JPS61283981A - Integrated circuit card - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate a trouble such as malfunction due to defective contact of a connection terminal by incorporating a coil, etc. to an integrated circuit IC card to control the transfer of electric power and information signals with the electromagnetic wave sent from a driver set at the outside used as a transmission medium. CONSTITUTION:When data is written on an IC card A from a driver B, the serial data given from a data processing part 1 is converted into an F/S modulation wave by an F/S modulation circuit 4 which is driven by an oscillation circuit 2. This modula tion wave is delivered through a power transmission coil 6 as an electromagnetic wave after power amplification carried out by a power amplifier 5. Then the delivered electromagnetic wave is received by a power reception coil 10 of the card A and converted partly into a direct current by a rectifying/smoothing circuit 11 to be sup plied to each block in the card A as a power supply E. The data signal received together with the electric power is demodulated into the original serial data by an F/S wave detection circuit 8 and supplied to a controller 12 via an interface 9. Then the serial data are converted into the parallel data by an internal program, and the processing is carried out in response to the contents of the parallel data.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] "Industrial Application Field" An integrated circuit card is commonly known as an IC (Integrated Card).
It is known as a card-like planar circuit that is equipped with a semiconductor memory, a computer control circuit for reading and writing operations, and the like. 5 In the following text, "integrated circuit card" will be referred to as r.
It will be abbreviated as "LC card".

IC cards utilize the feature of ultra-miniaturized integrated memory, which means they can incorporate large-capacity storage devices, to be used in electronic bankbooks, home shopping key cards, medical record cards, customer management cards, and other +1pFA devices and office automation equipment. It is about to become widely used as a terminal operator card for equipment.

The present invention is characterized in that, in such an IC card, the terminal for inputting and outputting information, which is currently carried out with contacts, is made terminalless, and the card operates using electromagnetic waves as a transmission medium. Therefore, since there are no factors that lead to a decrease in reliability such as poor contact, wear, or corrosion associated with contact points, the IC car 1 can be applied to a wide range of fields as a high-performance and safe IC car.

"Prior Art" Conventionally, the input/output terminal of an IC card and a device for writing/reading information have been connected using a contact method via a connector as described above. Therefore, there are always many factors of deterioration associated with the contact points, and there is a risk that the reliability will be significantly lacking.

Furthermore, some IC memories currently installed in IC cards supply the power necessary for their operation through a connector only during writing and reading, and can retain information without the need for a power source. But semiconductors.

Like many types of memory, those that require a power source to retain their information have a built-in battery, but if the terminals connected to the battery become dirty, spontaneous discharge may occur.
This has the disadvantage of causing malfunction.

``Object of the Invention'' The object of the present invention is to make the IC car 1 terminalless, and to transmit and receive signals to and from a drive device that writes and reads information signals, and to transmit operating power using electromagnetic waves as a transmission medium. The objective is to provide a high-performance and stable IC card that can be used for various purposes.

"Summary of the Invention" The present invention uses electromagnetic waves as a transmission medium from an external drive device in a C card equipped with a storage device, its information control circuit, etc., and uses electric power and information signals necessary for its operation. The device is characterized by having a built-in coil that controls the transmission and reception of data and its processing circuit.

"Structure of the Invention" In general, IC cards are broadly divided into two types in terms of functionality: those that are only for reading information, and those that have both writing and reading functions.

In any case, when operating information using an IC card, a separate external writing/reading device (
A driving device (hereinafter referred to as a driving device) is essential.

Therefore, the present invention is a system consisting of an IC card and an indispensable drive device, and its configuration contents and information signal transmission mechanism should be explained.

In the present invention, signals are mutually transmitted between the I'C card and the drive device by propagating electromagnetic waves between the transmitting and receiving coils installed on both sides, with the coils facing each other. The information is inductively transmitted to the other party's coil for information processing. ``In this case, the electromagnetic waves used as a medium for transmitting electric power and information signals may be alternating currents above the commercial frequency and in the radio frequency range from low frequencies to microwaves.

Therefore, information signals that can be transmitted between a pair of transmitting and receiving coils and handled by their processing circuits are generally serial signals. □It also enables reliable multiplex transmission using a time division method using various types of pulse modulation and frequency modulation. However, depending on the purpose of use of the IC card or the content of the required processing, it is also effective to arrange a plurality of coils and operate them in parallel.

The shape of these coils is required to be as flat as possible. Therefore, a single-layer or laminated planar coil such as a sheet coil can be applied in a layered manner such as being attached near a thin plate-like electronic circuit, or in a structure that covers both sides of a card.
) The overall structure of the IC card differs depending on the function as described above, but if it has both writing and reading functions, it basically consists of a power receiving block, a transmitting/receiving block, and a data holding block. The drive device that transmits power and performs processing for writing and reading information signals is composed of a power transmission block, a transmission/reception block, a control block, and the like.

