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Infineon has introduced a new security controller for electronic passports (ePassports), featuring the industry’s highest memory density and data transfer rate. The new SLE78 with ‘Integrity Guard’ technology offers more than three times memory space for secure storage of personal and biometric data as well as for electronic visas or entry and exit stamps, which will also require on-chip storage in future ePassports. To be able to process immigration security checks as efficiently as possible despite the increased amount of data, the new security controller enables eight times faster contactless read time by electronic readers. To the benefit of both travelers and airport operators, passport data can be read on average in less than one second by contactless readers at electronic checkpoints in airports.
At CARTES 2013 Infineon showcased the world’s fastest ePassport which implements the state-of-the-art SAC (Supplemental Access Control) mechanism required in next generation ePassports. The company was also awarded the Sesames 2013 for the best product in the ID and health card category. An international jury of independent experts in the chip-card industry selected the winners in ten separate categories from a field of 319 applicants and 34 finalists.
“With 3-times greater storage density and 8-times faster data-transmission speed compared to alternatives, the SLE78 with Integrity Guard is best prepared for future generations of e-passport,” says Carsten Loschinsky, Head of the Government ID business line at Infineon Technologies. “Infineon security controllers with Integrity Guard are established as the leading solution on the market for electronic documents with long-term validity such as passports and identity cards. We are now further extending our lead.”
SOLID FLASH™ technology –perfect match for future ePassport generations
To comply with the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) LDS 2.0 Standard, electronic passports issued in the medium term will be required to store a larger amount of data than they do today. As a result, security controller requirements in terms of memory capacity and processing speed are dramatically increasing. With its SOLID FLASH technology, Infineon is once again setting new standards and enables large memory density in an extremely small space.
The new security chip offers the industry’s highest memory density of 700 kBytes. In addition to the approximately 200 kBytes of space required for program code, the new SLE78 offers up to 500 kBytes of flash-based memory capacity for variable data. In addition to the card holders’ personal and biometric data, the SLE78 also can store securely a great number of electronic visas, hundreds of electronic entry and exit stamps and even loyalty points for frequent traveler programs. Comparatively, alternative solutions based on ROM technology only provide a capacity of 144 kBytes. Since a major part of the 144 kBytes is used to store passport data such as nationality, issue date, etc., ROM-technology soon reaches its limit when complied with the demands placed on new generations of electronic passports.
To process large amounts of data as quickly as possible at border controls, the new SLE78 security controller uses the VHBR (Very-High-Bit-Rate) protocol compliant to ISO/IEC 14443 with a 6.8 Mbit/s data rate. In addition, the VHBR protocol improves the stability of contactless communication between the electronic passport and the corresponding reader.
Thanks to Infineon’s ‘Integrity Guard’ digital security technology, the chip is perfectly suited to meet the growing security requirements of electronic identification documents. With Integrity Guard, data are not only stored in completely encrypted form but are also processed in encrypted form by two mutually monitoring CPUs.