Smart Card Industry Chain

 

 

 

A smart card is embedded with an integrated circuit chip on a common plastic card. From the card surface, a gold-plated contact is actually connected to an integrated circuit chip embedded into the card, the contact between the card reader and the card enables data communication between the outside and the semiconductor chip.

From the perspective of the card itself, some companies involved: the first is the IC Chip Design and Manufacturing Company, and then embedded software development and design on this chip.Cos(CHip OPeration SYstem) Vendor (only availableCPUOnly functional chips can haveCosManufacturer), that is, the so-called Chip Operating System Design Company, followed by plastic card-based manufacturing and printing, and the encapsulation processing factory that combines the two. In fact, each segment also implies the participation of other companies. We will give a brief introduction one by one.

Starting from the integrated circuit design and manufacturing companies, in a strict sense, the design and manufacturing of integrated circuits are separated. Some companies have both design and manufacturing capabilities, and some companies only have one of them. In addition, design and manufacturing are inseparable because of technological issues. Even companies with only design capabilities must consider the production process of a third party when entrusting a third party for manufacturing; in turn, companies that only have the manufacturing capability must consider whether their manufacturing processes can meet the design requirements if they provide production services to a design company. Some famous semiconductor design companies are involved in the design of smart cards, such as Siemens ),StPhilips, Samsung, Toshiba, Hitachi (rensa), Motorola (ATMEL.

Let's talk about it later.CosVendor, in a sense,CosThe manufacturer is from a chip company.CPUCompanies that develop secondary applications on card products will develop different targeted applications based on the needs of different industries and regions. For example, it is not very appropriate to give a simple explanation of the problem,CPUCard chips are equivalent to a computer, andCosIt is equivalent to the operating system (which can beWindows,Linux,UNIX,Mac OS). As you can see, if there is noCosSoCPUCard chips cannot complete any applications.

Next, let's talk about the processing and printing of the card. In the whole smart card industry chain, there is almost no technical innovation in this section. Because the original magnetic and plastic cards are produced and processed in this way, this section is also the lowest cost. Many of them are engaged in this business, such as the famous convex printing and global magnetic cards, however, some small workshops are making waves.

Finally, let's look at the encapsulation of the smart card. This step is to combine the semiconductor chip provided by the integrated circuit company with the plastic card provided by the card-based manufacturing company. Semiconductor chips can be granular, but most of them are currently provided in the form of silicon wafers. There are several welding check points on these chips that can be welded. We can see that the gold-plated touch points on the surface of the smart card are connected with these pad through the lead.

Because the semiconductor chip is very prone to fragmentation, We need to encapsulate the chip before embedding it into a card to become a smart card module with a certain strength. And then embed this module into the plastic card base.

As described above, smart card encapsulation can be divided into two parts: one is module encapsulation and the other is card encapsulation. The encapsulation investment of modules is large, and the technical content is high. Generally, most of them are state-owned enterprises taking the leading role. However, card encapsulation is relatively easy and can also be operated in the hands-on workshop mode, therefore, card sealing companies of all sizes are everywhere for development.

The above analysis shows that the real technological innovation in the smart card industry is embodied in the design and manufacture of semiconductor chips. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of semiconductor technology, various advanced smart card products have emerged, and large-capacity and high-performance chips are everywhere. Especially in the United States911After the incident, people paid more attention to identity recognition and security control (Some people suspect that this is why the security department has taken the opportunity to improve its position, and I found a better excuse to apply for more funds ). As a result, various applications of the smart card technology are in the ascendant and are being launched around the world at an astonishing speed.

Of course, apart from these industry participants closely related to the card itself, there are other companies in the industry chain, such as system integrators and read/write machine manufacturers. However, the card itself serves as a carrier for data and information processing and is equivalent to any other data carrier. In other words, if there is no smart card, these system integrators and machine tool manufacturers will also develop systems and machines based on other carriers.