TOPPAN, the Tokyo-headquartered technology company, has developed a dual-interface IC card featuring post-quantum cryptography (PQC), designed to protect digital identity systems against future quantum computing threats.
The company’s PQC CARD Dual combines quantum-resistant encryption with both contact and contactless communication capabilities on a single card. TOPPAN plans to supply the technology to government and healthcare organisations from fiscal year 2027, with potential applications including national ID cards and medical authentication credentials.
The development addresses one of the key challenges facing PQC adoption, the increased memory requirements of quantum-resistant algorithms. Unlike traditional encryption methods, PQC algorithms use significantly larger keys and digital signatures, making them difficult to deploy on IC chips with limited storage capacity.
This challenge is amplified in dual-interface cards, where chips must support both contact and contactless communication alongside cryptographic processing. TOPPAN said its memory optimisation techniques, developed through its existing IC card expertise, allow PQC functions to operate within these constraints.
The PQC CARD Dual supports the ML-KEM key encapsulation and ML-DSA digital signature algorithms, which were standardised by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), alongside existing cryptographic methods including RSA and elliptic curve cryptography.
By supporting both current and post-quantum encryption standards, the card is designed to help organisations transition gradually to quantum-resistant security while maintaining compatibility with existing systems. The PQC functionality runs on Java Card, a widely used operating system for IC cards, allowing applications such as payments, employee identification and access management to continue operating while security layers are upgraded.
The launch comes as organisations prepare for the potential impact of quantum computing, which could eventually compromise encryption methods currently used across digital services. Governments in the US and Europe have already outlined post-quantum transition roadmaps targeting adoption over the coming decade.
The dual-interface card market is also expanding, with the global market forecast to reach $10.7bn by 2032, around 2.6 times its 2025 value, according to H&I Global Research.
TOPPAN plans to conduct demonstration trials of the card and related systems across administrative and medical environments during fiscal year 2026, ahead of its planned commercial rollout.
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