JP2000105804A - Manufacture of noncontact data carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent an IC chip from being broken and to reduce generation of a defective by finely controlling the pressure at the time of thermal pressing. SOLUTION: In manufacturing a card type noncontact data carrier 20 formed by sealing with a resin layer the internal component 3 having almost in the same level a circuit component including a storage element storing information, an antenna 2 for sending and receiving signals to external device without contacting, and a conductor member 4 electrically connecting the antenna 2 and circuit component, resin sheets between which the internal component is sandwiched is thermally pressed by a thermal press machine 100 using a servocontrol mechanism to form the resin layer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a contactless data carrier. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a non-contact data carrier which has an IC chip as a main internal component and transmits and receives signals to and from an external device in a non-contact manner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A non-contact data carrier system comprises a transponder called a non-contact data carrier to be carried or attached to an article, and an interrogator connected to a host. It is characterized in that non-contact communication is performed between transmission media such as magnetism, induction electromagnetic field, and microwaves (radio waves). This system possesses a transponder or attaches it to various articles, remotely reads information about the person or article possessed by the interrogator, and provides the host with the information to realize information processing about the person or article.

[0003] As an information transmission system of a non-contact data carrier system, an electromagnetic coupling system, an electromagnetic induction system, a microwave system, an optical communication system, and the like are generally known. Among these methods, in the electromagnetic coupling method, the electromagnetic induction method, and the microwave method, the energy of the transmission signal from the interrogator can be used as the driving power of the transponder. Since the transmission signal itself can be used as a drive source, there is no deterioration in response capability due to a decrease in battery output as compared with other similar systems that require a drive source such as a battery in the transponder. There is a great advantage that there is no limit on the use of the transponder due to battery life.

FIG. 3 shows an overall configuration of a contactless data carrier system. As shown in FIG. 1, the contactless data carrier system includes an interrogator 10 and a transponder (contactless data carrier) 20.

The interrogator 10 includes a main controller 11 for controlling the entire interrogator 10, an interface 11 for controlling data input / output with the host device, and tag information received from the non-contact data carrier 20. Read / store
A storage unit 13 such as a writable RAM, for converting transmission information from a parallel signal to a serial signal;
The signal conversion unit 14 converts the received signal from the serial signal 0 into a parallel signal from a serial signal, and converts the transmission signal into, for example, ASK (Am
Plitude Shift Keying) method, FSK (Frequency Shif)
t Keying) modulating section 15 for modulating the signal for transmission
And a demodulation unit 16 for demodulating a received signal;
7 and a receiving antenna 18.

The transponder (contactless data carrier) 20
A main control unit 21 for controlling the entire non-contact data carrier 20, a storage unit 22 such as an EEPROM for storing tag information which does not require a power supply backup, converting transmission information from a digital signal to an analog signal, and an interrogator 10; A signal converter 23 for converting a received signal from an analog signal to a digital signal, a modulator 24 for modulating a transmission signal into a signal for transmission by an ASK method, an FSK method or the like, and a demodulator 25 for demodulating a received signal. , A transmission antenna 26, and a reception antenna 27.

The basic communication procedure of this contactless data carrier system is as follows. First, the interrogator 10
An interrogation signal for reading tag information from the non-contact data carrier 20 is issued. The contactless data carrier 20
When it enters the receivable range of the interrogation signal, it receives it,
The tag information stored in the storage unit 22 is transmitted as a response signal. The interrogator 10 receives and decodes this response signal and sends it to the host device as tag identification information.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the configuration of such a transponder 20, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the configuration of the transponder 20. Thus, the transponder 20 (contactless data carrier)
Is mainly composed of an antenna for transmitting / receiving signals to / from the interrogator 10 and circuit components. In consideration of durability and environmental resistance, the transmission / reception antenna 2 and the circuit components 1 are usually formed by a resin layer 4 or the like. Etc. are hermetically sealed. As the transmitting and receiving antenna 2, a coil formed by a copper conductor is frequently used in terms of cost and productivity, and as the circuit component 1, for example, a copper circuit pattern and a terminal portion are formed on the surface of an epoxy substrate, and Generally, an IC chip is wire-bonded. Usually, two end wires (conductor portions) of a coil formed of a copper wire having an outer diameter of 10 to 200 μm are connected to terminal portions of the circuit component 1 by welding or soldering. As the resin material for hermetically sealing these internal components 3, thermoplastic resins such as vinyl chloride resin, polyethylene terephthalate resin, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer resin, or epoxy resin, phenol resin, silicone resin, etc. Thermosetting resin is used.

The transponder 20 is normally sealed by sandwiching the coil and the circuit component 1 between a plurality of resin sheets 4a made of a thermoplastic resin or a thermosetting resin.
That is, the coil (transmitting / receiving antenna 2) and the circuit component 1
The resin sheets 4a are overlapped from above and below to sandwich the internal component 3.