In other words, in the drive device, the power transmission block is operated by a power line, a battery, a power generation element, or the like, and oscillates a predetermined electromagnetic wave and radiates it from the transmission coil. The transmitter/receiver block also has the function of transmitting control commands regarding desired data traces, identification codes, etc. to the IC cart via the transmitter/receiver coil, or obtaining a response thereto. The control block not only controls this information, but also has a data editing function and a communication function with other related systems.

In an IC card, information signals such as data and control commands sent from the drive device using electromagnetic waves as a transmission medium are received by the data receiving coil of the transmitting/receiving block, and then decoded and other processing is performed by the information processing circuit. , selects the requested data and transmits the information signal to the drive device. Needless to say, the data holding block is mainly composed of a data storage circuit such as an IC memory. stop.

The power receiving block receives power from electromagnetic waves received by the power receiving coil.1. In addition to supplying the necessary operating power to each processing circuit of the C car 1, a portion of the received power is used to charge the battery attached to the rectifying and smoothing circuit, which is used for data retention and other blocks required. It is supplied as an operating power source.

The following two methods can be considered for transmitting power and information signals using electromagnetic waves as a transmission medium.

(a) When power is sent from the power transmitting block of the drive device to the power receiving block of the IC card using electromagnetic waves, a method in which information signals such as data and control commands are superimposed on the electromagnetic waves by some method and then transmitted.

(b) A transmission block dedicated to power transmission is provided in the drive device,
A system that separates the transmission and reception blocks for information signals such as data and control commands.

Among these methods, method (a) may have a lower power transmission efficiency, but has the advantage of being able to reduce the overall size of the device. On the other hand, the method (b) has good power transmission efficiency, but has the disadvantage that the number of transmission systems increases, making the device larger and more expensive.

In addition, if a common clock is required for the drive device and the IC card (for example, when the baud rate clock is shared when transmitting data serially), either modulate the electromagnetic waves for power transmission at that frequency, or Alternatively, if you set the frequency of power transmission to an integral multiple of the same wave number of the clock you want to transmit, you can operate with a common clock by matching the scale between the IC cart and the drive device, thereby stabilizing the function. I can do it.

As described above, the IC card of the present invention has a built-in coil for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves and its processing circuit, thereby eliminating terminals for input and output terminals. However, it is also possible to use a part for grounding and other operations as required by providing a terminal similar to the conventional one.

"Embodiment of the Invention" FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention corresponding to the above-mentioned method (a, >), in which the left part of FIG. It shows the block diagram of.

From drive device B 1. When writing data to C card A, data is first sent from the data processing section 1, which has functions such as communication with the host computer and data editing functions.

The output serial data is sent to the oscillation circuit 2 for power transmission.
F, /S (1!1 wave number shift) modulation driven by F, /S (1!1 wave number shift) modulation, and the circuit 4 converts it into an F/S modulated wave. After power amplifying this by a power amplifier 5, it is propagated as an electromagnetic wave from a power transmitting coil 6.

In this case, the data sent from the data processing section 1 is
An atto that stores the data in card A.

This is an information signal regarding responses and their write/read commands. Generally, these data are often handled as parallel data, so the baud rate clock BR, which is obtained by decreasing the oscillation frequency of the oscillation circuit 2 by the frequency divider 3, is used to calculate the baud rate clock BR in advance. Conversion into real data (hereinafter referred to as P
/S conversion) and then send it out.

The electromagnetic waves for power transmission radiated from the power transmitting coil 6 described above are received and received by the power receiving coil 10 of the IC card A.

And a part of this received power is sent to the rectifier and smoothing circuit, 1
1, and is supplied as a power source E for charging a battery included in the processing circuit and rectifying and smoothing circuit 11 in each block in the IC card A.

The other part of the received power is gradually reduced by the frequency divider 3 and returned to the same BR as the baud rate clock in the drive device B, and then is supplied to the controller 12.

And the data signal received along with the power is F/
The S detection circuit 8 demodulates the data to the original serial data.

Thereafter, the signal is inputted via an interface circuit 9 to a controller 12 composed of a microcomputer or a logic circuit. This input data is the controller 1
2 refers to the baud rate clock BR, converts it into parallel data (hereinafter referred to as S/P conversion), and performs processing according to the contents.

That is, if the data is a write command, the following data is written to the memory 13.

