SAN JOSE, Calif.—Infineon Technologies AG secured a multimillion-dollar order to supply the U.S. government with its RFID chips for electronic passports.
The company touts its RFID chips as being designed to “facilitate international travel by allowing automatic identity verification, faster immigration inspections and greater border protection and security.”
Infineon said the U.S. government expects that by the end of this year, all new U.S. passports will contain the company’s RFID chip in their back covers, storing the same information that is printed on passports. A digital photo of the passport holder is also printed on each e-passport, which will support facial-recognition technology to authenticate an individual’s identity.
Multiple layers of security protects e-passport holders’ privacy, according to Infineon. The company explained that its passport chips are protected from unwanted scanning by shielding material, which contains an encrypted copy of the printed information on the passport. In addition, Infineon said border control inspectors are required to pass e-passports over a scanner that first reads coded information and then authorizes the electronic reader to access the data stored on the chip. The actual data transmission occurs over a distance of about four inches.
The company said there are more than 50 individual security mechanisms inside its chip, including sophisticated computing methods for encrypting data, ensuring that personal data remains private.
“The United States is helping to set the pace for adoption of more secure travel documents around the world,” said Christopher Cook, managing director of Infineon Technologies North America Corp.
Infineon noted that the U.S. government began issuing e-passports to diplomats and other government workers late last year. In the past 10 years, the U.S. has issued more than 67 million passports, which are valid for 10 years from their date of issue. The U.S. government estimates that up to 15 million e-passports will be issued in the first year of the RFID rollout.
Infineon said it also supplies its secure identification chips to more than 20 countries that use e-passports or are testing the technology, including Germany, Hong Kong, Norway and Sweden. In addition, the chips are currently being used in secure identification cards issued by the U.S. Department of Defense.
