EFS Integrated Card Project
2006
Overview
Magnetic stripe cards are generally not secure forms of storing data. Its primary use is to store basic identification codes enabling access to secured data on United’s portals. The card will drive traffic to the consumer and physician portals. A PIN may be used to verify proper ownership and use of the card. Tracks 1 and 2 store name and account information respectively with track 2 used by banks. The card, used in this manner, will not be used to store sensitive data, but will be used to open access to online data via the IP network much as a swipe card is used to gain access to restricted areas in a building. If the card is lost, sensitive data is still secure. As United moves to more advanced smart cards with chips used for portable storage and data communications, data security and privacy issues will be addressed.
International standards
A number of International Standards Organization standards, ISO 7810, ISO 7811, ISO 7812, ISO 7813 and ISO 4909, define the physical properties of the card, including size, flexibility, location of the magstripe, magnetic characteristics. They also provide the standards for financial cards, including the allocation of card number ranges to different card issuing institutions.
The majority of magnetic cards used in the UK, Europe and USA confirm to the following ISO standards for magnetic cards.[1]
7810 Physical Characteristics of Credit Card Size Document 7811-1 Embossing 7811-2 Magnetic Stripe – Low Coercivity 7811-3 Location of Embossed Characters 7811-4 Location of Tracks 1 and 2 7811-5 Location of Track 3 7811-6 Magnetic Stripe – High Coercivity 7813 Financial Transaction Cards
ISO 7813 (tracks 1 and 2)
ISO 4909 (track 3)
Track Characteristics and Format
Physical
In most magnetic stripe cards, the magnetic stripe is contained in a plastic-like film. The magnetic stripe is located 0.223 inches (0.56642 centimeters) from the edge of the card, and is 0.375 inches (0.9525 centimeters) wide. The magnetic stripe contains three tracks, each 0.110 inches wide. Each track can either contain 7-bit alphanumeric characters, or 5-bit numeric characters.[2]
Magnetic stripe field
Magstripes come in two varieties: high-coercivity and low-coercivity. High-coercivity magstripes are harder to erase, and therefore are appropriate for cards that are frequently used or which need to have a long life. Low-coercivity magstripes require a lower amount of magnetic energy to record, and hence the card writers are much cheaper than machines which are capable of recording high-coercivity magstripes. A card reader can read either type of magstripe, but a high-coercivity card writer may only write high-coercivity cards, while a low-coercivity card writer may only write low-coercivity cards.[3]
Tracks
The ISO/IEC standard 7811, which is used by banks, specifies:
- Track one holds 79 six-bit plus parity bit read-only characters.
- Track two holds 40 four-bit plus parity bit characters.
- Track three holds 107 four-bit plus parity bit characters.
Track Formats
| Track | Encoding | Density | Format | Characters | Use |
| 1 | IATA | 210 BPI | Alpha | 79 | Name |
| 2 | ABA | 75 BPI | BCD | 40 | Account |
| 3 | THRIFT | 210 BPI | BCD | 107 | Uncommon |
Airline customers are often greeted by name after their credit card is swiped by the ticket agent. That’s because the International Air Transport Association (IATA) standard for placing the customer’s name and account information is assigned to track one of a credit card. A quick swipe of the card and the customer’s name becomes instantly available, with no database query required.[4]
Track two is written in the lingua franca of the credit card processing world as set forth by the American Banking Association (ABA). Nearly all credit cards and credit card equipment around the world use track two, though there is currently a movement to relocate their data to track one because it holds more information.[5]
Track 3 is similar to tracks 1 and 2 and almost never used. There are many different data standards used. This is open for our use at United and would set the standard format for healthcare use. We could store subscriber ID, group number, and all names associated with the card. We could create an open standard enabling others to adopt its use and become the de facto standard.
Banking Application
Track 1 Layout
Track 1 (“International Air Transport Association”) stores more information than Track 2, and contains the cardholder’s name as well as account number and other discretionary data.
The information on track one for financial cards is contained in several formats: A, which is reserved for proprietary use of the card issuer, B, which is described below, C-M, which are reserved for use by ANSI Subcommittee X3B10 and N-Z, which are available for use by individual card issuers.
- Start sentinel — 1 character
- Format code=”B” — 1 character (alpha only)
- Primary account number — up to 19 characters
- Separator — 1 character
- Country code — 3 characters
- Name — 2-26 characters
- Separator — 1 character
- Expiration date or separator — 4 characters or 1 character
- Discretionary data — enough characters to fill out maximum record length (79 characters total)
- End sentinel — 1 character
- Longitudinal Redundancy Check (LRC), a form of computed check character — 1 character
Track 2 Layout
Track 2 (“American Banking Association,”) is currently most commonly used. This is the track that is read by ATMs and credit card checkers. The ABA designed the specifications of this track and all world banks must abide by it. It contains the cardholder’s account, encrypted PIN, plus other discretionary data.
The format for track two, developed by the banking industry, is as follows:
- Start sentinel — 1 character
- Primary account number – up to 19 characters
- Separator — 1 character
- Country code — 3 characters
- Expiration date or separator — 4 characters or 1 character
- Discretionary data — enough characters to fill out maximum record length (40 characters total)
- LRC — 1 character
Track 3 Layout
The format for track three, as specified in ISO 4909 is as follows:
- Start sentinel – one character (generally ‘+’)
- Format code – two characters (numeric) See description below
- Primary account number – up to 19 characters
- Field Separator – one character (generally ‘=’)
- Country code optional, 3 characters
- Currency code 3 characters
- Currency Exponent 1 characters
- Amount Authorized per Cycle 4 characters
- Amount remaining this cycle 4 characters
- cycle begin (validity date) 4 characters
- cycle length 2 characters
- retry count 1 character
- Pin control parameters (optional) 6 characters
- Interchange controls 1 characters
- PAN Service restriction 2 characters
- SAN-1 Service Restriction 2 characters
- SAN-2 Service Restriction 2 characters
- Expiration date (optional) 4 characters
- Card Sequence number 1 character
- Card Security Number optional, 9 characters
- First subsidiary account number optional
- Secondary subsidiary account number optional
- Relay Marker 1 character
- Cryptographic Check Digits optional, 6 characters
- Discretionary Data
- End sentinel – one character (generally ‘?’)
- Longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) – one character
Format codes are (field 2):
- 00: Not valid for international interchange.
- 01-02: Bank/financial. These are the formats described here.
- 03-19: Reserved for future use by ISO/TC 68.
- 20-89: Reserved for future use by ISO/TC 95 SC 17.
- 90-99: Reserved for proprietary use of card issuer, but not for international interchange.
Driver’s Licenses (USA) Application
The data stored on magnetic stripes on American driver’s licenses is specified by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).
