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Technical Notes : ISO/IEC 7816

ISO/IEC Chip Card Standards

The majority of chip/SMART cards used in the UK, Europe and USA confirm to the following ISO standards for magnetic cards.

ISO/IEC Number
 Description of Standard

7816-1

 Physical Characterisitics of the Card
7816-2
 Dimensions and contact position of the card.
7816-3
 Electical signals and transmission protocols
7816-4
 Interindustry command for interchange

Full copies of these standards can be pruchased from www.iso.org and www.ansi.org. The information below is abstracted from these standards.

Physical Characteristics of Cards: (ISO 7816-1)

Physical Plastic Card
53.97 mm
85.60 mm
0.78 mm thick
  

Ultra violet light

  • Any protection beyond the ambiant UV light level shall be to the responsability of the card manufacturer.

X-rays

  • Exposure of either side of the card to a dose of 0.1 Gy relative to a medium-energy X radiation of 70 to 140 Kv (cumulative dose per year) shall not cause malfunction of the card.

Surface profile of the contacts

  • The difference in level between all contacts and the adjacent card surface shall be less than 0.1 mm.

Mecanical strenght (of the card and contact)

  • The card shall resist damage to its surface and any components contained in it and shall remain intact during normal use, storage and handling.
  • Surface (with pins) must not be damaged by a pression caused by a steel ball of 1.5 mm diameter on which is applied a strenght of 1.5 N.

Electrical resistance

  • All the resistances measured between any two points of the pins must not be over 0.5 Ohm, with any current value from 50 uA to 300 mA.

Magnetic field

  • The chip of the card must not be damaged by a static magnetic field of 79500 A.tr/m

Static electricity

  • The card must not be damaged by a electrical discharge of 1500 V of a 100 pF capacitor trought a 1500 Ohm resistance.

Card maximal bending

  • Large side of the card
    • deformation : 2 cm
    • periodicity : 30 bendings a minute
  • Short side of the card
    • deformation : 1 cm
    • periodicity : 30 bendings a minute
  • Acceptance
    • The card must work correctly and must not have any crackings after 1000 bendings.

 

Dimensions and Position of Contacts on Card: (ISO 7816-2)

Minimum Contact Size

Physical Contact
1.7 mm
2 mm
  

Position of Contacts on Card

Pin Assignement: (ISO7816)
C1
 VCC (5V)
C5
 Gnd
C2
 RST
C6
 VPP
C3
 CLK
C7
 I/O
C4
 RFU
C8
 RFU

Pin Assignement: (AFNOR)
(Chip is rotated 180°)
C8
 RFU
C4
 RFU
C7
 I/O
C3
 CLK
C6
 VPP
C2
 RST
C5
 Gnd
C1
 VCC (5V)

The AFNOR location is transitional, and has been used for compatibility reasons with existing magnetic stripe cards.

 

Electical signals and transmission protocols: (ISO 7816-3)

For complete details of protocols and signals refer to you chip/interface manufacturers documentation.
These abstracts of the standard are only to be used as a guide and an introduction to the technology.

Electrical Signals Description:

  • I/O : Input or Output for serial data to the integrated circuit inside the card.
  • VPP : Programing voltage input (optional use by the card).
  • GND : Ground (reference voltage).
  • CLK : Clocking or timing signal (optional use by the card).
  • RST : Either used itself (reset signal supplied from the interface device) or in combination with an interal reset control circuit (optional use by the card). If internal reset is implemented, the voltage supply on Vcc is mandatory.
  • VCC : Power supply input (optional use by the card).
  • RFU : Reserved for future use

Voltage and current values:

Abbreviations:

Vih : High level input voltage
Vil : Low level input voltage
Vcc : Power supply voltage at VCC
Vpp : Programming voltage at VPP
Voh : High level output voltage
Vol : Low level output voltage
tr : Rise time between 10% and 90% of signal amplitude
tf : Fall time between 90% and 10% of signal amplitude
Iih : High level input current
Iil : Low level input current
Icc : Supply current at VCC
Ipp : Programming current at VPP
Ioh : High level output current
Iol : Low level output current
Cin : Input capacitance
Cout: Output capacitance

Electrical characteristics of I/O under normal operation conditions.

Symbol
Conditions
Minimum
Maximum
Unit
Vih
 Either (1) Iih max = +/- 500uA
2
VCC
V
Iih max = +/- 50uA
0.7 VCC
VCC (3)
V
Vil
 Iil max = 1mA
0
0.8
V
Voh
 Either (2) Iol max = +/- 100uA
2.4
VCC
V
Iol max = +/- 20uA
3.8
VCC
V
Vol
 Iol max = 1mA
0
0.4
V
tr, tf
Cin = 30pF; Cout = 30pF
  
1
us
(1) For the interface device, take into account both conditions.
(2) It is assumed that a pull up resistor is used in the interface device (recommended value 20k Ohm.
(3) The voltage on I/O shall remain between 0.3V and VCC+0.3V.

