The region of the image identified as “chip” actually has that a bit more. Its job is to harvest inbound electromagnetic energy (induction) via the antenna, from the reader device, momentarily store that electrical potential in a capacitor, and then use that stored energy to squeak a response back through the antenna. In addition to the request for a read, the chip may also store sent information - I’m not sure in the case of a passport, but it would make sense to be able to store digital breadcrumbs and biometric templates for offline retrieval in the event of a networking issue.
4 Likes