The following data is stored on track 1:
- State or Province
- City
- Name
- Address
The following data is stored on track 2:
- ISO Issuer Identifier Number (IIN)
- Drivers License / Identification Number
- Field Separator – generally ‘=’
- Expiration Date
- Birth date
- DL/ID# overflow
The following data is stored on track 3:
- Template V#
- Security V#
- Postal Code
- Class
- Restrictions
- Endorsements
- Sex
- Height
- Weight
- Hair Color
- Eye Color
- ID#
- Reserved Space
- Error Correction
- Security
References
[1] http://www.cyberd.co.uk/support/technotes/isocards.htm [2] Wikipedia [3] Wikipedia [4] Freescale Semiconductor [5] Freescale SemiconductorSources
Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_strip
Acme Technologies – http://www.acmetech.com/documentation/credit_cards/magstripe_track_format.html
How Stuff Works – http://money.howstuffworks.com/question503.htm
Freescale Semiconductor – http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/application.jsp?nodeId=02430ZnQXGXDWd
Cyberd – http://www.cyberd.co.uk/support/technotes/isocards.htm
Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility – http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/card/msglossary.asp
Magnetic Stripe Glossary [1]
AAMVA: American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
ABA: American Bankers Association
ABA Track: Used to refer to the ANSI/ISO Track #2 encoded at 75 BPI density in BCD format
AC Erasure: See Erasure
Acicular: Needle shaped, i.e., a particle whose length is three or more times its width
ACK: Positive acknowledgment, an ASCII control character verifying receipt of signal without error
Adjacent Reversal Effect: The characteristic of an encoded magnetic stripe, due to inadequate separation of the flux reversals, in which the read voltage does not stabilize at a zero value between reversal peaks
AFNOR: Association Française de Normalisation, France’s National Standards Organization
Air Gap: A nonmagnetic section, whether air or material, in an otherwise closed magnetic circuit
AIM: Automatic Identification Manufacturers
Alignment: While the magnetic stripe slurry on the substrate is still wet, it is subjected to a magnetic field which aligns the magnetic particles with their axes parallel to the direction of encoding
ALPHA: Alphanumeric; generally refers to the ANSI/ISO ALPHA Data Format, which is a 7-bit 64- character set
Ampere Turn/meter (A/m) : The S.I. unit of coercivity. 1 oersted = 79.557 A/m
Analog Decoding: A generic decoding technique using a measured parameter (such as the voltage of a charging capacitor), determined by the immediately preceding bit-cell, as valid for the current bit-cell in order to determine whether it represents a 0-bit or a 1-bit
ANSI: American National Standards Institute. ANSI has adopted ISO Standards 7810, 7811, 7812, and 7813 as National Standards for ID cards (see ISO)
APACS: Association for Payment Clearing Services, U.K.’s National Standards Organization for transaction cards (replacing BSI – British Standards Institute)
APTA: American Public Transit Association
ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange, the most widely used set of binary numbers for data and control communications; consists of 128 7-bit characters, of which 96 are alphanumeric, symbol, and punctuation characters and 32 are control characters; an eighth parity bit is usually added for error checking. The 64 6-bit character subset containing the capital alphabet, numerals and certain punctuation characters is widely used for data only communications
Aspect Ratio: The ratio of length to width of a magnetic particle (pigment)
ATB: Automatic Ticketing & Boarding, a tab size paper ticket containing a magnetic stripe, used by airlines
ATM: Automatic Teller Machine
Azimuth Error: A decode error resulting from misalignment of the read head gap with the encoded flux reversals on a magnetic stripe
B: Magnetic flux density or induction; the cgs unit is gauss
Br : Residual induction
Bs : Saturation induction
BCD: Binary coded decimal; generally refers to the ANSI/ISO BCD Data Format, which is a 5-bit 16 character set
Balanced Head: A head with dual coil windings configured to cancel external magnetic fields (i.e., those not coming through the gap)
Ball Mill: A rotating chamber containing small spheres used to uniformly disperse the magnetic pigment in the slurry
Barium Ferrite: A magnetic pigment, BaFe, commonly used in high coercivity magnetic stripes.(700-4000 oersteds)
Baud Rate: The number of transmission elements per second in a communications line; the element may contain a single data bit, in which case baud rate equals bits/sec., or the element may contain two or more bits, as in the case of high speed modems
BH Meter: A device for measuring the intrinsic hysteresis loop of a sample of magnetic material. Usually the sample is magnetized in a 60 hz field supplied by a solenoid and the intrinsic flux is detected by integrating the emf produced in an opposing pair of search coils, one of which surrounds the sample. The hysteresis loop may be displayed on an oscilloscope by feeding the X and Y plates with voltages proportional to the magnetizing coil current and the integrated search coil emf respectively
Binary: Having only two possible values, i.e., zero or one
Binder: A resin, such as polyurethane, in the magnetic slurry, which when dry in the magnetic stripe locks the magnetic particles with their axes aligned
Biphase: The binary encoding technique used in magnetic stripe, wherein a bit-cell represents a logic One if it has a flux reversal at its midpoint and represents a logic zero if it does not; also known as Aiken Biphase, and two-frequency coherent-phase encoding
Bit: A binary digit, having the value of either 0 or 1
Bit-Copying: See Skimming
Bit Cell: The distance on a magnetic stripe required for the encoding of a binary digit, i.e., a bit; numerically equal to the reciprocal of the encoding density
Bit Density: The number of bit cells encoded per unit length along the magnetic stripe, usually expressed as bits-per-inch, or BPI
Bit & Strobe: An encoder encode input or reader decode output interface using a binary-state (0,1) data line with an associated clocking pulse line (strobe) to indicate when sampling of the data line is valid; a Bit & Strobe interface is independent of the encoding format and protocol being used
Black Iron Oxide: Ferrosoferric oxide (Fe3O4 ) magnetic iron oxide
Bleed: Graphics printed up to one or more edges of the card
Blocking: (a) The process of sticking together of tickets during storage. This process is sometimes accompanied by the transfer of magnetic or other print materials from one card to the next; (b) the process of magnetic stripe tape sticking together in roll form
BPI: Bits per inch; see Bit Density
BSI: British Standards Institute
Buffered Data: Decoded data from a magnetic stripe read held in temporary memory until needed
Bulk Degausser: See Bulk Eraser
Bulk Eraser: Equipment for erasing a roll of tape. The roll is usually rotated while a 60 cycle AC erasing field is decreased either by withdrawing the roll from an electromagnet or reducing the AC supply to an electromagnet. This equipment will generally erase coercivities less than 1000 oersted
Butterfly Pouch: An unlaminated ID badge with a hinge running along one edge into which the prepared ID card is inserted and laminated
Byte: An ordered set of 8 bits
Calender: To press so as to produce a smooth surface finish and increase particle packing density; may reduce thickness
Card: Commonly used generic term for magnetic stripe media regardless of shape, construction, and material; e.g., magnetic stripe cards, badges, tickets, forms
Carrier: (a) A thick paper folder with a hard, glossy inner surface into which an ID badge is inserted for processing through a laminator; (b) a heavy stock paper folder that holds a magnetic stripe card for mailing to the cardholder
Cassette Head: A read/encode head specifically designed for usewith analog cassette tape recording, sometimes used in card readers
CAT: Credit Authorization Terminal; See POS
CBEMA: Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association
CEN: Comité Européen de Normalisation (European Committee for Standardisation)
CENELEC: Comité Européen de Normalisation de Electrotechnique
cgs: A system of units in which the centimeter-gram-second are the units for the fundamental quantities length-mass-time
Character: The specific binary number (a pattern) and its associated letter, number, symbol, or function in a set of data transmission codes, e.g., the ASCII code
Check Digit: Using an algorithm with one or more data sets to compute a digit, which is used to verify validity of the data set. Under ANSI/ISO specs, the final digit of the individual account number
