STMicroelectronics partners with Paco Rabanne to advance contactless technology

STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor provider, announced its collaboration with Paco Rabanne on the European fashion house’s new Phantom fragrance for men.

Phantom is packaged in a unique connected bottle that uses an embedded near-field communication (NFC) tag IC, using a popular contactless technology supported by most smartphones to connect to its online, “Phantom Universe.”

Access to Paco Rabanne’s Phantom Universe is enabled by ST’s chip, the ST25TV, which is encapsulated into the innovative Phantom-bottle cap. The novel cap meeting the technical and esthetic needs of Paco Rabanne’s Phantom fragrance was developed through close collaboration among ST, Paco Rabanne, tag inlay-specialist Paragon ID, and VPI (FaiveleyPlastBeauty), an expert in injection molding, decoration, and assembly.

Together, the partners worked out how to embed a general-purpose, NFC-certified Type 5 tag IC for maximum operating volume and range along with a custom small antenna into a space-constrained perfume bottle cap where the parasitic effects of the shiny chrome-metal finishing can wreak havoc on connectivity.

“Paco Rabanne challenged us to help them develop a pioneering use case: a connected, user-friendly, sustainable luxury bottle for a new fragrance,” said Yvon Gourdou, EMEA Application and marketing director, Microcontrollers and Digital ICs Group, STMicroelectronics. “With our partners, we built a novel solution built on a standard product and a proven design methodology, now available for consumer and luxury brands globally.

Gourdou added: “Phantom’s bottle brings together cutting-edge contemporary design, sustainability with a refill system, and user-friendly connected services enabled by the integration of our ST25TV NFC tag IC in a challenging environment.”

Using NFC eliminates the need for a battery in the cap, as the tag gets powered by the contactless fields between the tag IC and the connecting device — typically a smartphone or tablet.

“Innovative in the approach and futuristic in the fragrance and bottle appearance, Phantom brings a new dimension to users and a pathway to the digital universe, allowing them to meet their new Wingman,” said Fabien Leclercq, packaging development manager from Paco Rabanne. “Our own luxury craftmanship, combined with high-tech knowhow and expertise from STMicroelectronics brought our vision to reality.”