nRF52832 NFC Antenna

Tuning
nWP-026
White Paper

1159720_152 / 2021-06-04
Contents
Revision history. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 NFC antenna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Choice of antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Estimating values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4 Tuning methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.1 Network analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2 Varying the frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
4.2.1 Configuring the chip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Acronyms and abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Legal notices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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Revision history
Date Description
2021-06-04 • Updated Configuring the chip on page 11 with nRF52833 information
• Editorial changes

April 2018 Update to the chip configuration process in Configuring the chip on page 11
August 2017 Added information on overcoupling to the chapter Choice of antenna on page
5
October 2016 First release

1159720_152 iii
1 Introduction
This white paper describes how the nRF52832 Near Field Communication (NFC) antenna can be tuned.
A typical NFC system consists of two devices, an active and a passive device. The active device has a power
source and induces a magnetic field with a coil inductor antenna. When the passive device is placed in this
magnetic field, the varying magnetic field will induce current (power) in the passive device. The induced
power in the passive device is used to retrieve and transmit data back to the active device.
An active device can also be called a poller, and a passive device can also be called a listener or a tag. The
nRF52832 System on Chip (SoC) is an NFC tag device.

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2 NFC antenna
An NFC antenna is a coil inductor, and together with capacitors to ground, they form a parallel resonant
LC tank. A maximized power transfer takes place when the active and the passive device antenna have the
same resonance frequency. Since the active device operates at 13.56 MHz, the passive device antenna
should also resonate at that frequency. In addition to the resonance frequency, the antenna's physical size
and shape also matters. Two similar shaped antennas will result in more power transfer than two very
different antennas.
The following figure shows the antenna and the parallel capacitors forming an LC tank circuit. The goal of
the tuning is to find the optimal value of the parallel capacitors, Ctune1 and Ctune2, so that the resonance
frequency of the LC-circuit is at 13.56 MHz.

Figure 1: NFC tag antenna with capacitors (LC-circuit) connected to NFC1 and NFC2

2.1 Choice of antenna

Maximum power transfer occurs when the NFC tag antenna and the NFC poller antenna have the same
shape and size.
To achieve the best performance, the choice of NFC tag antenna should be based on the application and
the typical poller NFC antenna for that application. It could be a good idea to test the NFC tag with many
NFC pollers.
Overcoupling is a physical effect in NFC which degrades performance. This occurs when the Poller and
the Listener antenna have identical geometry and are aligned and placed at near zero distance. In some
NFC products this problem is avoided due to the thickness of the casing that separates the antennas.
Other NFC products use an asymmetrical antenna shape to ensure that when two identical devices are put
together there is not a perfect overlap.

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 NFC antenna

Figure 2: Asymmetrical antenna shape

The overcoupling effect should be taken into account when developing a product for certification. The
NFC Forum has announced an initiative called the Tag Certification Program that is meant to establish a
standard for NFC tag technology. Overcoupling can degrade performance or even lead to failing test cases
when the antenna of the device matches the geometry of the Reference Poller antennas used during
certification. A small difference in aspect ratio or in a single dimension is usually enough. You should avoid
the following antenna geometries in a product.
• Reference Poller antenna 1: rectangular antenna of 46 by 32 mm
• Reference Poller antenna 2: rectangular antenna of 25 by 20 mm

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3 Estimating values
Before starting to tune, you must estimate an approximate value for the capacitors Ctune1 and Ctune2.
Coming up with an estimation is important especially when using the method described in Varying the
frequency on page 9, because this method uses the estimated value to find the correct value of Ctune1
and Ctune2.

Note: Ctune1 and Ctune2 must have the same value.

Complete the following steps to estimate the value of the capacitors, Ctune1 and Ctune2:
1. Find an approximate inductance (Lant) of the NFC tag antenna using an appropriate method:
• Find the value in the antenna datasheet.
• Calculate the inductance based on the antenna dimensions.
2. Calculate the value of the parallel capacitors, based on the inductance of the NFC antenna.
Ctune1 and Ctune2 must have the same value, the internal capacitance Cint is approximately 4 pF, and Lant
is the inductance of the NFC antenna.
Use the below formula to calculate the value of the parallel capacitors.

