Feasibility of the Smart Card in Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) Technology

Applications involving smart cards have rapidly emerged since a few years. Up to now, chips are realized in conventional bulk technology. But as the need for performance rises, alternative technologies must be investigated. In this paper we study the feasibility of realizing the blocks for a smart card chip in Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) technology. For most of the circuit blocks, SOI realization already exists and may be adapted for this application. However, we identified two circuits never fabricated in SOI: a charge pump and the random number generator. The charge pump has been realized in SOI and tested. A random signal source has also been realized. The circuit to create random bits, based on this source, is exposed.