Most importantly, NFC Forum CR 13 is the result of the cooperation between two bodies: NFC Forum and CCC (Car Connectivity Consortium®). For the first time, NFC Forum defined specific device classes:

• CCC Digital Key Reader Device and
• CCC Digital Key Card Emulation Device.

Now, CCC can refer to the NFC Forum certification for their own compliance program. This facilitates keyless car access using smartphones with NFC, even if the battery is dead. The objective is to assure that any smartphone works with any car to open it and to start the engine. This way new ways of mobility are possible by securely and easily sharing keys. At the same time NFC Forum expands certification options. In addition, membership to NFC Forum is not necessary any more to certify a product. Moreover, the new Test Plan Generator Tool (TPG)  is a huge simplification to undergo certification with a verified test plan within minutes! Interested or query? Get in touch with sales(at)comprion.com

 Finally, at the activation date only one test tool has been approved: the one from COMPRION! All customers with a valid service and maintenance contract receive the update automatically!

Imagine the certification project for your product is still going on when the new NFC Forum Certification Release is activated! For these situations NFC Forum works with so-called Grace Periods to smooth migration. Thus, Certification Release is still active. Since it harmonized mainly analog tests, that is for the physical interface, with related international standards from EMVCo an ISO hew hardware was necessary. Therefore CR 12 added

• an amplifier for maximum field strength tests
• three new Listener reference antennas
• a new so-called 8-Shaped-Coil antenna
• an adopted positioning aid for setup tests

More about CR 12: HERE!

Note: CR 12 has been deactivated August 8th, 2022.

Hardware introduced for NFC Forum Certification Release 12:

What are NFC Forum Certification Releases?

If you look for an NFC device, often the NFC Forum approval is a key question. To be sure, it is up to date, you need to know which Certification Release it complies to! Since the beginning of the NFC Forum certification program, some releases had been launched! The latest is Certification Release 13.

Now, what exactly are these Certification Releases in NFC Forum? What does them make so important?

 NFC Forum points out:

• a Certifcation Release is a group of test cases and related processes
• it relates to one version of a Test Release, wihich contains the test case documents
• it maps to a certain version of so-called Device Requirements
• they define features to be supported by NFC enabled devices
• various device classes allow to certify a subset of features

What is an NFC Forum Device Class?

Device classes target different use cases. Therefore, they are each supporting a specific set of features. Here, NFC Forum names these features "interoperability module". Since features are based upon requirements, you can understand the interoperability modules as packages of requirements. Testing proves compliant and correct behavior of devices implementing these features. After passing all test, NFC Forum certifies the device and publishes this in the list of approved products unless a device maker wants to keep this confidential.

NFC Forum Device Classes defined in the Device Requirements (Version 3.0)

• Universal
• Reader
• Mobile
• Tag
• CCC Digital Key Reader
• CCC Digital Key Card Emulation