NXP secures over 2 billion payment and government ID cards with SmartMX

EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS: NXP Semiconductors N.V. today announced that it has shipped over two billion SmartMX secure microcontroller chips to the growing chip-enabled payment and government identity card markets. The increasing adoption of contactless and dual interface payments cards in the financial sector and the increasing trend to issue electronic government documents means that security chips are being used more than ever to protect personal information and data.

SmartMX technology from NXP ensures that personal information kept on banking cards, e-passports or national ID cards is always protected. Built on NXP's IntegralSecurity process, SmartMX products have over 100 advanced features for attack protection and have achieved Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level (CC EAL) 6+ certification, one of the world's most trusted security profiles.

Future NXP SmartMX secure microcontrollers will feature Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) technology from Instrinsic-ID. PUF safeguards individual chips from data theft by using a unique ‘fingerprint' to protect the encryption key, therefore making the device extremely hard to clone and reverse-engineer.

Ulrich Huewels, VP and GM, secure card solutions, NXP Semiconductors said: "The advancements made in digital government and contactless payment cards over the years have been remarkable. For NXP, reaching the ‘two billion shipped' milestone for our SmartMX security chips clearly demonstrates the trust institutions and governments globally place in NXP to provide convenient and secure interactions. These organizations offer individuals peace of mind in our increasingly complex, open and connected world. It's imperative that we continue to develop best-in-class, innovative solutions that keep personal data safe."