JP2003067696A - Non-contact communication medium and manufacturing method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the sealing reliability, dimension accuracy and appearance of a non-contact communication medium in a structure that the IC module composed of an IC chip and an antenna coil is sealed in a base material composed of polymer material that is product such as an IC tag for which dimensions of an IC module and the product are close to each other. SOLUTION: By preliminarily working a recessed part in such a shape that the IC module can be fitted onto the base material, arranging accuracy of the IC module is improved. Also, by limiting a softening temperature of the base material, workability of the preliminary work and sealing is improved. At this time, adhesion strength of a sealing part is improved by using local thermal fusion by ultrasonic heating for sealing work and a manufacture cost is reduced by using a continuous method by a heating roll for the preliminary work of the recessed part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contactless communication medium for reading and writing data in a contactless manner, and more specifically to a structure of a contactless IC tag and a method for manufacturing the same. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, non-contact communication media for exchanging signals with external devices using electromagnetic waves have been used in various fields. This non-contact communication medium has an IC chip that functions as a data processing device and a storage device and an antenna coil that transmits and receives signals as basic elements, and is molded by encapsulation on a base material in the form of a card or a sheet depending on the application. Finished into a product. The antenna coil is often formed into a flat spiral because the product is often a card.

Conventionally, hot press molding and laminate molding have been used for the sealing molding. FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing an outline of a conventional press molding method. In this way, I
With the C module 601 sandwiched between the base substrate 602 and the cover sheet 603, the base substrate 602 and the cover sheet 603 are integrated using the press plate 604.

At this time, polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter referred to as PE) is formed on the base substrate 602 and the cover sheet 603.
In some cases, a two-layer film of PET and an ionomer resin having excellent adhesiveness is used as the base substrate 602. Further, the press plate 604 has a heater built therein, and the base material 602 and the cover sheet 603 are plasticized by heating and pressed, and integrated by heat fusion.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing an outline of a conventional laminate molding method. The basic principle of this method is the same as that of the press molding method, but instead of the press plate, a roll 704 incorporating a heater is used, and a base material 702 is used.
The difference is that the cover sheet 703 has a continuous strip shape.

However, these conventional methods are not always sufficiently applicable to small and thin card-shaped products. That is, in a product having a certain thickness and size, a product having a thickness and vertical and horizontal dimensions sufficiently larger than that of the IC module can be used as the base substrate.
While the bonding allowance and the thickness for embedding the IC module can be secured, in the case of products that are required to be small and thin, for example, products such as IC tags, the dimensions of the IC module and those of the product are extremely close. As a result, it will not be possible to secure sufficient bonding allowance.

Therefore, in the conventional method, in addition to the appearance problem that the adhesive strength between the base substrate and the cover sheet is lowered and the shape of the IC module is raised on the surface of the product, the positional accuracy of the IC module and The precision in the punching or cutting process has to be improved, which causes a problem that the yield is reduced.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the technical problem of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in the manufacturing process of a contactless communication medium in which the dimensions of the IC module and the product dimension are close to each other. It is an object to provide a stable manufacturing method at a cost and a method for obtaining a highly reliable product.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention improves the dimensional accuracy of the encapsulation molding by preliminarily processing the base material, and considers a heating method of the encapsulation molding. It was made as a result of examining reliability improvement and shortening of processing time.

That is, the present invention relates to a transmitting / receiving antenna and an IC.
It is a non-contact communication medium characterized in that the IC module arranged in a recess formed in a base material is molded by encapsulating the entire surface in accordance with the shape of an IC module composed of a chip.

Further, in the non-contact communication medium of the present invention, the base substrate has a softening temperature of 50 ° C. to 10 ° C.
It is a non-contact communication medium characterized by being a thermoplastic polymer material at 0 ° C.

Further, the present invention is the non-contact communication medium as described above, wherein the base material is polyethylene terephthalate.

Further, according to the present invention, a recess is formed on the base material in conformity with the shape of the IC module consisting of the transmitting / receiving antenna and the IC chip, and after the IC module is fitted into the recess, the entire surface is sealed and molded. The above method for producing a non-contact communication medium is characterized in that:

In the method for manufacturing a non-contact communication medium according to the present invention, the recess of the base material is formed by using a roll having a surface on which an embossing process of the recess is transferred. The method for producing a non-contact communication medium is characterized in that it is formed by continuously and periodically forming the base material.

Further, the present invention is the method for producing a non-contact communication medium, wherein the roll is provided with a heating mechanism.

Further, the present invention is the method of manufacturing a non-contact communication medium as described above, wherein the entire surface encapsulation molding is performed by heat fusion using ultrasonic heating. .

[0017]

According to the present invention, the IC substrate is formed with a recessed portion which is preliminarily matched with the shape of the IC module.
Since the module is fitted in the recess, the dimensional accuracy of the IC module arrangement is significantly improved. In addition, since the base material and the cover sheet are heated to plasticize and pressurize the base material and the cover sheet as described above, the plasticized base material flows, but in the present invention, the concave portion is formed in advance. Therefore, the flow of the base material is smaller than that of the conventional method.
Also by this, the dimensional accuracy is improved, and the shape of the IC module is significantly reduced from protruding onto the product surface.

