DIGISEQ Ltd, the wearable payment tech pioneer, has received Mastercard certification for a world-first pre-certified concentric ring inlay, opening up the market for small independents and large brands to quickly and effectively launch payment rings within their collections. The inclusion of the ring inlay with integrated secured NFC chip can deliver multiple services, opening new use cases in addition to payments, such as loyalty, access, events and hospitality for consumers’ everyday life.
The market volume [1] for passive payment wearables alone is expected to grow to US$ 811.4 million by 2028, with the form factor ring growing the fastest at a CAGR of 25.6 percent to US$ 279.6 million. And with these growth projections not taking into account the recent developments of mobile provisioning and the cost benefits of DIGISEQ’s pre-certified inlays, it is an exciting time to be launching wearables into the mainstream market.
The ultra slim concentric ring inlay is an addition to the full range of pre-certified chip inlays based on Infineon´s SECORA™ Connect S SLJ37 security solution. It provides support for diverse and innovative product creators with whichever form factor best suits their product. The inlays are designed to be quickly and simply embedded into a large range of ring designs and sizes, so that product creators can launch their unique products at speed with no in-house technical or RF engineering expertise. This allows them to focus on their own design and marketing of slender rings that continue to deliver outstanding read range performance even with the smallest ring sizes.
The new ring inlay is one of the thinnest in the market. Infineon and DIGISEQ have been undertaking extensive research and development over the last two years into the creation of small form factor wearables using Infineon’s SECORA Connect S SLJ37 chip. This device, available in the ultra-compact USON8-7 surface mount package, measuring just 2×2 mm, makes it ideal for placement on small inlays for incorporation into consumer products without the need for any specialist production equipment or certifications. The pre-certified ring inlay is available from the manufacturing partner Universal Smart Cards. Rings with inlays will be showcased at Infineon’s TRUSTECH 2023 booth.
“The SECORA Connect S solution is especially designed for field-powered wearable implementation and allows fast and seamless enablement of contactless payments with passive wearables,” said Tolgahan Yildiz, Vice President Trusted Mobile Connectivity & Transactions at Infineon. “Our security solution is the basis for this new pre-certified plug-and-play ring inlay from our Associated Security Network partner DIGISEQ which can be easily integrated into new sleek product designs. It is great to see that DIGISEQ has successfully expanded their product portfolio allowing NFC personalization and tokenization services based on the SECORA Connect product family.”
“It’s very exciting to be part of the development of the concentric ring inlay that added a further form factor to our existing range of ‘SmarTap’ wearables inlays,” said Chris Allen, Director of Universal Smart Cards. “Our range of Mastercard certified inlays enable brands and OEMs to add contactless payment, provenance and NFC customer engagement into their product portfolios with ease and at low cost. The ring inlay pushes these boundaries further; it’s by far our thinnest inlay, and yet delivers optimum performance for what has become an extremely popular jewelry piece.”
[1] Source: ABI research – Passive Payment Wearables: Technology and Trends, October 2023
About DIGISEQ
DIGISEQ believes that consumers deserve the freedom to choose to use any object they want to pay or for identification; whether it’s watches, rings, or clothing. Our award-winning IoT platform provides an end-to-end service which securely delivers data into everyday wearables, enabling objects – unconnected or connected – to have NFC payment, Access Control, Digital Identity and User Engagement contactless functionality.
DIGISEQ connects an entire ecosystem, serving as a centerpiece between banks, product creators, retailers, chip manufacturers and service providers. Our platform offers businesses a seamless all-in-one solution for entering the wearable technology market, empowering them with our existing infrastructure, partners, hardware, and security systems to create wearable technology. As pioneers and market leaders of passive wearable payment technology, we aim to be the world’s largest issuing network. More information about DIGISEQ is available at www.digiseq.co.uk.