Electrical characteristics of VPP under normal operation conditions.

Symbol
Conditions
Minimum
Maximum
Unit
Vpp
Ipp
Idle State
(programming non active)
0.95*Vcc
 
1.05*Vcc
20
V
mA
Vpp
Ipp
Active State
(programming the card)
0.975*P
 
1.025*P
I
V
mA
The card provides the interface with the values of P and I
(default values: P=5 and I=50)

Rise of fall time : 200 us maximum. The rate of change of Vpp shall not exceed 2V/us.
The maximum power Vpp*Ipp shall not exceed 1.5W when averaged over any period of 1s.

Electrical characteristics of CLK under normal operation conditions

Symbol
Conditions
Minimum
Maximum
Unit
Vih
 Either (1) IIih max = +/- 200uA
2.4
VCC (2)
V
Iih max = +/- 20uA
0.7*VCC
VCC (2)
V
Iih max = +/- 10uA
VCC-0.7
VCC (2)
V
Vil
 Iil max = +/-200 uA
0 (2)
0.5
V
Voh
 Either (2) Iol max = +/- 100uA
2.4
VCC
V
Iol max = +/- 20uA
3.8
VCC
V
tr, tf
Cin = 30pF
  
9% of the period
with a max:0.5us
(1) For the interface device, take into account three conditions.
(2) The voltage on CLK shall remain between 0.3V and Vcc+0.3V.

Electrical characteristics of RST under normal operation conditions

Symbol
Conditions
Minimum
Maximum
Unit
Vih
 Either (1) IIih max = +/- 200uA
4
VCC (2)
V
Iih max = +/- 20uA
VCC-0.7
VCC (2)
V
Vil
 Iil max = +/-200 uA
0 (2)
0.6
V
(1) For the interface device, take into account both conditions.
(2) The voltage on RST shall remain between 0.3V and VCC+0.3V.


Electrical characteristics of VCC under normal operation conditions.

Symbol
Minimum
Maximum
Unit
Vcc
4.75
5.25
V
Icc
  
200
mA

Operating procedure for integrated circuit(s) cards:

This operating procedure applies to every integrated circuit(s) card with contacts.
The dialogue between the interface device and the card is conducted through the consecutive operations:

  • connection and activation of the contacts by the interface device.
  • reset of the card.
  • answer to reset by the card.
  • subsequent information exchange between the card and the interface device.
  • desactivation of the contacts by the interface device.

These operations are specified in the following subclauses.

NOTE : An active state on VPP should not only be provided and maintained when requested by the card.

Protocol type T

The four least significant bits of any interface character TDi indicate a protocol type T, specifying rules to be used to process transmission protocols. When TDi is not transmitted, T=0 is used.

  • T=0 is the asynchronous half duplex character transmission protocol.
  • T=1 is the asynchronous half duplex block transmission protocol.
  • T=2 and T=3 are reserved for future full duplex operations.
  • T=4 is reserved for an enhanced asynchronous half duplex character transmission protocol.
  • T=5 to T=13 are reserved for future use.
  • T=14 is reserved for protocols standardized by ISO.
  • T=15 is reserved for future extension.

NOTE : If only T=0 is indicated, TCK shall not be sent. In all other cases TCK shall be sent.

PTS protocol

Only the interface device is permitted to start a PTS procedure:

  • The interface device sends a PTS request to the card.
  • If the card receives a correct PTS request, it answers by sending a PTS confirm, if implemented or the initial waiting time will be exceeded.
  • After the succesfull exchange of PTS request and PTS confirm, data shall be transmitted from the interface device using the selected protocol type and/or transmission parameters.
  • If the card receives an erronous PTS request, it will not send a PTS confirm. - If the initial waiting time is exceeded, the interface device should resetor reject the card.
  • If the interface device receives an erroneous PTS confirm, it should reset or reject the card.

The parameters for the transmission of the PTS request and PTS confirm shall correspond to those used within the Answer to Reset regarding the bit rate and the convention detected by TS and possibly modified by TC1.

 

Interindustry command for interchange: (ISO 7816-4)

For complete details of commands refer to you chip/interface manufacturers documentation.

This part of ISO/IEC 7816 specifies

  • the contents of the messages, commands and responses, transmitted by the interface device to the card and conversely,
  • the structure and content of the historical bytes sent by the card during the answer to reset,
  • the structure of files and data, as seen at the interface when processing interindustry commands for interchange,
  • access methods to files and data in the card,
  • methods for secure messaging,
  • access methods to the algorithms processed by the card. It does not describe these algorithms.

It does not cover the internal implentation within the card and/or the outside world.
It allows further standardization of additional interindustry commands and security architectures.