Implementing contactless payments using NRF5340

[Dhyey Sejpal]

Hello, 

I am using NRF5340 as the main MCU for my product, and I want to implement contactless payments over NFC. Since there is not much information available around this topic, I wanted to ask if it is possible from security, compliance and hardware point of view to support contactless payments using only the capabilities of NRF5340 without any external hardware except an Antenna.
And if so, are there are any provisions available in terms of firmware and design support/guide that we could use to implement this functionality?

Or will we need external connected tags or plug-and-play NFC frontends like NXP's P5180? 

I read in one of the forum answers that the NFC tag functionality supported by the NRF5340 is ISO 14443 compliant and technically it could be possible to implement card emulation/payment functionality but there is no guiding material available on how to do it. Any help here would be appreciated.

[Dhyey Sejpal]

Hi Håkon,

I believe this is a technical question and I am looking for technical guidance around implementing contactless payments using NRF5340. I had contacted the regional sales manager for India and was asked to open a ticket with this query. 

Thank you,

Dhyey.

[Elfving]

Hello again Dhyey,

I wanted to ask if it is possible from security, compliance and hardware point of view to support contactless payments using only the capabilities of NRF5340 without any external hardware except an Antenna.

I can atleast say that you would need an NFC reader, like the NXP's P5180 that you linked to. Our SoCs only work as tags on their own.

there is no guiding material available on how to do it.

Unfortunately we do not have any guiding material on this. You are right in that it is a technical question in a way, but it is also concerns the current regulations and requirements of this industry in the country in question.

Once you know what you want, I can let you know how to get it done. Though I am not familiar with all the current regulations for all industries our SoCs can be used in. I know that contactless payments is possible using our SoCs, considering that customers have done so before (you can for instance see here). But I do not know exactly what is required for it.

I would for instance assume that you would need an additional secure element with key storage (metallization layer etc.), but I am not sure.

Could you for instance try contacting a local organization for contactless payment technology, like this one that I found for the US, and see what the requirements are?

Regards,

Elfving

[Dhyey Sejpal]

Hello Elfving,

Thank you for your response.

I aim to use the NFC capabilities of NRF5340 as a tag only for card emulation use-case.

The goal is to allow users to pay on PoS devices by touching my wearable product(smart ring). The NXP product that I linked was because they provide pre-loaded compliant firmware for card emulation. The only thing I'm concerned about is if I can achieve that with just the NRF5340 and avoid redundant hardware since my product is highly constrained on space. 

Can we use the second processor on NRF5340 as an isolated secure element, or the secure key storage/key management unit features for this purpose? 

I'm trying to gather information on the local regulations around contactless payments, but the first goal is to be able to achieve it technically, by emulating a card information and successfully making a transaction on a PoS device. 

So currently what I need is if there are firmware examples of card emulation/ISO 14443 protocol guidelines to implement this functionality. I will also research on the protocol separately, but any guides on implementing it would be helpful. 

[Elfving]

Dhyey Sejpal said:

I aim to use the NFC capabilities of NRF5340 as a tag only for card emulation use-case.

I see. If then only the NFC tag feature is required then I guess you do not need another chip for NFC. 

Dhyey Sejpal said:

Can we use the second processor on NRF5340 as an isolated secure element, or the secure key storage/key management unit features for this purpose? 

That depends on what is required for such an element. You're not getting a metallization layer there, if that is indeed required. But I guess you could try something along those lines for the moment, if this is mainly just to test the feasibility. 

Dhyey Sejpal said:

So currently what I need is if there are firmware examples of card emulation/ISO 14443 protocol guidelines to implement this functionality. I will also research on the protocol separately, but any guides on implementing it would be helpful. 

Have a look at our NFC samples, and see if you can use that as a starting point.

Is there any particular reason you wanted to use the nRF5340, as opposed to an nRF52? 

Regards,

Elfving

[Dhyey Sejpal]

Hello Elfving,

Sorry for the late reply. I missed the notification about your comment. Some of the reasons I wanted to use NRF5340 over NRF52 is because of its dual cores, which can possibly be used in an isolated manner, the higher memory and flash offered by it along with direction finding, as well as the different security features supported by it like Trusted Firmware - M, etc.

[Elfving]

I see. Yeah, it makes sense that you would want the additional security features it comes with.

The isolation from TF-M is great if you know how to use it well, it would be interesting if such a seperation is required for a contactless payment.

Let me know when you get an idea over what really is required for contactless payment products.

Regards,

Elfving

[Dhyey Sejpal]

Sure. I will continue to do more research around this.