Applying asynchronous circuits in contactless smart cards

Abstract

We have designed an asynchronous chip for contactless smart cards. Asynchronous circuits have two power properties that make them very suitable for contactless devices: low average power and small current peaks. The fact that asynchronous circuits operate over a wide range of the supply voltage, while automatically adapting their speed has been used to obtain a circuit that is very resilient to voltage drops while giving maximum performance for the power being received. The asynchronous circuit has been built, tested and evaluated and the results were so convincing that, based on the circuits presented, a product is being designed.