Texas Instruments Shapes New Contactless Payment Forms with Market's Smallest MasterCard(R) PayPass(TM) Certified Products

Texas Instruments Shapes New Contactless Payment Forms with Market's Smallest MasterCard(R) PayPass(TM) Certified Products

November 06, 2006

Technology Enables Oval Wristband and Postage Stamp-Sized Fob

    DALLAS, Nov. 6 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- A contactless
payment key fob smaller than the keys on your keychain and
a thin oval-shaped wristband are just two of the payment
possibilities enabled by Texas Instruments (TI)
Incorporated's (NYSE: TXN) ISO/IEC 14443 contactless
payment chip and antenna packages.  The release of the
industry's smallest payment products, fully MasterCard
PayPass certified, brings new versatility and convenience
to the contactless payments industry, as issuing banks
explore a range of form factors, from traditional cards to
fobs and wristbands.

    TI has delivered its postage stamp-sized inlay in PVC
pre-laminate form to Oberthur Card Systems for development
of its VersaFOB keyfob, and its oval-shaped payment product
to MasterCard for its PayPass wristband.  

    TI's secure microcontroller-based contactless PVC
pre-laminates contain its ISO/ IEC 14443 chip, payment
application and the industry's smallest fully-certified RF
(Radio Frequency) antennas.  The postage stamp-sized inlay
antenna measures 20 mm x 25 mm and the oval-shaped inlay
antenna is 41 mm x 20 mm. TI's chip operates at extremely
low power using a tiny RF antenna to deliver a fast
transaction speed (typically 120 milliseconds) and a four
centimeter read range, which enables a successful
transaction the first time a customer "taps" the
fob to the payment reader.  The chip and payment
application software are also approved by MasterCard to
operate in dynamic CVC3 transaction authorization mode
which offers issuers the highest level of security
available.

    The company designs its contactless PVC pre-laminates
in a range of innovative keyfob and wristband form factors,
so that card manufacturers can offer payment devices to
issuers in a variety of shapes and sizes.  TI's contactless
payment technology supports credit, debit and pre-paid
transactions.

    "TI's ability to create such a small antenna to
fit our unique VersaFOB concept allows us to produce
MasterCard PayPass certified contactless payment fobs that
can be personalized and mass-produced using standard
processes, lowering costs for our banking clients while
offering them a unique product," said Francine Dubois,
director of marketing, financial products & services,
Oberthur Card Systems of America. 

    "TI has delivered leaf-shaped PVC pre-laminate
with an embedded chip and antenna that is a perfect fit for
our PayPass wristbands," said Richard Fletcher, Group
Head, Mobile/Wireless, MasterCard Worldwide.  "At
sporting events, for example, consumers with
PayPass-enabled wristbands can enjoy faster service for
concessions so they can quickly get back to watching the
game."   

    "The ways to pay via contactless come in devices
of limitless variety, shape and size," said Trevor
Pavey, manager of contactless payments, TI.  "Our
ability to develop RF antennas about the size of a quarter,
combined with our fast PayPass-certified chip and software,
leads the way for new small form factors."

    In February 2006, TI announced the availability of the
first in its line of MasterCard PayPass-certified payment
solutions, an ISO/IEC 14443 PVC pre-laminate card for card
manufacturers delivering credit and debit cards for
MasterCard issuing banks. 

    About Texas Instruments

    Texas Instruments is the world's largest integrated
manufacturer of radio frequency identification (RFID)
transponders and reader systems. Capitalizing on its
competencies in high-volume semiconductor manufacturing and
microelectronics packaging, TI is a visionary leader and at
the forefront of establishing new markets and international
standards for RFID applications. For more information,
contact TI-RFid(TM) Systems at 1-800-962-RFID (7343) (North
America) or [phone] (International), or visit the
Web site at http://www.ti-rfid.com .

    Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP
and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world
signal processing requirements.  In addition to
Semiconductor, the company includes the Educational &
Productivity Solutions business.  TI is headquartered in
Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales
operations in more than 25 countries.
 
    Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol TXN.  More information is located
on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com .

    Trademarks

    TI-RFid is a trademark of Texas Instruments.  All other
trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their
respective owners.

    For more information, please contact:

     Jamie Horton		
     Tel:   [phone]		
     Email: [e-mail]

     Eric Seymour 		
     Tel:   [phone]		
     Email: [e-mail] 

SOURCE  Texas Instruments Incorporated