RFID Testlab

MIFARE® Certification Institute

Document Nr. 9002-1
Test PCD Assembly

1. Overview

The test PCD Assembly can be used for testing of

Proximity Cards according to ISO/IEC 14443

Near Field Communication Devices (NFCIP-1) according to ECMA-340

The delivered assembly consists of the following items:

Antenna coil (ISO/IEC 10373-6, annex A – ECMA-356, annex A)

Two sense coils (ISO/IEC 10373-6, annex C – ECMA-356, annex B)

A calibration coil (ISO/IEC 10373-6, figure 3 – ECMA-356, fig. 1)

A PCB holding the balancing circuit (ISO/IEC 10 373-6, fig. 4 – ECMA-356, fig. 2))

References:

ISO/IEC 10373-6: Identification cards – Test methods – Part 6: Proximity cards

ECMA-356: NFCIP-1 – RF Interface Test Methods

1.1 Calibration coil

The calibration coil card consists of a printed circuit board which has the height and width of
an ID-1 type defined in ISO/IEC 7810 containing a single turn coil concentric with the card
outline (figure 1). The delivered PCB has, on its right side, an additional area with soldering
points needed for connection of a high impedance probe. Pins are provided for direct
connection of Tektronix P6243 high impedance, active probes. These probes are particularly
suitable because of their low capacity, small size and high bandwidth. Other probes can be
used as well, provided that the capacitive load of the probe including its parasitic capacitance
shall be less than 14 pF.

Note: When connecting probes be sure to keep connections as short as possible, not only
on the "hot" side, but also on the ground-connection. Do not use the relatively long
ground wires with the alligator clip supplied with most probes.

Alternatively a BNC edge-type connector can be soldered to the board for using probes with
BNC-adapters.

Note: Do not use the BNC to connect a coaxial cable directly to the calibration coil, as this
would result in erroneous measurements.

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MIFARE® Certification Institute
Document Nr. 9002-1 rev. 3.4
 Connection points for mounting Tektronix P6243 high
impedance oscilloscope probe

Figure 1: Calibration coil

The calibration factor is given by the geometry of the coil and is 900 mV (peak-to-peak) for a
magnetic field strength of 1.0 A/m (rms) at the operating frequency of 13.56 MHz.
The magnetic field strength can be calculated from the measured voltage on the calibration
coil by the following formula:

H (rms) = 1.1 * V (peak-peak)

1.2 Test PCD assembly

The test apparatus is defined in detail in ISO/IEC 10373-6 and ECMA-356. Its main
application is the measurement of the load modulation generated by the card (PICC) under
test. It consists of a 150 mm diameter PCD antenna and two parallel sense coils: sense coil
'a' and sense coil 'b'. The schematic is shown in figure 2. The sense coils are connected
such that the signal from one coil is in opposite phase to the other. The 10 Ohm
potentiometer P1 serves to fine adjust the balance point when the sense coils are not loaded
by a PICC or any magnetically coupled circuit.

An additional printed circuit board attached to the sense coils holds the balancing circuit
comprising the two 240 Ohm resistors and the 10 Ohm potentiometer P1. This board
provides pins for direct connection of Tektronix P6243 high impedance, active probes. These
probes are particularly suitable because of their low capacity, small size and high bandwidth.
Other probes can be used as well, provided that the capacitive load of the probe including its
parasitic capacitance shall be less than 14 pF.

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MIFARE® Certification Institute
Document Nr. 9002-1 rev. 3.4
 PICC

240Ω

P1
sense coil A 10Ω
twisted pair, identical length,
< 100mm

PCD 240Ω
Antenna probe
to
osilloscope

to oscilloscope

sense coil B

Figure 2: Load modulation test circuit

The two sense coils and Test PCD antenna are assembled in parallel and with the sense and
antenna coils coaxial and such that the distance between the active conductors is 37.5 mm
as in figure 3. To keep the distance between the coil in the DUT and the calibration coil equal
with respect to the coil of the test PCD antenna a 1.5mm pad is mounted on the side that
holds the calibration coil.

Figure 3: Cross-section of test PCD assembly

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MIFARE® Certification Institute
Document Nr. 9002-1 rev. 3.4
Note: ECMA-356 specifies 3mm spacing between the sense coil and the coil of the DUT.
Additional spacing shall be kept on both DUT and calibration coil to keep symmetry.

