Applications smart cards

Organic thin film transistors are fabricated with a low-temperature process. It is therefore possible to fabricate TFT arrays for flat panel displays in a low cost process. The substrates are low-cost and flexible such as polyethylene terepthalate (PET). The low cost, large area TFT arrays can be used for many applications, e.g. electronic paper, smart cards and remotely updateable posters and notice boards. Currently the amorphous-silicon-on-glass technology is used for such applications. This technology is very expensive. These applications will only become popular in marketplace if the cost of production is substantially reduced. This is the driving force for the R D effort in organic TFTs. 

The commercial development of computer-based control systems for tractors and other agricultural implements has provided a platform that enables coded mapped information to be effectively transferred from a desktop computer to the tractor cab. Initially developed in conjunction with GPS field location for yieldmapping applications, this type of system is now being incorporated into tractors and specialised application vehicles (see Figure 4.6). These can be used to give access to the treatment map in the field, and hence control signals for the application system. Data transfer is commonly by smart cards with current systems, but it is likely that future developments will use radio/telephone connections to automate the data transfer process (Miller, 1999). 

K. FinkenzeUer, RFID handbook Fundamentals and applications in contactless smart cards and identification, Wiley, New York, 2003. 

Smart cards are among the fastest growing applications for electrically conductive adhesives. Smart cards are pocket-size plastic cards with thin embedded ICs that store, process and transfer data much in the manner of a mini-computer. Smart labels are also being developed where the substrate is paper instead of plastic. Flip-chip transponder chips and flexible antenna are incorporated producing, for example, low-cost radiofrequency identification (RFID) units. 

Electrically conductive adhesives are being used to interconnect flip-chip devices in smart cards resulting in thinner and smaller structures. Flip-chip silicon devices that have been thinned to several mils may be connected to a substrate with silver-filled paste epoxy or with anisotropic film adhesive instead of solder, then embedded and laminated to form a card that is less than 40-mils thick. Requirements for adhesives used in smart cards, in many respects, are more severe than those for other commercial applications. Besides having to withstand high humidity and temperature extremes, smart cards must take the continued abuse of human handling, repeated bending, exposure to human sweat and salt residues, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight. 

Rasul JS. Chip on paper technology utilizing anisotropically conductive adhesive for smart label applications. Microelectronics Reliability. Jan 2004 Vol. 44(Issue 1). Holmberg M, Lenkkeri J, Lahti M, Wiik B. Reliability of Adhesive Joints in Dual Interface Smart Cards. Proc. 2nd Inti. IEEE Conf. on Polymers and Adhesives in Microelectronics and Photonics, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. Jun. 2002 23-26. 

The first organic electronic products reached the market in 2005/2006. This included passive identification (ID) cards that could be mass printed on paper, which were used for ticketing or toys, became available in 2006. Similarly, flexible batteries, produced in a reel-to-reel process, have been used for smart cards and other mobile consumer products for some time. Printed strain sensors and the first printed semiconductor photo detector arrays for industrial, medical and security applications are also on the market. 

Several groups have also demonstrated adequate performance at normal room temperatures and this allows the technology to address the large and ever-growing market in portable electronic devices. In these applications, the performance characteristics will be augmented by the ability to fabricate batteries into a variety of shapes and sizes. There are also a number of specialized applications which LPBs could address these include, for example. Smart Cards and down-hole batteries for the oil industry. 

Main security solutions proposed to address security requirements of patient-monitoring systems reside in the areas of encryption and secure communication. Access-control techniques need to be developed to address the privacy issues in eHealth applications. In particular, procedures for authentication (user identification) and authorization (access right checking) are essential for acceptable and sustainable eHealth applications. The authentication function ensures that users are indeed who they claim to be. Therefore, an unauthorized party should not be able to receive or access a patient s medical data. Various techniques being considered include a combination of different authentication atomics. These atomics include biometric information (fingerprint, retina scan, typing pattern, etc.) and information the user knows (mother s maiden name), user possessions (e.g., smart card identification systems), and may also include current location and/or the end-user terminal identity (media access control [MAC] hardware address) and time of access. 

Silver particles can also be used to create conductive inks, which are then printed onto textile substrate. They were initially developed for smart cards and printed circuit boards but have found a lot of application in the flexible circuitry field. Some major challenges remain (Meoli and May-Plumlee, 2002) before conductive inks can be applied in a production environment since the ink viscosity (Perelaer et al., 2010)... 

K. Finkenzeller, RFID Handbook Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards, Radio Frequency Identification and Near-field Communication, Wiley, 2010. 

Organic Field Effect Transistors/Molecular Electronics. Organic field effect transistors (OFETS) and molecular electronics are two areas of intensive research for both academic and industrial institutions (346). The extensive research on these devices stems from their ability to be processed at low temperatures and from their compatibility with plastic substrates. Several applications of OFETs have been proposed, including smart cards (347), active matrix displays (348), and logic circuits (349). Both polymeric and oligomeric materials have been studied for use in OFETs because the properties can be tailored to vary the HOMO-LUMO gap physical characteristics such as mechanical flexibility and processability are also advantageous (350). 

Working on the basis that necessity is the mother of invention a new anti-intrusion shell product from RocTool would appear to satisfy a number of needs. The shell, using reformulated conductive polyester composite material, incorporates a smart card within the moulding which, in the event of threatened integrity, can transmit information. Typical product applications include the transport of hazardous or sensitive materials, protection of electronic equipment, security of buildings, the ensuring of system integrity in IT systems and for double protection in an alarm system. 

Smart cards contain an electronic chip that can hold, and sometimes also process, a large amount of information. Simple smart cards are disposable once they are used up (prepaid phone cards are an example), hut some smart cards have multiple applications. More sophisticated types of smart cards can be used in POS terminals and ATMs and for storing records such as health information (Gallagher 2005). 

In the opinion of material scientists, thin-film technology is essential in the development of rechargeable hthium-based microbatteries for potential applications, such as smart cards, nonvolatile memory backup devices, MEMS sensors and actuators, and miniaturized implantable medical devices. Battery designers predict that for such applications film thickness should not exceed a few tens of micrometers or microns (10 cm). This means that the film thickness must be at least ten micrometers or 0.001 cm (0.0025 in.), which may be suitable for minimum battery... 

Schellhorn et al. have applied Rushby s definition to smart cards that run multiple applications that may not interfere which each other [21]. Their approach applies to, e.g., IBMs SmartXA, a smart card with both a supervisor-and a user-mode, but to other multiapplicative systems such as cell phones or PDAs as well. Krohn and Tromer adopt a process algebraic version of Rushby s definition formulated by Ryan and Schneider [12,20]. They prove noninterference for Flume, a 30,000-line extension to a standard Linux kernel that provides decentralized information flow control. 

Problem Minimal Action (User Convenience dealing with multipurpose VS. one purpose smart cards). Scenario The card just mentioned improves user convenience since the user doesn t need to carry several cards and usually memorizing different PIN codes. However, it raises the risk if the card is lost or gets stolen, and also if the card is forgotten by the user in the reader of the MTM. Using a one purpose card is more secure, but means the user will need to carry one card for each application which is not so convenient. 

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