Seoul, July 16, 2012 – Infineon Technologies (Korea Representative Director Seung-soo Lee) announced that it is supplying security chips for South Africa’s largest government smart card project. SASSA (South African Social Security Agency), a government agency in South Africa, is issuing biometric security EMV/UEPS debit chip cards through Net1 (Net1 UEPS Technologies) that enable financial transactions for social welfare benefits across all nine administrative districts of South Africa. Infineon is supplying SOLID FLASH™ SLE 77 security controllers to Cash Paymaster Services (CPS), a subsidiary of Net1. CPS is implementing this service for SASSA as a major payment service provider in South Africa.

This project began in April 2012, and Net1 started issuing the first smart cards in June. By utilizing these new smart cards, more than 10 million South African citizens can now securely receive social welfare benefits using their issued chip cards, while reducing administrative costs. This application is based on Infineon's SOLID FLASH SLE 77 security controller, which employs asymmetric data encryption. Consequently, data can be stored securely, and the cardholder's identity can be verified using fingerprints stored on the chip. This smart card system is based on Net1's UEPS (Universal Electronic Payment System), a biometric payment technology designed to provide financial services to citizens without the need for bank accounts.

SOLID FLASH offers significant benefits, such as improved deployment flexibility and shortened time-to-market. By using this product, rapid prototype development, sampling, and programming are possible. In addition, Infineon's SOLID FLASH products provide security features such as flash memory encryption, secure flash memory programming, and flash loader mechanisms for effective locking.

James Sneedon, Head of the Chip Card Business Unit at Net1, said, “We were able to significantly accelerate our time-to-market by using Infineon’s SOLID FLASH products. This would have been impossible with ROM-based products. In addition, Infineon’s SOLID FLASH products provide at least the same level of security and reliability as masked ROM products.”

Carsten Loschinsky, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Government ID Chip Cards and Security at Infineon Technologies, said, “Mask ROM-based smart card products will not be able to meet the future requirements of government and payment projects with competitive costs of ownership. Therefore, they will inevitably be replaced by products like SOLID FLASH, based on Infineon’s advanced EEPROM/FLASH technology. Infineon took the lead in developing technology in this field and is clearly demonstrating the added value and benefits of this technology to customers like Net1.”

Infineon's SOLID FLASH SLE 77 product family is manufactured using 90nm process technology and has obtained EMVCo (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) and Common Criteria certifications. The SOLID FLASH products developed by Infineon combine the benefits of flash technology with Infineon's proprietary, accumulated security expertise. More information about SOLID FLASH is available at: www.infineon.com/solidflash

Infineon, holding a firm position in the fields of security, contactless communication, and high-density microcontroller solutions (embedded control), provides a comprehensive range of semiconductor-based security products for various chip cards and security applications. Infineon's security products enable enhanced security in an increasingly mobile and networked world, covering areas such as mobile payments, system security, and secure electronic identification. Infineon has continuously developed innovative hardware-based security solutions for the past 25 years and has led the global market for 14 years. For more information on Infineon's chip cards and security solutions, visit www.infineon.com/security .

More information about Net1 can be found at www.net1.com .