2. Measurement setup

The basic test setup for load modulation measurement is shown in figure 4.

A test signal is generated by the pattern generator, usually a request command (REQA or
REQB), which can be fed to a pulse generator to generate various shapes of modulation
pulses. This signal is used to modulate an RF-generator or a suitable function generator. A
linear RF-amplifier with an output power of at least 9 W has to be used in most cases to
produce a magnetic field strength in the desired range of up to 7.5 A/m.

Note: Be careful not to exceed an RF-input power of 9 Watts or a magnetic field strength of
12 A/m (measured by the calibration coil) to avoid damage to the components of the
impedance matching network on the PCD antenna.

One channel of the digital storage oscilloscope is connected to the probe on the balancing
circuit, with the second channel connected to the probe on the calibration coil for
measurement of the magnetic field strength. A trigger signal must be derived from the pattern
generator to synchronise the oscilloscope in order to detect the load modulation of the DUT.

trigger signal
13.56MHz clock
Pattern Generator

Digital Storage
data signal Oscilloscope

Pulse Generator

pulse signal

Function Generator Rsense

modulated RF signal sense coil b

sense coil a

Amplifier
calibration
coil
DUT PICC
(card)
test PCD antenna

Figure 4: Measurement setup

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MIFARE® Certification Institute
Document Nr. 9002-1 rev. 3.4
Before measurement the balancing circuit of PCD test assembly should be tested. The
10 Ohm potentiometer P1 serves to fine adjust the balance point when the sense coils are
not loaded by a PICC or any magnetically coupled circuit. With the calibration coil in place
but without a DUT card in position check that the signal on the probe connected to the
balancing circuit is below 20 mV (peak-to-peak) when input power is slowly increased until
the probe on the calibration coil measures 2 V (peak-to-peak). You can adjust P1 for a
minimum output voltage.

Note: Put the test assembly on a wooden desk and keep all metallic parts at least 30 cm
away to avoid imbalance and measurement errors.

After the balance check you can put a card to test into the test position and look for the load
modulation of the card, which occurs a specified time after the start bit of the command sent,
depending on the type of the card.

The magnetic field strength can be calculated from the measured voltage on the calibration
coil by the following formula:

H (rms) = 1.1 * V (peak-peak)

Note: When placing a card into the DUT position you will notice a small drop of the voltage
measured by the calibration coil. This is due to the loading of the magnetic field
caused by the DUT. ISO/IEC 10373-6 requires to re-adjust the signal level, so that
the desired magnetic field strength is reached with the DUT in its position.

Adjust the oscilloscope to display a segment of at least two cycles of the waveform of the
subcarrier load modulation. The modulation coefficients can then be calculated by the fourier
transformation as described in appendix F of the standard ISO/IEC 10373-6 or ECMA-356.

3. PCB parts list

No of
Part Part No. Notes
pieces
1
Test PCD antenna 9001-1 1 )
Sense coil 9001-2 2 sense coil A and B
Calibration coil 9001-3 1
Comp. circuit board 9001-4 1

1
Note: ) Impedance matching network can be fitted either for standard bitrate (fc/128 = 106 kbit/s) or
for higher bitrates (fc/64 …. fc/16)

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MIFARE® Certification Institute
Document Nr. 9002-1 rev. 3.4
4. Technical data

Test PCD assembly for measuring the load modulation of contactless proximity cards
according to ISO/IEC 14443 and Near Field Communication Interface (NFCIP-1) devices
according to ECMA 340.

MCI part numbers: 9002-1: ISO/IEC 10373-6

9002-3: ECMA-356
9002-5: ISO/IEC 10373-6/AMD 5 with antenna coil impedance
matching network for high bit-rates (fc/64, fc/32, fc/16)
References: ISO/IEC 10373-6: Identification cards – Test methods –
Part 6: Proximity cards
ECMA-356: NFCIP-1 - RF Interface Test Methods
Card / device size ISO 7810 ID-1
System frequency 13.56 MHz
Magnetic field strength 12 A/m (rms) maximum
Input impedance 50 (+/-5) Ohms
Input power 9 Watts maximum (continuous)
Input connector SMB type ("male")
Probe connections plug provided for Tektronix P6243 probes, adaptable for other
brands, alternatively BNC connector.
Dimensions 170 mm x 170mm x 110mm

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MIFARE® Certification Institute
Document Nr. 9002-1 rev. 3.4