Application Note: General Purpose Demo Hardware
Description
AS3911
NFC Initiator / HF Reader IC
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Revision 1.04 / 2012/06/26
AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 2
2.
Hardware ............................................................................................................................... 2
2.1.
Block diagram ............................................................................................................ 2
2.2.
EMC and Power Supply Concept ............................................................................... 3
2.3.
Digital Section (Microcontroller) ................................................................................. 4
2.3.1.
2.4.
3.
Programming Header P1........................................................................................ 5
Analog Section ........................................................................................................... 6
2.4.1.
Power concept ....................................................................................................... 7
2.4.2.
Antenna stage ........................................................................................................ 7
2.4.3.
Capacitive wake up ................................................................................................ 8
Measurement ......................................................................................................................... 8
3.1.
Current consumption .................................................................................................. 8
3.2.
Antenna stage ............................................................................................................ 9
3.3.
Antenna stage ............................................................................................................ 9
3.4.
Determination of the antenna resistor .......................................................................11
3.5.
Determination of the antenna resistor .......................................................................12
3.6.
Verification of the Q factor in the time domain ..........................................................14
3.7.
Measurement with standard assembly of 2200 Ω .....................................................14
4.
Layout recommendation ...................................................................................................... 16
5.
PCB stack ............................................................................................................................ 16
6.
Gerber top ........................................................................................................................... 17
7.
Gerber bottom ..................................................................................................................... 17
8.
Assembly top ....................................................................................................................... 18
9.
Bill of material ...................................................................................................................... 19
Copyright ..................................................................................................................................... 22
Disclaimer ................................................................................................................................... 22
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
1. Introduction
This application note describes the AS3911 general purpose demo board and its usage. The
general purpose board is made for a flexible use; hence the digital part can be separated from
the analog part. This enables fast software development since the analog part can be used out
of the box.
The analog section has several jumpers to allow a custom antenna and capacitive electrodes to
be used.
2. Hardware
2.1. Block diagram
The board includes a microcontroller with USB support, a LDO to supply the microcontroller and
the HF reader IC AS3911.
Figure 1: Blockdiagram of the demo board
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
2.2. EMC and Power Supply Concept
For EMC rejection due to the rectangular carrier field generation, ferrite beads are placed close
to the supply with additional capacitors next to the connector.
Figure 2: EMC and power Supply concept
Since the worst case specification for USB-supply voltage is 4.5V, the supply voltage of the
device might vary. AS3911 features an internal regulator that measures the voltage and adjusts
the voltage on the output driver (i.e. the antenna driver) to 0.3V below the supply voltage. This
adjustment assures that the digital noise on the antenna driver supply can be rejected and the
voltage maximized. For evaluation purposes, the jumper P5 is placed. It can be used to apply an
external voltage supply or measure the current of the reader IC.
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
2.3. Digital Section (Microcontroller)
Figure 3: Microcontroller schematic
•
The microcontroller is a PIC24 FJGB002 with internal USB.
•
Three pins (Pin 1, 2 and 3 of the microcontroller) are used to select different board
versions.
•
Four diodes (D5-D8) display the various conditions of the board.
•
The connector P2 can be used as an alternative connection to either an external
microcontroller or to connect to a new developed analog system of AS3911. The
selection can be done by unmounting the coupling resistors (R13-17).
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
2.3.1. Programming Header P1
P1 is the programming header for the microchip controller. The pin order on the header P1 is
exactly the same as used by the microchip tool chain. Therefore no special adapter is needed.
Figure 4: Microcontroller schematic
Pin 1 of programmer
tool
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
2.4. Analog Section
The following schematic shows the analog section incl. AS3911 and its external components.