Chromium Dioxide Tape: A magnetic tape used in audio cassettes, with a coercivity around 600 oersteds
Clock: See Bit & Strobe
Clocking Bits: The all-Zero bit-cells encoded at the beginning and end of a magnetic stripe to permit the read circuit to synchronize at the beginning of a read
CMOS: Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Logic; logic zero = <1.5 VDC, logic One = >3.5 VDC, and very low current source
Cobalt-Doped: Cobalt modified iron oxide magnetic pigments with intermediate coercivities (500-1600 oersteds)
Coating Thickness, c: The thickness of the magnetic coating applied to the base film. Magnetic stripe coatings range in thickness from 170 to 650 microinches with a preponderance of coatings being approximately 400 microinches thick. In general, thin coatings give good resolution at the expense of reduced output; thick coatings give a high output at the expense of degraded resolution
Coercive Force: The demagnetizing force required to reduce the induction to zero. Erroneously used as the maximum demagnetizing force required to erase a magnetic stripe, i.e. that for a fully saturated material
Coercivity (Hc ) : A term for various demagnetizing fields measured in oersteds or ampere-turns per meter. The intrinsic coercivity mHc is the demagnetizing field required for zero induction on a B-H plot, i.e., the coercive force. The Remanent coercivity rHc is the demagnetizing field required to produce zero remanence after its removal. All three of the above coercivities are similar in magnitude
Cold Peeling: A method of applying the magnetic stripe to a card; the magnetic material is peeled from the tape without heat and then laminated to the card
Compensation: The ability of a reader decode circuit to correct for jitter in order to yield a valid decoded bit- string during reading a magnetic stripe
Conversion (Converters) : A general class of manufacturers who convert plastic and paper stock for a variety of end uses, including those who manufacture cards, badges, tickets and forms containing a magnetic stripe
Core: (a) The central material layer, usually PVC, of a laminated magnetic stripe card on which the graphics are printed before overlay lamination; (b) The high- permeability low-coercivity ring running from the gap through the coil of a read or encode head
Credit Card Size: An ID badge or card measuring 2.125″ wide by 3.375″ long by 0.030″ thick; sometimes used for cards whose thickness is different from 0.030″
CSA: Canadian Standards Association
Cupping: Curvature of a stripe in the lateral direction
Curl: The deviation of a card from flat. Can be defined as three types; lengthwise curl, widthwise curl and diagonal curl
Data (IBM) Size: An ID badge or card measuring 2.328″ wide by 3.250″ long
DC Erasure: See Erasure
Debit Card: (a) A card with value encoded on the magnetic stripe, which is re-encoded with a lower value at each use; (b) A magnetic stripe card used with a PIN number to authorize electronic debit of funds from an account
Decibel, db: A dimensionless unit for expressing the ratio of two powers or, more usually, voltages or currents, on a logarithmic scale. If A and B represent two voltages or currents, the ratio A/B corresponds to 20 log10 (A/B) decibels. 1 db represents a difference of approximately 11% between A and B. Other values are:
| Ratio: | 1 | 1.4 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 100 | 1000 |
| db: | 0 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 20 | 40 | 60 |
Decode: The process which yields a bit-string of Zeros and Ones from the flux reversal patterns on a magnetic stripe during reading
Degaussing: The process of demagnetizing a magnetic material such that its remanent magnetism is zero
Demagnetization Curve: The second quadrant portion of the saturated condition hysteresis loop of a permanent-magnet material (frequently called the B/H curve)
Demagnetizing Force: A magnetic field opposite in polarity to that of a previously magnetized material in such a way that it reduces the remanent induction
Density: See Bit Density
Die Cutter: A punch & die device used to cut a photo or ID material to exact size for insertion into a laminating pouch
Differential Interface: An input/output circuit which uses two transmission lines for each circuit, swinging opposite in polarity for a data bit
Digital Card Head: A read/encode head specifically designed for digital biphase recording on a flat magnetic stripe
Digital Recording: A method of recording in which the information is first coded in a digital form. Most commonly, a binary code is used and recording takes place in terms of two discrete values of residual flux
Digital Decoding: A proprietary decoding technique using a digital computer with clock/counter to predict the current encoded bit-cell based on prior multiple bit- cell history, and to digitally determine whether the current bit-cell represents a 0-bit or a 1-bit
DIN: Deutsches Institut für Normung, Germany’s National Standards Organization
Dispersion: Distribution of the oxide particles within the binder. A good dispersion can be defined as one in which equal numbers of particles would be found in equal, vanishingly small volumes sampled from different points within the coating. The quality of dispersion affects many stripe properties, including orientability, surface smoothness, and sharp waveform definition
Dispersion Effect: The characteristic of an encoded magnetic stripe, due to the action of the encode head fringe field on the stripe’s dispersion in particle coercivities, which produces a read voltage peak waveform of lower amplitude and broader width
Domain, Magnetic: The smallest element of a ferromagnetic material which acts as a permanent bar magnet
Dropout: An imperfection in the stripe leading to a variation in output. The most common dropouts take the form of surface imperfections, consisting of oxide agglomerates, imbedded foreign matter, or redeposited wear products
Dual Gap Head: See Spatial Decoding
Dual Stripe Card: A card containing two separate magnetic stripes, e.g. at the top and bottom or on the front and back of the card
Dynamic Range: The characteristic of a reader defined by the total jitter compensated as a function of read speed
Dyne: The cgs unit of force
EBCDIC: Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code, a 256 character set of 8-bit binary numbers, consisting of alphanumeric, symbol, and control characters, used in some data communications applications
EFTA: Electronic Funds Transfer Association
EIA: Electronic Industries Association
Electromagnet: A device consisting of a current- carrying coil, usually with an iron core, used to produce a magnetic field
Emboss: To produce raised letters and numbers on a PVC card, e.g., the account number and name on a credit card, by mechanical pressure from the back side
Embossing: Initialization of a plastic card by forming characters with a male and female die combination such that the entire plastic substrate is raised in the shape of visible characters. The resulting raised characters can transfer their images to a paper form by the use of an imprinter
emu: Electromagnetic unit, a unit pole in the cgs-emu system of units. The analogous magnetic quantity in the SI system of units has the dimensions Ampere- Turnsxmeters2
Enable: To turn ON; to be active
Encoder: The electromechanical device, which contains a means for measuring distance traveled along a magnetic stripe, used to produce flux reversals at specified locations along the stripe
Encoding: The process of creating flux reversals at specific locations along the length of a magnetic stripe such that the flux reversal pattern represents specific data
Encrypt: Using an algorithm to transform data to conceal its meaning or value
End Sentinel: A defined bit-pattern in an encoding Format, which cannot be used for a data character, and which is encoded on the magnetic stripe immediately following the last data character bit-pattern
Erasure: A process by which a signal recorded on a stripe is removed. Erasure may be accomplished in two ways: in AC erasure, the stripe is demagnetized by an alternating field which is reduced in amplitude from an initially high value; in DC erasure the stripe is saturated by applying a unidirectional field
Erasure Resistance: The ability of a magnetic stripe to resist a signal loss of >15% when brought into intimate contact with a magnetic field. Resistance to a flux of 2000 gauss, for instance, would provide reasonable expectancy of survival in a household environment. See SFD, Coercivity
Erg: The cgs unit of work, equal to one dyne- centimeter
Ferric Oxide: See Gamma Ferric Oxide.
