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posted by on Monday March 13 2017, @02:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-sneeze-while-installing dept.

Infineon is using a 65nm process as well as the GlobalFoundries 14nm Low Power Plus process to create ever-tinier SIM cards:

At MWC this year, Infineon showcased a lineup of its current and embedded SIM products. The company demonstrates not only the industry-standard MFF2 eSIM chip, but also considerably smaller ICs designed for future miniature devices (many of which may not even exist yet as a category) as well as M2M (machine to machine) applications. It is noteworthy that to manufacture an eSIM the size of a match head, Infineon uses GlobalFoundries 14LPP process technology, taking advantage of leading-edge lithography to bring the size of a simple device down.

[...] The first one, when packaged, has dimensions of 2.5×2.7×0.5 mm, which essentially means that it has no packaging at all. This IC is produced using a mature 65 nm process technology and that means that it is very cheap. The second eSIM implementation that Infineon demonstrates is actually even tinier: its dimensions when fully packaged and ready to use are just 1.5×1.1×0.37 mm. The IC is made using 14LPP process technology by GlobalFoundries and the foundry charges the chip developer accordingly. Using a leading-edge process technology to make eSIM cards is not something common, but the approach enables developers of various devices to take advantage of the smallest cards possible (another advantage of such cards are low voltages and power consumption).

The current JEDEC eSIM form factor has an area of 5×6 mm (30 mm2, over 18 times the area of Infineon's smaller version) and less than 1 mm thickness (0.85 mm in Infineon's comparison).


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @03:48PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @03:48PM (#478454)

    What's the point of ever-smaller SIM cards? I mean, the first miniaturization step made sense, as you wouldn't fit a fit a full-size SIM into a modern phone (well, now that phones are getting bigger again, you probably would for quite a few ;-)). However I don't get the point of anything beyond mini-SIM. It's incompatibility without real advantage.

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @04:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @04:38PM (#478486)

    1. Cheaper to ship bulk.
    2. Less material cost.
    3. IoT.

  • (Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday March 13 2017, @08:21PM

    by TheRaven (270) on Monday March 13 2017, @08:21PM (#478614) Journal
    These are eSIMs, not SIM cards. An eSIM is embedded in the device and programmable, rather than needing to be physically swapped to use a different network. Having these as small as possible enables tiny devices (not phones, think smart meters and the like) that have persistent network connections.
    --
    sudo mod me up