NFC transceiver IC from ST

[SiliconWizard]

ST announced a new NFC transceiver IC, and I remembered there was a thread in which we discussed NFC transceivers (can't find it now.)
I did suggest the ams AS3953, which I had used a few years ago, and which was nice and pretty versatile. Unfortunately, we saw that ams was going to stop producing it. At the time, I suggested that ST might take it over, as other NFC parts from ams had been handed over to ST.

Looks like the time has come. Whereas ST already had NFC transceivers, none was as flexible and powerful as the AS3953. But... here it is!

ST25R3918: https://www.st.com/en/nfc/st25r3918.html?ecmp=tt21882_gl_enews_jun2021&cid=stmDM44270&bid=435097367&uid=13RZcho5cQ2gQUqzWzQmIQ==

Communication up to 848kbits/s, large FIFO, fast SPI. It's like an AS3953, but on steroids!
So, anyone interested, especially the person with whom we discussed this in the other thread I mentioned... I suggest taking a look at this. I certainly will!

[SiliconWizard]

Just a couple first thoughts after reading the datasheet:

- It can act as a reader, or as a tag. The AS3953 could only act as a tag.
- It has no embedded EEPROM as far as I've seen. The AS3953 did.
- It has a 512-byte FIFO for data. The AS3953 only had a 32-byte one AFAIR.
- It supports up to 848 kbits/s. Same as the AS3953.
- It has apparently no energy harvesting ability. The AS3953 did; you could get up to a few mA from the NFC field, that you could use to power other stuff.
- The power consumption seems higher than for the AS3953. I would have to dig a little further though, because in "tag" mode, it seems less straightforward to interpret the given figures than with the AS3953.

You can refer to this for a comparison: https://ams.com/AS3953

So, looks like I'll still be missing the AS3953. Damn ams, why did you discontinue it? Not enough market?