Infineon Launches Security Chip

MUNICH -- Infineon Technologies AG (FSE/NYSE: IFX), the world’s leading supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) for chip cards, announced today it has been the sole chip supplier for Europe’s largest nationwide electronic identity card scheme, the Belgium Personal Identity Card (BelPIC). Infineon has already delivered more than 5 million highly-secure smart card microcontrollers to BelPIC. Currently, all European countries that have undergone pilot studies or began issuing national electronic ID cards have chosen Infineon's security smart card controllers. In addition to Belgium, other countries that are issuing these cards include Italy, Finland, Estonia, and Sweden. Germany and the UK are expected to select suppliers later in 2007, and France and Poland in 2008.

In 2005, after having set up the new Federal Public Key Infrastructure (FedPKI), Belgium began issuing the ID cards which are carried by all citizens twelve years of age or older. BelPIC is a multi-application smart card used for personal identification at home and abroad with an electronic signature authentication that is used by eGovernment services, for address change, civil record, birth certificate, tax return, and private-use Internet services. The BelPIC card body, based on polycarbonate and using laser engraving technology, is manufactured by the company Gemalto. Gemalto also provided the Java-based operating system as well as the ID applications and the digital signature applications.

The Belgium ID card incorporates the highly-secure contact-based smart card controller SLE 66CX322P of Infineon. The high-performance crypto-controller features an integral security concept providing multiple levels of physical protection and encryption and is certified according to Common Criteria “EAL 5+ high” certification based on the latest BSI-PP-0002 protection profile. It offers 32 Kbytes of EEPROM, 136 Kbytes of ROM, and 4 Kbytes of RAM.

Infineon Technologies AG (NYSE/Frankfurt: IFX)