News
Fingerprints and Infineon partner on biometric payment cards
August 2020 by Marc Jacob
Biometric payment cards with an integrated fingerprint sensor make contactless payments more convenient, more secure and hygienic. The contactless card remains in the hands of the cardholder throughout the entire payment transaction, while eliminating the need for PIN entries or signatures to authorize even high-value payments. Infineon Technologies AG and Fingerprint Cards AB have joined forces to enable mass deployment of this emerging solution.
The world leaders for security controller in contactless payment and for fingerprint sensors, including their related software, aim to provide card makers with biometric semiconductor solutions which make integration particularly cost-efficient and scalable. The fingerprint information is stored on the card’s embedded secure element and not shared with any third party, thus protecting the user’s credentials.
Fingerprints’ sensor modules, combined with Infineon’s 40 nm high-performance and energy-efficient security controllers based on the 32-bit ARM® SC300™ SecurCore®, fully support the requirements of biometric payment cards. They enable:
• Secured matching of the fingerprint image within the security controller where the private data is securely stored
• Excellent contactless performance despite the increased power required
• Convenient and reliable enrollment of sensitive biometric data in the card
Almost every second payment card with a chip worldwide has an Infineon security controller at its core. Infineon also supplied chip solutions for major biometric card projects and pilots in 2020.