Ferromagnetic Material: Any material that has a permeability substantially greater than 1 and that exhibits magnetic hysteresis properties. Strongly attracted by a magnetic field
Field Separator: A designated character in an encoding character set which is used to separate data fields, and cannot be used for data
Flat Card Printing: Initialization of a card by printing of characters on a substrate surface without disturbing or displacing substrate material, usually using thermal printing techniques
Flux Density (B) : The number of lines of magnetic flux per unit area; the cgs unit is gauss
Flux Reversal: See Flux Transition.
Flux Transition: A location (interface) on the magnetic stripe where the magnetic particles on the two sides of the interface have like poles facing each other, i.e., a South-South or a North-North interface, resulting in a concentration of magnetic flux at the interface
Format: The set of unique bit-string patterns of Zeros and Ones corresponding to the set of data characters used in magnetic stripe encoding; many different data formats are used, the best known being the ANSI/ISO BCD and ALPHA formats
Format Code: Under the ANSI/ISO Track #1 protocol there are two defined formats: Code “A” has the name first, and Code “B” has the account number first; for Track #3, the first two digits identify the data format used
Formatting: The process of applying a format algorithm to the data characters to be encoded in order to produce the binary bit-string encoded on the magnetic stripe
Forward Read: Reading the magnetic stripe starting at the end containing the Start Sentinel
Framing Characters: The Start Sentinel, End Sentinel, and LRC Characters
ftpi: Flux transitions (i.e., reversals) per inch
Full Duplex: : Transmission with echo
Gamma Ferric Oxide: A magnetic pigment (gFe203) commonly used in low coercivity magnetic stripes (285-390 oersteds). The prefix “gamma” (g) distinguishes the ferromagnetic form from the nonferromagnetic crystal structure which is usually referred to as alpha (a)
Gap Depth: The dimension of the gap measured in the direction perpendicular to the surface of a head
Gap, Head: The short section of non-magnetic material at the face of a read or encode head which is in contact with the magnetic stripe during reading or encoding; in practice, essentially the same as an air gap
Gap Length: The dimension of the gap of a head measured from one pole face to the other. In longitudinal recording, the gap length can be defined as the dimension of the gap in the direction of stripe travel
Gap Width: The dimension of the gap measured in the direction parallel to the head surface and pole faces. The gap width of the encode head governs the track width. The gap widths of read heads are made appreciably less than those of the encode heads to minimize tracking errors
Gauss: The cgs unit of magnetic induction, = 1 maxwell/cm2
Gilbert: The cgs unit of magnetomotive force
Gimbal: The head mounting mechanism which permits the head to follow contours on the magnetic stripe without losing contact
Gloss: Specular reflection of light from a surface
Government/Military Size: An ID badge or card measuring 2.625″ wide by 3.875″ long
H: Magnetizing force or field strength; the cgs unit is oersted
Hc: Coercivity
Half-Duplex: Transmission without echo.
Hard Magnetic Material: Any material that exhibits ferromagnetic properties and that has a substantial remanence after exposure to a magnetizing force
Head Pressure: The force per unit contact width with which the head is held in contact with the magnetic stripe
Head, Encode: A device consisting of a solenoidal coil wrapped around a ring of magnetically conductive material which has a short section of non-magnetic material called a gap; the magnetic field produced at the gap is used to create flux reversals in a magnetic stripe
Head, Read: A device similar to and acting in reciprocity to an encode head, such that movement of the head gap across the concentrated magnetic flux at a flux reversal induces a current in the head coil
Head-to-Stripe Contact: The degree to which the surface of the magnetic coating approaches the surface of the head during normal operation of a read or write device. Good head-to-stripe contact minimizes separation loss and is essential in obtaining high resolution
High Coercivity: Different people have different conceptions as to where the line is between “high” and “low” coercivity. The term should not be used in isolation but should be accompanied by a value in oersteds, or used in a context where the dividing line is clearly understood
High Energy: A term coined when co-doped 650 oe. audio tapes were introduced as a cheaper alternative to chrome dioxide. The energy referred to improve output at high frequencies. High energy, when used in magnetic stripe parlance, does not imply more output. The term is now misused as a synonym for high coercivity and its use should be discouraged
Hot Stamping: (a) A method of applying the magnetic stripe to a card; adhesive is applied to the magnetic material on a tape, and the magnetic material transferred from the tape to the card with a heated roller; (b) similar to (a), except used to transfer ink or foil to cards for printed images
Hub: The center cardboard or plastic part of a roll of tickets or magnetic stripe tape
Human Factors: Generally, a read malfunction caused by operator error rather than media or equipment causes
Hysteresis: The property of a material wherein its condition at any instant depends upon its preceding condition; the failure of the magnetism to retrace its path as the field H varies
Hysteresigraph: A device used to plot the B-H hysteresis loop for a magnetic stripe or magnetic tape
Hysteresis Loop: A curve showing the cyclic relationship between magnetizing force H and induction B in a magnetic material; also called the B-H curve
I/O: Input/Output; the communications circuit of a device
IATA: International Air Transport Association
IATA Track: Used to refer to the ANSI/ISO Track #1 encoded at 210 BPI density in ALPHA format
ICMA: International Card Manufacturers Association
ID Badge: A magnetic stripe card used for identification, usually supplied unlaminated; the user’s photo, name and data are inserted between the layers and then laminated into a solid card
IEC: International Electromechanical Commission
Indent Print: To embed letters and numbers on a PVC card by mechanical pressure, without embossing the other side
Indent Printing: Initialization of a plastic card by displacing the plastic substrate material on one side with a male die, to form visible characters without disturbing the substrate on the opposite side. Unlike embossing, their images cannot be transferred to a paper form by imprinters
Individual Signal Amplitude: The peak-to-peak amplitude of a signal read voltage signal
Inductance: The inductance of a coil or solenoid is the rate of increase in magnetic flux linkage with increase of current in the coil, where linkage is the product of the flux through the coil by the number of turns; the cgs unit of inductance is the henry, equal to 108 maxwell-turns per ampere of current
Induction, Magnetic (B) : The flux density entering a magnetic material; the cgs unit is gauss, equal to 1 maxwell/cm2
Induction, Residual (Br ) : The induction remaining in a magnetic material when the magnetizing force adequate to saturate the material is reduced to zero
Induction, Saturation (Bs ) : The induction at the largest magnetization possible in a magnetic material
Initialization: (a) Encoding the timing track on a dual stripe card; (b) Placing unique cardholder data on a card such as encoding the magnetic stripe, embossing, or printing on a card before issuing it to the cardholder; (c) Same as (b) except it may be general data such as the initial prepaid amount value on a debit card
Intensity of Magnetization: The number of “unit poles” per unit of area
Iron Oxide: See Gamma Ferric Oxide
ISO: International Standards Organization