Figure 3: Resonance frequency for an LC-circuit

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4 Tuning methods
There are different methods for tuning. For example, you can use a network analyzer or vary the
frequency.
Using a network analyzer is the preferred method because there are less sources of error, and the network
analyzer gives actual results. For a given measurement, the network analyzer shows the resonance
frequency for the tag antenna. See Network analyzer on page 8 for more information.
The method varying the frequency uses an oscilloscope to measure the maximum voltage swing. This
method has more sources of errors and gives relative results. The maximum voltage swing among the
results is what is of interest, one measurement only will not give much value. See Varying the frequency
on page 9 for more information.
For the final results, it will not matter which method was used as long as the NFC tag antenna resonates at
13.56 MHz after tuning.

4.1 Network analyzer

The network analyzer (S11, dB magnitude) measures the return loss in the coil antenna over a frequency
span to find the optimal value of the parallel capacitors.
The frequency that results in a dip is the resonance frequency of the NFC tag antenna. When using this
method, the nRF52832 chip does not need to be powered. However, if the nRF52832 SoC is powered, RIN
has to be set to a fixed value. See Configuring the chip on page 11 for more details.
The required equipment for this method is:
• Network analyzer with minimum one port. The frequency range needs to cover 13.56 MHz.
• Coil antenna, for example, a metal wire in a coil.
• NFC tag antenna connected to the board with the nRF52832 SoC.
Complete the following steps to tune the antenna with the network analyzer method:
1. Connect the coil antenna to a network analyzer and the NFC tag antenna to the nRF52832 device.
The network analyzer should power the coil antenna slightly, with for example -10 dBm.

Figure 4: Setup for the network analyzer method

2. The distance between the NFC tag antenna and the coil antenna should be within the following limits:

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 Tuning methods

• Lower limit: A too short distance between the two antennas will pull the resonance frequency
down. The distance should therefore not be shorter than approximately 1 cm.
• Upper limit: The longer the distance between the antennas is, the weaker the loss dip in the
network analyzer will be. To measure the resonance frequency, the loss dip must be visible.
3. Measure the return loss in the coil antenna over a frequency span, for example 10–15 MHz. The
resonance frequency of the NFC tag antenna is the frequency that results in a dip. Change the value of
Ctune1 and Ctune2 to make it resonate on 13.56 MHz:
• If the resonant frequency is lower than 13.56 MHz, the value of Ctune1 and Ctune2 should be
decreased.
• If the resonant frequency is higher than 13.56 MHz, the value of Ctune1 and Ctune2 should be
increased.

Figure 5: Example reading from network analyzer

Note: The dip at approximately 13.56 MHz shows that the resonance frequency of the NFC tag is
almost at 13.56 MHz.

4.2 Varying the frequency

Measure the voltage swing of a set of capacitors and find out which one is closest to a resonance
frequency of 13.56 MHz.
For a given value of Ctune1, Ctune2, and RIN_OHM, vary the frequency of the poller antenna using a signal
generator (13-14 MHz) and measure the maximum voltage swing between the pins NFC1 and NFC2 using
an oscilloscope in differential mode. Measure the voltage swing of a set of Ctune values. The value of Ctune1

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 Tuning methods

and Ctune2 that results in the highest voltage swing at 13.56 MHz, will be best value among the tested ones
for that antenna. The value of Ctune1 and Ctune2 with the highest voltage swing will be the value that results
in an LC circuit with resonance frequency closest to 13.56 MHz, among the tested values.
The required equipment for this method is:
• Signal generator that can generate signals up to at least 14 MHz.
• NFC antenna with resonant frequency of 13.56 MHz (the poller antenna in Figure 6: Setup for the
method of varying the frequency on page 10).
• Oscilloscope
• Active probes
Active probes are required to minimize the capacitance between the NFC antenna and the
oscilloscope. The reason that active probes are required is that they have much less capacitance than
passive probes.
Complete the following steps to tune the antenna with the method of varying the frequency:
1. Calculate an approximate value for Ctune1 and Ctune2, like described in Estimating values on page 7.
2. Create a good setup for the poller and tag antennas that will make the distance and relative placement
between the antennas constant for all measurements. Any change in distance and placement will lead
to inaccurate measurements.

