Infineon Technologies AG announced that IBM will manufacture Infineon-designed integrated circuits (ICs) used for secure identification applications, including electronic passports compliant with international travel regulations and the U.S. Personal Identity Verification cards. The planned production at IBM’s chip fabrication plant in Burlington, Vt. provides U.S. manufactured components for suppliers to U.S. government electronic identification programs.
Infineon and IBM began a collaboration in 2007 that included licensing of the embedded Flash technology used to produce secure ICs. This technology base will be used to manufacture security microcontrollers based on the Infineon SLE 78 architecture, which features ‘Integrity Guard’ hardware security technology.
Infineon developed the SLE 78 family and ‘Integrity Guard’ security technology for use in chip-based high-end security identification and payment areas with its need for security as well as products with contactless performance. The SLE 78 products received the Common Criteria EAL5+ security certification for use in electronic ID documents and chip card applications by German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
Both the IBM Trusted Foundry and Infineon’s Dresden plant are security certified according to “Common Criteria,” an international standard designation for the integrity of manufacturing and the supply chain from producer to end-customer. This provides Infineon customers with two fully-qualified sources for advanced security chip technology. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/secureidnews-4.gif)
