The smart card readers listed on this page are, the best on the market today, used for contact chip and/or contactless smart card authentication

They are used for physical access control and logical access

The customer can easily find the type that best suits his needs.

Card readers are used to read or write smart cards which are currently of three types:

Contact reader

Contact chip readers are part of the smart card readers.
There are various types from the simplest to the most complex encrypted.

The use of contact smart cards is the widest, ranging from simple cards for gyms, automatic car washes, swimming pools, spas, cards for physical or logical authentication or banks.

Contactless reader

They exploit radio frequency: the exchange of data between the card and the reader takes place via the two antennas of the card and the reader.

They are also called RFID (Radio Frequency IDdentifier) or contactless cards, as they do not have to be touched to a reader or swiped on a magnetic reader.

To work you need two devices: a smart card reader (active element) and a smart card (passive element).

The reader connected to the computer generates a magnetic field: when a smart card is brought closer to the reader (on average 5 centimeters) the card uses the antenna to transform the magnetic field into current and therefore powers the chip.

At this point the two devices are connected to each other and the data exchange is managed by the software.

HF Contactless (high frequency 13.56 MHz)

The latest, but not the latest, cards use a frequency of 13.56 MHz, the best known being the NXP Mifare cards which have become a de facto standard.

They use various sectors, which can be used for different services: for example a sector for access to the company, a sector for access to the canteen, one for access to coffee machines, etc.

LF Contactless (low frequency 125 kHz)

Contactless LF cards are also called proximity cards, low frequency or 125 kHz cards.

They are also called RFID (radio frequency identification), since the magnetic signal generated by an active device (reader) is intercepted by a passive device (card or tag).

The use of these cards tends, over time, to decrease in favor of high frequency cards as they have more memory and are more flexible