Smart card circuits in SOI technology

Smart cards have recently evolved towards very complex systems-on-a-chip, thereby opening new opportunities and creating new demands on fabrication technologies for higher integration density as well as lower power, lower voltage operation. In this work, we investigated the feasibility of realizing the blocks of a smart card chip in SOI technology. In the first part of the paper, we discuss the potential of circuit blocks for which a realization already exists in SOI. Secondly, we present the design and test of two circuit blocks not yet reported in SOI.