Smart Card IC: Everything You Need to Know

A smart card comprises an integrated circuit chip implanted in it. The IC chip can be a simple memory circuit or a microprocessor with memory. Smart card ICs enable users to exchange information, store it, and operate information.

Smart cards are highly suitable to use and are mostly used in educational institutions, banks, offices, and shops, to accomplish various transactions, this suitability is powered by its integrated circuit. 

 

Moreover, smart cards have enabled the convenience as well as safety of any transactions. The technology employed in these cards will assist the users in storing private information.


 

Who Uses Smart Card IC?

 

 Smart card ICs are adopted by educational institutions, hotels, offices, BFSI, telecommunications, and more to enable access to his or her bank account, or access to a cardholder into premises.

 

Moreover, among these users, smart cards IC is largely used in the telecommunications sector. This is owing to the utilization of integrated circuits in subscriber identity modules, due to the increasing adoption of smartphones. Companies are not only providing prepaid or postpaid SIMs but also offering the pay-as-you-go types with less paperwork, which enables the customers to easily attain these cards.

 

Furthermore, the government sector is also gradually using smart card ICs. This will be because of the rising usage of smart cards in different documentation equipment like chip-embedded passports, driver’s licenses, and IDs. This is because they are more protected because they use different encryption algorithms in their security systems.

 

Different nations, including the U.S., are using these cards as a suitable technology for identification applications that must meet key security necessities.

 

Due to this positive application of smart cards in the U.S., other nations, such as Singapore, India, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Barbados, are also looking at them as a health card, identity proof, and various other platforms.

 

Difference Interface of Smart Card IC

 

Contact: The contact interface needs physical contact with the card reader to transmit information and enable further functions. These cards must be inserted into the card reader and kept in contact during the transaction. Contact type of smart cards IC is utilized in credit/debit cards, access control cards, and SIM.

 

Contactless: The contactless interface enables data communication with the card readers without requiring any physical contact. These cards communicate by radio frequencies or by creating near-field contact with card readers. Such smart card IC is used in new wireless credit cards, contactless access control systems, and hotel rooms.

 

Dual-Interface: Dual-interface can work in both ways, contactless and contact means. This can solve the problem of keeping a particular kind of card reader since it is compatible with both types. These types of smart cards IC are increasingly becoming popular and can also complete any required function such as bank transactions, access control, and identification.

 

In Closing

 

With the increasing usage of financial cards as well as various other secure payment solutions, the requirement for smart card IC will continue to rise, and it will reach a value of USD 4,929.8 million by the end of this decade.

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