Cooperation brings biometric payment cards to a new level

Infineon Technologies AG and Fingerprint Cards AB have signed a joint development and commercialisation agreement for a plug-and-play turnkey solution for biometric payment smart cards. The objective of the cooperation is to make biometric smart card production as simple and easy as creating a standard dual-interface payment card.

This comprehensive SECORA Pay Bio turnkey solution will comprise Fingerprints' FPC1323 sensor with its biometric software algorithm and Infineon's upcoming SLC39B Secure Element. This off-the-shelf solution will be provided with a pre-certified Java Card operating system incorporating Mastercard and Visa bio-applets. With the development of the innovative Infineon Biometric Coil on Module (BCoM) package based on inductive coupling technology, the overall biometric smart card manufacturing process will be notably simplified, and the BOM substantially lowered. This will enable card manufacturers to use existing card manufacturing equipment to produce biometric payment cards and allow scalable and efficient volume production.

"Our collaboration with Infineon will further push the boundaries of producing biometric payment cards with new, innovative product designs for the mass market," said Michel Roig, president of Payment and Access at Fingerprints. "By combining and integrating the leading components, Fingerprints' FPC1323 and Infineon's SLC39B security system-on-chip, into one system package, we will offer proven biometric performance executed in a single chip. This innovative and fully integrated solution will simplify, scale production, and enable worriless payments for consumers."

"The cooperation agreement with our strategic partner Fingerprints is an important milestone in enabling easy-to-manufacture, cost-effective, and highly scalable biometric card production simply with existing tools at no additional CAPEX for our customers," said Tolgahan Yildiz, head of Payment Solutions at Infineon's Connected Secure Systems Division. "This milestone also ratifies Infineon's true commitment to biometric smart cards, where we will continue to work and innovate diligently with our partners to enable a great customer journey with biometric smart cards from production and enrolment up until payment at retail stores for secured and seamless transactions."

The solution will expand Infineon's SECORA Pay turnkey family to meet the fast-growing segment of biometric banking cards. SLC39B is its advanced SoC cryptoprocessor with a combined power source, large memory size and diverse peripherals, and best-in-class contactless performance. The company's BCoM is a tailored, innovative, dual-interface Coil on Module for SECORA Pay Bio, which combines Fingerprints' advanced sensor and Infineon's upcoming Secure Element into a single package. The inductive coupling technology requires no wire connection between the card antenna and the module. This substantially enhances the robustness and long-term reliability of biometric payment cards.