Ferroelectric RAM Smartcard

The newly developed product combines ST's ST19 secure smartcard platform with Fujitsu's FRAM process, based Ramtron International's technology. The companies aim at applications in transport ticketing and ID cards.

ST19 was the first platform in the world to be certified under the recently developed ISO15408 standard (also known as the Common Criteria). The platform includes a hardware DES (Data Encryption Standard) accelerator for fast cryptographic operations. Built-in security firewalls protect the on-chip memory and the DES accelerator. The new ST19ZR01 is also fully compliant with the ISO 14443 Type B contactless standard. The data transfer rate has capabilities up to 424kbits/sec.

FRAM has read and write times less than 200ns and a standby current of few microAmps. These characteristics can't be met by traditional EEPROM technology. The ST19ZR01 incorporates 1.5kBytes of FRAM memory, which also provides data retention reliability in excess of 10 years. The FRAM cell structure currently used in the ST19ZR01 consists of two transistors and two ferroelectric film capacitors. In the near future, a new cell design featuring one transistor and one capacitor will be introduced, significantly reducing die size and costs.