ISO/IEC 15457-2:2007

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 15457-2
Second edition
2007-06-15
Identification cards — Thin flexible
cards —
Part 2:
Magnetic recording technique
Cartes d'identification — Cartes flexibles fines —
Partie 2: Techniques d'enregistrement magnétique

Reference number
©
ISO/IEC 2007
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©  ISO/IEC 2007
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ii © ISO/IEC 2007 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword. iv
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions. 2
4 General characteristics . 4
4.1 Introduction . 4
4.2 Requirements common to all formats . 4
4.3 Environmental conditions. 5
5 Magnetic stripe characteristics . 5
5.1 Stripe surface. 5
5.2 Stripe adherence. 6
5.3 Stripe life. 6
5.4 Magnetic characteristics. 7
5.5 Magnetic stripe zone reservation. 7
6 TFC.0 data recording. 7
6.1 Magnetic track characteristics . 7
6.2 Encoding characteristics . 8
7 TFC.1 data recording. 9
7.1 Magnetic track characteristics . 9
7.2 TFC.1-specific stripe requirements. 10
7.3 Encoding characteristics . 11
8 TFC.5 data recording. 12
8.1 Magnetic track characteristics . 12
8.2 TFC.5-specific stripe requirements. 12
8.3 Encoding characteristics . 12
Annex A (normative) Magnetics classes . 14
Annex B (normative) Encoding classes. 16
Bibliography . 19

© ISO/IEC 2007 – All rights reserved iii

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of
ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees
established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC
technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental
and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work. In the field of information
technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of the joint technical committee is to prepare International Standards. Draft International
Standards adopted by the joint technical committee are circulated to national bodies for voting. Publication as
an International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the national bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO/IEC 15457-2 was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 17, Cards and personal identification.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO/IEC 15457-2:2001), Annex A of which has
been technically revised.
ISO/IEC 15457 consists of the following parts, under the general title Identification cards — Thin flexible
cards:
⎯ Part 1: Physical characteristics
⎯ Part 2: Magnetic recording technique
⎯ Part 3: Test methods
iv © ISO/IEC 2007 – All rights reserved

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 15457-2:2007(E)

Identification cards — Thin flexible cards —
Part 2:
Magnetic recording technique
1 Scope
Thin flexible cards (TFCs) are used to automate the controls for access to goods or services such as mass
transit, highway toll systems, car parks, vouchers and stored value.
For these applications, data can be written and/or read by machines using various recording techniques:
magnetic stripe, optical character recognition (OCR), bar code, etc.
This part of ISO/IEC 15457 specifies the magnetic stripe and encoding characteristics of thin flexible cards at
two points in the card’s life cycle:
⎯ at the point of loading into the card-issuing equipment;
⎯ at the point of issue to the public.
Guidance concerning the storage and usage of finished cards (including magnetic stripe cards) under various
environmental conditions is given in ISO/IEC 15457-1.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 4287, Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS) — Surface texture: Profile method — Terms, definitions
and surface texture parameters
ISO/IEC 7811-2, Identification cards — Recording technique — Magnetic stripe — Low coercivity
ISO/IEC 7811-6, Identification cards — Recording technique — Magnetic stripe — High coercivity
ISO/IEC 15457-1, Identification cards — Thin flexible cards — Part 1: Physical characteristics
ISO/IEC 15457-3, Identification cards — Thin flexible cards — Part 3: Test methods
© ISO/IEC 2007 – All rights reserved 1

3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC 15457-1 and the following apply.
3.1
track
area of stripe surface occupied by the data encoded by a single channel of the magnetic recording write/read
interface
3.2
central stripe
stripe centred on the widthwise axis of the card
3.3
lateral stripe
any widthwise stripe which is not centred on the widthwise axis of the card
3.4
re-usable card
durable card able to be recovered from the field (generally by automatic equipment operation) and re-issued
3.5
unused unencoded card
card possessing all the components required for its intended purpose, which has not been subjected to any
personalisation or testing operation and which has been stored in a clean environment with no more than a
48 h exposure to daylight at temperatures between 5 °C and 30 °C and a humidity between 10 % and 90 %
without experiencing thermal shock
3.6
unused encoded card
card according to 3.5 that has only been encoded with all the data required for its intended purpose
1)
(e.g. magnetic encoding, printing, etc.)
3.7
returned card
card according to 3.6 after it has been issued to the card holder and returned for the purpose of testing
2)
(e.g. re-usable card returned for possible re-issue)
3.8
R , R
a z
measures of surface irregularity as defined in ISO 4287
3.9
maximum field, H
max
maximum absolute magnetic field strength applied as described by the test method
3.10
coercivity, H = H
cM cJ
continuously applied magnetic field which reduces the magnetisation to zero from a previous maximum
magnetisation state in the opposite direction, the quantity of interest being that which is measured parallel to
the longitudinal axis of the stripe

1) The definitions used in ISO/IEC 7811 refer to embossing and electronic encoding, which are not defined in
ISO/IEC 15457. However, printing on issue (as opposed to pre-printing) frequently accompanies magnetic encoding in
applications of thin flexible cards.
2) In certain applications of thin flexible cards, the purpose of testing returned cards is to establish their suitability to be
re-issued for re-use. Such testing is generally done automatically by bulk sorter/encoder equipment.
2 © ISO/IEC 2007 – All rights reserved

3.11
longitudinal squareness, SQ = M /M (at H )
r max
ratio of the value of magnetisation (M ) at zero magnetic field (H=0) after the application and removal of the
r
maximum field (H ) to the magnetisation (M) at the maximum field applied (H ) measured along the
max max
longitudinal axis of the stripe
3.12
switching field by derivative, SF
D
the width at half height of the differentiated static magnetisation curve M(H) divided by the coercivity from the
same curve
3.13
switching field by slope, SF
S
( /H /-/H /)/ H′ , where M(-/H /) = 0,5M and M(-/H /) = -0,5 M ; the difference between the field values at the
r
2 1 cM 1 2 r
intercept of the static magnetisation M(H) loop with M(H) = 0,5M and M(H) = -0,5M , divided by the coercivity
r r
3.14
recording technique
technique, such as magnetic or optical encoding, used to store data on the card
3.15
nominal bit density, D
R
encoding density specified for a track
3.16
maximum test current, I
max
upper of two test write currents used for testing TFC magnetic stripes
3.17
maximum test density, D
max
upper of two test recording densities used for testing TFC magnetic stripes
3.18
minimum test current, I
min
lower of two test write currents used for testing TFC magnetic stripes
3.19
minimum test density, D
min
lower of two test recording densities used for testing TFC magnetic stripes
3.20
individual signal amplitude, U
i
base-to-peak amplitude of a single readback signal pulse
3.21
average signal amplitude, U
A
arithmetic mean of the absolute values of the individual signal amplitudes found in a readback waveform:
n
U
∑ ik
k=1
Un = (where is the number of individual signal amplitudes)
A
n
© ISO/IEC 2007 – All rights reserved 3

3.22
modulation, m
range of variation of a readback signal defined by
U − U
imax imin
m=
2×U
A
where U is the individual readback signal amplitude and U is the average readback signal amplitude
i A
recorded at D and I
max max
4 General characteristics
4.1 Introduction
Three card sizes, TFC.0, TFC.1 and TFC.5, are defined in ISO/IEC 15457-1.
Common physical characteristics and the geometrical and topographical characteristics of each card size are
specified in ISO/IEC 15457-1.
In this part of ISO/IEC 15457, the magnetic stripe and track characteristics specific
...