Systems and methods for providing NFC secure application support in battery-off mode when no nonvolatile memory write access is available

• US 9,026,047 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): Hanidu, Ganiyu A
• Application Number:
  US13/172,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20130005245A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,406 Days
• Field of Search: 455 411- 412
• 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. A Near Field Communication (NFC) device, comprising:

a power harvesting module;

a memory configured to store a list of application identifiers; and

a controller configured to;

receive a request for a list of available application identifiers 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 for the NFC device to execute an application corresponding to an application identifier in the list of application identifiers, and

transmit the list of available application identifiers, wherein the list of available application identifiers includes the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute the application, and wherein the list of available application identifiers does not include the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available to the NFC device is insufficient for the NFC device 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 battery power below a predetermined amount of 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 controller is further configured to:

determine a plurality of applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute, wherein the list of available application identifiers includes a plurality of application identifiers corresponding to the plurality of applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute.

5. The communications device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive a request from the reader device to execute an available application corresponding to one of the application identifiers in the list of available application identifiers; and

supply power to a secure device configured to store the available application.

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

a Near Field Communication (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 a list of available application identifiers from a reader device,

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

transmit the list of available application identifiers, wherein the list of available application identifiers includes the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available in the power mode is sufficient for the NFC device to execute the application, and wherein the list of available application identifiers does not include the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available in the power mode is insufficient for the NFC device 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 configured to store 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,

wherein the communications device is further configured to:

determine a plurality of applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute, wherein the list of available application identifiers includes a plurality of application identifiers corresponding to the plurality of applications that 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 an available application corresponding to one of the application identifiers in the list of available application identifiers; and

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

14. The communications device of claim 7, wherein the communications device is further configured to support a plurality of power modes, and wherein a second 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 a Near Field Communication (NFC) device;

receiving a request for a list of available application identifiers from a reader device;

accessing a list of application identifiers;

accessing a field corresponding to an application identifier in the list of application identifiers, wherein the field indicates whether an application corresponding to the application identifier can be executed in a lower power mode;

determining, based on the field, whether an amount of power available in the power mode is sufficient to execute the application; and

transmitting the list of available application identifiers, wherein the list of available application identifiers includes the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available in the power mode is sufficient to execute the application, and wherein the list of available application identifiers does not include the application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available in the power mode is insufficient 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.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the power mode is a battery-off mode indicating that a host communications device has battery power below a predetermined amount of power.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the field indicates a minimum amount of power required by the application for execution of the application.

19. The method of claim 15, 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.

20. A communications device, comprising:

a battery; and

a Near Field Communication (NFC) device, wherein the NFC device comprises;

a power harvesting module;

a memory configured to store a list of application identifiers; and

a controller, wherein the controller is configured to;

determine a power mode based on a power level of the battery,

receive a request for a list of available application identifiers from a reader device,

access the list of application identifiers,

determine, based on the power mode and by accessing information in the list of application identifiers, a plurality of available applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute, wherein the list of available application identifiers includes a plurality of available application identifiers corresponding to the plurality of available applications,

transmit the list of available application identifiers, wherein respective application identifiers in the list of available application identifiers correspond to the plurality of available applications.