This technical guideline for contact and contactless smart card readers is intended primarily for equipment to be used with the identity card and in further smart card projects of the Federal Administration, where non-governmental applications can be involved. Since a card reader for personal identification by the Executive must have different characteristics from a smart card reader for an authentication or an electronic signature, these card readers are not in the scope of this Technical Guideline.
This document describes individual modules for individual use cases as based on the special requirements pertaining to the use case. Combining mandatory and optional modules will result in a specification of practical variants of smart card readers, which are defined in this Technical Guideline and supplemented by certification requirements.