Indian electronic passports embedded
with Infineon's security microcontroller
Bangalore, India: Infineon Technologies has announced that,
it is the supplier of contactless security microcontrollers
for India's electronic passport program. The rollout has
started with the issuance of electronic passports to Indian
diplomats and officials, and it is expected that in this
first phase, up to thirty thousand electronic passports
shall be issued. By September 2009, the program is likely
to be expanded to include passports used by the general
public. Today, approximately six million passports are being
annually issued in India.
Designed to facilitate international travel by allowing
automatic identity verification, fast immigration inspections
combined with efficient border protection and security,
the new electronic passports include a security microcontroller
in the back cover of the passport that securely stores the
same information that is printed on the document.
"India is one of the first major emerging countries
to launch the electronic passport and among the fastest-growing
smart card markets," said Dr. Helmut Gassel, division
president of the Chip Card and Security division at Infineon
Technologies. "As the leading supplier of chips used
for secure identification, financial transactions and access
to electronic systems, we are proud to be selected to supply
the security microcontrollers for the first rollout of the
Indian electronic passports. Infineon is committed to work
with our partners in the development of solutions for the
India market."
Infineon is ranked high in the security microcontrollers
market with its security MCU devices used in electronic
passports of USA, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Hong Kong,
Norway, Poland, Sweden and Ivory Coast.
The security-certified contactless microcontroller used
in India's electronic passport is SLE 66CLX800PE.
The key features of this device are,
1. This MCU features a crypto-coprocessor and operates at
high transaction speeds of up to 848 kbits/s
even if elevated encryption and decryption operations have
to be calculated.
2. SLE 66CLX800PE offers all contactless proximity interfaces
on a single chip: the ISO/IEC 14443 Type
B interface and Type A interface, and the ISO/IEC 18092.
3. The SLE 66CLX800PE is also compliant with global ICAO
(International Civil Aviation Organization) standards
for electronic passports.
4. This device offers 80 kilobytes (kb) of EEPROM, 240 kb
of ROM, and 6 kb of RAM. With its tailored set of
EEPROM/ROM and RAM memory sizes, the SLE 66CLX800PE adheres
to the ICAO requirements for the
secure storage of the biometric and personal data in travel
documents.
5. The SLE 66PE contactless controller family, which includes
the SLE 66CLX800PE, is certified according
to Common Criteria EAL 5+ high (BSI-PP-0002 protection profile)
security certification.
More details on this chip are available at,
www.infineon.com/security and at www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/channel
Infineon says, currently it is the world's only chip card
IC provider offering contactless microcontrollers with all
relevant contactless proximity interfaces on a single chip.