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Executive Summary
Electronic versions of passports and other government-issued identification documents
use an Integrated Circuit (IC) or chip to establish a digital link between the holder and
personal biometric information, such as a digitized photo, fingerprint or iris image.
Designed to enhance border, physical and IT security, electronic chips ensure that the
person holding a passport or government document is the one to whom it was
legitimately issued.
The next generation ICs will employ an advanced embedded memory technology, called
FRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory), which considerably improves the speed
and reliability of future smart, secure e-passports and government ID documents. More
than 50 countries have electronic passport (e-passport) programs, and many countries are
also putting in place more secure forms of electronic citizen, visitor and government
employee identification. As the volume of document issuance increases and new security
threats occur, there is an increased need for industry-standard, next-generation contactless
smart IC solutions that securely store, process and communicate data. These new smart
ICs will have increased writing speeds to produce and process documents faster and more
efficiently, as well as enhanced memory for future security requirements.
When FRAM is manufactured at the 130 nanometer semiconductor process node, and
embedded in a smart IC, it surpasses the limitations of current Electrically Erasable
Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) and other memory technologies used in
government ID applications. The imminent introduction of this innovative memory
technology for smart ICs signals a shift in performance in smart card applications
deployed in government electronic ID documents.
This paper details the advantages of embedded FRAM memory for smart ICs in contrast
to the traditional memory technologies used in many e-passport and government ID
programs today.
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