Feasibility study of PV-powered smart cards for improved security

Lightricity正在寻求将其独特的高效室内光伏(PV)技术应用于为下一代智能卡的安全功能供电。目前，供电智能卡行业的一个重点是推出包括指纹传感器在内的生物识别卡。这些非接触式卡通常通过在非常接近时从读卡器设备获取RF能量来供电几秒钟。这有助于解决销售点的安全交易，从而减少欺诈性使用。不过，在大部分主要市场，超过75%的欺诈交易是“卡不在场”的交易，例如互联网和电话购物，因此无法使用读卡器为智能卡及其安全功能提供动力。Lightrity将调查其技术与要求严格的智能卡标准规格的兼容性、智能卡的使用情况以及现有制造工艺的挑战。该项目还将评估光伏能源收集可以为发行商和客户带来的实际好处。人们认为，指纹传感器和微型可动态更新的CVV编号显示器具有巨大的潜力，从而将增强的安全功能也带到了主要的欺诈挑战中。在电池解决方案被证明是不可接受的，而其他光伏解决方案效率不高或与卡片制造不兼容的情况下，Lightricity的光伏技术被认为具有强大的潜力。已经证明，与其他更常用的光伏技术相比，它在室内的效率最高可提高6倍，从而使更多的耗电应用能够使用更小的光伏模块，数量仅为几毫米。它也非常薄，有进一步减少的潜力，能够承受典型的高温热层压制造工艺。动力智能卡行业高度集中，并通过一系列合作伙伴关系组织起来。新技术创新的开发和采用集中在数量相对较少的这些公司。为了详细了解具体的技术和商业挑战以及潜在的解决方案，并获得作为开发合作伙伴的认可，Lightricity将通过这个项目与引领下一代智能卡开发的主要欧洲研发中心接触。它们主要分布在法国和德国。

Lightricity is seeking to apply its unique highly efficient indoor photovoltaic (PV) technology to powering security features on the next generation of smart cards. There is a current focus in the powered smart card industry on introducing biometric cards which include fingerprint sensors. These contactless cards are typically powered by harvesting RF energy from the card reader device when in very close proximity for a few seconds. This helps to address secure transaction at point of sale thus reducing fraudulent usage. However, in most major markets more than 75% of fraudulent transactions are of the 'card-not-present' variety e.g. internet and telephone purchases, so a card reader is not available to power the card and its security features.Lightricity will investigate the compatibility of its technology with the demanding standardised specifications of smart cards, the smart card use-case scenarios and the challenges of the established manufacturing processes. The project will also evaluate the practical benefits PV energy harvesting can bring for both the issuer and the customer. It is believed that there is significant potential to power both fingerprint sensors and miniature dynamically updatable displays for CVV numbers thus bringing the enhanced security features to the main fraud challenges too. Where battery solutions have proven unacceptable and other PV solutions insufficiently efficient or compatible with card manufacturing it is believed that Lightricity's PV technology has strong potential. It has already been demonstrated to be up to 6x more efficient indoors than other more commonly used PV technologies enabling more power-hungry applications with much smaller PV modules of the order of a few mm2\. It is also very thin with potential for further reduction and is able to withstand high temperatures typical of hot lamination manufacturing processes.The powered smart card industry is highly concentrated and organised in a series of partnerships. Development and adoption of new technical innovations is concentrated in a relatively small number of these companies. In order to understand, in detail, the specific technical and commercial challenges and potential solutions and to gain acceptance as a development partner Lightricity will, through this project, engage with the key European R&D Centres that are leading next generation smart card developments. These are predominantly found in France and Germany.