New Bangkok Office and Testing Facility to Help Expand MicroPass® Production Capacity
Aix-En-Provence, France, November 3rd, 2009–Expanding its operations in Asia, INSIDE Contactless, the world leader in advanced open-standard contactless chip technologies, today announced the opening of a representative office in Bangkok, Thailand, to coordinate engineering support for its production subcontractors throughout Asia, including a new secured semiconductor probing facility in Bangkok operated by United Test and Assembly Center Ltd (UTAC). The new Bangkok operations will play an important role as INSIDE prepares to increase its production capacity to handle an anticipated demand of up to 500 million MicroPass® contactless payment microprocessors annually.
“By opening this office in Bangkok, we are taking an important strategic step to help expand our subcontracted production facilities in Asia and improve operations with them to ensure we meet our quality and production goals,” said Damien Laroche, executive vice president of manufacturing and operations at INSIDE. “This Bangkok office will play a central logistical role in coordinating the manufacturing of our EMV payment processors, and will help INSIDE achieve a more efficient supply chain with its subcontractors.”
The new office will operate under the direction of Worrawut Poonsuk, an experienced test engineer, who will also coordinate production with INSIDE’s manufacturing subcontractors in Asia. Approved by EMVCo, the new subcontracted probing facility will test EMV-certified MicroPass® contactless payment microprocessors manufactured in Singapore and destined for INSIDE’s customers across Asia and other parts of the world.
The Bangkok office and testing facility expand INSIDE’s global footprint, which also includes manufacturing facilities and sales and engineering offices in Silicon Valley, Boston, Warsaw, Aix en Provence, Singapore, Shanghai and Seoul.
About INSIDE Contactless
INSIDE Contactless is the global leader in open-standard contactless payment and Near Field Communication (NFC) semiconductors and software that power the next generation of payment, transit, identity and access control applications. The company’s intelligent, microprocessor-based platforms offer the flexibility to be embedded in smart cards, mobile phones and other consumer electronic devices, documents, badges and other items to support a wide range of innovative contactless applications and bring new levels of convenience to users. INSIDE has delivered more than 300 million contactless platforms worldwide to customers and partners that include many of the leading payment card and mobile phone manufacturers, systems integrators and financial institutions. With a portfolio of 60 families of patents, including several essential NFC patents, the company has played a leading role in NFC and contactless innovation. INSIDE is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Warsaw, Seoul and Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit http://www.insidecontactless.com.