Largest Available Memory and Fast Processing-Infineon Presents New Security Chip with Integrity Guard for Electronic Passports

Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) today introduced a new security controller for electronic passports (ePassports), featuring the industry’s highest memory density and data processing 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 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 efficient as possible despite the increased amount of data the new security controller enables eight times faster read time by electronic scanners. To the benefit both travelers and airport operators, passport data can be read on average in less than one second by the contactless scanners at electronic airport checkpoints.

At the CARTES 2013 Secure Connexions Event, in Paris from November 19-21, Infineon is showcasing the world’s fastest ePassport which implements the state-of-the-art SAC(Supplemental Access Control) mechanism required in next generation ePassports. Yesterday this ePassport demonstrator was 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 the combined greaterstorage density and faster data-transmission speed compared to alternatives, the SLE78 with Integrity Guard is the best available choice for future generations of e-passport,” says Carsten Loschinsky, Head of the

Government ID business line at Infineon Technologies. “Infineon security controllers 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 in this global market.”

SOLID FLASHT 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 control requirements in terms of memory capacity and processing speed are dramatically increasing.

With its SOLID FLASH technology, Infineon is once again setting new standarda in large memory density in an extremely small space. The new security chip offers 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 personal and biometric data about the card holder, 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 amount of data as quickly as possible at border security controls, the new SLE78 security controller uses the VHBR (Very-High-Bit-Rate) protocol pursuant 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 scanner.

Thanks to Infineon’s digital security technology ‘Integrity Guard’, 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.