Figure 5: Analog schematic
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
This setup is made to demonstrate almost all the capabilities of AS3911. The salient features
are:
•
Differential antenna
•
Capacitive wakeup (possibility to attach external electrodes)
•
Antenna tuning trimming capacitors
•
27MHz Crystal
•
Supply noise rejection
•
High sensitivity
•
Low impedance driver stage
2.4.1. Power concept
AS3911 features an internal LDO that needs to be decoupled with capacitors of 2.2 µF and 10
nF. These pins are:
•
AGD (analogue ground)
•
VSP_D (to supply the logic of AS3911)
•
VSP_A (to supply the analog part of AS3911)
•
VSP_RF (to supply the driver stage of AS3911)
AS3911 contains an internal level shifter that enables the connection to a microcontroller with
different VDD than AS3911. Pin 1 should be connected to the same voltage as the supply of the
microcontroller.
GND as well as the supply line are connected with a ferrite bead to reject the EMC disturbances
caused by the HF driver.
2.4.2. Antenna stage
The antenna stage consists of a two stage filter and a matching network. The two stage filter
rejects higher harmonics of the 13,56 MHz carrier. Since inductors are non-ideal components
and the self-resonant frequency of the second coil is around 400 MHz, a two staged filter is
implemented.
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
The first stage has a corner frequency above 200 MHz and will reduce harmonics at higher
frequencies.
The second stage has a corner frequency below 10 MHz and will reject frequencie s in the lower
frequency band.
The matching network follows the filter and adapts the power from the driver to the antenna.
The tuning network consists of external capacitors and chip internal switches. In case the
switches are open, the antenna voltage is directly applied to the input pin of the chip.
Since the expected voltage of the antenna can be high, additional capacitors for voltage
limitation can be applied. The AS3911 can accept voltages up to 30V on its antenna tuning pins.
The input pins are connected by a capacitive divider. The voltage on these pins should be less
than 3.3 Volt.
2.4.3. Capacitive wake up
The capacitive wakeup comprises two pins that are each connected to an electrode. They are
protected against ESD with a gas discharge element.
Since these pins can also be used as test outputs, an additional UFL connector is mounted.
3. Measurement
3.1. Current consumption
The measurement is performed across the AS3911 supply jumper P5.
AS3911 working condition
Current consumption in
mA
After startup
7.58
en=1, rx_en=0, tx_en=0
en=1, rx_en=1, tx_en=0
14.97
en=1, rx_en=1, tx_en=1
150
en=0, rx_en=0, tx_en=0, wu=1
0.002
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
3.2. Antenna stage
Used equipment:
•
Network Analyser HP 8753C Network Analyser
•
Parameter test set 85047A Test set
3.3. Antenna parameter measurement
The parameter measurements are done in the following sequence:
1. Start with the measurement of the serial inductance and the serial resistor at a frequency
that is far off the self-resonance of the antenna. The chosen frequency is 1MHz.
@ 1 MHz:
LPC = 940 nH RSDC = 470 mOhm
2. Measurement of the self-resonance (point at which the impedance is real)
=> fres ~ 59 MHz
Rres = 5000 Ohm
Using the inductance values measured at 1 MHz, the resonance capacitance can be calculated
with the formula:
C
1
(2 f res ) LPC
2
1
7.74 pF
(2 59MHz) 2 940nH
The value of the parallel resistor has to be converted from the self -resonance to the working
frequency. The main reason for that conversion is the skin effect of the antenna. A correction
factor can be given by:
K
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f res
59
2,085
f tune
13,56
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
Rres2 can then be calculated as:
Rres2 = K ⋅ R
res ≅ 10.4 kΩ
All antenna components are now known and a replacement for the antenna circuit can be drawn.
The serial resistor of the coil can be converted with the approximation formula of the Q -factor
Q
L
RSDC
RPDC
L 2
RP DC
14k
L
RSDC
The complete resistance will thus be a parallel connection of the resistor due to the DC
component and the self-resonance component.
RPC
RPDC Rres 2
6.02k
RPDC Rres 2
The values for the wanted resonance circuit are therefore:
•
RPC =6.02 kΩ
•
CPC= 7.74 pF
•
LPC= 940 nH
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
3.4. Determination of the antenna resistor
The bandwidth – time product and the definition of the quality factor Q results in the following
equations:
B T 1 ; Q
f res
B
Q f res T Q 13,56MHz 3s 41
The time T is defined by the lowest data rate of the ISO 14443 standard, 106kbits/s:
For the current board it is set to 20.
