NXP Semiconductors PN7150 User manual

UM10936
PN7150 User Manual
Rev. 1.1 — 24 May 2016
348111
User manual
COMPANY PUBLIC
Document information
Info
Content
Keywords
PN7150, NFC, NFCC, NCI 1.0
Abstract
This is a user manual for the PN7150 NFC Controller.
The aim of this document is to describe the PN7150
interfaces, modes of
operation and possible configurations.

NXP Semiconductors
UM10936
PN7150 User Manual
UM10936
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User manual
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Rev. 1.1 — 24 May 2016
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Contact information
For more information, please visit:
http://www.nxp.com
Revision history
Rev
Date
Description
1.1
20160524
Security status changed into COMPANY PUBLIC
1.0
20141124
First official release of the document

NXP Semiconductors
UM10936
PN7150 User Manual
UM10936
All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.
© NXP Semiconductors N.V. 2016. All rights reserved.
User manual
COMPANY PUBLIC
Rev. 1.1 — 24 May 2016
348111
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1. Introduction
The PN7150 is a full features NFC controller for contactless communication at
13.56 MHz.
The User Manual describes the software interfaces (API), based on the NFC FORUM
standard, NCI.
Note: this document includes cross-references, which can be used to directly access the
section/chapter referenced in the text. These cross-references are indicated by the
following sign: ‘→’. This sign is positioned right before the section/chapter reference. The
way to jump to the referenced section/chapter depends on the file format:
• In the word format, you have to first press the key “Ctrl” on the key board and then
to click on the section/chapter reference number pointed by the ‘→’ sign. The
mouse symbol changes to a small hand when it is positioned on the
section/chapter reference number.
• In .pdf format, you only have to click on the section/chapter reference number
pointed by the ‘→’ sign : the mouse symbol automatically changes to a small hand
when it is positioned on the section/chapter reference number
As this document assumes pre-knowledge on certain technologies please check section
→16: References to find the appropriate documentation.
For further information please refer to the PN7150 data sheet [PN7150_DS].

NXP Semiconductors
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PN7150 User Manual
UM10936
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User manual
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2. The PN7150 architecture overview
The PN7150 is an NFC Controller, which is briefly described in Fig 1:
• The top part describes the Device Host (DH) architecture with Higher Layer Driver
(e.g. Android stack) hosting the different kind of applications (Reader/Writer, Peer
to Peer, Card Emulation in the DH-NFCEE), the NCI driver & the transport layer
driver.
• The PN7150 is the NFCC in the Fig 1. It is connected to the DH through a physical
interface which is an I²C. The PN7150 firmware supports the NCI specification but
also provides support for additional extensions that are not contained in the NCI
specification. These additional extensions are specific to the PN7150 chip and are
proprietary to NXP.
• The bottom part of the figure contains the RF antenna connected to the PN7150,
which can communicate over RF with a Tag (Card) and a Reader/Writer or a Peer
device.
Antenna
DH
NFCC
NCI driver
RF
Card
Emulat°
Transport
Layer FW
NCI
firmware
Transport layer
driver
TAG
or
Card
Reader/Writer
or
P2P
Reader
/ Writer P2P
DH-NFCEE
I²C host interface
Fig 1. PN7150 system architecture

NXP Semiconductors
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PN7150 User Manual
UM10936
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© NXP Semiconductors N.V. 2016. All rights reserved.
User manual
COMPANY PUBLIC
Rev. 1.1 — 24 May 2016
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For contactless operation, several Modes of operation are possible, based on the overall
system described above.
2.1 Reader/Writer Operation in Poll Mode
This mode of operation is further detailed in chapter →7.
The Reader/Writer application running on the DH is accessing a remote contactless
Tag/Card, through the PN7150.
Antenna
NFCC
RF
Transport
Layer FW
NCI
firmware
TAG
or
Card
Reader/Writer
or
P2P
DH
NCI driver
Card
Emulat°
Transport layer
driver
Reader
/ Writer P2P
DH-NFCEE
I²C host interface
Fig 2. Reader/Writer

NXP Semiconductors
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PN7150 User Manual
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2.2 Card Emulation Operation in Listen Mode
This mode of operation is further detailed in chapter →8.
An external Reader/Writer accesses the DH-NFCEE emulating a contactless card, through
the PN7150.
Antenna
NFCC
RF
Transport
Layer FW
NCI
firmware
TAG
or
Card
Reader/Writer
or
P2P
DH
NCI driver
Card
Emulat°
Transport layer
driver
Reader
/ Writer P2P
DH-NFCEE
I²C host interface
Fig 3. Card Emulation

NXP Semiconductors
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PN7150 User Manual
UM10936
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User manual
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2.3 Peer to Peer Operation in Listen & Poll Mode
This mode of operation is further detailed in chapter →9
The P2P application running on the DH is accessing a remote Peer device, through the
PN7150.
Antenna
NFCC
RF
Transport
Layer FW
NCI
firmware
TAG
or
Card
Reader/Writer
or
P2P
DH
NCI driver
Card
Emulat°
Transport layer
driver
Reader
/ Writer P2P
DH-NFCEE
I²C host interface
Fig 4. Peer to peer