Next, the resin sheet 4a sandwiching the internal component 3 is further sandwiched between two stainless plates, and the coil and the circuit component 1 are hermetically sealed by the resin layer 4 by hot pressing from both sides of the stainless plate. After that, by punching to a predetermined size, the transponder 20
Is produced.

[0011]

A resin sheet as a raw material is manufactured by extrusion molding, biaxial stretching molding, or the like. In any of the methods, the thickness of the sheet varies by about 10%. Therefore, a non-contact data carrier manufactured by laminating them inevitably has a variation of about 10%. This variation in the thickness of the non-contact data carrier causes variations in physical strength such as bending and pulling, and also changes in printing pressure during printing on an offset printing machine, which is generally performed when printing the data carrier surface. As a result, a thick data carrier results in a deep print, and a thin data carrier results in a thin print, resulting in a fatal problem of unstable quality.

By the way, in the manufacture of the non-contact data carrier, a molding machine (heat press machine) of pressure control by hydraulic pressure has been generally used. This manufacturing method controls only the temperature, pressure and time applied to the sheet,
Although the sheet can be thermally fused, it is not possible to automatically perform the control in consideration of the sheet thickness variation described above. Therefore, in order to keep the thickness of the data carrier constant, the thickness of the sheet should be
It was necessary to adjust either pressure or time.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to prevent damage to an IC chip and reduce the occurrence of defective products by finely controlling the pressure at the time of hot pressing. .

[0014]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, the thickness of a raw material sheet is controlled by controlling the position of a hot plate at the time of hot pressing by using a molding machine having a servo control mechanism. Regardless of the above, it is intended to obtain a data carrier having a constant finished thickness.

According to the method of manufacturing a non-contact data carrier of the present invention, a circuit component including a storage element for storing information, an antenna for transmitting and receiving signals to and from an external device in a non-contact manner, and the antenna and the circuit component In a method of manufacturing a card-shaped non-contact data carrier in which a conductor part for electrically connecting the non-contact data carrier is arranged on a substantially same plane with a resin layer sealed therein, a heat press machine using a servo control mechanism is used. Then, the stainless steel plate sandwiching the internal component is hot-pressed to form the resin layer.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a hot press (molding machine) used in a method for manufacturing a non-contact data carrier according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a method for manufacturing the non-contact data carrier. is there. The hot press machine 100 includes a press section 110 for forming the resin layer 4, a drive section 120 for driving the press section 110, and a control section 13 for controlling the drive section 120.
0.

The press section 110 includes a pair of stainless steel plates 112 for pressing the resin sheet 4a,
2 is provided with a pair of hot plate portions 111 for applying pressure and heat. The stainless steel plates 112 are arranged vertically facing each other.
The hot plate portion 111 is arranged on the outer surface of the stainless steel plate 112 so as to sandwich the stainless steel plate 112 therebetween. The press section 110 is configured such that the stainless steel plate 112 also moves up and down in synchronization with the up and down movement of the hot plate section 111, and is fixed to the pressing surface of the hot plate section 111, for example, as shown in FIG. 2. Thus, the resin sheet 4a is pressed via the stainless steel plate 112 by driving the hot plate portion 111.

Although the composition of the stainless steel plate 112 is not particularly limited, the stainless steel plate 112 has sufficient strength to uniformly press the entire surface of the resin sheet 4a. Since heat is applied to the resin sheet 4a, a resin sheet having good thermal conductivity is used.

The heating plate portion 111 is provided with a heater or a flow path of a heating medium oil which is separately heated, and is heated to an arbitrary set temperature by these.

The pressing section 110 includes a resin sheet 4.
A pressure detecting means 140 for detecting the pressure applied to a (or the hot plate 111) and a temperature detecting means 150 for detecting the temperature of the resin sheet 4a (or the hot plate 111) are provided. As the pressure detecting means 140, a known pressure detecting means such as a pressure gauge is used. As the temperature detecting means 150, a known temperature detecting means such as a thermocouple is used. The pressure detected by the pressure detecting unit 140 and the temperature detected by the temperature detecting unit 150 are input to the control unit 130 as electric signals.

Further, the pressing section 110 is provided with a thickness measuring means 160 for measuring the thickness of the molded resin layer 4. As the thickness measuring means 160, a known thickness measuring means 160 such as a scale is used.
The thickness of the resin layer 4 detected by “0” is input to the control unit 130 as an electric signal.

The drive section 120 is for driving the press section 110, and is provided with drive means that can be easily servo-controlled, such as a hydraulic pump, a pneumatic pump, and a step motor. In addition, the drive unit 120 is configured to drive one of the hot plate units 111 located above and below, usually the hot plate unit 111 located above. The drive unit 120 is controlled by the control unit 130.

