Semiconductor giant Broadcom Corporation has announced it has agreed to acquire UK-based NFC specialist Innovision Research & Technology in a deal valued at US$47.5m.

Innovision has developed a suite of designs, patents and expertise, known as Gem NFC IP, which enables near field communication technology to be added at low cost to mass-market mobile phones and other devices.

Current generation NFC phones require a separate NFC controller chip to be built into the handset. With Innovision's Gem NFC IP, mobile phone chipset manufacturers can build the technology into their existing 'combo chip' products, already used to add Bluetooth, WiFi, FM radio and GPS to current mobile phones.

The advantage of this approach is that it enables NFC to be added to mass market phones far more cheaply — under US$1 per unit compared to the $5+ cost of a standalone NFC controller. Innovision makes its technology available to semiconductor companies on a licensing basis and several major suppliers to the mobile phone industry have already licensed the firm's technology.

Broadcom specialises in communications and networking semiconductors and had revenues of $4.49bn in 2009. It is a major player in the combo chip market. Clients include Apple, which uses Broadcom's WiFi+Bluetooth combo chip in the iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPod Touch.

The acquisition of Innovision, which is listed on the Alternative Investment Market at the London Stock Exchange, is being made through the company's Broadcom International subsidiary. Terms have been agreed with Innovision's board which see Broadcom making an all-cash offer to acquire all of the issued and to be issued shares of Innovision.

Under the terms of the offer, Innovision shareholders will receive £0.35 ($0.52 approx) per share in cash for each Innovision share held — an 84.2% premium on the closing price of Innovision common stock on 17 June 2010 which, says Broadcom, values the deal at a total of $47.5m (£32m approx) at current exchange rates. Broadcom expects to close the acquisition of Innovision in the third quarter of 2010.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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INNOVISION: Gem 2 architecture can be implemented in 65nm and 40nm silicon

NFC technology specialist Innovision Research & Technology has unveiled a new version of its Gem NFC IP, a suite of designs, patents and know-how which together form a complete on-chip NFC sub-system designed to enable NFC functionality to be added at low cost to mass-market mobile phones and other devices.

While current generation NFC phones require a separate NFC controller chip to be built into the handset, Innovision's Gem NFC IP provides mobile phone chipset manufacturers with a way to build NFC functionality into their existing 'combo chip' products. Semiconductor companies such as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Marvell and CSR already offer these combo chips as a cost-effective way for phone manufacturers to add functions such as Bluetooth, WiFi, FM radio and GPS to their products and, with Innovision's know-how, NFC can also be added to these chips at a substantially lower cost — under US$1 compared to the $5+ cost of a standalone NFC controller.

This approach involves far higher set-up costs than a standalone chip solution, however, which means that the combo chip approach only makes economic sense when NFC is built into very large quantities of phones. Now, demand from phone manufacturers is strong enough that "several major semiconductor suppliers to the mobile phone industry" have licensed Innovision's Gem IP, the company's Stephen Graham has told NFC World, and "every single one of them is definitely strongly interested in NFC."

That demand will lead to the first phones featuring NFC-enabled combo chips hitting the market in 2012 and, says Graham, between 15% and 20% of all the handsets shipped that year will feature its Gem NFC IP.

After that, a second wave of low-end NFC handsets is expected to arrive eighteen months to two years later. While the first wave will see NFC being added to more expensive smart phones, the second will see NFC reaching both low-end devices and the ultra low-end phones aimed at the developing world. Here, because these phones don't usually include the functions offered by combo chips, NFC functionality will be built into the main baseband processor, finally making NFC phones affordable to all.

The new version of Innovision's Gem NFC IP is specifically designed to work with the chip technology mobile chipset manufacturers will be using from 2012. Version one of the technology was designed to work with the 3.6V power supply used in current phones; the new Gem 2, however, uses 1.8V which means it can be implemented in the 65nm and 40nm CMOS processes that chipset manufacturers will be using in 2012.

"Our aim is to open up the market to any semiconductor company, regardless of size and scale, that wants to develop low-voltage, low-cost stand-alone NFC controllers, or integrate NFC into SoCs [system on a chip] for mobile phones, PCs and consumer electronic devices," Graham concludes.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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• ‘Leading semiconductor company’ licenses Innovision’s NFC handset technology

Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is demonstrating a prototype of a complete security platform for mobile handsets, designed to enable a range of services including PIN-protected mobile payments, at the Mobile World Congress.