In addition, if it is a read command, the corresponding parallel data stored in the memory 13 is read, and the P/S is executed by the program.
Perform the conversion. Next, an F/S modulation circuit 4 driven by a frequency conversion circuit 14 that converts a part of the output of the power receiving coil IO to a frequency suitable for transmission,
Make the F/S modulation wave compatible with serial data. The power of this is amplified by the power amplifier 5, and the data is radiated from the data transmitting coil 15 as electromagnetic wave data.

In order to read this into the drive device B, the data of the electromagnetic wave is first received by the data receiving coil 7. After this data is demodulated into serial data by the F/S detection circuit 8, it is input to the data processing section 1 via an interface circuit 9 that performs voltage adjustment and buffering. The data processing unit 1 performs S/P conversion with reference to the baud rate clock BR, and then performs necessary internal processing on the data read from the IC card A.

As mentioned earlier, when P/S conversion or S/P conversion is performed by the program of the controller 12, or when conversion is performed by hardware, the reference frequency is F.
Although the baud rate clock frequency fluctuates somewhat due to /S modulation, it can be handled in such a way that synchronization is not lost even if the baud rate clock frequency fluctuates by about 15t1% at most. Furthermore, since the frequency deviation associated with F/S modulation is only a few percent, the synchronization between c-card A and drive device B will not be impaired.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 corresponds to the above-mentioned system (b), and FIG. 2A shows an IC card, and B shows a block diagram of a drive device.

In other words, in this embodiment, data transmission and reception of data and other information signals between the IC card A and the drive device B is performed using electromagnetic waves between the data transmitting and receiving coils 17 and 18. That is.

When writing information signals such as addresses and control commands from drive device B to IC card A, as in the previous example, the parallel data information signals are P/S converted by the data processing unit l with reference to the baud rate clock BR. , the F/S modulation circuit 4 driven by the oscillation circuit 2 generates an F/S modulated wave. The power is amplified by the power amplifier 5, and the data processing unit 1
The signal is switched to the output direction by the transmission/reception switching circuit 16 which is switched by a control signal from the data transmission/reception coil 17, and is propagated as an electromagnetic wave.

This electromagnetic wave is captured by the data transmitting/receiving coil 18 to the IC card, and is sent to the controller 120 as a control signal via the transmitting/receiving switching circuit 16, which is switched to the input direction.
The signal is input to the detection circuit 8.

Then, it is demodulated to the original serial data and input to the controller 12 via the interface circuit 9.

Inside the controller 12, the baud rate clock BR is referred to, and S/P conversion is performed according to the contents of the program to convert the data into parallel data.

If this data is a write command or an address accompanying it, an address or the like is set in the memory 13 according to the contents, and subsequent data is written.

Next, the case where data from IC card A is read to drive device B will be described.

Upon receiving the read command, the controller 12 first reads the parallel data stored in the memory 13 and performs P/S conversion on this data with reference to the baud rate clock BR.

Then, the output of the power receiving coil 20 is converted into the frequency converter circuit 14.
The frequency converted by is used to drive the F/S modulation circuit 4 to generate an F/S modulated wave. After amplifying the power of this signal by the power amplifier 5, the signal is transmitted through the transmitting/receiving switching circuit 16 and then radiated as an electromagnetic wave from the transmitting/receiving coil 18.

This electromagnetic wave is then captured by the data transmitting/receiving coil 17 and sent to the F/S detection circuit 8 via the transmitting/receiving switching circuit 16 switched to the input direction.

This demodulates to serial data and sends it to the interface circuit 9.
After adjusting the voltage level, etc., the data processing section 1 is manually operated to complete the intended read operation.

In this case, the power required for the operation of the processing circuits in each block to the IC card is supplied from the drive device B as follows. That is, the oscillation output of the oscillation circuit 20 is amplified in power by the power amplifier 5, and is radiated from the power transmission coil 19 dedicated to power transmission. The power generated by this electromagnetic wave is captured by the power receiving coil 20 for the IC card, converted into DC by the rectifier and smoothing circuit 11, and supplied to each circuit as a DC power source E. Therefore, the IC card itself has the characteristics of being able to operate without a power source and having no terminals.

Note that if the IC card A is equipped with a battery necessary for memory backup and other operations, the program will be applied to the secondary battery attached to the rectifier and smoothing circuit 11 when the IC card is loaded into the drive device. The battery is automatically charged by the DC power source E each time or as needed, and then used.

It is also possible that a photoelectric element such as a solar cell that receives external irradiation light to generate electricity may be incorporated into the IC card and used as an auxiliary power source.

In the embodiment described above, since the frequency for power transmission is set to an integral multiple of the baud rate clock as described above, the I
It is effective to make the frequency divider 30 reduction rate of C card A and drive device B the same so that a common baud rate clock can be obtained.

Furthermore, although the case where F/S modulation is used as a means of transmitting information signals has been described, it goes without saying that various modulation methods commonly used in wireless communications can be applied.

