MIFARE® Family And Their Range Of Offerings
MIFARE cards have been known to be part of contactless proximity developments. Mikron, currently owned by NXP, launched the first MIFARE card in 1994. Since then, there have been many additions to the MIFARE family. These chipsets have been part of many contactless products that operate at 13.56 MHz frequency. Released one after another chip, the MIFARE family now has a range of integrated-circuits that serve various applications. These chipsets are commonly embedded in cards, key fobs, wearables, stickers, kiosks, and similar products. Here’s the complete summary of various additions to the MIFARE family.
MIFARE® DESFire®
MIFARE DESFire contactless ICs are targeted to various proximity solution developers. These ICs enable engineers to build contactless products or systems. This fast & highly secure, and scalable range has two different variants, including MIFARE DESfire EV1 and the latest MIFARE DESfire EV2. DESfire range refers to highly secure transmission of data using 3DES or AES hardware while being fast and reliable. MIFARE DESFire is certified with the security level of Common Criteria EAL5+.
MIFARE Plus®
MIFARE Plus ICs offer an advanced level of security to the customers. MIFARE Plus envisions upgrading systems that are built upon MIFARE Classic ICs. Users will be able to upgrade the safety of their existing MIFARE Classic systems easily with AES security authentication with the MIFARE Plus products. MIFARE Plus would allow better data integrity and encryption as per open standards. The MIFARE range consists of variants such as MIFARE Plus EV1, MIFARE Plus SE, and MIFARE Plus X. These variants have different security levels with tailored specs and costing to fit into various needs.
MIFARE Classic®
MIFARE Classic is the most successful and popularly used for smart ticketing applications. These ICs operate at 13.56 MHz and are ISO 14443 certified. Having the ability to read/write, these ICs are commonly used for access control, public transport, loyalty reward systems, ID cards, and various basic applications. They are essentially a choice where high security is not a vital need. MIFARE Classic also comes in two memory sizes: 1K and 4K. MIFARE DESFire or MIFARE Plus is the first choice for high-security applications over MIFARE Classic. However, being affordable, MIFARE Classic has a vast potential for Smart Building, Smart City, or Mass Transport applications.
MIFARE Ultralight®
MIFARE offers MIFARE Ultralight as the particular choice for mass implementations with low-cost applications such as event ticketing, club membership, and token systems. This product is an ideal choice for effective system transforms as they are an excellent fit for high-volume and low-cost needs. MIFARE Ultralight ICs are easy to implement into existing systems. For Instance, they can be used as an upgrade for standard ticket vending equipment.
MIFARE range is contributing significantly to contactless technology, smart packaging, and smart city use cases. MIFARE cards will play a vital role as the technology keeps progressing towards Industry 4.0. A reliable and affordable choice like MIFARE will be here for an extended period. These ICs will soon be a part of many regular applications with varied cost and security provisions, tailored just as the end consumer would need.