Developed with support from Qualcomm, the proof-of-concept solution is being demonstrated running on Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets and shows how G&D's MobiCore secure application environment and Snapdragon's security architecture can be used to deliver a complete ARM TrustZone-based security platform to address the requirements of services ranging from mobile payment with secure PIN entry and content management to key management and general user authentication.

"The MobiCore environment provides a fully certifiable security solution that enables applications using dedicated security solutions today to be integrated into advanced mobile devices based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform," says G&D.

"MobiCore is of great interest to banks and payment service providers in increasingly leveraging the capabilities of smartphones within the security frameworks of existing payment systems," explains Dr Kai Grassie, head of G&D's new business division. "G&D sees Qualcomm as a key partner to bring this technology to market."

"As mobile devices continue to evolve and become more advanced, demand for services such as mobile payment at the point of sale will increase significantly — underscoring the need for exceptional security to protect consumers," added Jason Bremner, vice president of product management at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "We are pleased to be working with G&D to demonstrate their open security solution on our Snapdragon platform, and look forward to bringing comprehensive security capabilities to market."

Earlier this month, G&D and ARM announced a strategic partnership to develop highly secure mobile platforms combining G&D's MobiCore operating system and ARM TrustZone technology to create a protected area in advanced systems-on-chip.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon security architecture incorporates ARM TrustZone technology, allowing MobiCore to execute essential security functions in a multitasking environment parallel to a general purpose operating system. Access to such security functions is provided via a common set of APIs, designed to enable developers to easily take advantage of the security features.

"The first integration of G&D Mobicore and ARM TrustZone technology in a high-performance Qualcomm Snapdragon system-on-chip is an important step forward for mobile security," explains Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM. "This commitment demonstrates the importance of security for delivering high value services in future devices."

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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INSIDE: "Any initiative towards openness is good for us and the industry"

Inside Contactless has announced it is to make its MicroRead NFC protocol stack available under an Apache open source license, under a new brand name — Open NFC.

Handset manufacturers want to have multiple sources for all their components and not be tied to sourcing particular near field communication chipsets, Inside Contactless' Loic Hamon explained to NFCW. Open NFC will offer a consistent API across all NFC hardware, faster time to market and greater flexibility for OEMs and ODMs, making it easier for handset and other device manufacturers to build NFC functionality into their products.

"The market and Inside Contactless will both benefit from this, by accelerating adoption and reducing fragmentation," Hamon explained. "We are living in an open world. Any initiative towards openness is good for us and the industry."

"Open NFC fits right in with the trend toward open platforms in the mobile industry, and will benefit device makers as well as software developers and others in the mobile ecosystem in several ways, providing greater impetus to implementing NFC solutions across a broad range of consumer products,” added Philippe Martineau, executive vice president of the NFC business line at Inside Contactless.

Other companies, such as Stollmann (see our earlier article), also supply NFC protocol stacks that enable device manufacturers to add NFC functionality without having to support multiple protocols, but Open NFC is the first to deliver the added benefits that open sourcing can bring.

"Having an open-source NFC stack like Open NFC is a game-changing development, providing greater flexibility in sourcing NFC controllers and a consistent programming interface," says Gary Koerper, vice president of engine systems at Motorola Mobile Devices. "We congratulate Inside Contactless for their contribution to the open source movement."

"Qualcomm understands the increasing importance of open source and community-driven software to the mobile industry, particularly as customer demand for open and flexible software coupled with powerful mobile hardware platforms continues to increase," added John Elliott, senior director of emerging connectivity technologies at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "It is a great pleasure to see NFC move closer to the open source community, and Inside Contactless is one of the visionary companies making this happen."

Mobile operators have also welcomed Open NFC. "Orange believes Open NFC will be a catalyst for change in the NFC marketplace by reducing market fragmentation and removing barriers to adoption of this promising technology," said Yves Maitre, senior vice president of mobile multimedia and devices at Orange. "Inside Contactless has made a major contribution to the advancement of NFC."

The Open NFC protocol stack provides a complete NFC middleware solution for mobile phones, embedded products and other devices and supports several levels of functionality from low-level RF control to high-level NFC Forum tag handling, peer-to-peer communications, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi pairing and interactions with single-wire protocol SIMs and other secure elements. It is also compatible with smart cards and RFID tags based on Felica, Mifare and ISO 14443 standards.

Open NFC 3.4 is available now for WinCE 6.0 (compatible with Windows Mobile 7) and Linux 2.6 and an Android implementation will be available with the planned release of Open NFC 3.5 at the end of March. Going forwards, Inside Contactless says it will continue to invest heavily in the development of Open NFC.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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The majority (59%) of consumers are interested in using their phone like they would a credit or debit card at the cash register to make a purchase, according to a new survey conducted by StrategyOne for Firethorn, a mobile commerce specialist owned by Qualcomm.

