Date: 12/11/2012

Infineon promotes its DCLB interface for NFC communication

Infineon Technologies AG has announced that its high-performance communication interface for Near Field Communication (NFC) applications is gaining wide acceptance as a de facto industry standard. The Digital Contactless Bridge (DCLB) interface specified by Infineon offers fast and secure connection between an embedded Secure Element and an NFC modem. Infineon says as a freely available and globally open solution, DCLB is widely implemented by manufacturers of NFC modems and Secure Elements for handsets. To date, more than 10 manufacturers including Texas Instruments, Inside Secure, MicroPross, MtekVision and KEOLABS have licensed the Infineon DCLB interface.

“We strongly support open solutions such as the DCLB interface as they accelerate mass deployment of a new technology,” said Juergen Spaenkuch, Vice President and General Manager Platform Security of the Chip Card & Security Division at Infineon Technologies. “In contrast to proprietary solutions provided by a single supplier, broadly accepted standards increase compatibility of various devices and allow system integrators to choose among a variety of offerings.”

Infineon says it has defined the DCLB interface to provide an effective solution for secure NFC applications requiring fast response time such as mobile payment, access control or ticketing in public transport. Supporting peak data rates of 848 kilobits/second (kB/s), DCLB is almost eight-fold the volume of data compared to other interfaces. Infineon claims its security controller is the first embedded Secure Element awarded with the highest security certificate (Common Criteria EAL 6+ (high)) by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

"For NFC to quickly achieve wide market coverage, the consumer must be able to rely in the secure handling of his data and expects convenient handling of the technology," said Alex Green, senior research manager for financial and ID technology at IMS Research, recently acquired by IHS. "With innovative solutions and product engagement in the NFC ecosystem, Infineon contributes to bringing NFC to the mass market."

Market inputs from Infineon: The importance of various NFC applications including mobile payment or ticketing in public transport is gaining momentum. Worldwide shipments of NFC-enabled handsets are expected to grow from 79 million units in 2012 to 900 million units in 2016, representing 44 percent of all handsets. Shipments of NFC Secure Elements used for such handsets or PCs are expected to increase from 120 million units in 2012 to 1.3 billion units in 2016 (“The World Market for NFC – 2012 Edition”, IMS Research, an IHS company, January 2012).