STMicro teams with mobile-payment partners to create Turnkey solution for wearable devices

Mobile payments may go mainstream on wearable devices like smartwatches by taking advantage of a new ready-to-use payment solution containing technology from STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications.

ST, G&D, and FitPay have used ST’s security chip to jointly create the first secure hardware and software solution that is pre-approved for use by device manufacturers with the aim to develop integrated tokenized payments from Mastercard or Visa. This effort reduces the well-known barriers to implementing card payments on mobile devices and enables wearable-device OEMs to concentrate on product development. The joint solution gives users the flexibility to load multiple payment cards from various banks and from different payment networks onto the wearable, making contactless payments easy, independent of the end-device’s operating system.

A secure operating system (G&D), payment application management software (FitPay), and hardware components needed to support a mobile payment application are included and fully integrated around ST’s trusted ST54E security chip (embedded Secure Element, eSE) that handles cryptographic processing and tamper-proofing.

ST has leveraged the breadth of its component portfolio to satisfy all functional requirements for a payment device. Alongside the ST54E, the reference design contains the STS39230 NFC booster that supports contactless connection to the payment terminal and allows a small-size antenna, an LIS2DS12 MEMS accelerometer that enables gesture-activated payment, Bluetooth Smart ICs, a USB battery charger, and an energy-saving microcontroller from ST’s ultra-low-power STM32L4 line.

Michael Orlando, CEO of FitPay, said: “Wearable devices are transforming the payment experience, and FitPay, ST, and G&D are making it easier to develop payment-enabled wearables. This reference design from ST demonstrates a fully integrated payment solution for manufacturers.”

G&D’s mobile-payment solutions are commercially proven and support payments at contactless-enabled merchant locations around the world. Axel Deininger, Executive Vice President and Head of G&D’s Enterprise Security/OEM division said, “The integration work we have done together with ST and FitPay to create this reference design overcomes the critical road blocks to delivering the freedom of mobile payments for consumers worldwide.”

“Our vision is to enable secure payments to a generation of new devices, giving consumers around the world new and innovative ways to pay,” said Kiki Del Valle, Senior Vice President, Commerce for Every Device at Mastercard. “Mastercard created a standard for expanding secure contactless and embedded payment options globally, and STMicroelectronics and its partners have created an intelligent and powerful solution to mobile-payment challenges – that leverages our tokenization service – to deliver secure and trusted payments-enabled devices.”

“As the market for payment-enabled wearables grows, manufacturers need easy ways to bring secure transactions and connectivity to their devices,” said Avin Arumugam, Senior Vice President, Internet of Things (IoT), Visa. “The solution ST and its partners are offering is a critical step in bringing contactless Visa payments to a whole new generation of IoT devices.”

Laurent Degauque, Marketing Director, Secure Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics, said, “The market has been waiting for a turnkey reference design that greatly simplifies the way device OEMs interact with the payment ecosystem and this effort fits the bill. It provides everything needed for wearables to become the devices that will make mobile payments ubiquitous, simple, safe, and secure.”