NXP Semiconductors
UM10936
PN7150 User Manual
UM10936
All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.
© NXP Semiconductors N.V. 2016. All rights reserved.
User manual
COMPANY PUBLIC
Rev. 1.1 — 24 May 2016
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2.4 Combined Modes of Operation
The PN7150 firmware is able to combine the basic modes of operation described above,
using the RF Discovery as defined in [NCI]. As the PN7150 offers more features than what
[NCI] addressed, NXP has defined some proprietary extensions.
The principle used to combine the various modes of operation is to build a cyclic activity
which will sequentially activate various modes of operation. This cyclic activity is called the
polling loop. This loop alternates listening phase (NFCC behaves as card or target) and
polling phase (NFCC behaves as a reader/writer or an initiator). A cycle of the polling loop
is called RF discovery sequence; it is made of 3 steps:
1. Start a Polling phase to look for a remote Tag/Card or a remote Target. If several
technologies are enabled by the DH, PN7150 will poll sequentially for all the
enabled technologies.
2. If no card or tag or target was detected, PN7150 enters a Listening phase, to
potentially be activated as a Card / Tag emulator or a P2P target by an external
Reader/Writer or external Initiator.
3. If no device to interact is detected during polling phase (step 1) or listening phase
(step 2), then after a programmable timeout, PN7150 switches back to polling
phase (step 1).
A combination of the 3 different steps defines a polling loop profile.
The RF discovery sequence is usually drawn as below (here applied for the NFC forum
polling loop profile where technologies NFC-A, NFC-B & NFC-F are activated in Poll
Mode):
NFC-F
NFC-A
NFC-B
Polling phase
Listening phase
Fig 5. RF discovery sequence (NFC FORUM profile)

NXP Semiconductors
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PN7150 User Manual
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User manual
COMPANY PUBLIC
Rev. 1.1 — 24 May 2016
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Please note that when the PN7150 is in Poll phase, it consumes a significant amount of
current: in the range of 30mA (depending on the antenna characteristics). This applies at
least for the 3 polled technologies drawn on the Fig 5, above (NFC-A, NFC-B and NFC_F)
and it is due to the fact that the PN7150 has to generate the RF carrier (13.56MHz).
However, during the Listen phase, the PN7150 current consumption is reduced to around
20µA when standby mode is enabled, due to the fact that it is waiting for the detection of
an externally generated RF carrier.
Here is a figure illustrating a RF Discovery sequence, where polling is enabled only for
NFC-A & NFC-B, for simplicity:
RF Field
Poll A Poll B Poll A Poll B
~30 mA
~20 µA
~20ms ~300ms
Poll Phase Poll PhaseListen Phase Listen
Phase
Listen
Phase
One complete RF Discovery Sequence
Current
consumption
Fig 6. Power consumption during RF discovery sequence (NFC forum profile)
In a typical set-up, the polling phase is approximately 20ms long while the listening phase
is usually in the range 300ms to 500ms long (this is configured thanks to the NCI parameter
called TOTAL_DURATION).
For 500ms this gives an average power consumption of:
[30x20 + 0.02x500] / 520 = 1.17mA.
This average consumption can even be further optimized, using the PN7150 feature called
“Tag Detector”. See chapter →10.4 for more details.
See chapter →10 for further details on the RF discovery activity.

NXP Semiconductors
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PN7150 User Manual
UM10936
All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers.
© NXP Semiconductors N.V. 2016. All rights reserved.
User manual
COMPANY PUBLIC
Rev. 1.1 — 24 May 2016
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3. NCI Overview
The aim of this section is to give an overview of the key points of the [NCI] specification.
3.1 NCI Components
Here below are described the NCI component as defined in [NCI] which are located in the
NFCC embedded FW.
NCI modules
NCI Core
Transport
Mapping 1
Transport
Mapping 2
Transport
Mapping n
Transport 1 Transport 2 Transport n
(...)
RF Discovery
NFCEE
Discovery
NFCEE
Interfaces
RF Interfaces
(...)
Fig 7. NCI components
3.1.1 NCI Modules
NCI modules are built on top of the functionality provided by the NCI Core. Each module
provides a well-defined functionality to the DH. NCI modules provide the functionality to
configure the NFCC and to discover and communicate with Remote NFC Endpoints (see
[NCI] for definition) or with DH-NFCEEs.
Some NCI modules are mandatory parts of an NCI implementation, others are optional.
There can also be dependencies between NCI modules in the sense that a module may
only be useful if there are other modules implemented as well. For example all modules
that deal with communication with a Remote NFC Endpoint (the RF Interface modules)
depend on the RF Discovery to be present.
3.1.2 NCI Core
The NCI Core defines the basic functionality of the communication between a Device Host
(DH) and an NFC Controller (NFCC). This enables Control Message (Command,
Response and Notification) and Data Message exchange between an NFCC and a DH.