Cirque SecureSense™ technology has been used in many payment terminals to provide a secure touch screen experience. By using a totally unique method for capacitive touch sensing, Cirque technology can meet payment industry requirements for sensitive PIN data security, without requiring expensive and cumbersome physical protection of the touch screen.

But what about physical keypads? Many payment terminals still use physical button PIN pads for a verity of reasons, such as ADA compliance. Usually these terminals still feature touch screens for signature capture, and general user interface, but for secure PIN entry the physical keypad is used. Because of the complicated security requirements for PIN data protection, this keypad must be protected, usually through physical means.

But it is also possible to utilize Cirque technology to provide an additional layer of security for the keypad. In addition to secure touch screen technology, SecureSense has also been used successfully to design capacitive physical PIN pads. This reduces the need to rely on physical protections and can enable more cost effective, thinner designs.

One of the biggest advantages of this design is that capacitive sensing electrodes from the Cirque controller IC can be used to power both the touch screen and the secure capacitive PIN pad. By using a single chip design for both input devices, its possible to realize the lowest cost and most secure payment terminal designs.

For more information about Cirque solutions for the secure input, visit the Secure Solutions section of our website, or contact us.