NFC Forum Updates Certification Program

NFC products that undergo software updates can achieve NFC Forum certification with a streamlined process. Called the Inheritance by OS update in the NFC Forum Certification Program, it enables product designers and managers to ensure compliance throughout the lifecycle of their product in a more efficient and affordable way.

Certification from the NFC standards organization is not mandatory. But to achieve such certification for hardware and software for an NFC product, manufacturers, vendors and users have an endorsement that the product will operate seamlessly. The forum wanted to remove obstacles to keeping certification up to date, so it has added a feature to its V3.1 program so that the operating system of an existing NFC Forum-certified product does not require recertification.

Accessible for both members of the forum and non-members alike, the NFC Forum Certification Program exists for the betterment of the entire NFC ecosystem, said Mike McCamon, NFC Forum’s executive director. Companies with an NFC product can go to the NFC Forum Certification Program and apply to re-certify the product.

Products often undergo operating system (OS) upgrades and that software change will not impact the certification. Device manufacturers can maintain their NFC Forum Certification status by filling out a form on the NFC Forum site, indicating their certified device has been upgraded. NFC Forum has been offering certification to products that use the passive 13.56 MHz transmission since about 2017. Those products that gain NFC Forum Certification can be displayed on the forum’s website.

Generally, NFC Forum Certification is divided into two types of tests: Analog to test the Hardware and Digital for the NFC-based software changes. When a device in the field receives an OS update, it is only the software that is changed. The hardware certification—the antenna and tuning components—still remains the same.

This V3.1 extension creates an additional more efficient route for engineers and product managers to retain their certification when updating the OS using a three-step process.
Three Steps to Recertify

First, the developer fills in a new Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) or Implementation eXtra Information for Testing (IXIT) form. That is followed by a signed attestation to confirm that the hardware implementation contains no modifications from the Certified Implementation.
The device inherits its certification for any unchanged implementations and only requires new testing on the impacted test cases identified.