The first MIFARE product was introduced in 1994 and was subsequently used as the transport ticketing solution in Seoul, Korea, which in 1996 became the world’s first major transport system running on MIFARE. Twenty years later, MIFARE has fundamentally changed the way people use tickets for public transport and has become the technology platform of choice for many service operators around the world. Over 650 cities, including Bangkok, Delhi, Dubai, London, Moscow, Los Angeles and São Paulo, choose MIFARE for more secure, highly convenient, seamlessly upgradable and easily extendable ticketing system solutions.
Over the past 20 years significant developments have occurred in the contactless ticketing industry and today, MIFARE products are used for contactless applications that go far beyond ticketing. With a confirmed market share of 77% in public transport and over 50% in access management, MIFARE has established itself as a globally recognized and trusted solution. It is used in more than 40 different known applications ranging from micro-payment to loyalty programs, event ticketing, student cards, road tolling and gaming. The broad product portfolio and scalability of MIFARE supports the development of a great diversity of applications across all form factors including limited-use tickets, smartcards and NFC-enabled (mobile) devices.
“The whole MIFARE team is deeply thankful to our global customers and partners for making this anniversary possible,” said Martin Gruber, general manager product line AFC, NXP Semiconductors. “It´s breathtaking to see what we have established with MIFARE over the last 20 years. We’ve helped to modernize the way people ride on public transport, get access to buildings and pay for coffee. Our tailored and dedicated contactless MIFARE solutions have been instrumental in achieving major milestones and breakthroughs in the evolution of many applications and we are committed to continue this success story with even more exciting use cases and innovations ahead of us.”
Significant MIFARE Projects: The first 20 years
Since 1994 MIFARE has continued to evolve and become an intrinsic part of many people’s daily lives. The history of its roll-out is impressive, with many industry firsts:
・1994 First MIFARE product, MIFARE Classic 1K, is introduced
・1996 Seoul, Korea - The first major transport ticketing solution using MIFARE
・1996 First multi-functional credit card with smartcard technology in Germany. The Lufthansa ChipCard was used as a check-in card, a boarding pass and a ‘Miles & More’ loyalty card
・1997 First nationwide access control system for residential buildings in France. The French Postal Service “La Poste” decided to use MIFARE as standard technology for their access system
・1997 First live multi-application use in North America. At CardTech/SecurTech Conference in Orlando, seminar registrants can use their smartcard for registration, access to seminar rooms and loyalty redemption
・1998 First large scale application of contactless fuel payment in Europe. Shell EasyPay in The Netherlands is using a contactless payment system for fuel retail
・1999 Malaysia – The first electronic road tolling project including the world´s longest toll road with the 800km Plus-Highway
・2000 World´s first dual interface OpenPlatform JavaCard with MIFARE implementation developed at IBM´s Research Laboratory in Zurich
・2001 The first multi-application card in Korea. A-CASH Card was used for bus, subway, parking and taxis in the cities of Chunjoo and Wonjoo
・2004 First interoperability project covering an entire country. Five public transport companies from The Netherlands collaborated in a national contactless ticketing infrastructure (train, bus, metro, tram and ferry)
・2005 First mobile ticketing solution implemented in Hanau, Germany. Trials in Manchester, Caen, Atlanta, Bangkok and Xiamen followed soon after
・2006 For the first time FIFA soccer world championship tickets are secured by MIFARE
・2007 First contactless banking smartcard including Oyster transport ticketing application for London
・2008 Moscow - The World´s first major transport system to operate fully contactless with MIFARE
・2009 Car2go, the first open carsharing concept by Daimler AG using MIFARE DESFire to access cars. Now deployed in 25 cities
・2011 First interactive video games through toys based on MIFARE and NFC technology
・2013 Dubai - The first commercial MIFARE mobile ticketing roll-out on MIFARE DESFire
・2013 The first Red Cross blood donor cards securely store data with MIFARE DESFire
・2013 Bangkok - The first commercial MIFARE mobile ticketing roll-out on MIFARE DESFire in Asia-Pacific
20 Years of MIFARE Product Innovations
As well as achieving significant project milestones, the MIFARE group at NXP Semiconductors has continued to push the boundaries of product innovation, therefore enabling the products and applications we see in the market today. Below is a short snapshot of the major milestones achieved by dedicated professionals working to make our lives easier:
・1994 Introduction of MIFARE Classic 1k
・1997 Launch of MIFARE Pro, the world’s first secure dual-interface µC with a 3DES coprocessor
・2000 Introduction of the first fully integrated ISO/IEC 14443 reader IC family
・2001 Launch of MIFARE Ultralight, enabling low-cost smart paper ticketing solutions
・2002 Introduction of MIFARE DESFire, the world’s first fully flexible and open standard based contactless µC solution, defined in cooperation with worldwide leading transportation system integrators
・2005 Launch of MIFARE DESFire SAM, the secure infrastructure counterpart of MIFARE DESFire
・2008 Launch of MIFARE DESFire EV1, first dedicated contactless product with CC EAL4+ certification
・2009 Introduction of MIFARE Ultralight C, first smart paper ticketing IC using open cryptography Introduction of MIFARE Plus, the migration product for MIFARE Classic installations, featuring breakthrough security and performance
・2010 Formation of the MIFARE4Mobile Industry Group together with several industry-leading companies (Giesecke & Devrient, Gemalto, Oberthur, Ericsson, NXP, STMicroelectronics and Vivotech)
・2012 Launch of MIFARE Ultralight EV1, the next generation smart paper ticketing IC bringing tailored security features and benchmark contactless performance
・2013 Introduction of MIFARE DESFire EV2, enhanced multi-application experience through the MIsmartApp feature
About NXP Semiconductors
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) creates solutions that enable secure connections for a smarter world. Building on its expertise in High Performance Mixed Signal electronics, NXP is driving innovation in the automotive, identification and mobile industries, and in application areas including wireless infrastructure, lighting, healthcare, industrial, consumer tech and computing. NXP has operations in more than 25 countries, and posted revenue of $4.36 billion in 2012. Find out more at www.nxp.com.
Visit Chip1Stop Chinese site
Visit Chip1Stop Korean site
Visit Chip1Stop English site
Visit Chip1Stop German site
