Registers – Records
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-29
2001-09-25
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Records
C235S492000, C361S737000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293470
ABSTRACT:
INTRODUCTION
The present invention relates to a smartcard, particularly a smartcard with an integrated LCD display unit and browse buttons, that fulfils the criteria of ISO 7816 and a method for the manufacture of such a smartcard. The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing the manufacturing procedure.
Smart cards are small electronic devices composing a processor and an electronic data memory, the contents of which may be modified through the processor by an external card accessing device. The processor provides processing capabilities which can include encryption of stored data, identification functions and the like. They are increasingly used in place of more traditional transaction cards (e.g. credit or identification cards) in which data are recorded on a magnetic strip. Smart cards have a larger storage capacity than magnetic strip cards which do not have a processor and therefore cannot process stored information.
Recently so-called general purpose smart cards have been disclosed which have a display and a user control means such as a keypad. They have the advantage, compared with the ordinary smart cards, that they do not need specific terminal equipment for referencing their contents and inputting data. These smartcards can be used in many different everyday situations in areas such as, for example, payment, service, health care, transport (as a voucher or a ticket), communication, identification and multipurpose.
In order to standardise smartcards an ISO standard, ISO 7816, has been drawn up for them. The standard ISO 7816 has 3 different parts:
ISO 7816-1 which defines the physical characteristics of the card.
ISO 7816-2 which defines dimension and contact position of the card.
ISO 7816-3 which defines the electrical signals and transmission protocols.
While it is relatively easy to arrange the contact positions and the electrical signals and protocols, it has previously been impossible to fulfil all the physical requirements of ISO 7816-1 and -2 for a smart card having a display and user control means. These, requirements include that:
the surface profile of card and contacts should be such that the difference in level between all contacts and the adjacent card surface shall be less than 0.1 mm;
the mechanical strength of the card and contacts should be such that the card shall resist damage to its surface and any components contained in it and shall remain intact during normal use, storage and handling.
the surface, and contact pins, must not be damaged by the pressure caused by a steel ball of 1.5 mm diameter on which is applied a force of 1.5 N,
the electrical resistance measured between any two points of the contact pins must not be over 0.5 Ohm, with a current of from 50 &mgr;A to 300 mA;
the short ends of the card should be able to be flexed through a deformation of 2 cm measured from the centre of the card, at a rate of 30 bend per minute for 1000 bends without any cracks forming and without the card malfunctioning,
the long sides of the card should be able to be flexed through a deformation of 1 cm measured from the centre of the card, at a rate of 30 bend per minute for 1000 bends without any cracks forming and without the card malfunctioning;
the card must be not more than 0.76 mm thick.
Thus the card must be strong, thin and flexible. In this context, flexible is defined as being able to fulfil the ISO 7816 requirements for flexibility as well as all the other ISO requirements. A card which fulfils all the requirements of ISO 7816 and which has a display and user control means will henceforth be called a super smart card. Cards containing processors but not fulfilling the requirements of ISO 7816 or lacking a display will be called general purpose cards, chip cards or smart cards.
Chipcards with displays and keypads are known from, for example, EP, A, 405 054, FR, A, 2731 537, JP, A, 7329462, WO, A, 9420929, U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,362 and “Low-power one-chip microcomputer with 64 Kbit EEPROM for smart card.” Yaegawa, K.; Eby, M. D.; Kobayashi, M.; Takeuchi, W. Sharp Technical Journal (December 1991) no. 51, p.67-72. These cards also contain an internal power source. These cards are too thick and/or stiff to conform with the ISO 7816.
A prior art method for the manufacture of chip cards is disclosed in “New packaging technology of super smart card”, Watahiki, S.; Ohta, S.; Murakami, A.; Inaba, T.; Takahashi, H. (Oki Electr, Ind. Co. Ltd., Japan) Sixth IEEE/CHMT International Electronic Manufacturing Technology, Symposium. Proceedings 1989 Japan IEMT Symposium (Cat. No.89CH2741-7), New York, N.Y., USA: IEEE, 1989 p.101-4, Conference: Nara, Japan, Apr. 26-28, 1989. In this method the processor (“chip”), which has 92 pins and a surface area of nearly 50 square mm, is mounted on a first printed circuit board, called a terminal board, by an outer lead bonding method. In this method each of the 92 pins on the chip is connected to different one of 92 leads on a circuit board surrounding the chip. This terminal board is then aligned with a second printed circuit board and connected to it by anisotropic adhesive. This second board is then joined together with a back film layer, a back panel, an adhesive film, a plurality of frame films, a hot melt film, a front panel and a front film to form a card. A problem with this method is that the anisotropic adhesive used is brittle and therefore can break if the card is flexed. The adhesive is formed of 30 &mgr;m diameter cores of low melting-point solder spaced at 80 &mgr;m centres. This limits its use to connecting components which are spaced at least 50 &mgr;m apart and hence it is not suitable for the current generation of microprocessors which have only 20 &mgr;m between pins. A further limitation with this method is that the large size of the chip means that it would be easily damaged if the card was sufficiently flexible to fulfil the ISO 7816 requirements. To avoid these problems the cards have to be made stiff i.e. they have limited flexibility and cannot fully conform with the ISO 7816 standard.
Thus no card with a display has been disclosed in the prior art which can fulfil all the requirements of ISO 7816 regarding strength and flexibility while also fulfilling the dimensional limitations, particularly in thickness, imposed by said standard.
An object of the present invention is to produce a thin, flexible and strong super smartcard (i.e a card with a processor, display and user control means) which can work properly and withstand, without cracking or malfunctioning, the stress of everyday situations which include, for example, bending of the card and subjecting it to pressure.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing such super smart cards.
Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus suitable for manufacturing such super smart cards.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention solves the problem of how to provide a smartcard with a display and user control means such as browse buttons or a keypad, which is thin, strong and flexible. This is achieved by building a smart card of a number of thin layers of materials with specially selected physical properties and combining these layers with specially adapted, flexible assembly techniques.
The super smartcard manufactured in accordance with the present invention can conform to the ISO 7816 standard.
The invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples of embodiments as shown in the appended drawings.
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Cyr Daniel St.
Frech Karl D.
Swedish Advanced Technology Systems AB
Young & Thompson
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