Infineon, Sony to jointly develop contactless chip card ICs

Electronic News, Nov 19, 2001

INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG AND SONY CORP. LAST WEEK SIGNED a joint development covering secure ICs for contactless chip card systems. This technology would be used for secure authentication and identification functions in applications such as banking cards, government-or company-issued ID cards and public transit electronic fare tickets.

The companies will combine Sony's FeliCa contactless chip card technology with Infineon's experience in secure chip card ICs and semiconductor manufacturing processes. Munich, Germany-based Infineon will integrate Sony's type-C contactless chip card specifications and FeliCa operating system with its contactless IC product family. Infineon will manufacture the dual-interface ICs, containing jointly defined type-C secure technology, and supply them to Tokyo-based Sony. Infineon said the deal makes it the only manufacturer of chip card ICs to fully comply with the three contactless interface formats: types A, B and C. The three formats differ in the protocols for data transmission.

A contactless chip card has a special transmission module for over-the-air data communication, consisting of a chip and an antenna embedded in the card so that the card does not have to be inserted into a terminal's slot. The jointly developed ICs will be integrated as dual-interface chips, having both contact and contactless interfaces, and are expected to be available by the end of 2002.

Infineon said it estimates the worldwide market for chip cards to reach up to 4.5 billion cards in 2006, about 25 percent of which will be equipped with contactless technology. The company said market research company Gartner Dataquest reports that worldwide chip card shipments were about 1.8 billion units in 2000.