FeliCa vs. MIFARE
Comparing 2 standards across 13 specifications. 12 key differences identified.
FeliCa (Fast Electronic Card) is a contactless RFID smart card technology developed by Sony, standardized under JIS X 6319-4 and ISO/IEC 18092 (NFC Type 3). Operating at 13.56 MHz with 212/424 kbps Manchester encoding, it is engineered for ultra-fast sub-100ms transit gate transactions like Suica, Pasmo, and Octopus.
MIFARE is a proprietary contactless smart card technology developed by Mikron (now NXP Semiconductors) conforming to ISO/IEC 14443 Type A. Spanning MIFARE Classic, Ultralight, Plus, and DESFire EV1/2/3, it is widely cited by NXP and industry sources as the world's most widely deployed contactless smart card platform for transit ticketing and access control.
Specification Comparison Table
13 Parameters| Parameter / Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Frequency Bands
|
13.56 MHz | 13.56 MHz |
|
National / International Standard
|
JIS X 6319-4 / ISO/IEC 18092 (NFC-F) | — |
|
NFC Forum Classification
|
Type 3 Tag | — |
|
Data Transfer Rates
|
212 and 424 kbps | — |
|
Modulation Scheme
|
Manchester Coding (10% ASK) | — |
|
Transaction Processing Speed
|
< 100 ms | — |
|
Security Algorithms
|
AES-128 / DES / 3DES (FeliCa Standard) | — |
|
Standard Compliance
|
— | ISO/IEC 14443-A (Parts 1–4 for DESFire/Plus) |
|
Communication Rate
|
— | 106 to 848 kbps |
|
Typical Read Range
|
— | 2.5 to 10 cm |
|
Primary Variants
|
— | Classic (1K/4K), Ultralight, Plus, DESFire EV1/EV2/EV3 |
|
Security Ciphers
|
— | Crypto-1 (Classic, Broken), AES-128 (Plus/DESFire), 3DES (DESFire EV1) |
|
Common Criteria Certification
|
— | EAL5+ (DESFire EV2/EV3) |