Date: 13/12/2010

Infineon bag chips order for German ID cards

Leading vendor of security ID semiconductor chips Infineon has announced it is supplying security controllers of the SLE 78 product family for the new German ID card. The German authorities have been issuing the new electronic ID in chip card format since November 1, 2010. Infineon said it is providing a significant share of the chips for Europe's biggest ID project. Currently, around 60 million German ID cards are in circulation, usually valid for ten years. About 6.5 million ID cards are issued each year.

"Right from the start, Infineon has played a significant role as an innovation driver in shaping the over 25-year history of the chip card. We are delighted that our new generation of security controllers are used in the German ID card. It confirms our technological expertise in government identity documents", said Dr. Helmut Gassel, President of the Chip Card & Security Division at Infineon Technologies.

Infineon claims about 80 percent of electronic ID cards in Europe today contain Infineon security controllers. Infineon states by the end of 2011, 14 of the 27 EU member states will have started issuing the electronic ID card to their citizens. As a result, almost half of the 500 million EU citizens will have obtained such an ID card within the next years.

The SLE 78 chip in the new German ID card has been certified by the Germany Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Infineon developed the chips for the ID card in Neubiberg near Munich (Germany). The chips are made in Dresden (Germany) and the chip package comes from Regensburg (Germany). The SLE 78 family based on "Integrity Guard" security technology is Infineon's latest generation of security chips.

Infineon quotes "EUROSMART, the international Smart Security Industry association, estimates the market for security chips in official documents in 2010 to be about 190 million chips. Infineon has the lion's share of about 40 percent of this market."