The parallel target resistor can then be calculated as:
RT Q L
RT 20 2 13MHz 940nH 1601
Taking the parasitic resistor RPC from the antenna into account, the effective resistance can be
calculated to
RP
R PC RT
6020 1601
2181
R PC RT 6020 1601
The next available value is 2200Ω.
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
3.5. Determination of the matching network
•
The matching is done from the driver resistor towards the antenna impedance.
•
The driver resistor can be assumed with 2Ω
•
Converting the antenna parameters into single-ended ones for the Smith chart:
Parallel target antenna resistor:
RT/2 = 800 Ω
Antenna coil inductance
LP/2 = 470 nH
Antenna coil capacitance
2*CP = 15,5 pF
The matching was done with ADS (Advanced Design System):
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
According to the simulations, the parallel capacitor should be 86 pF/2 (because of the
conversion from single-ended to differential).
The procedure of splitting up this 43 pF capacitance is shown in the excel sheet
“PCD_AntennaMatching_V1”.
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
3.6. Verification of the Q factor in the time domain
The resonance circuit envelope can be calculated with an exponential function
Falling edge:
t
2 fc
U f e exp t
Q
Rising edge:
t
2 fc
U r 1 e 1 exp t
Q
Thus if the time constant (37% of the maximum amplitude) is known, the Q factor is calculated to:
QB 2 f c
3.7. Measurement with standard assembly of 2200 Ω
•
TF=310 ns
•
QF=17
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
•
With TR=205 ns
•
QR=26
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
4. Layout recommendation
Use a solid ground plane under the chip and thermal vias under the chip that are being
used to dissipate the heat of and enable a low ohmic connection of the exposed pad to
the ground plane.
Take care that the decoupling capacitors of the LDO are close to the chip. Use thick
wires for the decoupling tracks and place the 10nF capacitor closest to the chip.
Use a symmetric layout for the antenna stage
Do not cross digital lines with analog lines.
Take care on the signals VSN_RF, VSP_RF and the two output pins RFO1 and RFO2.
These pins build up the internal driver stage. Tracks on those four pins shall be short
and ground connections must be solid.
5. PCB stack
The PCB stack is made of a two layer PCB with 1.6 mm core materia l and 35micro (43 micro
final ) copper.
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
6. Gerber top
7. Gerber bottom
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
8. Assembly top
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
9. Bill of material
Part Info
Reference
Distributor
Distributor Number
count
Integrated Circuits
(IC)
AS3911
AS1
1
AS1360
U2
1
PIC27FJ64GB002
U3
1
SMD resistor
10k
R1, R2, R4, R5, R7, R18, R20,
R100
Digikey
0R
R6,R29
Digikey
220R
R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13,
R14, R15, R16, R17
Digikey
311-10KGRTR-ND
8
311-0.0JRTR-ND
2
P220GTR-ND
10
Digikey
RMCF0402JT470RTRND
5
470R
R19, R23, R24, R25, R26
27R
R21, R22
Digikey
311-27JRTR-ND
2
330R
R27
Digikey
311-330JRTR-ND
1
2k2
R28
Digikey
311-2.2KJRTR-ND
1
10u
C1,C4,C10
Digikey
445-1371-2-ND
3
10p
C2,C3
Digikey
1u
C5,C6
Digikey
587-2834-2-ND
2
10n
C7, C15, C18, C24, C29, C30
Digikey
311-1042-2-ND
6
100n
C8, C9
Digikey
478-1239-2-ND
2
18p
C11, C12
Digikey
445-1238-2-ND
4
8p2
C13, C16
Digikey
511-1029-2-ND
2
2u2
C14, C17, C21, C32, C33
Digikey
587-2983-2-ND
5
6p8
C20, C34
Digikey
445-4887-2-ND
2
SMD capacitors
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
12p
C23, C35
Digikey
311-1016-2-ND
2
100p
C25
Digikey
311-1024-2-ND
1
27p
C27, C36
Digikey
311-1019-2-ND
2
