NFC antenna working

[Ethan25]

How do NFC antennas work? I understand that when the reader and tag come in contact, there is an exchange of energy and data by mutual inductance. But I want to know if NFC antennas actually work like normal antennas. Do they radiate, even though technically they can't?

I was able to read about the factors influencing NFC antennas (inductance, geometrical parameters, and the number of loop turns), but I was not able to find anything regarding this. Any help regarding this would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[FvM]

NFC coils are inductive couplers not antennas. A very small share of the transmitted energy is coupled to the far field and radiated. It can be calculated applying antenna theorie.

 

[biff44]

they operate in the "near field"--meaning the fields die off very rapidly with distance, and follow a different attenuation/distance formula. That is one difference between them and a "normal" antenna.