ISO 31/V: ISO Standard Specification for Quantities, Units and Symbols, Part 5. Electricity and Magnetism
ISO 7810: Identification Cards – Physical Characteristics
ISO 7811-1: Identification Cards – Recording Technique Part 1: Embossing
ISO 7811-2: Identification Cards – Recording Technique Part 2: Magnetic Stripe
ISO 7811-3: Identification Cards – Recording Technique Part 3: Location of Embossed Characters on ID-1 Cards
ISO 7811-4: Identification Cards – Recording Technique Part 4: Location of Read-Only Magnetic Tracks – Tracks 1 and 2
ISO 7811-5: Identification Cards – Recording Technique Part 5: Location of Read-Write Magnetic Track – Track 3
ISO 7811-6: Identification Cards – Recording Technique Part 6: High Coercivity Magnetic Stripe
ISO 7812: Identification Cards – Numbering System and Registration Procedure for Issuer Identifiers
ISO 7813: Identification Cards – Financial Transaction Cards
ISO/IEC 10373: Identification Cards – Test Methods
JIS: Japanese Industrial Standard, published and translated into English by Japan Standards Association
Jitter: The flux reversal spacing variation on a magnetic stripe, whether real or apparent; if the reversal is improperly placed on the stripe, it is called encoded jitter; jitter resulting from speed changes during the read is called acceleration jitter; jitter resulting from read circuit changes with amplitude or frequency is called phase jitter
Keepe: A soft magnetic material temporarily added to a magnetic circuit to form a closed circuit
Knee Ratio: A value calculated directly from BH curve (VSM) used by some media manufacturers to evaluate magnetic stripe performance = Hc X Br divided by the area under the BH curve in the upper left hand quadrant. Its maximum value of 1 represents ideal performance
Lamination: (a) A method of applying magnetic stripe tape to a card; adhesive is applied to the film side of the tape, and the entire tape with magnetic material is bonded to the card; (b) A method of fabricating cards, built up of several layers of material with thin sheets of adhesive in between and bonded under heat and pressure; (c) See Cold Peel
Laminator: (a) A device with dual, heated, spring- loaded rollers through which an ID badge is processed to laminate the layers into a solid card; (b) A flat platen press using controlled heat-pressure-cooling cycles to laminate multiple layers into a solid sheet
Lateral Direction: Across the width of the stripe
Leading Zeros: Clocking bits before the Start Sentinel
Lead Screw: A device consisting of a threaded shaft and moving carrier (for head or card) such that the encode head moves equidistant intervals along the stripe for each complete rotation of the shaft
Lecithin: A fatty acid ester, found in egg yolk and soy beans, used as a surfactant
Left Hand Reader: (a) Swipe-Type: with the reader slot pointing away from you, the magnetic stripe is to your left as you push the card through the reader; (b) Insert Type: with the reader slot horizontal and the magnetic stripe facing up, the stripe is on your left as you push the card into the reader. Most readers are left hand units. For right hand reader, the stripe is located to your right in the above definitions
Lepidocrocite: An iron oxide mineral (Fe203.H20) used to make magnetic pigments
LGAI: Laboratory General D’Assaigs Investigacions, Spain’s National Test Laboratory
Linkage: The product of the flux through a coil by the number of turns in the coil; the cgs unit is maxwell- turns
Line of Flux: A term used to describe magnetic flux; 1 line of flux = 1 maxwell
Lithography: A printing process using a metal plate on which the image area is ink-receptive and the blank area is ink-repellent
Longitudinal Direction: Along the length of the stripe
Low Coercivity: Usually refers to 300 oersted magnetic stripe initially used on ANSI/ISO Standard ID cards. However, usage of the term can be misleading, see High Coercivity
Low Energy Stripe: This term should not be used, see High Energy. If in doubt as to what it means, question the user of the term
LRC Character: Longitudinal Redundancy Check; an encoded bit-pattern following the End Sentinel in some encoding protocols to check for bit errors in the message, including the start/end sentinels, data, and field separators
Lug Pouch: An unlaminated ID badge with a laminated strip (lug) along the hinge edge, into which a prepared ID card (or photo) is inserted and laminated
Magnet: A piece of ferromagnetic material having a North Pole and South Pole, with magnetic flux emanating from the North Pole and terminating at the South Pole. The elemental magnet is called a bar magnet
Magnet Circuit (closed) : A path of magnetic material without an air gap. If a magnetic conductor extends from one pole of a magnet, or solenoid, around to the other pole, and for the solenoid runs clear through it, the magnetic flux is largely concentrated in the conductor and is greater in total amount than if the flux were entirely in air; even a short air gap reduces the flux considerably
Magnetic Coating: See Magnetic Stripe
Magnetic Conductor: A soft ferromagnetic material, such as iron, which has high permeability, low coercivity, and high saturation induction
Magnetic Field: A region in which magnetic lines of flux or force occur
Magnetic Field Strength (H) : The magnitude of the force in free space that would be exerted on a unit magnetic pole; the cgs unit is oersted, equal to 1 maxwell/cm2
Magnetic Flux (F) : The total quantity of lines of flux that exist in a given area; the cgs unit is maxwell
Magnetic Line of Force: An imaginary line representing the points in a magnetic field that produce the same force on a unit magnetic pole; 1 line of force = 1 maxwell
Magnetic Pole: A region where lines of magnetic flux originate (North) or terminate (South)
Magnetic Stripe: A thin layer of material consisting of oriented ferromagnetic oxide particles, also called pigments, rigidly held together by a resin binder and bonded to a non-magnetic carrier medium such as paper or plastic
Magnetism: That physical phenomenon in which a force is exerted at a distance on matter either from the movement of electrical charges in a conductor or from the presence of magnetic poles in a permanent magnet
Magnetite: Lodestone; an iron oxide (Fe3O4 ) magnetic pigment with low coercivity (400-450 oersteds)
Magnetization: The excess induction in a ferromagnetic material over that for free space; the cgs unit is gauss, equal to 4p poles/cm3
Magnetization Curve: The portion of the first quadrant of a B-H hysteresis loop that shows the relationship between magnetizing force and induction for a magnetic material magnetized from an initially completely demagnetized state
Magnetizing Force (H) : Same as magnetic field strength
Magnetomotive Force: The work required to move a unit pole around a closed magnetic circuit; the magnetic force required to produce one maxwell of flux in a material of unit reluctance; the cgs unit is gilbert, equal to one erg per unit pole
Magneton: A unit of magnetic value equal to 1126 ergs per gauss per gram-atom
Magnetostriction: Change in dimension by certain materials when magnetized
Mark: Telegraph parlance for a logic One
Maxwell: The cgs unit of magnetic flux, the flux through a square centimeter normal to a field of one oersted in a vacuum
Media: The magnetic stripe together with its substrate carrier, e.g., card, badge, ticket, etc
Metal Pigment: Surface treated pure metal magnetic pigments with intermediate coercivities (1400 oersteds)
Microinch: One millionth of an inch (.000001 inch)
Micron: One millionth of a meter, equal to 40 microinches (.00004 inch)
Mil: One thousandth of an inch (.001 inch)
mks: A system of units in which the meter-kilogram- second are the units for the fundamental quantities length-mass-time
Modem: Modulator-demodulator, a device which accepts data, modulates it, transmits it over a communication system (e.g., telephone), and performs the reverse when receiving data
