PN532 Precision NFC/RFID Controller

The PN532 is the most popular NFC chip, and is what is embedded in pretty much every phone or device that does NFC. It can pretty much do it all, such as read and write to tags and cards, communicate with phones (say for payment processing), and 'act' like a NFC tag. 

NFC (Near Field Communications) is a way for two devices very close to each other to communicate. Sort of like a very short range bluetooth that doesn't require authentication. It is an extension of RFID, so anything you can do with RFID you can do with NFC. You can do more stuff with NFC as well, such as communicate bi-directionally with cell phones

Because it can read and write tags, you can always just use this for RFID-tag projects. We carry a few different tags that work great with this chip. It can also work with any other NFC/RFID Type 1 thru 4 tag.

The PN532 is also very flexible, you can use 3.3V TTL UART at any baud rate, I2C or SPI to communicate with it. This chip is also strongly supported by libnfc, simply plug in an FTDI cable and use the FTDI serial port device to communicate - this lets you do NFC dev using any Linux/Mac/Windows computer! 3.3V regulator and an FTDI header are included in the package, so you can plug in an FTDI cable or FTDI breakout board and use with libnfc.

• 80C51 microcontroller core with 40 KB ROM and 1 KB RAM
• Highly integrated demodulator and decoder
• Buffered output drivers to connect an antenna with minimum number of external components
• Integrated RF level detector
• Integrated data mode detector
• Supports ISO/IEC 14443A/MIFARE
• Supports ISO/IEC 14443B (Reader/Writer mode only)
• Typical operating distance in Reader/Writer mode for communication to ISO/IEC 14443A/MIFARE, ISO/IEC 14443B or FeliCa cards up to 50 mm depending on antenna size and tuning
• Typical operating distance in NFCIP-1 mode up to 50 mm depending on antenna size, tuning and power supply
• Typical operating distance in ISO/IEC 14443A/MIFARE or FeliCa card emulation mode of approximately 100 mm depending on antenna size, tuning and external field strength
• Supports MIFARE Classic 1K or MIFARE Classic 4K encryption in Reader/Writer mode and MIFARE higher transfer speed communication at 212 kbit/s and 424 kbit/s
• Supports contactless communication according to the FeliCa protocol at 212 kbit/s and 424 kbit/s
• Integrated RF interface for NFCIP-1 up to 424 kbit/s
• Possibility to communicate on the RF interface above 424 kbit/s using external analog components
• Supported host interfaces
• SPI interface
• I 2C interface
• High-speed UART
• Dedicated host interrupts
• Low power modes
• Hard-Power-Down mode (1 A typical)
• Soft-Power-Down mode (22 A typical)
• Automatic wake-up on I2C, HSU and SPI interfaces when device is in Power-down mode
• Programmable timers
• Crystal oscillator
• 2.7 to 5.5 V power supply operating range
• Power switch for external secure companion chip
• Dedicated IO ports for external device control
• Integrated antenna detector for production tests
• ECMA 373 NFC-WI interface to connect an external secure IC

Package Includes:

• 13.56MHz Frequency
• PN532 NFC RFID Module
• 2.54mm spacing 4pin Cable
• Mifare One S50 White Card
• Mifare One S50 Key Card
• 1x12P male header pins

Specifications

Resources

Datasheet
Libraries 
Sample Code

Tutorials