Smartening-up card act adds strength
01 September 2006
Smartcards and readers are a part of life in the 21st century, but progress continues in this area of technology as new uses for intelligent plastic are found and accepted, reports CAROLINE HAYES.
A smartcard is defined as a standard sized card, with microprocessors and memory components and security features, such as crypto-processors and secure file system to enable it to be used for payment transactions and authorisations.
Smartcards with contactless interfaces can speed up the travel crowds, as fares can be collected as passengers walk through turnstiles. STMicroelectronics, Philips and Infineon are some of the European companies that produce chips currently used in mass transit systems around the world, as well as in passports and identity cards. In 2003, Infineon was listed by market analyst Gartner as the world market leader in chips for chip card applications with over 50 per cent of market share, supplying 1.1billion units.
A contactless card communicates with the reader through RFID induction, at data rates of up to 848bit/sec. Although cards have to be close to an antenna for the information to be processed, it means that the card can stay in a bag or pocket for passengers to use public transport systems. At the moment, cards to the ISO/IEC 14443 standard can communicate at a distance of 10cm. The ISO 15693 standard allows
communications at up to 50cm.
A recent installation at the Croatian airport, Split Kastela airport authority replaced airport employees’ ID cards with a single smartcard for each worker. The card can be used as an official badge, as it includes an employee picture and allows access to different areas in the airport. When the airport, which received over a million passengers last year, replaced its DOS-based software and barcode-based reader hardware, Swiss company LEGIC installed contactless readers and smartcards. The cards register time and attendance, with data from card readers managed by the airport’s Time&Space software and can also be used in the canteen as a payment card.
More recently, smartcards are being introduced in personal identification schemes and to verify benefit collection. These schemes are on regional, national and international levels. They are used in driving licences, recording driving offences and fines, in health services, storing a patient’s medical records, and ID cards. Cards tend to be contact smartcards, with a gold chip on the front, which is read by the card reader to authenticate identity. The chip can have a cryptographic algorithm as another security level, although it has been proved that these algorithms can be accessed by determined hackers.
Semiconductor manufacturer Atmel (www.atmel.com) is one of the companies supplying such microcontrollers. The AT90SC12872RCTF has been developed specifically for identity. The contact/contactless secure microcontroller is a dual interface smartcard chip that complies with the new International Civil Aviation Organization specifications for electronic passports. In recent tests, a passport reader based on the microcontroller was up to 10 times faster than other systems. Reading was recorded at under two seconds. The device has 72kByte EEPROM, 128kByte ROM and 5kByte RAM. The secureAVR eight/16bit RISC microcontroller with a DES/tripleDES engine and AdvX crypto accelerator, is also incorporated.
More often than not, the smartcard works with a public key infrastructure (PKI) a system of protocols and standards to access and secure networks. The PKI issues an encrypted digital certificate that is stored in the card with other information about the card holder. According to advocates, a smartcard with a biometric element can increase security by providing two or three factors for authentification.
Instead of a wallet full of smartcards, the use of an intelligent, embedded chip can multiply the uses of a single card. Sony has developed the FeliCa contactless IC card technology, with the intention of a single card being used for multiple applications, from electronic payment to ID and membership. Already, there are over 120million FeliCa IC chips in use, concentrated around the Asia Pacific region in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Thailand and India. The increased use of smartcards and readers has also been a benefit to test and measurement companies. For example, when a FeliCa card receives an RF signal from a reader/writer, electricity from the signal is generated, which is received, analysed and processed in order for a signal to be sent in response.
The interaction in this system means that the card communication process has to be measured over time and not in a single-shot event. Digital oscilloscopes are the best option for over-time measurements but problems arise as the response signal is 212kHz from the card, which is extremely small, compared to the 13.56Mhz carrier signal. A conventional spectrum analyser, where data is not viewed on a timeline, cannot be used for communications conditions, as the data transmitted between the reader/write and card cannot be identified.
Sony has adoptedTektronix’s (www.tek.com) Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers (RTSA) and RFID analysis software to measure and analyse communications between the Sony FeliCa contactless IC card system. The RTSA views data on a timeline, similar to a digital oscilloscope, yet maintains the high dynamic range of a spectrum analyzer. The real-time device triggers on frequency changes in the domain to seamlessly capture RF signals in the internal memory. A spectral, time and modulation analysis is then performed with timecorrelated, multi-domain views.
Smartcard readers are also an area for development, creating an interest in SoC design for one. Alpha Micro Components (www.alphamicro.net) a UK distributor specialising in telecomms, datacomms, security and EpoS products, has added an IC from Teridian to its range. The 73S1215F IC can be used in smartcard readers to build low-cost USB-connected PIN pads for credit and debit cards as well as digital signature, ebanking applications and PIN pad readers for government ID.
The IC has an 80515 core with an instruction set compatible with the Intel 8052, but it only requires one clock cycle/instruction. This allows for processing rates of 24MIP, making PIN encryption possible or providing the highspeed computation rates needed for encryption or decryption of a digital signature. There is also a software library available, including USB and ISO7816 protocol layers compatible with credit card identification applications.
Two variants are available, the QFN44 measures 7 x 7mm for integrating into card reader modules for set top boxes, laptop and desktop PCs. The QFN68, or die options, can be used for handheld PIN pad smartcard readers.
Smartcards are relatively inexpensive to produce and have gained acceptance across the globe, with electronic banking, electronic passports and ID cards being introduced as well as their use in mobile phones. As well as the amount of processing and memory ability that can be packed in the plastic, Infineon (www.infineon.com) has joined up with German smartcard system supplier, Giesecke & Devrient to develop a slimmer chip card package.
The FCOS (Flip Chip On Substrate) method trims 80ìm from the conventional package thickness of 580ìm. In 2004, Infineon declared over 25 per cent market share of chip packages for chip card applications.
The companies claim that chip packages are smaller to meet the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) smaller form factor for SIM (subscriber identification module) cards in mobile phones. The FCOS (Flip Chip On Substrate) method has the chip card IC rotated inside the module in which it is housed.
The functional side of the chip is attached directly to the module by conductive contacts, eliminating the conventional gold wires and synthetic resin encapsulation. This not only saves module space, but is also more robust and able to handle mechanical stresses better.
The extra space created in the module can be used by larger chips with more functions at relatively little added cost or design effort.
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