MagnaChip selected to make fingerprint sensor for smartcard
The contract has come from Elan Microelectronics Corp. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) and will use MagnaChip’s 0.35-micron mixed-signal manufacturing process.
Elan said in April that it was working with Jinco Universal to make the smartcard and Korea Smart ID to introduce the fingerprint recognizing financial card for South Korea’s Woori Bank. It added that its design of fingerprint sensor has achieved compliance with contact smart card ISO 7816 (for ATM and natural person certificate) and contactless smart card ISO14443 (credit card, travel card and access card read) specifications.
Elan said its fingerprint sensor for financial smart cards has already obtained Korea Internet Security Agency reliability certification and Korea Financial Telecommunication and Clearings Institute financial IC security certification.
MagnaChip’s current technologies for fingerprint sensor ICs include 0.35-micron, 0.18-micron 1.8V/3.3V and single 3.3V mixed-signal manufacturing. MagnaChip plans to expand its portfolio of manufacturing processes to include more advanced technologies such as 0.18-micron slim mixed-signal manufacturing process, which requires fewer mask layers than usual.
According to ABI Research, the market penetration of smart cards with fingerprint identification is expected to increase quickly from 100 million pieces or 2 percent in 2017 to 500 million pieces or 10 percent in 2019.
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