The control unit 130 controls the driving unit 120 to adjust the pressure applied to the resin sheet 4a and to adjust the amount of heat applied to the resin sheet 4a. In particular, the driving unit 120
Is provided, and a drive amount is calculated and calculated based on the pressure and the thickness input to the control unit 130 as needed so that the pressure or the thickness of the resin layer 4 is set in advance. The drive unit 120 is driven according to the drive amount. Further, the control unit 130 controls a heating unit provided in the hot plate unit 111, and controls the heating unit to reach a desired temperature.

The non-contact data carrier having the configuration shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 can be manufactured using the hot press machine 100 as follows.

An internal component in which the terminal of the circuit component 1 and the transmitting / receiving antenna 2 are electrically connected by a conductor (end of a coil) so that the circuit component 1 and the transmitting / receiving antenna 2 are arranged on substantially the same plane. 3 is sandwiched between a pair of resin sheets 4 a and set between a pair of stainless steel plates 112 provided in the hot press 100.

Next, the target resin layer 4 is
Enter the thickness, pressure and heating temperature of the
Activate 0. The target thickness, pressure and heating temperature of the resin layer 4 are appropriately set depending on the structure of the internal components used, the material and thickness of the resin sheet 4a used, and the like.
In general, the thickness, heating temperature, and pressure of the resin layer 4 are often set to constant values, but can be appropriately changed during hot pressing as in the present invention.

In particular, since the IC chip is included in the internal components,
It is necessary to heat press the IC chip so that pressure is not applied as much as possible. Therefore, in the initial stage of pressing, specifically, it is desirable to set the pressure to a low pressure, for example, as low as 1 kg / cm 2 until the resin sheet 4a is sufficiently softened. Then, a pair of resin sheets 4
a required for fusing a, for example, 15 to 20 kg /
The pressure is reduced to, for example, 0.05 (kg /
cm2) / sec, and pressurized enough to reach the target thickness. And the heat press machine 100
After the pressure and temperature are maintained in that state, the resin layer 4 is sufficiently formed and then cooled to obtain a sealed internal component in which the internal component 3 is sealed. Finally, the sealed internal component is punched into a predetermined size to produce a card-shaped non-contact data carrier.

Of course, the control method of the press section is merely an example, and the control method may be appropriately changed according to the intended material of the non-contact data carrier or the resin sheet.

[0029]

Next, an embodiment will be described. First, the planar dimensions of the IC chip mounted are 8mm x 12mm and the thickness is 0.15mm
Formed by a circuit board having a diameter of 150 μm,
An internal part was fabricated by connecting a 78 mm × 46 mm, 0.3 mm thick antenna wound in a loop by welding using a conductive wire having an outer diameter of 150 μm.

Next, two resin sheets made of a PVC resin having a thickness of 200 μm are superposed two by two so that the thickness of the completed non-contact data carrier becomes 0.76 mm.
The above internal components were sandwiched between the superposed resin sheets.

Thereafter, a stainless steel plate was superposed on the outside of the resin sheet, and the initial pressure was set to 0.5 kg / cm ^2.
The heat pressing was started, and the pressure was gradually increased over about 5 minutes until the pressure reached 15 kg / cm ² .
Thereafter, when the thickness of the resin layer reached 0.76 mm, the pressure was kept constant and maintained for about 3 minutes to obtain a sheet-like sealed internal component. Finally, the internal component sealed body was punched to obtain a card-shaped non-contact data carrier having a thickness of 0.76 mm.

In the non-contact data carrier thus obtained, the IC chip was not damaged due to abnormal pressurization. Also, when the thickness variation was set to the above-mentioned 0.76 mm, the variation could be kept within a range of ± 0.02 mm.

[0033]

According to the present invention, the position of the hot plate can be controlled because the hot press machine is servo-controlled. Therefore, the thickness of the resin layer can be easily controlled, which can greatly contribute to providing a thin non-contact data carrier.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a hot press machine (molding machine) used in a method for manufacturing a non-contact data carrier of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a method for manufacturing a non-contact data carrier using the heat press machine of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a general overall configuration of a contactless data carrier system;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the configuration of the contactless data carrier of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing the configuration of the contactless data carrier of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Circuit component 2 ... Transmission / reception antenna 3 ... Internal component 4 ... Resin layer which seals internal component 4a ... Resin sheet which forms a resin layer 20 ... Non-contact data carrier (responder) 100 ... Heat Press machine 110 Press part 111 Hot plate part 112 Stainless steel plate 113 Heater 120 Drive part 130 Control part 140 Pressure detection means 150 Temperature detection means 160 Thickness detection means

Claims (1)

[Claims] A circuit component including a storage element for storing information, an antenna for transmitting and receiving a signal without contacting an external device, and a conductor for electrically connecting the antenna and the circuit component are substantially provided. In a method for manufacturing a card-shaped non-contact data carrier in which internal components arranged on the same plane are sealed with a resin layer, a resin sheet sandwiching the internal components by a hot press using a servo control mechanism Hot-pressing to form the resin layer.