Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-18
2001-10-30
Gaffin, Jeffrey (Department: 2841)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S740000, C361S747000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06310778
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an IC card module for producing an IC card for having at least one coil and at least one chip for the formation of a transponder unit, with the chip and the coil being connected together by way of a module carrier which not only has coil contact printed conductors for the purpose of establishing an electrically conductive connection between the chip and the coil, but also has external contact printed conductors for the purpose of establishing an electrically conductive connection between an external contact face of the module carrier and the chip, and with the IC card module having a retaining device for the purpose of securing the IC card module in a card body.
IC cards contain a chip as a data carrier that is installed in a card body and, depending on the design, render possible non-contact or contact- or touch-dependent access to the data carrier. Provided on the card carrier for touch-dependent contact there are contact fields which enable a connection to be established with correspondingly arranged contact points in a complementary device. Non-contact access to the data of the chip becomes possible if the latter is supplemented by a coil to form a transponder unit.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An IC card module which can be inserted into a card body and which makes it possible to produce an IC card that renders possible not only contact-dependent access to the chip by way of contact fields, but also non-contact access to the chip by means of a coil supplementing the chip to form a transponder unit, is known from DE 43 11 493 A1. In this case, the chip and the coil are connected together by way of a module carrier which renders possible not only an electrically conductive connection between the chip and the coil, but also an electrically conductive connection between the chip and an external contact face of the module carrier that has contact fields.
Use of the IC card module, which is known from DE 43 11 493 A1, for the purpose of producing an IC card presupposes that a card body has been made available that is provided with a corresponding recess and into which the known IC card module can be inserted. The connection of the IC card module to the card body in a manner that is secure against loss must be carried out in a separate stage of manufacture that is independent of the production of the card body. The result of this, overall, is increased outlay when producing IC cards, in particular because the connection of the IC card module to the card body, which is effected by means of adhesion for example, must be carried out so that the result is that the external contact face of the IC card module is flush with the surface of the card body in order to guarantee operationally reliable use of such an IC card, for example in a cash dispenser.
An IC card module for producing an IC card, which is provided with two coils and a chip for the formation of a transponder unit, wherein the chip and the coils are connected together by way of a module carrier which not only has coil contact printed conductors for the purpose of establishing an electrically conductive connection between the chip and the coil, but also has external contact printed conductors for the purpose of establishing an electrically conductive connection between an external contact face of the module carrier and the chip, is known from DE-A-41 05 869. In the case of the known IC card module, a retaining device for the purpose of securing the IC card module in a card body is formed by the module carrier of the IC card module.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The underlying object of the present invention is to propose an IC card module for producing an IC card, which IC card module has a retaining device formation which is independent of the module carrier. Furthermore, it is the object of the present invention to propose an IC card which is provided with such an IC card module, and also a method for producing such an IC card.
For the purpose of achieving the object, an IC card module having the features of claims
1
or
2
as well as an IC card having the features of claim
13
or
14
are proposed.
In the case of a first card module in accordance with the invention, for the purpose of forming the retaining device the coil is arranged in relation to the module carrier in such a way that it extends at least in part beyond the surface of the external contact face. As a result, for the purpose of forming the retaining device it is not necessary to provide for the module carrier to be developed in a corresponding manner. On the contrary, the coil, which is connected to the module carrier anyway, is arranged so that it acts as the retaining device.
In the case of a second IC card module in accordance with the invention, the retaining device is formed from coil contact printed conductors of a printed-conductor structure that is arranged on the module carrier and which are used to establish the electrically conductive connection between the chip and the coil. In this case, namely those printed conductors which are required anyway to establish the electrical connection between the coil and the chip are used at the same time to form the cross-arm device so that the separate formation of a device that merely performs a retaining function becomes superfluous. In this connection, the coil contact printed conductors are arranged in such a way that they lie opposite external contact printed conductors for the purpose of establishing the electrically conductive connection between contact fields of the external contact face and the chip so that the offset, which is required for the use of the coil contact printed conductors as a retaining device, is there from the start without it being necessary to deform the latter.
Success in achieving an overall height of the IC card module that is as low as possible is also promoted by the fact that it is provided that coil wire ends of the coil be contacted with printed-conductor ends of the coil contact printed conductors on a contact face that faces an external contact face plane in which the external contact face is arranged.
Connecting chip terminal faces to the coil contact printed conductors and the external contact printed conductors by means of wire-bonding connections has the advantage that the connections between the printed conductors and the chip terminal faces can be orientated as desired.
When using contact metal coatings as a connection between the coil contact printed conductors and the chip terminal faces and also the external contact printed conductors and the chip terminal faces, it is possible to achieve substantially direct contact with correspondingly low overall height of the IC card module.
It also becomes possible to form the module carrier in a particularly compact manner if the external contact printed conductors are formed so that they verge into the contact fields, for example if the contact fields are formed by means of end regions of the external contact printed conductors.
In the case of an IC card which is produced with use of the IC card module described above in its various embodiments, the IC card module is arranged in a card body of the IC card in such a way that the external contact face, which is provided with at least one contact field, is arranged so as to be substantially flush with the surface of the IC card, and the retaining device of the IC card module engages behind a retaining area of the card body that is adjacent to the contact face.
In one embodiment of the IC card, the retaining area is part of a monolithically formed card body. In another embodiment, the retaining area is part of a carrier layer of a card body which is formed from at least two layers.
If the retaining device is received between the carrier layer and a counter-layer, with the retaining device being embedded at least in part in the carrier layer, the card body can be produced by means of the laminating process, in which case in a first method step it is possible to produce a unit that consists of the carrier layer and the IC ca
Finn David
Rietzler Manfred
Darby & Darby
Gaffin Jeffrey
Vu Phuong T.
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