Smart Packaging Solutions (SPS) and Infineon Technologies AG just signed a cross licensing agreement covering their intellectual property for the “Inductive Coupling” technology.
ROUSSET, FRANCE, February, 1st 2013 – Inductive coupling technology is at the core of SPS manufacturing process for its dual technology cards (with contact and contactless interfaces). Thanks to inductive coupling, antennas are coupled together without the need for an electrical connection. In addition to a reduced cost, inductive coupling, as is implemented in SPS E-Booster® technology, ensures the best level of reliability for dual technology smart cards.
In December 2012, Infineon Technologies and Smart Packaging Solutions (SPS) entered into a patent cross license agreement in the field of inductive coupling technology. Both parties are confident that the agreement will be beneficial to customers, for example, enabling freedom of choice of suppliers and securing intellectual property rights regarding the use of such technology by both parties.
Both parties see a high attractiveness in the inductive coupling technology and a substantial growth potential in the related worldwide smart card market. Therefore, they intend to significantly increase investments into manpower and effort to further develop the market.
The agreement between Infineon Technologies and Smart Packaging Solutions (SPS) implies that both parties can serve the market independently. The specific terms and conditions of this agreement are confidential.
Dual technology banking cards are bound to represent the largest volumes for future deployments of payment and banking cards according to industry analysts. IMS Research (an IHS company) establishes that “annual volumes of smart payment and banking cards shipped are forecast to increase from 1.1 billion in 2011 to 3.5 billion in 2017”.
Philippe Patrice, Smart Packaging Solutions CEO, declares: “Dual technology is bound to represent the largest volumes of banking and payment cards. Our agreement with Infineon Technologies will allow inductive coupling to become the technology standard for dual interface cards. This will represent a tremendous opportunity for SPS and for the development of dual interface cards globally.”
The inductive coupling based E-Booster® technology allows smart card manufacturers of all sizes to deliver high-performance dual technology cards to financial institutions issuing banking cards with the lowest manufacturing cost in the market. The platform SPS delivers to its customers consists in a micro-module with contacts for EMV contact transactions integrating a small antenna, and an inlay with a full card size antenna, coupled with the small antenna, allowing an efficient errorless communication in contactless mode between the card and the reader. This way, and because there is no physical connection between both antennas, cards are reliable, and even allow five lines of embossing in the ISO defined area. Thanks to the E-Booster® technology, smart card manufacturers are able to deliver dual technology contact & contactless cards without costly investments in their production chain. They can easily integrate a stable process that guarantees high yield rates for their dual interface card embedding process.
About SPS
With more than 20 years of experience in the field of smart card technologies, Smart Packaging Solutions is specialized in the design, manufacturing and sale of contactless solutions dedicated to ID cards, e-passport and dual interface banking cards. Headquartered in Rousset, France, SPS employs 100 people. The company specializes in contactless and dual-interface products, with a recognized micro packaging expertise. SPS has filed over 120 patents supporting its exclusive technologies. More information at www.s-p-s.com
Contacts:
Olivier BRUNET, Product & Marketing director, SPS, contact@s-p-s.com,
tel: +33 4 42 53 84 44