Registers – Records – Conductive
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-05
2001-09-04
Pitts, Harold I. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Records
Conductive
C235S487000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06283378
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a data carrier having an integrated circuit and at least one insulating supporting substrate on which a transfer element is disposed for transferring data to an external device, and to a method for producing such a data carrier.
A data carrier of the abovementioned kind is known from EP 0 756 244 A2 whose disclosure is taken as a basis for the further description. EP 0 756 244 A2 describes a circuit unit having an insulating supporting substrate on which a conductive flat coil is located. The coil can consist of a plurality of coil layers separated by insulating layers. In order to interconnect the individual coil layers into a coil, each of the insulating layers has at least one hole. The coil ends can be connected with an integrated circuit or an electronic module containing the integrated circuit solely if the coil ends touch the terminals of the integrated circuit or the contacts of the module. The individual turns of the coil can be so disposed and dimensioned that the circuit unit is embossable without restriction within an area specified by the standard.
It is especially important for perfect operation of the data carrier that the electric connection between the transfer element, which can be formed for example as a coil, and the integrated circuit, which is optionally mounted in the data carrier in the form of an electronic module, be reliable throughout the life of the data carrier.
It is therefore the problem of the invention to design the structure of the data carrier in such a way as to ensure a lastingly reliable electric connection between the transfer element and the integrated circuit or electronic module.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This problem is solved by the feature combinations of the independent claims.
The essential aspect of the invention is that the data carrier is formed so as to permit double-sided contacting, i.e. contacting of both main faces of the integrated circuit or the electronic module containing the integrated circuit, with the transfer element.
This manner of contacting has the advantage of eliminating the effort of a soldering process or of metering conductive adhesive for contacting, while nevertheless achieving a very reliable and long-lived electric connection between transfer element and electronic module or integrated circuit. Whenever the contacts of the integrated circuit or electronic module come away from the transfer element on one side as a result of bending stress or other effects, thereby worsening the electric connection, the exactly opposite effect occurs on the other side of the integrated circuit or electronic module so as to compensate the adverse effects. The described motion causes the transfer element to be pressed against the contacts of the integrated circuit or electronic module on the opposite side of the integrated circuit or electronic module, so that the electric connection between integrated circuit or electronic module and transfer element is at least not clearly worsened or even improved. This ensures that the electronic data carrier still works reliably even upon strong bending stress.
Furthermore, regardless of the cause for detachment of the transfer element from one or more contacts of the electronic module or integrated circuit, the redundant design of the connecting points reduces the risk of a resulting disruption of service. The described compensation or redundancy effect presupposes, however, that the electronic module or integrated circuit used has contacts which are accessible from both main faces, or two sets of contacts which are redundant relative to each other, one set being disposed on each main face. This is already the case in particular with so-called lead-frame modules wherein the integrated circuit is disposed on a thin metal frame. The invention can therefore be used especially advantageously in conjunction with lead-frame modules.
However, the invention also offers advantages with electronic modules or integrated circuits which are only contactable via one of the two main faces. In this case one also gains an additional degree of freedom for producing the data carrier since the transfer element is contactable in different mounting positions of the electronic module or integrated circuit.
A further advantage of the invention is that, starting out from the data carrier known from EP 0 756 244 A2, the above-described improvement of the electric connection between transfer element and integrated circuit or electronic module can be obtained by the relatively simple measure of double-sided contacting, which can be realized without introducing a new technique into the production process and thus hardly increases production costs.
The transfer element is preferably printed on insulating layers of the data carrier in the form of a coil, the screen printing technique being especially well suited.
The invention will be explained below with reference to the drawings. A chip card is selected here as an embodiment for the data carrier, and a printed coil for the transfer element. The data carrier can of course also be designed differently and be integrated for example into a key or another object of daily use. For the transfer element one can also use an electrostatic coupling surface for example.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5147210 (1992-09-01), Patterson et al.
patent: 2279611 (1995-01-01), None
Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Giesecke & Dervrient GmbH
Pitts Harold I.
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