VTAP25 now available
Firstly, we’re excited to introduce the VTAP25, our first embedded NFC reader module designed for surface mounting onto another PCB. Known internally as the ‘Honey, I shrunk the VTAP’ project, we’ve managed to squeeze all our NFC Wallet knowledge and expertise into something the size of a postage stamp! We’ve even thrown in some extra features including battery power management and a new programmable secure element chip.
The VTAP25 makes it simple to include Apple Wallet and Google Wallet reading capabilities directly into your own product, with minimal engineering and certification effort. As with other off-the-shelf modules for wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G, the VTAP25 delivers a ready-made implementation of all necessary NFC protocols, encryption algorithms and host interfaces. This allows you to focus on the form-factor and overall functionality of your NFC reader product.
As with our other readers, the VTAP25 runs the same core NFC firmware as its older brothers and sisters, the VTAP50, VTAP100 and VTAP200, and therefore shares their capabilities. This includes complete Apple VAS, Google Smart Tap and Apple ECP2/Access protocol implementations, powerful USB, serial and OSDP comms, plus flexible decoding of most MIFARE and NFC Forum card and tags.
All you need to add is an antenna, to match your enclosure, plus a few outside world interfaces such as a power supply circuit and some LEDs. And if you have a host processor, we now support SPI and I2C comms for fast and secure inter-processor comms.
Check out the VTAP25 datasheet as well as the integration guide and example schematics on our updated documentation page. We will soon be introducing a full development kit – for the moment, the module itself is available to buy in sample quantities and several pilot customers are already well down the road designing their own antennas and host products using it. If you have a project in mind, please contact us for additional engineering and design support.
Antenna tuning and certification services
In parallel with all the VTAP25 activity, we’ve been brushing up on our antenna tuning and certification capabilities. Several customers are leveraging our expertise in this area to help them design and perfect NFC antennas for different scenarios.
These include operating in situations where there is a lot of metal, operating through LCD screens, and fitting antennas into small spaces. In each case there are complex challenges to overcome – everything from the physics itself to meeting Apple’s more stringent NFC performance requirements for ECP2/Access control certification.
If you need help or advice on this topic, please get in touch. This includes understanding how antenna choices affect the radio certifications in different regions, Plus, how our modular certifications for FCC and ISED help you to bring products to market faster than in most other situations.
External barcode scanner support
Finally, we’ve seen demand in some markets for solutions that provide a migration path from barcodes and QR codes to NFC, and/or for both technologies to operate side-by-side. So, we recently published an application note on how external barcode scanners can be connected to different models of VTAP reader.
One solution is to connect a standard VTAP reader to a system, alongside existing optical scanners, and then eventually to remove the optical scanner once users are migrated over to the ‘just tap’ experience. Another approach is to connect a barcode scanner, or scanner module, directly to a VTAP reader, so that the data is managed through a single hybrid device. This approach works well if there are limitations on how many devices can be connected to an access control system, or if an IP-connected solution is required, using VTAP Cloud to transmit NFC and optical scans directly to a remote server.
VTAP readers now support both serial and Bluetooth-connected scanners and scanner modules. All standard VTAP readers have a spare RS-232 and 3.3v serial interface that can be used for this, while VTAP100-PRO-BW readers support Bluetooth.
