August 29, 2012, Seoul - STMicroelectronics (hereinafter ST), a world-leading semiconductor company serving diverse electronic device application fields and the world's top MEMS manufacturer, and Wasion Group, a leading advanced power metering products and solutions provider from China, announced the deployment of NFC-based postpaid power meters in the power grid of Chongqing, China. Wasion's latest meter based on ST's NFC technology enables convenient mobile payment of electricity bills while ensuring complete data security.

ST's NFC System-in-Package solution uses the 13.56MHz RF interface that conforms to international standards and is applied to NFC mobile phones worldwide. That is, with the introduction of Wasion's postpaid NFC power meter, consumers can connect contactlessly with NFC mobile phones to the RF interface, read the smart meter, and then transmit encrypted data through 2G/3G networks to banks for electricity bill payment.

This System-in-Package incorporates ST's NFC contactless interface ST21NFCA and security element ST33F1M. The ST33F1M incorporates Gemalto's security operating system, which is based on "Global Platform GP2.2/Java3.0.1," the most advanced security NFC payment platform currently operational in the market. This Java OS and Java applet enable secure operation and storage of metering data on the application side. Prepaid contract users can also receive the same solution with this security level. The System-in-Package is applied with STM32 MCU and ST's EEPROM together.

ST is one of the first semiconductor manufacturers to provide both an NFC controller and high-performance SWP security elements together to deliver a comprehensive NFC mobile payment solution. By working together with various mobile phone and smart card manufacturers, ST has been able to provide competitive NFC solutions and products to the market.

"ST's NFC solution with high-performance security elements enables safe mobile payment use on smartphones. Using Wasion's specific application running on NFC-based mobile phones, users can conveniently pay their electricity bills from home," said Arnaud Julienne, Head of MMS Marketing and Applications Division for China and South Asia at STMicroelectronics.

Xijun Feng, CTO of Wasion, states, "ST's innovative solution can be applied to various applications such as smart metering, NFC mobile payment applications, and the Internet of Things, and equipment manufacturers can now add NFC payment functionality to their products, gaining competitiveness in the mobile payment trend."

NFC-based power meter prototypes have been supplied since 2012, and mass production began in June 2012.