MIFARE Ultralight
NXP MIFARE UltraLight
MIFARE Ultralight based tickets offer a fitting solution for low-cost, high-volume applications such as public transport, loyalty cards and event ticketing. They are a suitable contactless replacement for magnetic stripe, barcode or OR-code systems. The introduction of the contactless MIFARE Ultralight ICs for limited-use applications can lead to reduced system installation and maintenance costs.
MIFARE Ultralight C
NXP® Semiconductors has developed the MIFARE Ultralight C - Contactless ticket IC MF0ICU2 to be used in a contactless smart ticket or smart card in combination with Proximity Coupling Devices (PCD). The communication layer (MIFARE® RF Interface) complies to parts 2 and 3 of the ISO/IEC 14443 Type-A standard. The MF0ICU2 is primarily designed for limited use applications such as public transport, event ticketing, and loyalty applications.
TFC.1 ticket formats are supported by the MF0xxU20 chip featuring an on-chip resonance capacitor of 16 pF.
Contactless energy and data transfer
In the MIFARE system, the MF0ICU2 is connected to a coil with a few turns. The MF0ICU2 fits for the TFC.0 (Edmonson) and TFC.1 ticket formats as defined in EN 753-2.
TFC.1 ticket formats are supported by the MF0xxU20 chip featuring an on-chip resonance capacitor of 16 pF.
The smaller TFC.0 tickets are supported by the MFxxU21 chip holding an on-chip resonance capacitor of 50 pF.
When the ticket is positioned in the proximity of the coupling device (PCD) antenna, the high-speed RF communication interface allows the transmission of the data with a baud rate of 106 kbit/s.
Anti-collision
An intelligent anti-collision function allows operating more than one card in the field simultaneously. The anti-collision algorithm selects each card individually and ensures that the execution of a transaction with a selected card is performed correctly without interference from another card in the field.
The anti-collision function is based on an IC individual serial number called Unique IDentification. The UID of the MF0ICU2 is 7 bytes long and supports cascade level 2 according to ISO/IEC 14443-3.
Security
- 3DES Authentication
- Anti-cloning support by unique 7-byte serial number for each device
- 32-bit user programmable OTP area
- Field programmable read-only locking function per page for first 512-bit
- Read-only locking per block for the memory above 512 bit
MIFARE Ultralight EV1
NXP® Semiconductors developed the MIFARE Ultralight EV1 MF0ULx1 for use in a contactless smart ticket, smart card, or token in combination with a Proximity Coupling Device (PCD). The MF0ULx1 is designed to work in an ISO/IEC 14443 Type-A compliant environment. The target applications include single trip or limited use tickets in public transport networks, loyalty cards or day passes for events. The MF0ULx1 serves as a replacement for conventional ticketing solutions such as paper tickets, magnetic stripe tickets or coins. It serves as a ticketing counterpart to contactless card families such as MIFARE DESFire® or MIFARE Plus®.
The MIFARE Ultralight EV1 is succeeding the MIFARE Ultralight ticketing IC and is fully functional backward compatible. Its enhanced feature and command set enables more efficient implementations and offers more flexibility in system designs.
The mechanical and electrical specifications of MIFARE Ultralight EV1 are tailored to meet the requirements of inlay and paper ticket manufacturers.
Contactless energy and data transfer
In a MIFARE® system, the MF0ULx1 is connected to a coil with a few turns. The MF0ULx1 fits the TFC.0 (Edmondson) and TFC.1 (ISO) ticket formats.
The MF0ULx1 chip, which features a 17 pF on-chip resonance capacitor, supports both TFC.1 and TFC.0 ticket formats.
Anti-collision
An intelligent anti-collision function allows more than one card to operate in the field simultaneously. The anti-collision algorithm selects each card individually. It ensures that the execution of a transaction with a selected card is performed correctly without interference from another card in the field.
Simple integration and user convenience
The MF0ULx1 is designed for simple integration and user convenience, which allows complete ticketing transactions to be handled in less than 35 ms.
Security
- Manufacturer programmed 7-byte UID for each device
- 32-bit user definable One-Time Programmable (OTP) area
- 3 independent 24-bit one-way counters
- Field programmable read-only locking function per page (per 2 pages for the extended memory section) ECC-based originality signature
- 32-bit password protection to prevent unintended memory operations