As regards volume, the SLE 66CLX800PE security microcontroller is one of the two biggest electronic passport projects in the world, according to Infineon Technologies.

All passports in China, starting from the first quarter of 2010, will be issued as electronic passports. In the first full year of the introduction of the electronic passports, around 6.5 million such passports will be distributed.

In addition to the supply by Infineon Technologies, NXP BV Semiconductors, based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, had signed a deal, in October 2009, to supply SmartMX security chips for China’s ePassport scheme.

Two of China’s ministries are involved in the electronic passport project – the Ministry of Public Security, which is responsible for citizens; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for government employees and diplomats.

Infineon Technologies claims that it is the only semiconductor firm that supplies to both the electronic passport projects of China.

Infineon Technologies says that its SLE 66CLX800PE security microcontroller, which has a cryptoprocessor, gives execution speeds of up to 848-kbit/s even when decryption operations and elevated encryption have to be calculated. The security microcontroller also has a 240-kbyte ROM, an 80-kbyte EEPROM, and a 6-kbyte RAM.

The SLE 66CLX800PE security microcontroller – which has been certified as per Common Criteria EAL 5+ security certification – includes other features such as data encryption, a memory firewall system, hardware-based security, as well as other security mechanisms meant to safeguard the privacy of data.