NFC chip with embedded flash memory from Samsung

Looks like NFC chip will indeed go quite big in 2011, as Samsung announced that its new near field communications (NFC) chip now comes with embedded flash memory for next-generation smartphones. Fancy a Galaxy S2 with Gingerbread and NFC? Mass production of the NFC is slated for the first quarter of 2011, so we should be able to see these NFC chips being used in smartphones launched during 2011, at least the third quarter.

The new Samsung NFC chip adopts flash for the embedded memory which allows device designers to easily to upgrade software or firmware. Samsung also provides a software protocol stack and technology services for antenna design and tuning. Through such features and support, designers can reduce their product’s time-to-market, the vendor said.

Samsung claimed it developed this NFC chip to have minimal power consumption in both active and stand-by mode. With a 20% decrease in power consumption, Samsung’s NFC chip remains active for mobile payment even without battery power. But if you look at the current NFC chip in the Google Nexus S, switching it on full time does little to the lifespan of the battery that it’s totally insignificant. The PN544 NFC chip from NXP that is used in Google’s Nexus S runs at an insignificant 50 micro amps and 35 milliamps when briefly interacting with a tag. If you deduct 20-percent from that, which we assume is the benchmark of current NFC chip’s power consumption then 40 micro amps is definitely insignificant to the battery’s consumption.

SOURCE via Digitimes