Motorized Reader: Any reader in which the relative motion between the magnetic stripe and the read head is produced by a motor rather than manually
N: North pole of a magnet
NAK: Negative acknowledgment, an ASCII control character advising error in the received signal and requesting a repeat transmission
NBS: National Bureau of Standards (now called NIST)
Nibble: Half a byte, i.e. 4 bits
NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology
NNI: Netherlands Normalisatie – Instituut, Netherland’s National Standards Organization
Nonmagnetic Material: Any material that is unaffected by a magnetic field. For practical purposes, the permeability of such materials is substantially the same as that of a vacuum
North Pole (N) : The portion of a magnetized object that, if free to move, will point toward the portion of the Earth geographically designated as North; lines of flux emanate from the North pole and enter the South pole
NRZ Effect (Non Return to Zero: The characteristic of an encoded magnetic stripe, in which the read voltage (when read in the same direction as encoded) does not fully return to zero after a flux reversal peak voltage, but instead maintains a non-zero value of the same sign as the prior peak voltage. The NRZ Effect is due to the conjoint action of the encode head fringe field and the remanence tensor of the stripe
OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer
Oersted: The cgs unit of magnetizing force, equal to one dyne per unit pole, or magnetic field strength, equal to the field at one centimeter from a unit pole
Off-line: See On-Line
On-Line: The magnetic stripe terminal (e.g. ATM, EFT, CAT, POS) is connected via a communications link to the central authorization/transaction computer during the transaction. If the terminal holds transaction data in local memory for later transmission to the central computer, it is said to be off-line
Open-Circuit Magnet: Any magnetic circuit that is not fully continuous, i.e. that contains a nonmagnetic gap
Orientation: The process by which particles are rotated so that their magnetic pole faces tend to lie in the same direction along the length of the stripe
Orientation Field: the magnetic field applied to the magnetic stripe layer while still wet, to orient the magnetic particles longitudinally
Orientation Ratio: The ratio of remanence in the longitudinal direction to the remanence in the transverse direction of a magnetic stripe
Output: The magnitude of the read signal voltage, usually measured at the output of the read amplifier
Overlaminate: See Overlay
Overlay: A thin transparent layer laminated or coated on a magnetic stripe card to protect the printing ink from wear
Overwrite: Re-encode; the data on the magnetic stripe is erased and new data is encoded
Oxide: See Pigment, and Magnetic Stripe
Oxide Build-up: The accumulation of oxide or, more generally, wear products in the form of deposits on the surface of the heads
Oxide Coating: See Magnetic Stripe
Oxide Shed: The loosening of particles of oxide from the stripe coating during use. The term is often used to denote the production of wear products in general
Oxide Thickness: The thickness of the magnetic stripe material
PAN: Primary Account Number
Paper Ticket: Card or ticket with base material made from paper stock
Parity Check: A self-checking code employing binary digits in which the total number of ones (or zeros) in each code expression is always even or always odd. A check may be made for even or odd parity as a means of detecting errors in the system
Parallel Interface: Communication in which an 8-bit byte of data at a time is transmitted
Particle Shape: Gamma ferric oxide particles are acicular needles with an average dimensional ratio of 6 to 1 and magnetic poles at the needle ends. Barium ferrite particles are irregular shaped, thin plates with their magnetic poles on the top and bottom of the plates
Permeability: The ratio of the flux density in a material to the magnetizing force producing it, referenced to the value for a vacuum
Permeance: A term describing the relative ease with which flux passes through a given material or space. The reciprocal of reluctance
Personalization: See Initialization
Pigment: The ferromagnetic particles in a magnetic stripe are usually called magnetic pigments since they are made in a fashion similar to pigments used in the paint and coloring industries; see Gamma Ferric Oxide, Barium Ferrite and Strontium Ferrite
PIN: Personal Identification Number, a 3 to 6 digit number encrypted in the magnetic stripe encoding on a financial card, which the cardholder must enter on a keyboard before the card reader system will process the transaction; equivalent to an electronic signature
Polarity: The direction of the magnetic field about a magnet, determined by the location of its North and South poles; every magnet has two equally stable polarities, obtained by interchanging its poles
Polyester: A plastic material frequently used for ID badges, access control cards, and tickets; more expensive but stronger than PVC; cannot be embossed and requires higher laminating temperatures
POS: Point of Sale. The term also refers to two types of terminals used in retail stores: (a) A terminal with magnetic stripe reader, keyboard, display and autodialer modem, connected to the telephone network and used for on-line credit/debit authorization; (b) A more complex terminal including the above features less modem, connected to a host computer, which handles all transaction processing including item price look-up, data collection, and credit/debit authorization
POT: Point of Transaction; see POS
Pouch: The unlaminated outer layer of an ID Badge, usually polyester, between which the paper core is placed for lamination
Pre-Paid Card: A card with value encoded on the magnetic stripe, which is re-encoded with a lower value at each use
Precursor Effect: The characteristic of an encoded magnetic stripe in which the read voltage exhibits a secondary peak (of the same sign as the prior flux reversal peak voltage) immediately before the voltage reversal for the subsequent peak. The Precursor Effect is due to the conjoint action of the encode head fringe field and the remanence tensor of the stripe
Print-through: The phenomenon in magnetic recording tape where a strongly magnetized layer changes the magnetization of an adjacent layer in the reel of tape; not a problem in magnetic stripe technology
Profile: The deviation of the magnetic stripe surface from flatness; a positive profile is convex, and a negative profile is concave
Protocol: A set of definitive directions that must be followed if the result is to be acceptable for a given purpose
PTB: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, the German standards laboratory
PVC: Polyvinylchloride, the plastic most commonly used for credit/debit cards; less expensive but shorter life than polyester; can be embossed and requires lower laminating temperatures
Quality: The degree to which a product meets the specifications
Reader: The electromechanical device used to extract data from a previously encoded magnetic stripe
Reading: The process of detecting the flux reversals as one moves along the length of a previously encoded magnetic stripe
Real-time: Data is outputted as it is being read from the magnetic stripe, i.e. at a varying rate with manual readers; opposite of buffered
Reciprocity, Electromagnetic: Electric current moving through a conductor produces a magnetic field about the conductor; reciprocally, a conductor moving through a magnetic field will have a current induced in it
Reference Card: An international standard magnetic stripe card designed as RM7811/2, supplied and certified by PTB, with the stripe made from certified SRM 3200 tape
Reference Tape: A tape used as a reference against which the performances of other tapes are compared. The use of a reference tape is necessary in specifying most performance characteristics because of the difficulty of expressing these characteristics in absolute terms
