Types of Smart Cards

Smart cards are available in various sizes. Smart cards can be as big as a credit card or they can be small as the mobile phone prepaid cards. There are many different types of smart cards. Smart cards are plastic cards with a microprocessor and memory embedded in the plastic card. Some smart cards have only non-programmable memory in them. The smart cards with a microprocessor in them have various functionalities. The smart cards with a memory and no microprocessor are read-only and the information on them cannot be changed or manipulated.

Types of Smart Cards - Capabilities
The different types of smart cards classified according to the applications are as follows:

Microprocessor-Based Smart Cards
The microprocessor-based smart cards have greater memory storage as compared to those cards without microprocessor. The security of data on the microprocessor cards is greater than any other storage device because it has the microprocessor embedded in the plastic card along with the memory. The microprocessor-based smart cards available today have an eight bit processor and 512 bytes random access memory (RAM) and 16 KB read-only memory. Some of the microprocessor-based smart cards use cryptography for securing a digital identity. The microprocessor-based smart cards have a card operating system (COS) that manages the data on the card. The card operating system makes it possible to make the smart cards multi-functional.

Memory-Based Smart Cards
The memory-based smart cards are used for applications in which the function of the card is fixed. These cards need a card reader to manipulate the data on the card. Memory-based smart cards communicate to the reader using some synchronous protocols. Memory-based smart cards have no processing power and cannot manage the data stored in them. These cards are widely used as prepaid phone cards.

Types of Smart Cards - Mechanism
Smart cards are classified according to the way in which the data on them is read and written. These types are as follows:

Contact Smart Cards
The contact smart cards are named so because they come in contact with the reader. These smart cards are the size of a credit card. A metallic chip is embedded inside the plastic card with a microprocessor and a memory or only with a memory. The contact smart cards are widely used in network security, access control, e-commerce, electronic cash and as health cards.

Contactless Smart Cards
As the name suggests, the contactless cards do not directly come in contact with the card. These cards have an antenna built in the card. The antenna of the contactless cards is used to communicate to the card reader for reading and writing data on the card. The working of these cards is based on radio frequency identification technology. These cards are used as parking cards, student identification and electronics passports.

Combination Smart Cards
The combination smart cards are a combination of the contact smart cards and contactless smart cards. These cards can be read and written with contact or without contact with the reader. The antenna of the card is used or the contact pads are used to manipulate data on the smart card. The combination smart cards are used as vending passes, meal passes, access control and network security.

Proximity Cards
The proximity cards are contactless cards and they have an antenna embedded in the card. However, the proximity cards are read-only cards and the information on these cards cannot be manipulated. The proximity cards also use the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The applications of these cards include access control, identification and security.

Hybrid cards
The hybrid cards have more than two technologies embedded inside a single smart card. These cards use any two of the above mentioned types of the smart cards in a single chip. Some applications of smart card require more than two technologies like the proximity card and the contact card integrated in a single chip.

The smart card technology of embedding different functions along with the basic ones is progressing rapidly. There are many benefits of smart cards that are making the use of smart cards very popular. These were the types of smart cards that are used nowadays.