The first MIFARE cards were launched by Mikron, now NXP, back in 1994. The MIFARE range is comprised of contactless IC products with a typical read distance of 10cm. The innovative cards are now used in more than 40 different applications worldwide, with more than 12 billion ICs sold. The MIFARE IC chips can be used in cards, fobs, stickers, wristbands and more. The MIFARE family is made up of the MIFARE Classic®, MIFARE® DESFire®, MIFARE Plus® and MIFARE Ultralight®.

MIFARE Classic

The MIFARE Classic range is often used in public transport, access control, ID cards and campus cards, amongst others. The MIFARE Classic range consists of both MIFARE Classic and MIFARE Classic EV1, the latter being the latest version in the range. This contactless technology operates in the 13.56MHZ frequency range and is fully ISO 14443 compliant. The Classic range is available in two memory sizes (1KB or 4KB), with either a 4 or 7-byte serial number. MIFARE Classic, however, is not recommended for high-security applications; instead, consider the DESFire range.

MIFARE DESFire

The DESFire ICs have been designed with operators and developers in mind and is ideal for service providers that are looking to use multi-application smart cards. The DESFire family consists of DESFire Light and the latest addition to the family, MIFARE DESFire EV3. DESFire EV3 offers both high-speed and highly secure data transmission. The speed and security of the data transfer offered by MIFARE's DESFire range mean it is suitable for use in a wide range of applications. These IC include access management, student ID, advanced public transport applications, closed-loop micropayments, loyalty programs, government social service cards and more.

MIFARE Plus

The MIFARE Plus family of products is designed for use in an array of applications, allowing security upgrades to legacy infrastructures. It is fully backwards compatible with MIFARE Classic and allows for seamless upgrades with minimum effort. This means cards can be easily issued into existing system environments prior to any infrastructure security upgrades. After the security upgrade MIFARE Plus uses AES security for authentication, data integrity and encryption which is based on global open standards.

 MIFARE Ultralight

The MIFARE Ultralight family consists of three products that are designed to offer system operators the maximum in flexibility. This solution is able to offer time-based, zone-based or multiple-ride tickets alongside regular single-use tickets. This IC product family is designed to work flawlessly with high volume applications where cost is critical, such as public transport and loyalty card schemes. NXP's MIFARE Ultralight can be easily integrated into existing equipment, and even paper-based ticketing infrastructure can be simply upgraded to an IC-based system.

For information and advice on MIFARE technology, contact us at Universal Smart Cards today.