Gemalto Oy’s R&D unit concentrates on operating systems for chips used in identity cards and passports, on one hand, and on product materials, on the other. The product development work in Vantaa is carried out in close cooperation with international customers, partners, and colleagues from various countries.

 

Gemalto’s specialty is operating systems for travel documents and identity cards. Approximately half of the passports used in the world carry an operating system that has been developed in Finland. The company’s strengths include fast, secure, and reliable operations and the possibility of using several chip platforms. Gemalto also develops applications and solutions for this operating environment.

 

Smart card chip technology and product development concentrating on biometric identification have made Gemalto a world leader in digital security and identification. The first passports and identity cards with biometric identification, as well as PKI SIM cards and EMV PKI payment cards, were developed in Finland.

 

Gemalto Oy’s material development department concentrates on developing and testing the materials and security features produced by the company. Today, most high-security identity cards and passport data pages are manufactured of polycarbonate or PET plastic.

 

The ID card production department in Vantaa was the first in the world to use polycarbonate plastic. Long-term experience of polycarbonate printing and related material development form a significant amount of the product development know-how in Vantaa.

 

Gemalto’s testing environment and research equipment, used both for testing new security-printed products and for examining counterfeits and manipulated items, are among the most advanced in the world.

 

Management of customer projects

 

An extensive organization specializing in the management and implementation of customer projects is also found in Vantaa. The customer project organization is responsible for the integration and maintenance of customers’ systems, as well as for training customers in the use of their systems. The content of the projects ranges from installation of individual devices or software to total responsibility in projects involving national travel documents and frontier supervision systems.

 

In addition, Gemalto Oy has quality, occupational health, security, and environmental organizations that concentrate on the development of the company’s own processes and operations.