It is also obvious that the structure and processing circuit of the IC card can be simplified as appropriate depending on the intended use of the IC card.

Power transmitting coils 6 and 19, power receiving coils 10 and 20, and data transmitting coil 15 in FIGS. 1 and 2.
and data receiving coil 7 or transmitting/receiving coils 17 and 18
Although various configurations can be applied, basically a coil 22 having capacitors 21 connected in parallel as shown in FIG. 3 can be used.

In this case, the coil 22 used for the IC card or drive device
constitutes a single-layer or laminated printed wiring or other planar winding as shown in FIG. Furthermore, as shown in the cross-sectional view of the IC card in FIG. 5, by applying a magnetic core 23 such as ferrite that has sufficient magnetic permeability for the operating frequency in addition to the coil 22, it can be achieved with a small number of windings. Inductance can be increased.

The slave lever allows one or more pairs of such planar coils to efficiently transmit and receive electromagnetic waves in a state in which they are closely opposed to each other. Particularly, the IC card transmitting and receiving coil 22 portion and the processing circuit section 24 are covered with an outer sheath 25 made of an insulating material such as plastic.

There are several methods of arranging the coils on an IC card, but one or more coils are arranged symmetrically on the card surface, and the coil section of the drive device is loaded in which direction. It is possible to configure the card so that the same transmission effect is performed even when the cards are placed opposite each other, or to sandwich the electronic circuit by placing coils on both sides of the card.
Alternatively, by arranging multiple coils perpendicularly or obliquely to each other, for example, crosstalk between power and information signals can be prevented, or magnetic or electrical induction to memory or processing circuits can be prevented. Various configurations can be applied, such as interposing a shield layer for protection.

"Effects of the Invention" The IC card of the present invention uses electromagnetic waves to transmit data and control commands to and from the drive device that writes and reads information without contact, so it is different from conventional IC cards. It is possible to eliminate accidents such as malfunctions due to poor contact of connection terminals, which was the biggest cause of instability. It is a great effect and feature that the factors that lead to a decrease in reliability, such as poor contact, wear and corrosion associated with contacts, and leakage between contacts, can be eliminated in this way.

Furthermore, the coil that directly controls the exchange of power and information signals using electromagnetic waves between the IC card and the drive device,
It can be precisely constructed into an extremely thin planar shape and in any shape by single-layer or laminated printed wiring or vacuum evaporation technology.

Since such a coil is mounted integrally with a processing circuit or the like, it has the great benefit of being extremely stable in electrical operation and robust.

Furthermore, since the power required for holding IC card data and other operations can be sent from the drive device without terminals, this IC
Cards typically do not require power. Moreover, even with IC cards that require a memory backup power source, the IC card of the present invention automatically charges the built-in secondary battery constantly or as needed, so it can be operated on a regular basis. It has the advantage that it can be used stably without the need to consider battery replacement or additional charging work.Also, by using the frequency for power transmission as the reference clock (baud rate clock, etc.) between the IC card and the drive device. , it is possible to simplify the circuit configuration and stabilize the operation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are block diagrams each showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a wiring diagram showing an example of a transmitting or receiving coil, FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of an IC card, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing an example of an IC card. 1 is a data processing section, 2 is an oscillation circuit, 3 is a frequency divider, 4 is an F/S modulation circuit, 5 is a power amplifier, 6 is a power transmitting coil, /Q n> 7 is a data receiving coil, 8 is F' /S detection circuit, 9 is an interface circuit, 1'O is a power receiving coil, 11 is a rectifier smoothing circuit, 1
2 is a controller, 13 is a memory, 14 is a frequency conversion circuit, 15 is a data transmission coil, 16 is a transmission/reception switching circuit, 17 and 18 are data transmission/reception coils, 19 is a power transmission coil, 20 is a power reception coil, 21
is a capacitor, 22 is a coil, 23 is a magnetic core, 24 is a processing circuit, 25 is a jacket, A! , tlc card, B is □ drive unit, AU (Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4) Figure K5

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In an integrated circuit card equipped with a storage device, its information control circuit, etc., electromagnetic waves are used as a transmission medium from an externally installed drive device, and the coils and coils that control the exchange of power and information signals necessary for its operation, and their An integrated circuit card characterized by having a built-in processing circuit (2) The integrated circuit according to claim 1, characterized in that the frequency of the electromagnetic wave that transmits the electric power or its modulated wave is used as a common clock source in information processing between the integrated circuit card and the drive device. circuit card (3) A built-in battery that can be charged by the power received by the coil from the drive device is operated as a power source required by the information storage and information processing circuit of the storage device. Integrated circuit card according to claim 1