Infineon revealed as supplier for Vietnamese digital ID

Vietnam’s electronic ID efforts have taken a step forward, as Infineon and MK Smart were announced as vendors for the new national digital ID card. The cards enable authentication for access government services and banks and will allow citizens to access government services and digitally sign documents.

Infineon said the two companies are providing for secure storage of biometric information according to ICAO-compliant e-ID data standards. The cards are using an operating system developed and supported in Vietnam by MK Smart, a subsidiary of MK Group, while Infineon provided the SLC37 security controller and an interesting dual-interface packaging system.

Entrust was previously announced as a provider of issuance software and systems for the digital ID card project, which is expected to reach 50 million biometric cards before year-end.

The Coil on Module (CoM) packaging provided by Infineon allows the chip module to communicate with the card antenna via radio frequency, according to the announcement. Wireless communication eliminates the need to weld, solder or glue chip modules to the card antenna. The advantage for MK Smart is that it is easier and less expensive to produce cards, in part because there is no need to invest in welding or soldering equipment.

Other advantages of the module: reduced risk of breaking a wired connection between the chip and the card’s antenna, making the card more robust and reducing yield loss during card production. Infineon said this was key to enabling MK Smart to meet the project timeline and production target set by the government in Vietnam.

Looking ahead, the memory capacity and dual interface capabilities of the SLC37 security controller will support the ability to bring new smart card applications to the Vietnam eID. Developers will build applications on MK’s operating system so that both the government and private sector can easily and quickly introduce new applications to increase the usage of the National ID.

Growth of biometrics-based digital ID systems in the Asia-Pacific region is attractive for vendors like Infineon. For example, Mastercard has been rapidly developing its identity division as part of an effort to help countries develop cross-border digital ID systems. Countries such as Australia and Singapore are already discussing how to make their digital ID work in each other’s country, as previously reported by Biometric Update.

The Philippine government reported that some 82 percent of its population now have registered in the Philippine Identification System (PhilSys). The system includes biometric data, such as fingerprints, iris scans and photographs of citizen’s faces.

Article Topics

biometric data  |  biometrics  |  data storage  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  identity document  |  Infineon  |  MK Group  |  national ID  |  research and development  |  Vietnam