COCLICO: Contact/contactless interoperable microcontroller based smart card system

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 96.0180

Key words (English)

Smartcard; contactless; hybri d smartcard; rectification; power recovery; demodulation; modulation; ISO 14443

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: EP 23.246

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 4. Frame Research Programme - 1.3 Telematic systems

Short description (English)

See abstract

Further information (English)

Full name of research-institution/enterprise:
Motorola (Suisse) SA
European Semiconductor Group
Smart Card & Conditional Access Systems

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Gemplus (F), Sistema 4b (S), Almex (UK), Motorola (UK), Motorola (F)

Abstract (English)

Today microprocessor based smartcards use well known iso 7816 standard contact interface to establish communication with the reader device and power transfer. The IC processing , module manufacturing and card embedding technologies are now mature and large volume industrial production capability has reduced the cost to the end customer and opened up wide ranging high volume applications such as finance, gsm, health, electronic cash etc.. Embraced in many countries . It is static positoning of the contact mode of operation that allows continuous operation of the MCU in a reader. This is adequate for the applications mentioned above, however prove to be insufficient for applications requiring minimum time loss in insertion and recovery of the card such as in public transportation and trains. It is a true advantage for a contactless close proximity operation such that the mcu can be powered without galvanic contacts using RF field for power and data transportation. And complete a transaction within 200 msec. This improves thruput in public transport systems whilst cutting the maintenance cost of contact readers due to wearout and vandalism.
The object of this project is to define design and manufacture such an mcu allowing operation of the product within the national legal boundaries rf emission and human exposure to rf field. It is an objective of this project to be able to operate mcu at 10 cm distance from the reader using low cost embedded antenna in the card and allow multiple card operation present in the same rf field. The know how generated from the research to be used in contributions made towards establishing ISO 14443 standard with special attention taken for interoperability of the cards.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 96.0180