MIFARE® DESFire® EV2 proximity chips are made by the trusted chip manufacturer NXP Semiconductors, and are the most popular NFC Type 4 chips (chips for secure transactions).
They operate on a frequency of 13.56 MHz and are compatible with the RFID standards ISO/IEC 14443-4A/B and ISO/IEC 7816. They have a 7-byte long chip Unique ID number (UID) and 2, 4, or 8 Kbytes of data. MIFARE DESFire EV2 chips use multiple hardware cryptographic engines for secure transactions. The data retention time for these chips is 25 years.
MIFARE DESFire EV2 chips are typically used for:
- Secure NFC applications
- Secure Access control and Ticketing
- Public transportation
- Cashless vending
- Micro Payments.
MIFARE DESFire EV2 cards are made from multiple layers of PVC cards and have a standard credit card dimension 86 x 54 x 0.85 mm. The cards are bright white, without numeration or other printed elements, and have a top layer with a coating that allows subsequent printing with thermo transfer or thermo retransfer printers. They can be printed with various brands of card printers like Zebra, HID Fargo, Matica, Magicard, Datacard, and others.
Options for customization (for pricing please send us an inquiry)
For printing smaller quantities (1–500 pcs.), we usually use high quality thermal retransfer printers which print each card separately with CMYK colors. We can print just a single side or both sides of the card. The cards can be even personalized with color employee photos or the chip UID numbers. The disadvantages of the thermo retransfer print are high costs of ribbons and slow speed, so it makes it less cost effective for higher quantities.
When there is a need to print 500 or more cards, we make a pre-print with offset printing technology and subsequent personalization with thermal printers. Beside the CMYK colors, we can print the gold, silver, or Pantone colors as well.
The advantage of the pre-printed cards is that the print is done during a card manufacturing process and therefore very high quality and protected against scratches with top transparent layers. Offset printing technology is very cost effective for high quantities of cards and the higher it gets the cheaper a single card become. The disadvantage is that the process takes quite a long time (approx. 2 weeks).
Our other personalization services include:
- Numeration or personalization form Excel table,
- Printing of employee photos, multiple artwork variations,
- Printing different kind of barcodes and QR codes,
- Reading and printing the chip ID numbers in various formats,
- Chip encoding – the content of digital business cards, writing custom data, change keys.
If you need printed MIFARE DESFire cards, please send us an inquiry with the desired card quantity and deadline.
Reading test for cards with MIFARE DESFire EV2
We have tested the MIFARE DESFire EV2 cards with different kinds of readers and measured the reading distances. This is not an official test, but was made to inform you what reading distances you may expect with your application.
The reading distance between the card and the reader is affected by many different factors, like the size of the antennas and quality of the chips, the interferences of metal, and electromagnetic signals, etc.
Technical specification for MIFARE DESFire EV2 cards
Chip manufacturer: NXP Semiconductors
Chip: MIFARE DESFire EV2,
ISO/IEC standards: 14443-4A/B and ISO/IEC 7816
Memory size: 2, 4, or 8 Kbytes of data
Security: DES and AES hardware cryptographic engine for secure transactions, 7-byte long preprogrammed chip Unique ID number
Operating frequency: 13.56 MHz
Reading distance: up to 10 cm (usually up to 5 cm)
Card dimensions: CR80 (85.60 x 53.98 mm)
Thickness: 0.84 mm
Material: PVC
Printing options: offset print, thermo re-transfer, thermo transfer
Official technical documentation for MIFARE DESFire EV2 chips and software tools are available here:
https://www.nxp.com/products/rfid-nfc/mifare-hf/mifare-desfire/mifare-desfire-ev2:MIFARE_DESFIRE_EV2_2K_8K
There are available also cards with the latest DESFire chip which is called MIFARE DESFire EV3, and we recommend to check them especially for new applications.
White cards with a MIFARE DESFire EV3 chip
The technical comparison and compatibility between DESFire versions EV1, EV2, and EV3 are described in detail in the document:
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/application-note/AN12752.pdf
If you need larger quantities send an email to info@rfidspecialist.eu or call +38641 884 124 and we will be happy to help you.
If you are an integrator or reseller, we offer special discounts.