NXP and LUXIM Make the Smart Grid Smarter by Bringing Smart Card Security Technology to Street Lighting

In our view, LEP is the best possible source for high-illuminance applications, including street lighting. Our tic-tac-sized plasma light source enables electricity cost savings of approximately $145 per fixture per year, exceptional color quality and 50,000-hour life,” said Randy Reid, vice president of marketing, LUXIM. “By introducing the authentication chip from NXP, we’re helping our partners protect their customers’ investment in LEP street lighting – to ensure that everyone benefits from the brilliant white light, energy savings and long life of LUXIM products.

LEP lighting is an energy-efficient and environmentally clean lighting technology that saves over 50 percent in energy costs compared to traditional lighting. In addition, it offers three times the lifespan of most conventional lighting fixtures, shining a full spectrum brilliant white light that mimics the sun. To achieve best performance, LUXIM uses deep domain expertise developing sophisticated IP. The NXP au10tic security IC solution is used to prevent lower quality counterfeit components from entering into the supply chain, and ultimately protect local government agencies investment.

The au10tic™ A7001 security IC is based on NXP SmartMX™ technology widely used for securing ID cards, passports and banking smart cards among many other high-security applications. It uses state-of-the-art Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) algorithms for safer key management schemes were the secret key never leave the au10tic™security IC and is not part of the host software The au10tic™ A7001 security IC has built-in hardware tamper resistance to protect the secret key from physical attacks.

As a pioneer in Light Emitting Plasma technology, LUXIM is taking strong measures to protect its brand from possible counterfeiting and tampering. The NXP au10tic security IC solution is a critical technology for helping to protect street lights – and the broader energy SmartGrid as a whole, said Sami Nassar, global director of product marketing and business development, NXP Semiconductors.