Less copper

New Infineon chip makes plastic money “greener”

Until now, a typical card has contained around three meters of copper wire.(Bild: Infineon)

A new module from semiconductor company Infineon is set to make hundreds of millions of contactless payment cards more environmentally friendly. According to the company from Neubiberg near Munich, which is the global market leader for the chips on the cards, the CO2 footprint of card production is to be significantly reduced as a result.

The cards are also expected to be available in Europe from the beginning of next year. Customers will be able to recognize them by the slightly larger electronic module, but there should be no difference in function. The key difference with the new cards is that they do not require an additional antenna made of copper wire.

Up to now, a typical card has contained around three meters of wire around 80 to 100 micrometres thick. They collect the energy emitted by the payment terminal and use it to power the chip on the card. According to Infineon, the new chip is significantly more economical. This is why a much smaller antenna is sufficient for its power supply. This is installed directly on the module, which is therefore somewhat larger.

Previous cards can hardly be recycled
The old copper antenna is a double environmental problem: on the one hand, it consumes resources and, on the other, it is glued to a foil between the layers of the card. This makes the previous cards almost impossible to recycle, according to Infineon. With the new cards, the module can simply be broken out and the plastic card and electronic waste can be disposed of separately.

Comparison between the previous cards (left) and the more environmentally friendly "Secora Pay Green" from Infineon(Bild: Infineon)

The difference per card may be small - according to Infineon, the CO2 footprint of the electronic components is reduced by just over 60 percent. However, given that more than three billion cards are produced worldwide every year, the potential is huge.

The first of these cards are to be launched on the market in the USA this year, in Europe a little later. Within five years, the volume of environmentally friendly cards - not only with Infineon chips - is expected to rise to up to 900 million per year worldwide, according to experts.