Chip card and chip card reader

Details Chip card and chip card reader Chip card and chip card reader

1997-10-06

2000-09-05

Frech, Karl D.

Registers

Records

Conductive

235441, G06K 1906

Patent

active

061129976

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chip card with writing and/or reading contacts on its surface which provide electrical contact with corresponding fixed countercontacts of a card reader with a card slot for receiving the chip card. It also relates to a card reader for this chip card.
2. Prior Art
From German Patent application 19 501 620, which had not been published by the filing date of the present application, a card reader for chip cards is known which includes a contact arrangement with contacts that are electrically conductively connected to the contacts of the chip card microchip when the chip card is locked in the card slot of the card reader. The contacts of the contact arrangement are lengthened in the insertion direction of the chip card far enough that the connection with the contacts on the chip card is maintained even when the withdrawal of the chip card has been begun.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention the chip card comprises writing and/or reading contacts arranged on a surface of the chip card, which act to provide electrical contact with corresponding fixed countercontacts of a card reader provided with a card slot for receiving the chip card, wherein the contacts are dimensioned, formed and arranged on the surface so as to maintain the electrical contact with the countercontacts when the chip card is guided into an overshot position in the card slot beyond a terminal position in which the contacts contact the middle of the countercontacts when the chip card is inserted in the card slot of the card reader, and/or during a time required to end a writing operation upon removal of the chip card from the card slot, and/or during reciprocation transverse to an insertion direction of the chip card into the card reader, occurring particularly upon insertion or removal of the chip card.
The chip card according to the invention, has the advantage over the prior art that by suitable embodiment of the contacts on the surface of the chip card, it is unnecessary to lengthen the countercontacts of the card reader, yet the electrical contacting upon removal of the chip card is preserved for a certain length of time, which suffices to end a writing operation that is still in progress. This makes for economy of effort and material in the production of the countercontacts. As a rule, the contacts are connected electrically conductively to a microchip contained in the chip card. In that case, for design reasons, the contact faces typically extend over the entire length of the corresponding chip module on the surface of the chip card. Contact faces that are not needed are connected to the reference potential, for instance. The embodiment of the contacts according to the invention accordingly requires merely a suitable distribution of contact faces on the surface of the chip card, and compared with the conventional distribution of the contact faces, it entails no added expense.
A further advantage of the embodiment of the contacts according to the invention is that data transfers between the chip card and the card reader can be performed or brought to an end without interruption, not only while the chip card is being removed but also while it is being inserted with an attendant overshot, and upon motions of the chip card crosswise to the direction of insertion of the chip card and to the card reader.
Advantageous further features of and improvements to the chip card according to the invention are possible.
In a preferred embodiment of the chip cards when the countercontacts sweep over the contacts, no short circuit between individual contacts can occur. This prevents short-circuiting from causing data losses or destruction of the microchip or electronic components of the card reader.
The card reader according to the invention has the advantage that by rounding off the countercontacts in and/or crosswise to the direction of insertion of the chip card into the card reader, the insertion and removal of the chip card cannot be blocked b

REFERENCES:
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patent: 4752234 (1988-06-01), Reichardt et al.
patent: 4918631 (1990-04-01), Hara et al.
patent: 4931622 (1990-06-01), Ohtsuki et al.
patent: 5286957 (1994-02-01), Defrasne
patent: 5332890 (1994-07-01), Kitahara
patent: 5362955 (1994-11-01), Haghiri-Tehrani
patent: 5980323 (1999-11-01), Bricaud et al.
W. Rankl and W. Effing,; Smart, Card Hand Book, Published by John Wiley &Sons, 1995, p. 17-23.

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