Supported long-distance RFID passive tags on android phones with NFC?

android nfc rfid
Michael Eilers Smith picture Michael Eilers Smith · Jun 27, 2012 · Viewed 10.5k times · Source

Is there any way for an Android phone with NFC (Nexus, Galaxy, etc.) to read a passive RFID tag that was designed for longuer distances reads? I'm interested in using a same tag that can be read by a RFID reader at a longuer distance and a Android Phone with NFC at a shorter distance.

Does such a tag exist? Is so, how can I read and write it with the Android SDK since it's not a typical NFC tag?

Answer

NFC guy picture NFC guy · Jun 27, 2012

The Nexus devices with NFC all support ISO15693 tags. ISO15693 tags are vicinity tags and offer maximum read distance of 1-1.5 metres (depending on the reader antenna). The Nexus devices have a read range for these tags comparable with other NFC tags: a couple of cm at the most.

Android supports NDEF content stored on some ISO15693 tags: the NXP ICODE range of products. Android's Ndef technology class will take care of the reading and writing from/to such tags and automatic discovery, like for other NFC tags. For a non-Android reader details on how NDEF is stored on ICODE tags is described in http://www.nxp.com/documents/application_note/AN11042.pdf and http://www.nxp.com/documents/application_note/AN11032.pdf.

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