Unlocking the Potential of Digital Product Passports with NFC Technology

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In the era of sustainability and traceability, Digital Product Passport (DPP) has emerged as a tool to record the product’s information throughout its entire lifecycle. Digital Product Passport has been adopted by various businesses to meet consumer demand for transparency and to comply with evolving regulations.

The European Union (EU) will soon require a Digital Product Passport for various product categories under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR). This regulation aims to improve products’ circularity, energy performance, and other environmental sustainability aspects. Digital Product Passport will serve as a comprehensive record, providing easy-to-access information about a product’s environmental sustainability attributes, such as durability, reparability, recycled content, and the availability of spare parts.

Products with a high environmental impact will be prioritized, including textiles, furniture, chemicals, batteries, consumer electronics, electronic devices, and construction products. The mandate is planned to be adopted by the EU between 2026 and 2030 and will apply to all 27 EU member countries.

Fig.1: Maximize benefit in using Digital Product Passport with NFC

Digital Product Passport utilizes a combination of technologies to ensure efficient data management and seamless linkage of information with the product throughout its lifecycle. For data management, Digital Product Passport requires a system capable of collecting, controlling, and sharing detailed information about a product’s journey. To link this information with the actual product, technologies like QR codes and NFC can be utilized. However, NFC generally offers several benefits over QR codes. Such as:

Grater security, due to the difficulty of copying.
More user-friendly experience, as it does not require manual scanning-just a simple tap with a smartphone.
Larger storage capacity, allowing NFC to hold more comprehensive information for digital product passport and it can extend into various use-cases when it integrated with IoT device.

NFC’s versatility extends beyond Digital Product Passport reading by any smartphone. It can be the authentication powerhouse for a broad range of consumption units for IoT devices, starting from simple air purifiers to advanced electric vehicles. By ensuring consumers interact with genuine components, NFC elevates the user experience to another level and eliminates the need for integrating a pricey vision system into the device for QR authentication.

With NFC tags from Silicon Craft Technology such as SIC43NT and SIC43S1, they offer even more security with their built-in encryption functionality for web-based authentication.

Fig. 2: Silicon Craft Technology NFC tag with web-based authentication concept

Silicon Craft Technology’s Secure NFC Tag IC
support digital product passport

SIC43NT / SIC43S1 offers a web-based authentication feature that generates a new secured code with each tap. This code can be sent to the server for verification. This feature is designed to allow access exclusively to users who are physically present and tap the tag.

The URL link generated by SIC43NT/SIC43S1 is intended for one-time use. Therefore, if an attempt is made to retrieve the product’s information via a reused URL link, access will be denied. Information can only be obtained by tapping a smartphone on the tag.

By applying SIC43NT / SIC43S1 in Digital Product Passport solution, it offers several benefits including:

Ease of Use: No special equipment is needed to read NFC tags, making it easy for end-users to verify product authenticity with just a smartphone.
Enhanced Security: The web-based authentication feature of SIC43NT/SIC43S1 ensures that the data can be securely accessed.
Traceability: SIC43NT/SIC43S1 secure features make it easy to track products through the supply chain, providing full transparency and preventing counterfeit products.
Durability and Reliability: Compared to QR Codes, NFC IC like SIC43NT/SIC43S1 are robust, making them difficult to deface. This ensures that the DPP information remains accessible throughout the product’s lifecycle.
Consumer Engagement: By providing a secure way to store product information, SIC43NT/SIC43S1 can enable new forms of customer engagement, such as storytelling about the product’s origin and lifecycle.

With these benefits of using SIC43NT/SIC43S1 in Digital Product Passport solution, security and traceability can be further enhanced by integrating SIC43NT/SIC43S1 with blockchain technology to ensure robust data management through its immutability and transparency.

Digital Product Passport is going to be an essential digital record that contains a product’s information throughout its entire life cycle. The European Union (EU) plans to regulate the implementation of Digital Product Passport to support the creation of more environmentally sustainable and circular products. This initiative aims to minimize waste and improve resource efficiency. In anticipation of this regulatory mandate, Silicon Craft Technology offers NFC tag ICs with web-based authentication security features (SIC43NT/SIC43S1). These ICs not only serve as data carriers for the upcoming EU regulations but also open possibilities for additional applications, thereby enriching the overall user experience.

Explore Silicon Craft NFC tag ICs to find well-suited solutions for your applications and amplify your technology experience even further. Please visit SIC43NT / SIC43S1 product page for more detail. Silicon Craft team is eager to assist you with any inquiries.