MicroSD card with NFC and 16GB space

jfd

My Sony Ericson Pro does not come with NFC support. Today I stumbled over MicroSD cards that not only come with up to 16GB storage but also with an integrated NFC chip and antenna: http://www.netcom-3c.com/en/products/detail.asp… The problem is ... I cannot find any online shop selling them. The technology seems to be three years old but still hasn't reached the mass market.

I also found:
http://credense.com/microsd/credense/
http://www.infineon.com/cms/de/product/applications/chip-card-and-security/nfc/index.html
http://www.moneto.co.uk/buy-now/iphone-4/
http://www.certgate.com/products/cgcard/

The standard seems to be called SmartSD: https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/ASSD/smartsd/

Does anyone have an Idea how to obtain any of these cards?

A MicroSD or SDXC NFC card might also be useful for updgrading laptops ... Would be awesome if someone could come up with an online shop for any of these ...

so long

Jörn

Lokki

Hi Jörn,

I've been looking at alternatives for phones that don't come with NFC enabled and haven't actually been able to find anyone who sells these microSD versions to the public so far.
The ones that are actually available and aren't just vapourware seem to be mostly offered via established banks to customers.

I remember seeing a kickstarter project a while back that was offering one of these microSD NFC devices but it didn't achieve funding and looks like it was abandoned.

It is probably easier to just get a phone which already has NFC enabled, unless you're a customer of a bank that offers the iCarte/iCaisse or Cashwrap devices and you have an iPhone.

But all that said, if you do happen to run across a real one that is actually available to purchase then let us know here! I'd love to be able to fool around with something like that.

Lokki

Lafunamor

keep in mind that depending on the construction of your sd slot it's possible that the nfc antenna in the card may be blocked by some metal housing.

second thought: a microSD is very small so the antenna in the card wont be big as well. as a consequence the sweet spot probably is very small if there is any
and probably the small tag in the ring won't work with it

also the provided power to the sd card could be quite low

danc

@Lafunamor

keep in mind that depending on the construction of your sd slot it's possible that the nfc antenna in the card may be blocked by some metal housing.

I wonder if you could get one that fits in the MicroSD slot then has an external antenna - i.e. a metal wire - that you can then glue to the inside of the batter case?

Lokki

An external antenna is always possible providing the manufacturer supplies a connection for it but it can't just be a piece of wire.
With NFC they're not really antennas, they're inductance loops. So they really have to be tuned to a certain size/shape in order to work properly and for best performance they should be closely matched in size/shape/tuning to the device to be read.

Reading is achieved by inducing an RF field which resonates with the NFC tag when it enters the field and provides power and communication between the two devices that way.
Without this the device doesn't power on and you don't achieve a read.