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Contactless cards
bring with them all the benefits of regular smart cards, memory or
microprocessor cards, plus numerous elements that appeal to card issuers
and users.
User Benefits:
-
Simple and quick
transactions, improving the overall experience
-
Increases the feeling
of security; cardholders always retain their card; they do not hand to card
to a clerk.
-
Eliminates card
orientation issues.
Issuer Benefits:
-
Simpler and faster
transactions; speeds users through the transaction therefore augmenting
transaction throughput and limiting infrastructure costs.
-
“Cool” factor.
-
Reduces hardware
maintenance: difficult to vandalize; no openings, or moving parts.
Main Technologies
There are currently 2 main standards for contactless smart cards:
ISO 14443A
ISO 14443A is the most
widely used contactless standard in the world, mainly in transport applications.
Phillips and Infineon are the main
providers of those chips.
ISO 14443A is particular in that it uses 100% modulation depth, meaning that the
reader stops emitting the field for defined periods of time.
ISO 14443B
ISO 14443B has a number
of advantages over ISO 14443A:
-
modulation depth is
only 10% - clock continuity is preserved- and remains compatible with most
of the current "contact" microprocessor architecture.
-
no patents on
communication coding
-
widely adopted by
reader manufacturers - proven interoperability
-
communication speeds
of up to 847 KHz
-
adopted as a national
standard by many countries (Japan, China, US, etc.)
ISO 14443B has become
the most popular standard for proximity operations and its popularity worldwide
is increasing rapidly.
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