Printed electronics and electroluminescent (EL) displays have been developed for the e-payment market.
German firm Schreiner VarioLight plans to follow the recent production of a prototype card - using its printed anti-tamper foil - with an e-payment product.
The first application for the company's RF activated, EL display card technology is a tamper-proof prepaid card, to ensure funds allotted to items such as gift cards are not altered.
Oliver Wiesener, head of business development for Schreiner VarioLight, explains: 'One solution that is already on the market is the anti-tamper sensor foil SenseSecure put around the electronic components.
Such a device could be used with items such as gift cards, with €50 of credit being stored more securely.
Wiesener notes: 'Extremely delicate conductor paths prevent unauthorized individuals from reading or tampering with security-critical data.'
Collaboration
The company is currently working with an unnamed partner in the e-payment sector and a first product could be launched sometime in 2010.
He states: 'To manufacture multifunctional foils for e-payment cards we would need half a year of development - one year would be very realistic for a new solution.'
Multiple payments and management of credit using a card could be the next step for printed electronic technology in this market, notes Wiesener.
As well as the anti-tamper sensor foil, Schreiner integrated an EL display into its demonstration card. The display could notify the user of transactions or remaining credit. The EL operates without internal energy, using radio frequency field energy.
Displays
Wiesener says of commercial uses: 'We could make a small light to give a signal showing money transfer, or could use a seven segment display to show numbers.'
The company is now looking to add customers interested in integrating electronics into their own card applications.
Wiesener adds: 'We're ready to produce the printed foil and to consult customers to realise the electronic integrations for their applications.
'E-payments are very new and a lot of manufacturers are still in the searching phase for killer applications, which are not really clear at the moment.'
The demonstrator was developed in a collaborative project with chip printer PolyIC, battery manufacturer Varta Microbattery and HC Starck, a specialist in high-tech materials.