A smart card storage technology from the former UltraCard, Inc., Los Gatos, CA, that used a magnetic-coated strip of metal (a "shim") that was drawn almost entirely out of the card by the drive, read and written and inserted back in. Introduced in 1999, it provided 5MB and more of storage, greatly exceeding the capacity in smart card chips and adding security by allowing biometric information such as a fingerprint to be used. UltraCards used any combination of shim, magnetic stripe or contact-based or contactless smart card chip. See smart card.