Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today the industry’s first 90 nanometer (nm) dual-interface (supporting both contact and contact-less interface) smartcard IC certified with evaluation assurance level of 5+ (EAL5+) from the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation. The new smartcard chip with embedded EEPROM, S3CT9KW, is designed for use in security identification documents, such as e-Passports (also known as biometric passports), and national identification cards or drivers’ licenses, which require an extremely high level of data security.
“The new dual-interface smartcard chip raises the bar for smartcard solutions for security identification applications,” said Tae-Hoon Kim, vice president of DDI and C&M marketing at the System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. “We are expanding our product offerings tailored for use in e-passports and further plan to provide added value to our customers by developing embedded flash memory based smartcard chips, which reduce development time and management costs for application designers.”
The 90nm S3CT9KW features significant advances in its integrated RF and crypto capabilities to make the new solution suitable for finance, security and identification applications. The new chip provides over 25 percent higher RF sensitivity and two folder faster encryption speeds in RSA and ECC algorithms, as well as greater performance and reliability than previous dual interface smartcards.

For enhanced encryption features, the new smartcard chip incorporates proprietary processors: a Samsung proprietary 16bit SecuCalm processor embedding security features and the Tornado2Mx2 (T2Mx2) crypto-processor for fast data encryption. The S3CT9KW adopts asymmetric cryptogram with RSA and ECC algorithms to provide users with the utmost security support.

The high density 144 kilobyte embedded EEPROM provides sufficient storage capacity for biographic identification information including name, facial data and fingerprints. The new smartcard chip supports contact and contactless (ISO14443 Type A/B) interface for convenient use of identification documents.

The S3CT9KW is available in mass production.

With over sixty-six countries currently adopting e-Passport systems, the demand for smartcard IC for identification applications is expanding. According to market research firm Frost & Sullivan, the global e-Passport market is expected to reach 43 million units this year and grow to 83 million units by 2014 at a compound annual growth rate of 18 percent.