56p
C31, C37
Digikey
311-1022-2-ND
2
47p
C38, C43
Digikey
311-1021-2-ND
2
470p
C44, C47
Digikey
311-1028-2-ND
2
680p
C45, C46
Digikey
511-1068-2-ND
2
330p
C48, C49
Digikey
587-1217-2-ND
2
6p8
C50
Digikey
445-5039-2-ND
1
100p
C51, C54
Digikey
445-1281-2-ND
2
10p
C52, C53
Digikey
399-1049-2-ND
2
10n
L4,L5
Digikey
445-1492-2-ND
2
220n
L7,L8
Digikey
490-5669-2-ND
2
Ferritbead
L1, L2, L3, L6, L9
Digikey
587-1911-2-ND
5
24V
D1, D2, D4
Farnell
1470613
3
Zener
D3
Digikey
641-1068-2-ND
1
D5,D6,D7,D8
Digikey
754-1104-2-ND
4
Q1
Digikey
490-5581-2-ND
1
SMD inductors
SMD diodes
SMD LED
LED_LUMEX
Oscillator
27.12MHz
Mechanical
components
Header 2
P5
USB_MINI_B
U1
1
Digikey
H2959TR-ND
1
Not Used
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
U FL Socket Surface Mount
P3, P4
2
Header 8H
P1, P2
2
8MHz
Y1
1
MHDR1X2
P6, P7
2
Header 3
P8
1
Plug
T1
1
Plug
T2, T3, T4, T5
4
dnp
C19, C22, C26, C28, C39, C40,
C41, C42
8
dnp
R3
1
CSA20-141N DNP
U4, U5
2
Tolerance if not other
specified
Capacitor NP0/COG
2%
Capacitor X7R:
10%
Capacitor Y5V:
+80% 20%
Tantalum
20%
Resistor
5%
Inductivity
5%
Version History
Version
Originator
Change log
1.00
tlu
Initial Version
1.02
tlu
Changed load cap on 27 MHz crystal, BOM
1.03
mram
Changing of the ams corporate design
1.04
mram
Correction of chapters 3.4 & 3.5
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AS3911 – General Purpose Demo Hardware Description
Copyright
Copyright © 1997-2012, ams AG, Tobelbader Strasse 30, 8141 Unterpremstaetten, Austria-Europe.
Trademarks Registered ®. All rights reserved. The material herein may not be reproduced, adapted, merged,
translated, stored, or used without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.
All products and companies mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Disclaimer
Devices sold by ams AG are covered by the warranty and patent indemnification provisions appearing in its
Term of Sale. ams AG makes no warranty, express, statutory, implied, or by description regarding the
information set forth herein or regarding the freedom of the described devices from patent infringement. ams
AG reserves the right to change specifications and prices at any time and without notice. Therefore, prior to
designing this product into a system, it is necessary to check with ams AG for current information.
This product is intended for use in normal commercial applications. Applications requiring extended
temperature range, unusual environmental requirements, or high reliability applications, such as military,
medical life-support or life sustaining equipment are specifically not recommended without additional
processing by ams AG for each application. For shipments of less than 100 parts the manufacturing flow might
show deviations from the standard production flow, such as test flow or test location.
The information furnished here by ams AG is believed to be correct and accurate. However, ams AG shall not
be liable to recipient or any third party for any damages, including but not limited to personal injury, property
damage, loss of profits, loss of use, interruption of business or indirect, special, incidental or consequential
damages, of any kind, in connection with or arising out of the furnishing, performance or use of the technical
data herein. No obligation or liability to recipient or any third party shall arise or flow out of ams AG rendering of
technical
or
other
services.
Contact Information
Headquarters
ams AG
Tobelbader Strasse 30
8141 Unterpremstaetten
Austria
T. +43 (0) 3136 500 0
For Sales Offices, Distributors and Representatives, please visit:
http://www.ams.com/contact
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