Figure 6: Setup for the method of varying the frequency

Note: In order to obtain accurate and useful results, the distance and relative placement
between the poller antenna and NFC tag antenna must be exactly the same for all
measurements. A slight change of distance or relative placement may change the maximum
voltage swing considerably, and hence change the validity and accuracy of the results. In order
to avoid overflow, the maximum voltage swing should be maximum 80% of VDD.

3. Set the internal resistor RIN_OHM in nRF52832 SoC to a fixed value using nrfjprog to change
RIN_REGVALUE.
See Configuring the chip on page 11 to set RIN_REGVALUE to a fixed value.
4. Measure the maximum voltage swing in the frequency region 13–14 MHz for a set of Ctune values.
Ensure that the voltage never exceeds VDD as it will affect the results. If the VDD is exceeded, do one
of the following actions to reduce the voltage swing:
• Increase the distance between the two antennas.
• Increase the value of RIN_REGVALUE.
• Reduce the power of the signal generator connected to the poller antenna.

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 Tuning methods

5. Choose the value of Ctune1 and Ctune2 that results in the largest voltage swing at a signal frequency of
13.56 MHz.

Figure 7: Maximum voltage swing for various Ctune values

4.2.1 Configuring the chip

To tune the NFC antenna with the varying the frequency method , the NFC module in the nRF52832 SoC
must be enabled, and the internal variable resistor RIN_OHM must be set to a fixed value using the register
value RIN_REGVALUE.
It consists of running the following commands:
Nfc_settings.bat for nRF52832:

nrfjprog -f NRF52 --memwr 0x40005668 --val 15

nrfjprog -f NRF52 --memwr 0x40005650 --val 4
nrfjprog -f NRF52 --memwr 0x40005000 --val 1

Nfc_settings.bat for nRF52840 and nRF52833:

nrfjprog -f NRF52 --memwr 0x4000568C --val 0x38D48

nrfjprog -f NRF52 --memwr 0x40005000 --val 1

When the tuning is finished, RIN_REGVALUE has to be set to automatic again by disabling the overriding of
RIN_REGVALUE. This can be done by power-cycling the device or by setting the override registers to "0".
To set the override register to "0", enter the following commands in command prompt:

nrfjprog –f NRF52 –memwr 0x40005668 --val 0

nrfjprog –f NRF52 –memwr 0x40005650 --val 0

The purpose of RIN_REGVALUE is to maximize the voltage between the pins NFC1 and NFC2, while not
exceeding VDD. For a fixed swing, a large value of RIN_REGVALUE means high current in the LC-circuit and into
the pins NFC1 and NFC2, and a small value of RIN_REGVALUE means low current.
When the NFC module is enabled, a DC voltage can be measured between the NFC1/NFC2 pins and
ground. The following table shows the voltage between NFC1/NFC2 and ground when the NFC module is
enabled and disabled:

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 Tuning methods

NFC module Voltage

Enabled (TASKS_ACTIVE) Approximately 0.45 * VDD
Disabled (TASKS_DISABLE) Approximately 0 V

Table 1: NFC module enabled/disabled voltage

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Glossary
Near Field Communication (NFC)
A standards-based short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables two electronic devices
to establish communication by bringing them close to each other.

System on Chip (SoC)

A microchip that integrates all the necessary electronic circuits and components of a computer or
other electronic systems on a single integrated circuit.

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Acronyms and abbreviations
These acronyms and abbreviations are used in this document.

NFC
Near Field Communication

SoC
System on Chip

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