A contactless smart-card chip based on an asynchronous 8-bit microcontroller

A new generation of Contactless Smart-Card Chip is described. The Contractless Smart-Cart Chip integrates an on-chip coil connected to a power reception system and an emitter/receiver module compatible with the ISO 14443 standard, together with an asynchronous QDI 8 bit microcontroller. Beyond the contactless smart-card application field, this new chip demonstrates that System on Chip integrating power reception and management, radio-frequency communication and signal processing are feasible. The chip, fabricated in a CMOS 6 metal layers .25µm technology from STMicroelectronics, associates analog/digital parts as well as asynchronous logic.