Near Field Communications Handsets and Tags, NFC Pilots and Projects

NXP, STMicroelectronics partner

Thursday, November 12, 2009

NXP, the semiconductor company founded by Philips, and STMicroelectronics, a provider of smart card chips, announced a global strategic licensing agreement for NXP’s MIFARE technology.

The licensing agreement enables STMicroelectronics to integrate the MIFARE family into its security solutions for mobile phone and banking applications. It will facilitate the convergence of the MIFARE infrastructure and Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile devices.


ST will also include MIFARE Classic and MIFARE DESFire technology into its leading (U)SIM card ICs and other embedded secure solutions for the mobile phone market, as well as into security solutions for PC readers and banking card ICs. The licensing agreement provides operators and device vendors with availability of contactless smart card ICs incorporating the MIFARE technology used in public transport networks, ticketing systems and access management worldwide.

The agreement is designed to drive NFC-based services, such as electronic ticketing and payment, as well as advanced contactless banking cards. These applications will deliver enhanced consumer convenience and user-friendliness while allowing mobile network operators to increase average revenue per user. [end] 

Oracle has released a new version of Oracle Retail Point-of-Service that aims to increase security, operational efficiency and functionality in part by integrating biometrics.

Oracle partnered with DigitalPersonal to add integrated biometrics to the POS package. Users of the software will login using their fingerprint, which will replace the need for PINs or passwords. This feature intends to reduce fraud by eliminating the possibility of unauthorized employees using a manager ID or swipe card to access the POS and approve overrides.

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The Peninsula Taxi Association (PTA) in South Africa has launched a electronic fare collection system, granting commuters cashless fare and discounts when using the newly developed contactless-enabled transit card, according to The Cape Times.

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The Jacksonville Transit Authority (JTA) experienced an overwhelmingly large amount of people signing up for the region’s new STAR smart payment card system, according to a local news brief.

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STMicroelectronics developed a new RF testing method that uses electromagnetic waves instead of contact probes to remotely evaluate wafers equipped with RFID ICs.

According to ST, this “contactless” approach results in higher yields, shorter testing times and lower product cost. In addition, contactless testing allows RF circuits to be tested under conditions that are close to the real application conditions.

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STMicroelectronics has unveiled a new secure IC chip for the latest version the Calypso ticketing open standard.

With the support of ST’s CD21-Rev3 solution, the Calypso Revision 3 standard enables operators to offer contactless transit cards with extra services such as an e-purse, loyalty rewards or USB key.

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In Europe, the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) and EPASOrg has developed a new global standard to help accommodate changes in new payment technologies, according to SupermarketNews.com

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