Feb 2 2010
Shanghai Huahong Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "SHHIC"), a leading smart card IC supplier in China, today announced that its design of a high-end contactless smart card IC has successfully entered into commercial production at Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC", SMI; SEHK: 0981.HK) using SMIC's 0.162um embedded EEPROM process.
The product is a collaborative effort by SHHIC and SMIC. It is also the first smart card IC in commercial production using SMIC's 0.162um EEPROM technology.
The targeted markets for SHHIC's high-end smart card IC product are identification or payment systems of which chip security and chip performance are the two key requirements. The product uses the leading 32-bit low-power security processor architecture, which adopts ROM, RAM and EEPROM of large capacity. The communication speed of the RFIC has reached the upper limit of the ISO/IEC14443 standard, which guarantees that the chip may be applied to a wide range of complex contactless IC applications. The chip also has an embedded high-quality random number generator, the latest design by SHHIC using built-in high-speed symmetric cryptography and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) co-processor to support applications following mainstream cryptographic protocols. In addition, the chip uses an advanced anti-shock technology exclusively developed by SHHIC. Various mechanical shock tests have proven that the chip can withstand high impacts. With such features, a strong market demand for the SHHIC's high-end contactless smart card ICs can be expected.
"SHHIC, as a leading supplier of smart card ICs in China, is dedicated to contactless IC product development," said XinHua Ji, Director of Design of SHHIC. "The success of the commercial production of this smart card IC product marked a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough in the industry."
Chris Chi, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of SMIC said, "SMIC has reached a new milestone in embedded non-volatile memory (NVM) technology. The 0.162um embedded EEPROM process can provide customers solutions with more reliability, stability, and lower-costs. It will therefore greatly enhance customers' market competitiveness, and consequently, consolidate SMIC's leadership position in the embedded NVM market. The process is poised to play a significant role in both the existing and the potential markets in China. SMIC will continue with the R&D of embedded NVM technology and forge close collaboration with our clients for a win-win partnership."