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RF430CL330H: What transmission rates of user data are effectively possible in an application with the RF430CL330H?

Part Number: RF430CL330H
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: TIDA-00230, RF430CL331H, TRF7970A

Hi all,

I have a request to the RF430CL330H:

Can you specify what transmission rates of user data is effectively possible in an application with the RF430CL330H? In the reference design TIDA-00230 (NFC Configuration an Logging Interface) a throughput of 800kbps is stated. How is it possible to reach that high data rates, as long as I2C-communication goes only up to 400kbps?

Which NFC reader chip have you used in combination with this reference design?

Is it possible to support a top speed of the transmission of somewhere around 20kBits of application data per second?

Many thanks for the support and best,

Miri

  • Hello Miriam,

    I am not sure why that TI design lists the data rate at that level. That is misleading information as 848kbps is the over-the-air rate but does not account for overhead of communication.

    Realistic data rates on the high end are in the ~20kB/s (~160kbps) range with using high rate data for both I2C and NFC, though you won't get to transfer that much data that quickly with the RF430CL330H as it only has 3kB of SRAM for message storage before a new message needs to be loaded. You would need to use the RF430CL331H for larger data transfers (which I don't think existed when that TI design was made).

    I2C's 400kbps can still be a bit of a bottleneck since it's slower than the over-the-air rate, but by leveraging a buffer/pre-fetch system that the CL331H architecture offers it is possible to mitigate some of the impact from that mismatch in data rates and therefore improve the over-the-air throughput by 10-30% as a result.

    20kBit/s (which is effectively 2.5 kByte/s) should be no issue on the RF430CL331H side if properly optimized.

    Note that the system does have dependence on the reader device, both to support high data rate, and also to dedicate itself to NFC as well as operate in a timely manner as the reader dictates when data is transferred, so the CL331H can also be bottle-necked by a slow reader not requesting data rapidly.

    The NFC Reader chip we use for throughput testing is the TRF7970A. However for maximum throughput, the base example we offer wouldn't be a good representation as USB communication on the TRF7970A slows the throughput. You may need to modify the example to not output USB data to see the desired data rates (though there's a chance it may get close even w/ USB enabled since 2.5kB/s isn't too steep). The app note w/ example code and recommend EVM is: http://www.ti.com/lit/pdf/sloa227 and our device FAQ for the TRF79xxA devices is: http://www.ti.com/lit/pdf/sloa246

    To understand differences between the RF430CL330H and RF430CL331H, please see Section 2 of our device FAQ: http://www.ti.com/lit/pdf/sloa244