O2Micro Granted Smart Card System and IC Controller Patent

SANTA CLARA, Calif. & GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman -- O2Micro International Limited, a leading supplier of innovative power management and security ICs to manufacturers of products for the computer, consumer, industrial, and communications markets, received 9 claims under United States patent number 6,807,597 for its Smart Card System and IC Controller invention; a continuation of O2Micro's SmartCardSensing patent, issued October 2002 under United States patent number 6,470,284.

The patented invention is designed to simplify the integration of Smart Card technology to a PC Card enabled computer system. The system uses PC Card methods for Smart Card connectivity, and is applicable to systems that connect Smart Cards through PC Card sockets or by means of a dedicated Smart Card socket.

"This patent award further extends O2Micro's core SmartCardBus(R) invention and system level claims to the widely adopted security technology," commented Max Huang, O2Micro's executive vice president of the Intelligent E-Commerce Business Unit.