Which is best? RFID/NFC/Mifare chip selection Guide – RC522 vs PN532

Simply put, the protocol supports more types of PN than the RC series. PN supports NFC protocol, RC mainly supports ISO14443A / B.

RC522 is a high-frequency radio frequency chip that supports ISO14443A protocol of NXP company. 

PN532 is a radio frequency chip that supports NFC function and is also NXP company.

RC522 features

• ◆ Highly integrated modulation and demodulation circuit;
• ◆ A small number of external devices can be used to connect the output driver stage to the antenna;
• ◆ Support ISO / IEC 14443 TypeA and MIFARE® communication protocol;
• ◆ The communication distance with ISO 14443A / MIFARE® in the reader mode is up to 50mm, depending on the length and tuning of the antenna.
• ◆ Supports ISO 14443 212kbit / s and 424kbit / s higher transmission rate communication.
• ◆ Support MIFARE® Classic encryption;
• ◆ Supported host interface:
• －10Mbit / s SPI interface
• －I2C interface, the speed of fast mode is 400kbit / s, and the speed of high-speed mode is 3400kbit / s
• －Serial UART, the transmission rate is up to 1228.8kbit / s, the frame depends on the RS232 interface, the voltage level depends on the provided pin voltage
• ◆ 64-byte send and receive FIFO buffer;
• ◆ Flexible interrupt mode;
• ◆ Programmable timer.
• ◆ It has three power-saving modes: hardware power down, software power down, and transmitter power down. The first two modes are similar to MFRC500 and CL RC400. Its unique “transmitter power down” can turn off the internal antenna driver, that is, turn off the RF field;
• ◆ Built-in temperature sensor to automatically stop RF transmission when the chip temperature is too high;
• ◆ Adopt multiple independent sets of power supply to avoid mutual interference between modules and improve the stability of work;
• ◆ With CRC and parity check functions, the 16-bit long CRC calculation polynomial of the CRC coprocessor is fixed as: x16 + x12 + x5 + 1, which conforms to ISO / 1EC14443 and CCTITT protocols;
• ◆ Internal oscillator, connected to 27.12MHz crystal;
• ◆ 2.5 ～ 3.3V low voltage and low power consumption design;
• ◆ Working temperature range -30 ～ + 85 ℃;
• ◆ 5mm & TImes; 5mm & TImes; 0.85mm ultra-small volume.

PN532 features

• ● 80C51 microcontroller core with 40kBROM and 1kBRAM
• ● Highly integrated analog circuit, demodulation and decoding response
• ● The output buffer driver is connected to the antenna through a minimum number of external passive devices
• ● Integrated RF field detector
• ● Integrated data pattern detector
• ● Support ISO / IEC14443A / MIFARE®
• ● Support ISO / IEC14443B only in reader mode
• ● The typical working distance exceeds 50mm in the reader mode, the specific distance is determined by the antenna size, tuning and power supply
• ● Working distance up to 50mm in NFCIP-1 mode, depending on antenna size, tuning and power supply
• ● The typical working distance in card operation mode is about 100mm, the specific distance is determined by the antenna size, tuning and external field strength
• ● In the reader mode, support MifareClassic encryption, can support two higher data transmission rates of 212kbit / s and 424kbit / s
• ● In FeliCa mode, support communication baud rate of 106kbit / s, 212kbit / s and 424kbit / s
• ● Integrated NFCIP-1 RF interface, transmission rate up to 424kbit / s
• ● Support host interface:
• -SPI interface
• -I2C interface
• -Serial UART
• ● Flexible interrupt mode
• ● Low power consumption mode-hardware power-down mode-software power-down mode
• ● When the device is in power-down mode, it can automatically wake up through the I2C, HSU and SPI interfaces
• ● Programmable timer
• ● Quartz crystal oscillator
• ● 2.7V ~ 5.5V power supply

Make a choice

if you only need the ISO14443A protocol, then RC522 is a very cost-effective option, but if you want to support more protocols such as NFC, you should choose the PN532 solution

NXP PN532 RC522 Review by lez briddon on YouTube ↓ ↓ ↓

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