Electronic labeling systems and methods and electronic card...

Details Electronic labeling systems and methods and electronic card... Electronic labeling systems and methods and electronic card...

1999-04-13

2001-12-18

Frech, Karl (Department: 2876)

Registers

Records

C235S492000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06330977

ABSTRACT:

PARTIAL WAIVER OF COPYRIGHT PURSUANT TO 1077 O.G. 22
All of the material in this patent application is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. As of the first effective filing date of the present application, this material is protected as unpublished material.
Portions of the material in the specification and drawings of this patent application are also subject to protection under the maskwork registration laws of the United States and of other countries.
However, permission to copy this material is hereby granted to the extent that the copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The following applications of common assignee contain related subject matter:
Ser. No. 728,230, filed Jul. 10, 1991 abandoned, entitled “Power History Monitor Chip”;
Ser. No. 727,618, filed Jul. 10, 1991 abandoned, entitled “Integrated Counter/RAM Array Layout”;
Ser. No. 727,619, filed Jul. 10, 1991 abandoned, entitled “Timekeeping Chip with Clock-to-Memory Update Only on Read Signal”;
Ser. No. 727,638, filed Jul. 10, 1991 abandoned, entitled “Integrated Circuit with Scratchpad Copy to Any Portion of a Page”;
Ser. No. 727,255, filed Jul. 10, 1991 abandoned, entitled “Electronic Key with Three Modes of Automatic Self-Disablement”;
Ser. No. 727,639, filed Jul. 10, 1991 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,099, entitled “Integrated Circuit with Both Battery-Powered and Signal-Line-Powered Areas”;
Ser. No. 728,229, filed Jul. 10, 1991 abandoned, entitled “Level-Shifter Circuit for Crossing Power-Supply-Domain Boundaries”;
Ser. No. 727,270, filed Jul. 10, 1991 abandoned, entitled “Socket with Solder Option from Internal One-Wire Bus to Female Pin”;
and Ser. No. 727,273, filed Jul. 10, 1991 entitled “Power-On-Reset Circuit”, and now U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,545.
These applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to compact electronic modules, and to components and packaging for use with such modules.
One of the long-term trends in electronics has been to provide higher functionality at lower cost in a more compact package. Many pages have been written on this long-term trend, and it will not be analyzed here. However, the numerous innovations disclosed in the present application are believed to contribute to a major advance in this direction.
Module
The present application discloses a very compact electronic module, which includes an integrated circuit (preferably including memory) and a battery. The module is preferably coin-shaped, and the two faces of the module are isolated from each other. Host systems can read/write access such modules by using a one-wire-bus protocol.
One-Wire-to-Three-Wire Converter
The module may contain one integrated circuit or several, but the integrated circuits in the module preferably include a one-wire-to-three-wire converter circuit. In the presently preferred embodiment, this is integrated on a single chip with a small amount of serial-access memory. However, alternatively the converter may be used to provide a standard three-wire serial bus output, which provides an interface to one or more other chips. The other chips may include, for example, electronic keys (such as the DS1207 from Dallas Semiconductor).
ESD Protection Needs
A common specification for integrated circuits is the ability to withstand 5 discharges (ESD) at 1000 Volts, without the leakage current increasing to 1 microAmpere. However, a de facto standard of 2000 V ESD immunity has been springing up for many applications.
However, even this level of ESD immunity may be insufficient for high-noise applications. Specifically, in the large-scale systems environment of the presently preferred embodiment, the data modules will face some unusual integrity requirements. Since the modules may be exposed to very rough treatment, in consumer and industrial environments, they should preferably have a very high level of immunity to electrostatic discharge (ESD).
The electronic data module of the presently preferred embodiment includes an ESD protection diode structure, which helps to protect against data loss under severe electrostatic discharge conditions.
Packaging Scheme
To fit the integrated circuit into this very small space, a packaging scheme is used in the preferred embodiment. A two-part metal container is used, which has two shallow concave pieces which fit together. The integrated circuit (preferably in a low-height package, such as a flat-pack or SOIC) is mounted on a very small printed circuit board (preferably a flexible board), which fits inside the container. Laterally spaced from the integrated circuit, on the other end of the small board, the board end is sandwiched between a battery and a piece of elastic conductive material (such as conductive plastic foam). Thus, the battery is connected between one face of the container and a power conductor on the board. The piece of elastic conductive material makes contact between a data trace on the board and the other face of the container. Another trace on the board makes contact directly to the container face on which the battery's ground terminal is connected. Thus, simple wiring on the small board, using through-hole vias, suffices to route power, ground, and data lines to the integrated circuit, while providing a sealed durable package with two external contacts.
The battery is preferably a low-voltage battery (1.5 V, in the preferred embodiment.) This is cheaper, and maximizes power efficiency, but requires some circuit design features to accommodate the electrical interface. (Electronic watches have often been powered by 1.5 V batteries, but such devices do not have any direct electrical interface to the outside world. By contrast, the module of the presently preferred embodiment communicates over a one-wire bus which is driven by full CMOS voltage levels.)
Module Mounting and Adhesion
The electronic token modules can be used in several ways. For example, in some embodiments it may be preferable to use loose tokens. However, in many applications (such as inventory control, machinery maintenance records, or retail tagging) it may be preferable to mount the tokens on the physical items to which the data in the individual tokens refers. In this case, the token must be mounted so that both terminals of the token can be contacted by the user. In the presently preferred embodiment (using a package like that shown in FIG.
1
A), only one of the possible orientations will work. (The inner casing piece
100
A must be exposed, and therefore, if the token is to be mounted on a surface, it is the outer casing piece
100
B which should be adhered to the surface.)
For such applications, the packaged modules (in embodiments using packages like those of
FIGS. 1A and 1B
) are preferably shipped with double-sided adhesive tape already affixed to the side of the module which is to be adhered to a surface (face
100
B, in the example of FIG.
1
B).
Integrated Circuit
The module, in the presently preferred embodiment, contains an integrated circuit which itself includes several features. This integrated circuit, in the presently preferred embodiment, includes an electrical interface to the one-wire bus (including heavy protection against minority carrier injection), a one-wire-to-three-wire converter circuit, and a small amount of serial-access memory.
The integrated circuit, in the preferred embodiment, contains 256 bits of serial-access memory. This memory is read- or write-accessed as a single block transfer. It is contemplated that larger amounts of memory may be advantageous. Of course, other types of memory organization can be used instead; but for many applications it is contemplated that use of a very small amount of memory (4K or less) may be particularly advantageous, since this extends the battery lifetime.
Low-Voltage SRAM A

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