Infineon Technologies recently announced that it is the supplier of contactless security microcontrollers (MCU) for India's electronic passport (e-passport) program.

The rollout has started with the issuance of e-passports to Indian diplomats and officials. It is expected that in this first phase of the the pilot project, up to 30,000 e-passports will be issued. By September 2009, the program is likely to be expanded to include passports used by the general public. Today, approximately 6 million passports are being issued annually in India.

Dr Rajiv Jain, vice president and managing director, Infineon Technologies India Pvt Ltd, said: "The pilot project started last year in September. The government of India has now invited a new tender to bid for 20 million e-passports. We are very excited to be part of it."

Infineon does not provide the chips directly. "We provide the chips through another party," Dr Jain said.

Infineon's contactless security MCUs were selected for this project because the company is said to be the world's only chip card IC provider offering contactless MCUs with all relevant contactless proximity interfaces on a single chip.

These include the ISO/IEC 14443 Type B, Type A, and ISO18092 passive mode.

The SLE 66CLX800PE, which is used in the Indian e-passport and many other e-passport projects, is also compliant with global International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards for electronic passports.

Tracking Lost E-Passports

What would happen were an e-passport to be lost? Could it be tracked or even retrieved?

"In this current engagement, Infineon has provided the security MCUs, which will be embedded on the back cover of the passport," Dr Jain said. "The microcontroller enables secure storage of the same information that is printed on the document, and facilitates smoother and safer international travel by allowing automatic identity verification and fast immigration inspections, combined with efficient border protection and security.

"In the event of a loss, the e-passport cannot be tampered with and used by others since there would be a mismatch of the printed data with the original data inside the chip. In the eventuality of misuse, the mismatch of the printed and digital information can be detected at a check point and necessary action can be taken by the authorities. Tracking of the lost e-passport would be possible only if an attempt is made to use it."

Every chip has a watermark, "... so, a lost e-passport can be tracked. Now, if someone isn't using it, you cannot do the tracking. The chip does not carry a power source of its own. And the data is stored encrypted."

Combining Smart Card Applications

Commenting on additional applications for which the e-passport could be used, Dr Jain said that tax regulators could make use of it. Another example might be for holding medical information.

Dr Jain also said that while it is technically possible to combine multiple smart card applications onto a single card - and this is already being done with some cards, such as those used for mass transportation, where a single card stores transaction data as well as functions such as access control to/from the terminals - Infineon is currently not aware of any such plans for convergence of the e-passport with any other applications, such as those for financial transactions.

"While this is definitely possible, we understand that there are multiple perceptions, which pose challenges to such combined applications on an e-passport. These include questions about the desirability of putting multiple kinds of valuable information on a single device, as well as the perceived security and privacy issues in combining the government ID with personal financial information."