EM Microelectronic to enhance chip security

PARIS — Swiss semiconductor manufacturer EM Microelectronic and Cryptography Research Inc. (CRI) have formed an agreement regarding the use of CRI's patents to enhance the security of EM Microelectronic's tamper-resistant smart card chips against Differential Power Analysis (DPA) and related attacks.

Under the terms of the licensing contract, EM Microelectronic said it can use CRI's patents to develop and its security chips used in smart card security applications such as banking and electronic identification.

The license also covers software executing on EM Microelectronic's licensed chips, allowing EM Microelectronic's customers to develop their own security countermeasures without a separate license from CRI.

Recently, Atmel Corp. concluded a similar agreement with CRI to enhance the security of Atmel's tamper-resistant chips against DPA and related attacks.

CRI develops and licenses technology to solve complex security problems.