip and inlay they are better tuned for the antennas in NFC enabled devices
* Some NFC chips have extra 'features'; these are not used by the vast majority of deployments so don't worry about them too much
* Not all NFC products (stickers, wristbands, cards…) are available with all NFC chips; another reason to use a common NFC chip type
Can an NFC chip be changed?
Most NFC chips can be locked so after the data is encoded onto the NFC chips it can't be changed. However, encoding and locking are two separate actions, meaning that an NFC chip can be encoded multiple times until they are locked.
NFC Chip Type Features
Thsi NFC chip feature matrix allows you to compare the characteristics of each chip to each other. If you need additional technical information, see the technical specs below.
| NFC CHIP |
MEMORY |
SPEED |
LOCKABLE |
PRE-NDEF FORMATTED |
NFC FORUM COMPLIANT |
| NXP NTAG203 |
142 bytes |
High |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| NXP NTAG210 |
46 bytes |
Very High |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| NXP NTAG212 |
126 bytes |
Very High |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| NXP NTAG213 |
142 bytes |
Very High |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| NXP NTAG216 |
884 bytes |
High |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| NXP Ultralight |
46 bytes |
Medium |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| NXP Ultralight C |
142 bytes |
Medium |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Kovio 2Kb |
230 bytes |
High |
OTP |
Sometimes |
Yes |
| Innovision Topaz (120b) |
90 bytes |
Medium |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| Innovision Topaz(512b) |
454 bytes |
Medium |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| NXP DESFire EV1(2K) |
2046 bytes |
Medium |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| NXP DESFire EV1(4K) |
4094 bytes |
Medium |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| NXP DESFire EV1(8K) |
7678 bytes |
Slow |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| NXP Mifare(1K) |
716 bytes |
Slow |
Simulated |
No |
No |
| NXP Mifare(4K) |
3356 bytes |
Very Slow |
Simulated |
No |
No |
| NXP Mifare Mini |
190 bytes |
Medium |
Simulated |
No |
No |
| NXP ICODE SLI |
106 bytes |
High |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
| NXP ICODE SLI-X |
106 bytes |
High |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
* Any question or inquiry about NFC chip and RFID related products, please send email to info@oprfid.com, we will reply you within 24 hours, thanks |
