NFC addressing IoT adoption barrier

Nuremberg, Germany—Proclaiming a "new era in NFC", semiconductor vendor NXP has announced two new devices that target applications beyond traditional financial transactions. The NTAG I2C Plus smart tag combines an NFC tag with an I2C interface to provide high data transfer speeds and provide password and cloning protection. The PN7462 provides a microcontroller and NFC tag and reader in a single chip for secure access management applications. Both aim to help developers address issues that are impeding IoT adoption, including secure setup and connection of IoT devices into network.

"In the beginning, NFC development was all about getting it standardized and building infrastructure," said NXP's head of marketing and business development in consumer and infrastructure, Olivier Aretz, in an interview with EE Times. "Now it's branching out into new applications." Two of these new applications for NFC include the rapid setup of connected embedded systems, and access management in enterprise and industrial spaces.

One of the barriers impeding IoT adoption, according to Aretz, is the difficult users have in getting the IoT device securely connected to their network. Such setup requires providing the device with network parameters, including name and (ideally, complex) password, which can be tedious at best. At worst, it may require a computer and web-based applications when the device does not have a keyboard and display of its own.

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