IRVINE, Calif., March 31, 2004–HID, http://www.hidcorp.com, the premier manufacturer of contactless access control cards and readers for the security industry, today announced the expansion of its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) product family with the OEM50 module, a low-power, 13.56 MHz contactless smart card read/write module designed for embedding into small-format products to enable iCLASS™ smart card technology. The compact form factor printed circuit board module can be embedded into OEM equipment as a component in upper-level assemblies for products used in cashless vending, biometrics, time and attendance, alarm system control, HVAC control, process control, computer peripherals, and point-of-sale terminal applications.

“Access control product development continues to thrive and become an essential technology for a diverse group of manufacturers,” said Anthony Hanseder, HID’s vice president of Product Line Management. “The introduction of our OEM50 further strengthens our comprehensive product offering regardless of the type of application desired for iCLASS contactless smart card technology.”

The OEM50 and the previously announced OEM100 and OEM300 are fully functional, multi-technology 13.56 MHz interface devices that meet ISO 14443A (MIFARE®), 14443B, and 15693 standards. The OEM50 is designed to operate in a wide variety of antenna configurations. Two antenna sizes allow OEMs more product design flexibility for the module to be installed in a variety of enclosures. For those applications requiring even greater size constraints, OEM developers may use the antenna design guide to develop their own custom antenna. When the OEM50 module is used with iCLASS cards, the OEM50 offers security features such as RF data encryption and mutual authentication using 64-bit keys for each application area, and optional data encryption standard (DES) or Triple DES for the HID application area. HID provides key management for access control and other data stored in the HID application area.

For access control applications, the OEM50 can read either iCLASS credentials transmitting the Wiegand formatted encoded data, MIFARE Standard, Ultralight, or DESFire credentials transmitting Wiegand data based on the card serial number in 26, 32, 34, 40 or 56-bit formats. For non-access control applications, the OEM50 module can read or write to any application area on the iCLASS credential with all-reader functions controlled by an external host processor via the TTL port using the iCLASS serial protocol.