RFID Solutions

SecurityStockWatch.com: Thank you for joining us today, V.C. Please give us an overview of your background and your role at TI.

V.C. Kumar: Thank you for having me. I am responsible for marketing and business development for Government ID programs at TI. Previously, I was the manager for TI RFID Systems’ contactless payments group, responsible for strategy and market development efforts for RF payment applications within the retail market. Earlier in my career I was also the program manager for TI’s RF payment application development, managing TI’s internal team of engineers, application developers, and product marketers on a range of projects, including ExxonMobil’s SpeedPass™ deployment, Phillips 66’s PhilPass program, and Shell Canada’s RF payment technology implementation. I earned a M.S. degree with a concentration in mechanical engineering from Drexel University (PA) and an MBA from Southern Methodist University (TX).

SecurityStockWatch.com: One will read in a recent TI press release that TI has, “…unveiled the RF360, the first smart integrated circuit (IC) platform to be developed specifically to meet the rigorous demands of the contactless government electronic identification market.” Please give us an overview of the RF360 and an overview of the complete menu of TI solutions.

V.C. Kumar: TI’s RF360 is the first smart integrated circuit platform designed and developed specifically to meet the ever-changing demands of secure contactless applications including those in the government electronic identification market. The RF360 provides much-needed chip transaction speeds and supports increased functionality without compromising security. This is due to our “grounds-up” smart IC design which integrates a suite of proven, next generation technologies – advanced non-volatile Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (FRAM) technology and a 16-bit high performance ultra-low power microcontroller. Employing an advanced platform offers our partners more flexibility to innovate their own secure contactless applications. In particular, our suite of technologies enables governments to quickly and efficiently produce and adjudicate a multitude of passive electronic identification (ID) such as electronic passports (e-passports) and national ID cards. And to increase performance even further, TI also provides a system solution via our secure reader chips for these markets.

SecurityStockWatch.com: What are your target markets and what is your perspective on the market drivers for TI solutions at this time?

V.C. Kumar: Secure contactless markets such as government identification and contactless payments are continuing to show dramatic growth. These applications with their ever increasing needs for performance, security and memory capacity are already stretching the capabilities of existing memory and microcontroller technologies. TI’s suite of innovative technologies empower our partners to not only provide much needed improvements for today’s applications but also offer solutions to meet the needs of tomorrow. The RF360 platform is targeted initially at the growing government identification market such as electronic passports, government issued ID cards, and RFID solutions. However the platform is ideally suited to other secure contactless markets such as contactless payments as well as corporate identification and logical access applications.

SecurityStockWatch.com: Kindly summarize for our audience TI’s competitive advantages and TI’s value proposition?

V.C. Kumar: The TI RF360 platform is designed from the ground-up for contactless smart ICs and provides extremely fast write and transaction speed, low power consumption, and strong security in government-issued electronic identification. Our suite of innovative, fast and low power technologies such as FRAM and the 16-bit MSP430 microcontroller delivers the fastest and highest performance secure contactless smart IC for ePassport, eGovernment ID and payment applications. In addition, we have worked with customer challenges in RF and secure applications for almost 20 years and our partners rely on our engineering expertise and field experience to help them to the next level. More