Reference Signal Amplitude: The maximum average read signal amplitude of the PTB standard Reference Card corrected to the NIST master standard tape
Reformatting: The process of applying an inverse format algorithm to the binary bit-string resulting from a magnetic stripe read in order to extract the encoded data characters
Reliability: The degree to which a product maintains specified quality under operating conditions
Reluctance: The relative resistance of a material or space to the passage of flux. The reciprocal of permeance
Reluctivity: The reciprocal of permeability
Remanence: The magnetic flux density that remains in a magnetic circuit after removal of applied magnetomotive force
Remanence Tensor: The property of a magnetic stripe, resulting from the Effective Coercivities of individual magnetic particles and the way in which they are laid down, which determines the remanence vector resulting from an encoding process
Remanence Vector: The direction and magnitude of the magnetic dipole at a point in an encoded magnetic stripe
Resolution: (a) The degree to which the distance between differing states of magnetization recorded along a stripe can be reduced and these states still be usefully distinguished on reading; (b) ratio of the output signal amplitude at the 500 flux transitions per inch (FTPI) to the output signal amplitude at 200 FTPI
Retentivity (Br /Bs ) : The ratio of the residual induction to the saturation induction of a magnetic material; also called Squareness Ratio
Reverse Read: Reading the magnetic stripe starting at the end containing the End Sentinel
Right Hand Reader: See Left Hand Reader
RM: Reference Material, the German PTB analog of the NIST SRM
Roll-On Stripe: See Hot Stamping
RS-232-C: An EIA Recommended Standard interface defining data and control circuits, for use between data terminal equipment (i.e., computers) and data communication equipment (i.e., modems) using serial binary data interchange; a subset of the standard is widely used for communication between any two types of data processing equipment
RS-422-A: An EIA Recommended Standard for differential interface communications
RS-449: An EIA Recommended Standard interface, essentially an expansion of the RS-232-C interface with additional control circuits
RS-485: An EIA Recommended Standard for data communications using a 32-station multi-drop, addressable network
S: South pole of magnet
Saturation: A condition where all the available elementary magnetic domains in a ferromagnetic material are aligned in substantially the same direction
SCIA: Smart Card Industrial Association
Screen (Silk Screen) : A stencil printing process using a silk, organdy, plastic or steel screen with pervious printing areas and impervious nonprinting areas
Self-clocking: That property of biphase which permits encoded magnetic stripes to be read at different speeds; the Ones frequency is always twice the Zeros frequency, and the read circuit need only sync on a string of known Zeros to begin reading at any speed
Serial Interface: Communication in which a single data bit at a time is transmitted
Separation Loss: See Spacing Loss
Separator: See Field Separator
SFD (Switching Field Distribution) : A measure of the spread of individual particle coercivities determined by differentiating the B-H hysteresis loop. A figure of 0.2 implies a gaussian distribution of 20% of particles below and 20% above the nominal quoted coercivity. SFD is zero for completely uniform particles
Shaft Encoder: A device with a wheel in continuous contact with a magnetic stripe such that a pulse is generated by the device at equidistant intervals of stripe movement
Shield: A soft magnetic material used to prevent the passage of magnetic flux between regions
Shunt: A soft magnetic material used to by-pass, divert, or redirect the magnetic flux from the air gap of a magnet
SI: Système International d’Unités, a system of units based on meter-kilogram-second (mks) and the Ampere-Turn, i.e. mks-A
Skimming: To copy the magnetic stripe encoding from one card to the stripe on another card; also called bit- copying
Slot Reader: See Swipe Reader
Slurry: The mixture of magnetic particles dispersed in a liquid to facilitate deposition and orientation on a substrate such as tape, card, or ticket
Solenoid: An electrical conductor wound into a cylindrical coil; when electric current flows through the coil, the magnetic field about the solenoid is similar to that about a bar magnet
Soft Magnetic Material: Any material exhibiting ferromagnetic properties but having a remanence that is substantially zero after exposure to a magnetizing force
South Pole (S) : The portion of a magnetized object that, if free to move, will point toward the portion of the Earth geographically designated as South; lines of flux emanate from the North pole and enter the South pole
Space: Telegraph parlance for a logic Zero
Spacing Loss: The loss in output that occurs when the surface of the coating fails to make perfect contact with the surfaces of either the write or read head; the read signal decreases exponentially with distance between gap and stripe
Spatial Decoding: A proprietary decoding technique using a dual gap read head, with the gaps spaced for a specific encoding density, such that the sequence of flux reversals detected at the two gaps determines whether the current encoded bit-cell represents a 0-bit or a 1-bit
Specific Magnetization: The magnetization per unit mass of a material; the cgs unit is poles/gram (or emu/gm)
Spiking: A high spot at the edge of a magnetic stripe caused by material “squirt-out” in hot stamping
Squareness Ratio: Same as retentivity
SRM 3200: Standard Reference Material Number 3200, a secondary standard magnetic tape supplied by the National Bureau of Standards (now National Institute for Standards and Technology) and certified for signal amplitude output
Standards: Usually refers to the ANSI/ISO Standards for financial cards, which apply to the magnetic stripe media only, and not to encoding and reading equipment
Start Sentinel: A defined bit-pattern in an encoding format, which cannot be an all-Zeros pattern, and which is encoded on the magnetic stripe immediately preceding the first data character bit-pattern
Strobe: See Bit & Strobe
Strontium Ferrite: A magnetic pigment, SrFe, commonly used in high coercivity magnetic stripes. (700-4000 oersteds)
Subinterval: The bit cell divided by two.
Substrate: The material on which the magnetic stripe is deposited
Surface Asperities: Small, projecting imperfections on the surface of the coating that limit and cause variations in head-to-stripe contact
Surface Profile: The average deviation of the magnetic stripe surface from a straight line, measured in micro-inches per tenth of an inch of width
Surface Roughness: The average surface irregularity of the magnetic stripe in both the longitudinal and transverse directions, measured in micro-inches
Surfactant: Surface active agent; a substance which alters interfacial tension, e.g., wetting agent, dispersing agent, used in magnetic stripe slurries
Susceptibility: The ratio of the intensity of magnetization to the magnetizing force, referenced to the value for a vacuum
Swipe Reader: A manually operated reader with a long narrow channel (slot) through which the magnetic stripe edge of the card is pushed
T&A: Time and Attendance systems or applications
Tape Transfer Process: The magnetic stripe material on a tape specifically made for the purpose is transferred from the tape to a card or substrate by laminating, hot stamping, or cold peeling methods
Telescoping: The deviation from flat of a roll of tickets or magnetic tape, where the center hub is displaced from the roll
Tesla: The SI unit of magnetic flux density, equal to 104 gauss
Thermal Ticket: Card or ticket with one or both sides coated with a thermal sensitive coating
Thermal Transfer: See Hot Stamping
THRIFT: Thrift Industry (Savings and Loans, Credit Unions, etc.)
