Solving George’s back problem

Many of us sympathized with George Costanza on the episode of Seinfeld when he got back pains from carrying around an over-stuffed wallet. In the 21st century, it seems kind of ludicrous to have to carry around a leather sack filled with financial “tokens,” plastic cards, photographs,  transaction receipts, and such. And while many of us have already moved all our personal photos to our smartphones and opt to receive receipts by e-mail, getting rid of the plastic cards has proved problematic. But the recent hacking attack on several major retailers that resulted in the theft of data for huge numbers of credit cards is making the industry rethink credit cards. Fortunately, new technology may be able to solve both George’s and the retailers’ problems.

Late last year, both MasterCard and Visa approved the use of the CredenSE 2.10 Near Field Communication (NFC)  microSD card from DeviceFidelity, which allows users to make secure, certified NFC transmissions between any mobile phone and contactless payment terminals from Visa and MasterCard. Using the AS3922, an integrated NFC front end with Active Boost technology from ams, CredenSE achieves a typical read range of 4 cm in a mobile phone’s microSD slot.

CredenSE 2.10 is the first commercially produced NFC microSD card that meets EMV standards using only an ultra-small antenna embedded in the card, making distribution and compatibility with hundreds of phone models possible. According to ams, “The mobile phone is a notoriously difficult environment for RF, and variations between phone models make it difficult to consistently achieve good performance. The stringent requirements for read-range compatibility with payment terminals for payment applications cannot be met in small form factors such as SIM or microSD cards with a traditional passive NFC card emulation front end and simple planar antenna.”

The Active Boost technology from ams allows for robust tag-to-reader communication at a coupling factor 100 times higher than is possible with conventional passive tag designs. The AS3922 also offers unique Antenna Auto Tuning and Q factor adjustment, which are critical to microSD, SIM, and µSIM applications.

According to Mark Dickson, Senior Product Marketing Manager of ams, “DeviceFidelity is leading the way in the enablement of NFC microSD payments on mobile phones globally….” And having the transaction carried out by smartphone makes it possible to also provide unique identity information securely too. (There is  a move afoot to create electronic driver’s licenses.) We’re sure George and his chiroproctor will be glad to hear all this.