MIFARE DESFIRE®

MIFARE® DESFire®

The safest MIFARE chip for a multitude of possibilities

Launched in 2002, the MIFARE DESFire was then first released in 2004. Well-known companies such as the american NASA work with this innovation from the NXP MIFARE series since the beginning. Meanwhile, the DESFire chip is used in numerous applications.

MIFARE DESFIRE – Safety first

As the name implies, the MIFARE DESFire was based on DES encryption and was produced with 4Kb of memory initially, but already at the time of its conception it was the safest building block in the MIFARE family. The “Fire” in the name stands for ” Fast, Innovative, Reliable and Enhanced “and again emphasized the idea of safety. The DESFire operates on a frequency of 13.56 MHz and is equipped with a 7 byte UID. (MIFARE and MIFARE DESFire are trademarks of NXP B.V.)

MIFARE DESFire EV1, flexible for many applications

The next innovation was the MIFARE DESFire EV1, which is now available in 2, 4, or 8 kilobytes of storage space, supporting not only DES but also 3DES, 3KDES, and AES encryption. With its Common Criteria certification (EAL4 +) and support for all four levels of ISO / IEC certification 14443A, the DESFire EV1 is still one of the most popular solutions for fast (848 kb / s) communication. Furthermore, a MIFARE DESFire card, with up to 28 different functions and 32 files per application, offers a very flexible platform for many operations.

MIFARE DESFire EV2, the next generation of chip cards

With the MIFARE DESFire EV2, NXP has launched a new component of the MIFARE family. With a multitude of additional features, the EV2 scores with a larger cache during data transfer, improved write speed, and increased read margin. With an authenticity check and the CC EAL5 + certification, an increase could also be achieved in terms of safety. Furthermore, the EV2 works like an app store, allowing customers to download and configure new applications and services independently. Also worth mentioning is the backward compatibility with previous products, so that the existing infrastructure can be used further.