Unclonable RFID chips deliver authentication to secure IDs and access cards

09 March 2010

Verayo has launched its next generation of RFID ICs based on the company’s innovative Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) technology. The first chip of the new product family, the Vera M4H, delivers authentication and security to broader markets such as mass transit tickets, secure IDs and access cards and consumer product anti-counterfeiting, where cost has been an impediment for adoption.

The Vera M4H provides an unlimited number of local (offline) authentication events. Verayo’s first unclonable RFID IC, the Vera X512H, provided low-cost authentication, and required a network to access a back-end for authentication with a pre-provisioned number of authentication events. The Vera M4H’s non-networked, unlimited authentication feature extends the reach of Verayo’s PUF-based RFIDs to broader markets while preserving the technology’s significant cost benefits.

“Enhanced security and authentication for RFID solutions will reduce end user uncertainty and facilitate adoption in a diversity of applications,” said Drew Nathanson, Director of Research Operations at VDC Research. “Innovative firms focused on improving these critical components, such as Verayo, are expected to play a significant role in the evolution and continued commercialization of the technology.”

“The Vera M4H is an outcome of significant research and innovation at Verayo. The M4H, and the other ICs of this product family, will add to our portfolio of innovative, inexpensive alternatives to traditional cryptography-based RFIDs,” said Anant Agrawal, CEO of Verayo. “There are many applications in various industries, where pricing pressures work against the cost of adding authentication and security, yet these features are extremely important. With our new chip, we remain committed to utilizing the strengths of our innovative PUF technology to lower the cost of authentication in RFIDs and ultimately open RFIDs to a broader market.”

Providing RFID chips with silicon “fingerprints,” Verayo’s PUF technology exploits the unavoidable variations in the IC fabrication process to uniquely characterize each chip. Since these manufacturing process variations are impossible to control, model or replicate, each PUF-based IC is rendered effectively unclonable, ultimately improving security and reducing counterfeiting concerns.

Verayo works with various RFID tag vendors such as Sirit, SMARTRAC, UPM Raflatac and others to build RFID tags for various applications. Verayo’s RFID ICs work with standard HF RFID readers. The Verayo M4H is available immediately for mass production while the other RFID ICs in the new product family will be available later this year.