Tokyo, Japan—Hitachi, Ltd. announced it has developed and verified operation of a 0.15 x 0.15 millimeter (mm), 7.5-μm thick contactless IC. The company reports that this is the smallest and thinnest in the world, to date.

The chip is a smaller version of Hitachi's 0.4 x 0.4 mm chip, but maintains the same level of functionality, which includes 2.4-GHz operation, 128-bit memory capacity, and a 12.5 kbits/s data transfer rate. The distance between each circuit element was reduced by using SOI technology.

These chip will be demonstrated at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2006), being held from 5th - 9th February 2006, in San Francisco, CA. Click here for the data sheet.

Hitachi, Ltd, +44 (0) 1628 58 5000, www.hitachi.com .