NXP ships 100 millionth ePassport chip

eGovernment ID Market

NXP ships 100 millionth ePassport chip

Dutch semiconductor firm maintains clear leadership of the eGovernment ID market

Friday, November 28, 2008

EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS: NXP has shipped its 100 millionth ePassport chip in Qu3 2008, confirming the company’s number one position in the eGovernment identification market.

Worldwide, NXP is involved in more than 80 percent of all ePassport schemes with 55 out of the 67 countries using NXP’s SmartMX chip technology including the USA, UK, France, Germany, Turkey and Singapore. Building on its leadership in the market for contactless security ICs, NXP provides governments with a proven security solution that can be used within a variety of eGovernment projects.

“NXP’s ability to provide secure, reliable and interoperable chip technology for passports has lead to the SmartMX chip becoming the solution of choice by governments worldwide,” said Günter Schlatte, general manager, eGovernment, NXP Semiconductors. “In addition to ePassports, NXP’s technology is now being used in a number of domestic ID projects including national ID cards, health cards and driving licenses. We have developed a deep understanding of the complexity of governmental applications and constantly work on innovative chip solutions to address future security and performance needs of governments and citizens.”

“The criteria for biometric passport chips are very stringent with security, data privacy and reliability in the field being the key requirements,” said Anoop Ubhey, global programme manager, smart cards & ICT, Frost & Sullivan. “NXP’s technology leadership in contactless security and its ability to continually innovate in this area has enabled the company to create a solution which is fully compliant with current worldwide standards, propelling them to a very strong position within the eGovernment market.”

Originally launched in 2004, the aim of the biometric passport was to improve the level of security at border controls and provide greater security against counterfeiting and fraud. NXP has a proven track record in offering eGovernment solutions with the strongest protection of sensitive private data along with highest performance in terms of transaction speed, power consumption, interface options as well as convenience for end-users.

In 2005, NXP was the first silicon supplier to have a contactless security chip, the P5CD072, compliant with the BAC (Basic Access Control) requirements from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for ePassports and certified to the Common Criteria (CC) certification level EAL5+ by the German Federal Office of Information Security. Building on the strength of the original product, the company in 2007 launched a new IC into the SmartMX family, the P5CD080, which became the first EAL5+ certified chip in the industry fully supporting the EAC (Extended Access Control) specification from ICAO.

In addition, in September this year, NXP launched its flagship SmartMX product, the P5CD081. This new chip set a new industry benchmark by running the Extended Access Control (EAC) ePassport operation with the complete citizen dataset, including fingerprints, in as little as 3.5 seconds. The new SmartMX is also the first smart card controller to feature the Secure Fetch™ Technology, which significantly enhances the chip hardware security. This unique security technology from NXP offers best-in-class protection against attack scenarios with light and lasers (so-called fault attacks), thereby greatly facilitating the development of highly secure software applications for customers.

©CIOL Bureau