German government selects Philips, Infineon technology for smart passport roll-out
02 June, 2005
category: Biometrics, Government
Germany’s passport printing authority has chosen contactless smart card chips manufactured by Royal Philips Electronics and Munich, Germany-based Infineon for use in the country’s smart passports. Aim of the country, like many others, is to meet guidelines set by various countries, including the U.S. and EU, requiring visitors to have a machine-readable passport.
Industry-Leading Secure Solution to Be Implemented in Country’s Passports
SAN JOSE, Calif.- Royal Philips Electronics announced that the German passport printing authority, the Bundesdruckerei GmbH, has selected on behalf of German Ministry of Interior its contactless smart card chip for use in the country’s smart passports. Based on sophisticated encryption technology, the highly secure chip will be used to hold personal information on the passport holder, reducing fraud and forgery of travel documents and increasing security for travelers. Philips is the first volume supplier of such chips for smart passports.
Driven by the United States’ visa waiver program, which requires visitors to the country to present a machine readable passport when visiting the country for less than 90 days, governments around the world are implementing smart passports. Philips is working closely with a network of national governments worldwide to develop solutions designed around current and future security needs. The company is a global leader in the development and manufacture of highly secure contactless and contact smart card chip solutions for security systems and payment applications such as banking and credit cards.
“As governments around the world look to implement smart passports, the decision by the Bundesdruckerei GmbH is a strong endorsement of Philips’ expertise in this arena,” said Reinhard Kalla, vice president and general manager, Business Line Identification, Philips Semiconductors. “Smart passports enable greater levels of security than those provided by current passports, increasing safety for travelers and enabling governments to better protect their borders.”
The Philips chip used in the project has been certified by the German Federal Office of Information Security (Bundesamt fur Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik), the central IT security service provider for the German government. It has received the organization’s Common Criteria EAL5+ certification, the highest level of security certification awarded to any secure contactless smart card solution available. It also exceeds the specifications for smart passports set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). As the system provider for the project, Philips is working with a variety of partners to implement the scheme, including Sokymat GmbH and T-Systems, who is responsible for the operating system, including the on-chip passport application.
The high-performance chip features Philips’ unique ultra low power handshaking technology, enabling an exceptional operating range by fully meeting the ISO/IEC14443 standard power range requirements. Having manufactured over 400 million contactless smart card chip modules to date, Philips can offer a 320 micron flat MOB4 chip package for smart passports in high volumes.
The 72Kbyte EEPROM memory, high-security chip is specifically designed to fulfill the needs of eGovernment projects, with its high memory capacity able to hold biometric information such as fingerprints and facial images. Additionally, the IC is highly reliable, with a data retention time that significantly exceeds the industry standard.
About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE:PHG)(AEX:PHI) is one of the world’s biggest electronics companies and Europe’s largest, with sales of $37.66 billion (EUR 30.3 billion) in 2004. With activities in the three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and technology and 160,900 employees in more than 60 countries, it has market leadership positions in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring, color television sets, electric shavers, lighting and silicon system solutions. News from Philips is located at www.semiconductors.philips.com.