The results of the survey have been published in a white paper which can be downloaded from Firethorn's website. Key findings include:

• 64% of consumers say they are interested in using their mobile phones as a shopping assistant for price comparisons
• 61% are interested in using their phone to access credit card details, balances and transactions
• 59% would like to use their phone to organize and tracking their gift card, loyalty and reward accounts
• 76% say their mobile phone allows them to stay on top of things
• 41% of consumers use productivity applications on their mobile phone at least once a week.
• More than two–thirds (68%) of adults are excited about new mobile phone features and capabilities
• 85% of consumers said that they like to be on top of their finances daily
• Three–quarters (76%) wish there was an alternative to carrying around a wallet stuffed with cards, money, offers, coupons, etc.
• 96% of those who use mobile banking services are positive about the experiences
• Nearly two–thirds (62%) of consumers say that they are likely to download and use a free account management application that would allow them to organize and track their financial and shopping account information.

"Consumers increasingly rely on mobile phones to stay organized and informed, and many are interested in learning about and using new mobile phone applications such as those that feature mobile banking and mobile commerce capabilities," says Firethorn. "When it comes to finances, consumers constantly want to know where they stand, but they need help."

"The current economic climate has finances top-of-mind with most consumers, giving financial institutions a prime opportunity to actively engage consumers via mobile banking channels," says Firethorn's Dave Vigil. "As this study clearly shows, the access and consumer appetite is there — now is the time to act."

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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TechIPm, a research and consulting firm specializing in technology and intellectual property mining, has carried out an analysis of the strength of the patent portfolios held by companies in the NFC market.

For its analysis, TechIPm used the Innography intellectual property business intelligence tool, which correlates patent data with financial, litigation and other key business information to generate visualizations of the technology landscape in a particular business sector.

According to TechIPm, "As of Oct. 20 2009, the key IPR holders and their IPR shares for NFC are as follows: Sony (229), Nokia (130), Microsoft (76), Philips (67), Broadcom (65), Samsung (58), Motorola (57), NXP (43), First Data (22), Qualcomm (22), IBM (19), Vodafone (18), and Inside Contactless (17)."

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Details of all the latest vacancies are available on the NFC Jobs Board.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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NEW DEALS: Innovision has licensed NFC know-how to NXP and two as yet unnamed mobile device chipset manufacturers

Innovision Research and Technology has signed licensing agreements with three companies that are expected to lead to the development of low cost, mass market NFC-enabled handsets.

Two of the licensees are manufacturers of mobile device chipsets who will be working with Innovision to incorporate the company's NFC expertise into their product lines. The third is NXP which has signed a wider joint marketing and licensing agreement that will see the two companies pooling together their respective NFC expertise to provide a combined offering to potential customers looking to integrate NFC into handsets.

Innovision, a board member of the NFC Forum, specialises in developing RF and NFC semiconductor solutions which it then licenses to silicon suppliers for incorporation into their own products. The three new deals all involve the company's System on Chip (SoC) connectivity solutions for NFC handsets, known as Gem IP.  By licensing Gem IP, chipset manufacturers looking to add NFC functionality to their products can work with Innovision to build NFC into their product line without having to begin the development work from scratch.

In the current generation of NFC handsets a separate chip is built into the phone to handle the NFC functionality. With Gem IP, however, NFC functionality could be added to one of the chipsets already built into mobile phones. This has two advantages — it makes the addition of NFC less expensive and it means NFC takes up less of the real estate within the handset.

Because there is an overlap between the needs of an NFC chip and those of the chipsets that handle Bluetooth, WiFi and other connectivity functions, these connectivity chipsets are the most likely future home for NFC, Innovision CEO David Wollen explained to NFCW. And that means that the key to unlocking a mass market of inexpensive NFC handsets now lies with connectivity chipset suppliers — such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, ST, Samsung and Texas Instruments — rather than the handset manufacturers themselves.

That said, Wollen explained, the connectivity chipset suppliers only add functionality to their products when they know there is demand from the handset manufacturers they supply. And the handset manufacturers only demand those features when they know there is demand from the operators they supply handsets to.

The fact that two unnamed chipset suppliers and NXP have now licensed Gem IP is therefore a strong signal that the demand from operators for NFC functionality is real — but, says Wollen, it doesn't mean that low cost NFC handsets will be appearing soon. There are fundamental differences in the way in which each connectivity chipset supplier implements its solutions so it will be one to two years before the new licensees have products available for shipping. Then it also usually takes the handset suppliers two years to go from initial concept to manufacture, meaning that it will be 2012 or 2013 before low cost NFC handsets using Gem IP are in the hands of consumers.