THRIFT Track: Used to refer to the ANSI/ISO Track #3 encoded at 210 BPI density in BCD format
Tilt: See Zenith Error
Timing Mark/Hole: A mark or hole on the ticket which is sensed by a detector. Used to detect the position of a card in a printer or encoder (usually before cutting ticket)
Timing Track: A pattern of flux reversals encoded on a magnetic stripe track other than the data track, used to generate the required pulses during encoding of the data track
Top-of-Form Mark: A mark used to detect the top of a card or ticket (usually for printing or for cutting)
Track: A strip of specified width and location running the length of the magnetic stripe on which data is encoded. ANSI/ISO standards define three track locations for the magnetic stripe on credit/financial cards, called Track 1, 2 and 3; the tracks are 0.110″ wide, with Track 1 closest to the card edge
Track Spacing: The distance between the center lines of adjacent tracks
Trailing Zeros: Clocking bits following the End Sentinel-LRC
Triplex: A material comprising a sandwich of paper- plastic-paper
Triplex Ticket: Card or ticket with a base material made from Triplex stock
TTL: Transistor-transistor-logic; logic Zero = <0.8VDC, logic One = >2.4VDC, and will source 1.6 mA
Unit Poles: A fictitious concept used to assign values to the intensity of force exerted between two magnetic bodies in free space and divorced of any association with a pole of opposite polarity in the same body; the cgs unit pole (emu) is the quantity of magnetism wherein two such poles separated by one centimeter repel each other with a force of one dyne. The mks-A and SI system of units replace this concept with current flowing in a coil, i.e. Ampere-Turns
USNC: U.S. National Committee for IEC
Viscosity: A liquid’s resistance to flow resulting from the combined effects of adhesion and cohesion
Vibrating-Sample Magnetometer, VSM: A device for determining the magnetic properties of a sample of magnetic material by vibrating it in a magnetic field and measuring the emf induced in search coils located close to the sample. The VSM is particularly useful in determining the specific magnetic moment of oxides and the oxide loading of high coercivity stripes, since it can be designed to provide much higher magnetizing field strengths (10,000 oersted or more) than can be conveniently obtained in a B-H meter
Wear: Mechanical alteration of the magnetic stripe and of the read/encode head resulting from the motion of the head along the stripe
Wearability: The degree to which a product maintains reliability for a rated life
Web: A continuous roll of paper or plastic being manufactured, printed, or processed in a machine
Weber: The SI unit of total flux, equal to 108 maxwell
Wet Coating: A method of applying the magnetic stripe slurry directly to the finished card, either by printing or extruding
Write: Same as encoding
Zenith Error: Tilting of Head. The change in perpendicularity of the head relative to the plane of the magnetic stripe
Appendix A – Registered Trademarks
MagStripeTM – Is a registered trademark of American Magnetics Corporation
PermaCodeTM – Is a registered trademark of Sillcocks Plastics Intl. Inc. (Secure Image)
ValuGardTM – Is a registered trademark of Rand McNally
WatermarkTM – Is a registered trademark of THORN EMI plc
Watermark MagneticsTM – Is a registered trademark of THORN EMI plc
XiShieldTM – Is a registered trademark of Xico Inc
XSECTM – Is a registered trademark of XTEC™ Inc
Appendix B – ASSOCIATIONS AND STANDARDS ORGANIZATIONS
AAMVA: American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators 4200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1100 Arlington, VA 22203-1800 USA Tel: (703) 522-4200 Fax: (703) 522-1553
BA: American Bankers Association 1120 Connecticut Ave NW Washington, DC 20036 USA Tel: (202) 663-5000 Fax:(202) 828-4535
Cedex 7 92049 Paris La Defense Acces: La Defense 2 Parking Les Corolles Tel: +(1) 42 91 55 55 Telex: AFNOR 611 974 F Telecopie: +(1) 42 91 56 56
AIM, Inc. 634 Alpha Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15238 USA Tel: (412) 963-8588 Fax: (412) 963-8753
ANSI: American National Standards Institute 1430 Broadway New York, NY 10118 USA Tel: (212) 642-4938
APACS: Association for Payment Clearing Services, U.K.’s National Standards Organization for transaction cards (replacing BSI – British Standards Institute) Mercury House Trinton Court 14 Finsbury Square London EC2A-1BR Tel: +44 71 711 6200 Fax: +44 71 256 5527
APTA: American Public Transit Association 1201 New York Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20005 USA Tel: (202) 898-4000 BSI: British Standards Institute 2 Park Street London W1A 2BS England Tel: +44 1 629 9000
CBEMA: Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association 1250 Eye Street NW, Suite 200 Washington DC. 20005 USA Tel: (202) 737-8888 Internet: x3sec@cbema.org
CEN: Comité Européen de Normalisation (European Committee for Standardization) Rue de Stassart 35 B-1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32-2-519-68-71 Fax: +32-2-519-69-19
CENELEC: Comité Européen de Normalisation de lectrotechnique Central Secretariat Rue de Stassart 35 B-1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32-2-519-68-71 Fax: +32-2-519-69-19
CSA: Canadian Standards Association 178 Rexdale Blvd. Rexdale, Ontario Canada, 9W 1R3 Tel: 416/747-4000 Fax: 416/747-4149
DIN: Deutsches Institut fü r Normung, Germany’s National tandards Organization. Burggrafenstrasse 6; D-1000 Berlin 30 Tel: +49 30 2601-1 Telex: 184 273 din d Telefax: +49 30 2601-231
EFTA: Electronic Funds Transfer Association 1421 Prince Street, Suite 310 Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Tel: 703-549-9800 Fax: 703-683-7614
EIA: Electronic Industries Association 2001 Eye St. NW Washington, DC 20006 USA Tel: (202) 457-4900 TWX: (710) 822-0148
IATA: International Air Transport Association IATA Centre Route De L’Aeroport 33 PO Box 672 CH-1215 Geneva 15 Airport Switzerland Tel: +022-799-2525 Telex: 415586
ICMA: International Card Manufacturers Association 24-C Washington Road. Princeton Junction, NJ 08550 Tel: (609) 799-4900 Fax: (609) 799-7032
IEC: International Electromechanical Commission 11 West 42nd St. New York, NY 10036 USA Tel: (212) 642-4936
ISO: International Standards Organization Case postale 56, CH-1211 Geneve 20, Switzerland JIS: Japanese Industrial Standard ( published and translated into English by Japan Standards Association.) 1-24 Akasaka 4 Minato-ku, Tokyo 107 Japan
LGAI: Laboratory General D’Assaigs Investigacions, Spain’s National est Laboratory. 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, SPAIN Tel: +34-3-691-92-11 Fax: +34-3-691-59-11
NBS: National Bureau of Standards (now called NIST) Gaithersburg, MD 20899 USA Tel: (301) 975-2000
NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD 20899 USA Tel: (301) 975-2000
NNI: Netherlands Normalisatie – Instituut, Netherland’s National Standards Organization. P.O. Box 5059 2600 6B Delft, Netherlands Tel: +31 15 690 390 Fax: +31 15 690 190
PTB: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, the German standards laboratory. Lab. 1.41, Bundesallee 100 D-38116 Braunschweig, Germany. Tel: +49 531 5920
SCIA: Smart Card Industrial Association. 6101 Stevenson Ave. Alexandria, VA 22304 USA Tel: (703) 461-2307 SI: Système International d’Unités. Case Postale 56 CH-1211 Geneve 20, Switzerland
THRIFT: Thrift Industry (Savings and Loans, Credit Unions, etc.) USNC: U.S. National Committee for IEC ANSI-USNC Department 11 West 42nd St. New York, NY 10036 USA Tel: (212) 642-4936
APPENDIX C – UNIT CONVERSION FACTORS
To convert CGS-emu to SI, multiply by the conversion factor, C.
| Quantity | Symbol | Cgs-emu | Conversion factor, C | SI |
| Magnetic Flux Density | B | Gauss | 10-4 | Tesla |
| Magnetic Flux | f | Maxwell | 10-8 | Weber |
| Magnetomotive Force | mmf | Gilbert | 10/4p | Ampere-Turn |
| Magnetic Field | H | Oersted | 103/4p | Ampere-Turn/m |
| Magnetization | M | emu/cm3 | 103 | Ampere-Turn/m |
| Magnetization | 4pM | Gauss | 103/4p | Ampere-Turn/m |
| Specific Magnetization | s | emu/g | 1 | Ampere-Turn xm2/kg |
| Magnetic Moment | m | emu | 10-3 | Ampere-Turnxm2 |
| Susceptibility | c | dimensionless | 4p | dimensionless |
| Permeability | m | dimensionless | 4p x 10-7 | dimensionless |