Systems and Methods for Providing NFC Secure Application Support in Battery-Off Mode When No Nonvolatile Memory Write Access is Available

• US 20130005245A1
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: ROYSTON, Philip Stewart
• Granted Patent: US 9,026,047 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/001 Energy harvesting or scavenging
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00045 Authentication, i.e. circuits for checking compatibility between one component, e.g. a battery or a battery charger, and another component, e.g. a power source
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 by selectively disabling software applications

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for NFC secure application support when an NFC device is executing in a battery-off or battery-low mode. In such a case, the NFC device may have enough power to execute some applications (e.g., read-only applications) but not enough power to execute others (e.g., applications that require data to be written). Embodiments of the present invention enable these lower-power applications to be executed by the NFC device even when a host communications device has no battery power.

Claims

1. An NFC device, comprising:

a power harvesting module;

a memory storing a list of application identifiers; and

a controller, wherein the controller is configured to;

receive a request for an application identifier from a reader device,

access the list of application identifiers,

determine, by accessing information in the list of application identifiers, whether an amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient to execute an application corresponding to the application identifier, and

transmit the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient to execute the application.

2. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether a host communications device coupled to the NFC device has little or no battery power.

3. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the list of application identifiers contains a field indicating whether the application corresponding to the application identifier can be executed in a low power mode.

4. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the list of application identifiers corresponds to a plurality of applications, and wherein the controller device is further configured to:

determine which applications the NFC device has sufficient power to execute; and

transmit a list of supported application identifiers corresponding to the applications the NFC device has sufficient power to execute.

5. The communications device of claim 4, wherein the controller device is further configured to:

receive a request from the reader device to execute a supported application corresponding to one of the supported application identifiers; and

supply power to a secure device storing the supported application responsive to the request.

6. The NFC device of claim 1, further comprising a one-time programmable (OTP) memory, and wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine whether the application corresponding to the application identifier is stored on the OTP memory.

7. A communications device, comprising:

a battery; and

an NFC device, wherein the NFC device is configured to;

check a power level of the battery to determine a power mode,

receive a request for an application identifier from a reader device,

access a list of application identifiers,

determine, by accessing information in the list of application identifiers, whether an amount of power available in the power mode is sufficient to execute an application corresponding to the application identifier, and

transmit the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available in the power mode is sufficient to execute the application.

8. The communications device of claim 7, wherein the list of application identifiers contains a field indicating whether the application corresponding to the application identifier can be executed in a low power mode.

9. The communications device of claim 7, further comprising an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) of flash nonvolatile (NV) memory, and wherein the NFC device is further configured to determine whether the application corresponding to the application identifier is stored on the EEPROM.

10. The communications device of claim 7, further comprising a secure device storing the application corresponding to the application identifier.

11. The communications device of claim 10, wherein the communications device is configured to determine whether the NFC device has sufficient power to supply power to the secure device.

12. The communications device of claim 7, further comprising:

a plurality of secure devices storing a plurality of applications, each application corresponding to one of a plurality of application identifiers, and

wherein the communications device is farther configured to;

determine which applications the NFC device has sufficient power to execute; and

transmit a list of supported application identifiers corresponding to the applications the NFC device has sufficient power to execute.

13. The communications device of claim 12, wherein the NFC device is further configured to:

receive a request from the reader device to execute a supported application corresponding to one of the supported application identifiers; and

supply power to a secure device in the plurality of secure devices that stores the supported application.

14. The communications device of claim 7, wherein the communications device is configured to support a plurality of power modes, and wherein a power mode in the plurality of power modes indicates that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute applications stored in a one-time programmable (OTP) memory of the NFC device.

15. A method, comprising:

determining a power mode of an NFC device;

receiving a request for an application identifier from the reader device;

accessing a list of application identifiers;

determining, based on information in the list of application identifiers, whether an amount of power available in the power mode is sufficient to execute an application corresponding to the application identifier; and

transmitting the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available in the power mode is sufficient to execute the application.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining whether the application corresponding to the application identifier requires data to be written to memory prior to transmitting the application identifier.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the power mode is a battery-off mode indicating that a host communications device has little or no battery power.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the list of application identifiers contains a field indicating whether the application corresponding to the application identifier can be executed in the power mode.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the field indicates a minimum amount of power required by the application for execution of the application.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the power mode is one of a plurality of power modes, and wherein the field is a multi-bit field indicating the power mode.