Security-Enabled Near-Field Communication Tag With Flexible Architecture Supporting Asymmetric Cryptography

This paper presents the design and implementation of a complete near-field communication (NFC) tag system that supports high-security features. The tag design contains all hardware modules required for a practical realization, which are: an analog 13.56-MHz radio-frequency identification (RFID) front-end, a digital part that includes a tiny (programmable) 8-b microcontroller, a framing logic for data transmission, a memory unit, and a crypto unit. All components have been highly optimized to meet the fierce requirements of passively powered RFID devices while providing a high level of flexibility and security. The tag is fully compliant with the NFC Forum Type-4 specification and supports the ISO/IEC 14443A (layer 1-4) communication protocol as well as block transmission according to ISO/IEC 7816. Its security features include support of encryption and decryption using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-128), the generation of digital signatures using the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm according to NIST P-192, and several countermeasures against common implementation attacks, such as side-channel attacks and fault analyses. The chip has been fabricated in a 0.35- μm CMOS process technology, and requires 49999 GEs of chip area in total (including digital parts and analog front-end). Finally, we present a practical realization of our design that can be powered passively by a conventional NFC-enabled mobile phone for realizing proof-of-origin applications to prevent counterfeiting of goods, or to provide location-aware services using RFID technology.