MIFARE Ultralight^®

The MIFARE^® MF0ICU1 has been developed by NXP^® Semiconductors to be used in a contactless smart ticket or smart card in combination with a Proximity Coupling Devices (PCD) in accordance with ISO/IEC 14443 A. It is intended for use as single trip or limited use tickets in public transport networks, loyalty cards or day passes for events as a replacement for conventional ticketing solutions such as paper tickets, magnetic stripe tickets or coins.

As the usage of contactless proximity smart cards becomes more and more common, transport and event operators are switching to completely contactless solutions. The introduction of the MIFARE Ultralight for limited use tickets may lead to a reduction of system installation and maintenance costs. Terminals may be less vulnerable to damage and mechanical failures caused by ticket jams. MF0ICU1 can easily be integrated into existing schemes and even standard paper ticket vending equipment can be upgraded. This solution for low-cost tickets can help operators to reduce the circulation of cash within the system.

The mechanical and electronic specifications of MIFARE Ultralight are tailored to meet the requirements of paper ticket manufacturers.

1.2 Contactless energy and data transfer

In the MIFARE system, the MF0ICU1 is connected to a coil with a few turns. The MF0ICU1 fits the TFC.0 (Edmondson) and TFC.1 (ISO) ticket formats as defined in BS EN753-2.

TFC.1 format tickets are supported by the MF0ICU10 chip which features a 17 pF on-chip resonance capacitor.

The smaller TFC.0 format tickets are supported by the MF0ICU11 chip which features a 50 pF on-chip resonance capacitor.

1.3 Anti-collision

An intelligent anti-collision function enables simultaneous multi-card operation. The anti-collision algorithm individually selects each card and ensures the correct execution of a transaction with the selected card without interference from another card in the field.

1.3.1 Cascaded Unique Identification (UID)

The anti-collision function is based on an IC individual serial number called Unique Identification (UID) for each IC. The UID of the MF0ICU1 comprises 7 bytes and supports ISO/IEC 14443-3 cascade level 2.

1.4 Security

• 7-byte UID in accordance with ISO/IEC 14443-3 for each device
• 32-bit user definable One-Time Programmable (OTP) area
• Field programmable read-only locking function per page

1.5 Delivery options

MF0ICU1 can be delivered in packaged or wafer form. Refer to delivery type description for more information.