Electric heating – Metal heating – By arc
Patent
1997-11-26
2000-04-11
Mills, Gregory
Electric heating
Metal heating
By arc
21912185, B23K 2600
Patent
active
060490551
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FILED OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method for producing smart cards having contacts with visible information on the contacts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Smart cards contain a chip module, which is a carrier element for a chip/IC module, having electrically conductive contacts. These contacts are conductively connected to corresponding connection points of the chip, thus enabling the smart card to communicate with appropriate appliances (smart card terminals). The chip module is fixed in a cutout in the smart card body which is open towards the front side of the card. Such smart cards have already become very widespread in the form of phone cards, health insurance cards, GSM cards, bank cards and credit cards,
The layout of the surfaces of these smart cards (front side of the card and rear side) is configured in a complicated, mostly multicolored fashion; by contrast, at present only chip modules having a gold-colored or silver-colored surface of the contacts are available. In this case, these contacts are mostly constructed such that a metallic coating of nickel is applied as a diffusion barrier to a copper layer, and a gold, silver or palladium layer is applied thereon, the palladium metallic coating also appearing silver in color. So far, there have been very few possibilities for changing the optical appearance of the chip module surface.
A method for marking the metal contacts (applying visible information) of a smart card by laser engraving is described in EP 0 589 732. In this case, the gold layer is completely removed locally for the purpose of marking, the nickel layer situated therebelow, which is also partially removed as well, being visible. However, the associated damage to the gold layer impairs the protection of the metal contact surfaces against corrosion and oxidation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to provide a method for producing a smart card having metal contacts, the aim being to apply visible information to the contacts without damaging the protection of the metal contacts against corrosion and oxidation.
The contacts of a smart card (20, 20A)--compare FIG. 4--typically comprise a copper layer (metal 1) which clads a plastic substrate, a nickel layer (metal 2) which is applied to the copper layer and to which there is applied a gold, silver or palladium layer (metal 3). The layer thicknesses are not illustrated true to scale. The copper layer typically has a thickness of approximately 70 .mu.m, the nickel layer a thickness of approximately 1-5 .mu.m, and the noble-metal layer located thereon a thickness of <2 .mu.m.
A wide pallet of possibilities for inscriptions of different colors is provided by further metal layers--compare FIG. 5--and an appropriate selection of the metals with regard to the reflective and absorptive properties of the pure metals as well as of the alloys between these metals.
The following layered structures are named by way of example:
These layers can be applied to a substrate electrically, by vapor deposition or by sputtering.
In the first embodiment of the method, the laser beam (LS) is applied to the contacts (20, 20A) in such a way that the laser beam (LS) is guided over the contacts (20, 20A) using the raster or vector method. The laser system designed for this purpose is shown in FIG. 2, and has a deflecting unit for the laser beam (LS) which can be driven electronically. Such systems are already in use in so-called card personalization, where a laser is used to apply a number, for example, to the plastic body of the card. The laser used for this purpose is typically a neodymium YAG laser. The method according to the invention can thus be integrated in a simple way into the existing process of personalization. The most varied types of information (logos, alphanumeric characters, lines, guilloches) can be represented visibly on the contacts (20, 20A). Carrying out the inscription of the contact surfaces according to the invention by means of such a system can be done very flexibly without reequipping; fo
REFERENCES:
patent: 4477819 (1984-10-01), Lee et al.
patent: 4564739 (1986-01-01), Mattelin
patent: 4849615 (1989-07-01), Mollet
patent: 5198843 (1993-03-01), Ito et al.
patent: 5552574 (1996-09-01), Merlin et al.
International Search Report for PCT/DE97/00318 dated Aug. 4, 1997.
Fannash Lothar
Truggelmann Uwe
Mills Gregory
Orga Kartensysteme GmbH
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