At that point, though, the extra cost of manufacturing a handset with NFC functionality should be under a dollar, says Wollen, and it's reasonable to expect that the majority of Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices (currently 50% of all phones) will include NFC.

In the meantime the new generation of NFC handsets expected to become available from a number of handset suppliers later this year will provide operators with a range of handset options, albeit at a higher cost (in the US$2 to $2.50 range) than the second wave of handsets expected in 2012/13.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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• Innovision raises £5.4 million to fund its next phase of NFC growth

Additions to the NFCW Jobs Board this week include:

• Microsoft, USA: The Windows Mobile team is looking for a Lead Software Development Engineer, to head up the Wireless Drivers development team. "Wireless technologies form the foundation of our next generation phone platform," says the company, "and this is an exciting and challenging opportunity to be at the center of the action in one of the key efforts in the company." The position is based in Redmond and requires seven+ years software development experience in C/C++ and familiarity with wireless networking protocols and standards including 802.11, Bluetooth and NFC.
• Transport operator, USA: A C/C++ Software Developer — Front Office Electronic Payment Systems is being sought to work with customer and business analysts to design, code and test software within the context of the validation infrastructure of an electronic fare payment system. You'll need three+ years of software development experience with C/C++ in a Unix environment and experience with contactless smart cards (ISO-14443 types A and B, ISO-15693, and/or NFC). Based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• NFC Pilot Project, London: A Product Manager — Mobile (Near Field Communications) to take ownership of ensuring pilot and project delivery within the team, managing pilot deliverables and collaborating with other team members/divisions as necessary. You will need to have experience of working within contactless payments and have experience with near field communication.
• NFC and RFID supplier, UK. A Project Manager — Integrated Circuits is being sought for an NFC and RFID wireless communications market leader, based in Gloucestershire. You must have experience in Electronics/RF and, ideally, experience in IC Design.
• Mobile technology supplier, Canada: Two senior positions are available at a Toronto-based mobile technology company involved in over-the-air payment services, Near Field Communication (NFC) services and mobile wallet services. The VP of Product Management (Wireless Payments) will be responsible for defining the product strategy, tactical direction and roadmap to support the company's three lines of business. The Director of Technology/Senior Level Java Architect will work with Product Development and Business Development to gather product requirements and build them into the technical architecture and roadmap.
• World leader in mobile communications, India: An Architect with knowledge and experience of local connectivity technologies, including Bluetooth, USB, WLAN, NFC, RFID and related protocols is required. You will need eight to 12 years experience overall including prior experience as technical lead and/or architect in embedded software development in telecommunications/data communications and you'll be contributing to standardisation in at least one of Bluetooth, USB or NFC. Based in Bangalore.
• Inside Contactless, France: Four technical openings for fluent English speakers are currently available — a Security Engineer with a masters degree in cryptography and four+ years experience, an Analog IC Design Engineer plus an Embedded Software Engineer and an Embedded Software Test Engineer for the MicroPass or MicroRead platforms. Based in Aix-en-Provence.
• Amesys, France: French speaking RFID Expert required to work on an NFC pilot project. Based in Sophia-Antipolis.
• HighCo, France: French speaking Java Mobile Developers to work for an Orange-led NFC project, building loyalty card and couponing functions into NFC SIMs. Based in Lyon.
• Logistics specialist, France: NFC Engineer required for a six month contract. You'll need three to five years C/C++ experience and two years experience working on NFC projects.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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• The NFC Jobs Board

Additions to the NFCW Jobs Board this week include:

• Payments technology specialist Consult Hyperion has a four to six week opening for a UK-based business analyst who has specific knowledge and experience of the Healthcare Market. The role will be to identify what the drivers are behind the collection of data within the domiciliary care industry and healthcare market. "We are currently advising organisations around the world on contactless payments, near-field communications (NFC), identity cards, mobile money transfers and migration strategies for Mifare based ticketing systems," the company says.
• An internship at Motorola's Future Experience Lab (FEL) in Schaumberg, Illinois, where the company showcases the latest showcases the latest advanced technologies for devices, media and services incorporating cellular phones, video set tops, accessories, consumer electronics, personal computers and the internet.

Full details of all the latest vacancies, including five key openings in Qualcomm's Firethorn mobile commerce division, and information on how to list your vacancy can be found on the NFCW Jobs Board.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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