Setting up smart home devices has often relied on QR codes, Bluetooth pairing or network discovery that can fail when products are installed in difficult locations or are not powered during commissioning. As smart home installations scale and Matter adoption continues, reliability rather than feature expansion is becoming the main challenge. STMicroelectronics has introduced the ST25DA C chip to address this shift with a secure NFC chip designed for tap based onboarding in Matter 1.5 devices, allowing equipment to be added to a network without local power.
NFC Commissioning for Matter-Based Systems
Matter 1.5 supports the ability for devices to join a network through a single tap instead of waiting for wireless discovery. The ST25DA C is the first commercial device built to support this approach, enabling lighting, access control and monitoring products to be registered through physical interaction with a smartphone. Because the chip harvests energy from the RF field, onboarding can take place before mains power is connected. In practice this avoids situations where installers must reach QR labels behind panels or power devices temporarily just to complete setup. For large scale rollouts, the ability to add multiple devices in sequence without waiting for scan and pairing cycles can also reduce installation time.
Security Integration and Credential Handling
The device incorporates secure storage for cryptographic material used during Matter commissioning, including certificates and network credentials. It is based on Common Criteria certified hardware and is targeting SESIP level 3 to align with requirements emerging in regulated IoT deployments. Keeping authentication within a dedicated secure element reduces the risk of key exposure or cloning, particularly for access control products that cannot rely on external storage. For developers, integrating secure NFC can also simplify certification since key handling is contained inside the component rather than distributed across firmware.
Design Considerations for Product Integration
The ST25DA C is supplied as an NFC Forum Type 4 tag in a compact DFN8 package and can be mounted in devices with minimal available space. Energy harvesting from the RF field allows commissioning to proceed without a battery, which is useful for products installed before wiring or those shipped without power applied. For manufacturers building accessories that need to be provisioned in parallel, tap based onboarding can streamline production and reduce the number of steps required in final assembly. The approach also avoids reliance on printed codes that may be damaged or inaccessible once devices are installed.
Implications for Future Smart Home Deployment
As connected homes expand beyond isolated ecosystems, onboarding reliability will influence adoption more than additional features. The introduction of secure NFC in Matter hardware provides a path that combines physical user interaction with cryptographically verified provisioning. For engineers working on long term product roadmaps, this can reduce support load and installation errors while maintaining compatibility with existing Matter infrastructure.
Learn more and read the original announcement at www.st.com
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