Infineon Technologies AG is launching its latest security
microcontroller for NFC applications: the embedded Secure
Element. As an integral part of the mobile phone electronics,
the embedded Secure Element provides security for NFC applications
such as mobile payment, ticketing and access control. The
embedded Secure Element is compatible with all common mobile
phone operating systems. Infineon's NFC security microcontrollers
are currently already used in most NFC-enabled smart phones.
IMS Research anticipates that the global number of NFC-enabled
smart phones and other mobile devices will be about 40 million
in 2011 and projects that this figure will grow to 120 million
units in 2012. Every tenth new mobile device will then have
NFC functionality.
"Trust in reliable mobile payment is a must-have to
bring NFC from today's niche into the mass market. Among
the key elements that have contributed to Infineon's smart
card IC leadership has been its high level of commitment
to security innovation. Its security expertise makes Infineon
well-positioned to take a lead role in the NFC market,"
said Alex Green, Senior Research Director at IMS Research.
"NFC changes the way we use mobile phones. Infineon
establishes the technical basis for secure mobile payment,"
said Dr. Helmut Gassel, President of the Chip Card &
Security Division at Infineon Technologies AG. "With
our security microcontrollers, mobile phones offer NFC functionality
that is secure, convenient and efficient. 2011 will see
most NFC-enabled mobile devices using Infineon's NFC chips."
Infineon's NFC products are all available and are certified
to the Common Criteria EAL 5+ (high) international standard,
the world's strictest security requirements for security
microcontrollers. They have received approval according
to EMVCo (Europay International, Mastercard, Visa) and are
suitable for all payment applications offered by mobile
devices over NFC.
The new embedded Secure Element, the SLE 97144SE, is part
of the electronics in present-day smart phones. This key
element ensures compliance of NFC-enabled smart phones with
the security requirements of payment and ticketing applications.
Its interface is designed specifically for connection to
the NFC modem and allows data transfer, beyond the 848 kilobits/second
specified according to ISO14443. Enabling Infineon's based
NFC devices interoperate with all existing infrastructures
for mobile payment and ticketing.
The embedded Secure Element stores the data in encrypted
form and remains encrypted for processing along the entire
data path (CPUs, memories, caches and buses). The embedded
Secure Element security microcontroller has two central
processing units (CPU) and a sophisticated error detection
system.
Infineon's SLE 88CNFX6600PM uses an ETSI-compliant Single
Wire Protocol (SWP) interface to connect the SIM card to
the mobile device's NFC modem. Also it supports Mifare contactless
technology. The SLE 88CNFX6600PM uses Infineon-developed
SOLID FLASH technology that unites memory flash technology
with special security features. Infineon says the security
microcontroller offers secure non-volatile memory and combines
the flexibility and convenience of flash-like memory with
the advantage of the EEPROM, which features granularity,
very fast programming times and at least 500,000 program
cycles. It also provides hardware firewalls to secure the
coexistence of multiple applications, such as banking and
Java applications from different service providers, which
can be downloaded to a mobile device. The SLE 88CNFX6600PM
is available and was used, for example, in the big NFC field
trial in Nice, France.
