ISO/IEC 14443
Smart Cards & RFID · 7 specs
Direct Answer
ISO/IEC 14443 is the international standard governing contactless Proximity Integrated Circuit Cards (PICC) and Proximity Coupling Devices (PCD) operating at 13.56 MHz over distances up to 10 cm. It defines two distinct physical and framing architectures—Type A and Type B—and forms the foundation of EMV contactless payment cards and ICAO biometric ePassports.
Source: ISO/IEC 14443 (Parts 1–4) / ICAO Doc 9303 · Last reviewed Aug 28, 2026
Specs
| Frequency Bands | 13.56 MHz |
| Standard Parts | Part 1 (Physical), Part 2 (RF/Signal), Part 3 (Initialization/Anticollision), Part 4 (T=CL Protocol) |
| Nominal Operating Range | Up to 10 cm |
| Data Transfer Rates | 106, 212, 424, and 848 kbps |
| Type A Modulation | 100% ASK with Modified Miller Coding |
| Type B Modulation | 10% ASK with NRZ Coding |
| Primary Applications | EMV contactless credit cards, biometric ePassports (ICAO 9303), national eID cards |
Type A vs Type B Technical Differences
The standard specifies two parallel modulation schemes:
- Type A: Uses 100% Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) with 2–3 microsecond pause pulses (Modified Miller code) from reader to card, and Manchester coding on a 848 kHz subcarrier from card to reader.
- Type B: Uses 10% modulation depth (unbroken continuous RF power carrier) with Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) encoding, offering smoother power delivery to power-hungry cryptoprocessors.
All commercial NFC smartphones and payment POS terminals are required to support both Type A and Type B interrogations.
Part 4 Transmission Protocol (T=CL)
ISO/IEC 14443-4 defines the high-level half-duplex transmission protocol (T=CL), enabling smart cards to exchange standard ISO/IEC 7816-4 Application Protocol Data Units (APDUs). This allows secure operating systems (Java Card, MULTOS) to execute RSA/ECC digital signatures and contactless EMV payment tokens.