Method and device for managing information exchange between a main element, for example a NFC controller, and a set of at least two auxillary elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10271193-B2
Application number	US-201815905145-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2018
Priority date	Dec 15, 2010
Publication date	Apr 23, 2019
Grant date	Apr 23, 2019

Abstract

A device, including a main element (ME) and a set of at least two auxiliary elements (SEi), said main element including a master SWP interface (MINT), each auxiliary element including a slave SWP interface (SLINTi) connected to said master SWP interface of said NFC element through a controllably switchable SWP link (LK) and management means (PRM, CTLM, AMGi) configured to control said SWP link switching for selectively activating at once only one slave SWP interface on said SWP link.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A near field communication (NFC) controller, comprising:
a single wire protocol (SWP) port configured to exchange information with a first secure element or a second secure element external to the NFC controller via an SWP communications link;
a control circuit configured to modulate communication of the NFC controller with one of the first secure element or the second secure element via the SWP communications link;
a control port coupled to the control circuit and configured to provide a control signal indicative of whether the NFC controller is to communicate with the first secure element or the second secure element via the SWP communications link; and
a switch arranged along an electrical path between the SWP port and each of the first secure element and the second secure element, wherein the control signal is configured to cause the switch to electrically couple the SWP port to one of the first secure element or the second secure element and to concurrently electrically decouple the SWP port from the other of the first secure element or the second secure element.

2. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the switch comprises a multiplexer.

3. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the SWP port, the control circuit, and the control port are disposed on a first substrate, wherein the switch is disposed on a second substrate, and wherein the first substrate and the second substrate are disposed in a single package.

4. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the SWP port, the control circuit, the control port, and the switch are integrated within a single element.

5. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the SWP port is an only SWP port of the NFC controller.

6. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to generate the control signal based on a determination, by the control circuit, of whether the NFC controller is to communicate with the first secure element or the second secure element via the SWP communications link.

7. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the control signal is configured to enable the SWP communications link between the NFC controller and the first secure element and to disable the SWP communications link between the NFC controller and the second secure element.

8. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the SWP communications link between the NFC controller and the first secure element comprises an SWP communications channel between the NFC controller and a subscriber identification module (SIM) card.

9. The NFC controller of claim 1 , wherein the SWP communications link between the NFC controller and the second secure element comprises an SWP communications channel between the NFC controller and a universal integrated circuit card (UICC).

10. A near field communication (NFC) controller, comprising:
a first terminal configured to be coupled to an antenna for exchanging information with a contactless reader via a contactless communication protocol;
a second terminal configured to communicate with at least one secure element via a single wire protocol (SWP) communications channel; and
a third terminal configured to provide a control signal to a switch, wherein the control signal is configured to cause the switch to electrically couple the second terminal of the NFC controller to a SWP communications terminal of a first secure element to enable the SWP communications channel between the NFC controller and the first secure element and to concurrently electrically decouple the second terminal of the NFC controller from a SWP communications terminal of a second secure element to concurrently disable the SWP communications channel between the NFC controller and the second secure element, wherein the switch is arranged along an electrical path between the second terminal and each of the first secure element and the second secure element.

11. The NFC controller of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the first secure element or the second secure element comprises a smart card conforming to a European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standard.

12. The NFC controller of claim 10 , wherein the second terminal is a single and only port of the NFC controller configured to communicate, via the SWP, with the first secure element or the second secure element.

13. The NFC controller of claim 10 , further comprising the switch.

14. A near field communication (NFC) controller, comprising:
an antenna terminal;
a single wire protocol (SWP) communications terminal, the NFC controller having only one SWP communications terminal;
an NFC SWP multiplexer control terminal; and
integrated circuitry coupled to the antenna terminal, the SWP communications terminal, and the NFC SWP multiplexer control terminal, wherein the integrated circuitry comprises a controller coupled to the NFC SWP multiplexer control terminal, and wherein the controller is configured to generate a control signal that causes the NFC controller to communicate with one of a first secure element or a second secure element via the SWP communications terminal, wherein the SWP communications terminal is coupled to a multiplexer arranged along an electrical path between the SWP communications terminal and each of the first secure element and the second secure element, and wherein the control signal is configured to cause the multiplexer to electrically couple the SWP communications terminal and one of the first secure element or the second secure element and to concurrently electrically decouple the SWP communications terminal and another of the first secure element or the second secure element.

15. The NFC controller of claim 14 , wherein the controller is configured to determine whether the NFC controller is to communicate with the first secure element or the second secure element via the SWP communications terminal.

16. The NFC controller of claim 14 , wherein the antenna terminal, the SWP communications terminal, the NFC SWP multiplexer control terminal, and the multiplexer are integrated within the NFC controller.

17. The NFC controller of claim 14 , wherein the antenna terminal, the SWP communications terminal, and the NFC SWP multiplexer control terminal are disposed on a first substrate, wherein the multiplexer is disposed on a second substrate.

18. The NFC controller of claim 14 , wherein the antenna terminal is coupled to an antenna configured to exchange information with a contactless reader using a contactless communications protocol.

Assignees

• St Microelectronics Rousset
• St Microelectronics Gmbh

Inventors

• Meziache Thierry
• Rizzo Pierre
• Charles Alexandre
• Boehler Juergen

Classifications

• G06K7/0008

  General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer · CPC title

• G06K7/10247

  issues specific to the use of single wire protocol [SWP] in NFC like devices · CPC title

• G06K7/10237

  the reader and the record carrier being capable of selectively switching between reader and record carrier appearance, e.g. in near field communication [NFC] devices where the NFC device may function as an RFID reader or as an RFID tag · CPC title

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04B5/0031

  Electricity · mapped topic