Further, in the present invention, a thermoplastic polymer material having a softening temperature of 50 ° C. to 100 ° C. is used for the base material. Here, the temperature referred to as the softening temperature is D6 of ASTM.
Although the heat distortion temperature is standardized to 48, the reason for limiting this range is as follows. That is, if the softening temperature is too high, the temperature necessary for performing heat fusion increases, and the peel strength at the heat fusion interface decreases, and if the softening temperature is too low, when the environmental temperature such as summer is high. This is due to the decrease in mechanical strength.

Considering the strength, price, and moldability of the film having such temperature characteristics when it is formed into a film, PET is preferable as the material for the base substrate.

In the case of the above-mentioned material, the concave portion of the surface of the base film can be formed by utilizing the thermoplasticity of the material. Therefore, as in the present invention, a roll having a heater built in and the surface of which is embossed is used. It can be used efficiently. Further, the sealing molding can be performed by a press molding method or a lamination molding method as in the conventional case, but by using the ultrasonic heating method, the temperature of the base substrate can be locally raised in a short time. Therefore, the peel strength at the heat fusion interface is increased, and the reliability is improved.

Further, since the base substrate is provided with the concave portion for arranging the IC module, the pressure applied to the IC module during the sealing molding is greatly reduced, so that the IC module is hardly damaged.

[0022]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, taking an IC tag as a concrete example.

FIG. 1 is an external view of an IC tag of the present invention, FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view, and FIG. 1 (b) is a side view. Also,
2A and 2B are diagrams showing an example of an IC module incorporated in an IC tag. FIG. 2A is a plan view and FIG. 2B is a side view. As shown in FIG. 2, this IC module is
It is composed of a chip 201 and an antenna coil 202 formed by spirally forming a rectangular conductor.

In FIG. 1, the IC module 101 is
A cover sheet 103 which is also made of PET and which is fitted in a recess formed in advance in the base substrate 102 made of PET.
Is a heat-sealing margin 104, which is heat-sealed by ultrasonic heating.
The C module 101 is sealed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a method of forming the concave portion on the base substrate. The device used here is
An apparatus (not shown) for sending out the base material 301 from the roll around which the strip-shaped base material 301 is wound, and a first roll 303 having an embossing shape in which the recess of the base material is transferred to the surface. , Second with no surface treatment
Roll 304 and a device (not shown) for taking out the processed base material.

Here, a rod-shaped electric heater is built in the inside of the two rolls, and is heated to a temperature above the softening temperature of the base material to plasticize the base material and form it on the surface of the first roll. The unevenness is the base substrate 301 as it is
And the recess 302 is formed. Although an electric heater was used to heat the rolls here, it is also possible to use a method such as induction heating to improve the efficiency.
The base material may be preheated by a method such as blowing hot air.

FIG. 4 is an external view of a strip-shaped base material having a recess formed therein. FIG. 4 (a) is a plan view and FIG. 4 (b) is a side view. As shown in FIG. 4, the recess 402 formed in the base substrate 401 is shaped so that the IC module shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the step of sealing the entire surface.
As shown in FIG. 5, in this step, the base substrate 501
The IC module 503 is arranged and fitted in the concave portion 502, and the cover sheet 504 is overlapped, and the peripheral portion 50 of the concave portion is formed.
An ultrasonic horn is pressed against only 5 to locally perform heat fusion. After the front surface sealing is performed in this manner, the product is cut into a desired length to obtain the product shown in FIG.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, the base substrate provided with the recess for fitting the IC module is used for manufacturing the non-contact communication medium in which the IC module is sealed, It is possible to secure dimensional accuracy in a small product. Further, the softening temperature of the base material is 50 ° C to
By limiting the temperature to 100 ° C., the reliability of the entire surface sealing can be improved and the recess can be easily formed by a continuous method using a roll or the like.

As described above, in the non-contact communication medium of the present invention, the heat sealing by the local ultrasonic heating is used for the whole surface sealing, so that the peel strength at the heat sealing interface is extremely high and the airtightness is high. Therefore, the reliability against bending deformation and environmental humidity changes is extremely high. Further, although an example of the IC tag is shown in the embodiment, the technique of the present invention can be applied to a similar information recording medium such as a recording medium compatible with both non-contact and contact. Of course.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an IC tag of the present invention, FIG. 1 (a) is a plan view, and FIG. 1 (b) is a side view.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an IC module incorporated in an IC tag. 2A is a plan view and FIG. 2B is a side view.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a method of forming a recess in a base material.

FIG. 4 is an external view of a strip-shaped base substrate having a recess formed therein,
4A is a plan view and FIG. 4B is a side view.

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a process of whole surface sealing.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing an outline of a conventional press molding method.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing an outline of a conventional laminate molding method.

[Explanation of symbols]

101, 503, 601, 701 IC module 102, 301, 401, 501, 602, 702
Base substrate 103, 504, 603, 703 Cover sheet 104 Heat-sealing allowance 201 IC chip 202 Antenna coil 302, 402, 502 Recess 303 First roll 304 Second roll 505 Periphery of recess 604 Press plate 704 roll

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A non-contact type, characterized in that the IC module disposed in a recess formed in a base material is molded in an entire surface in accordance with the shape of an IC module composed of a transmitting / receiving antenna and an IC chip. Communication medium. 2. The non-contact communication medium according to claim 1, wherein the base substrate has a softening temperature of 50 ° C. to 100 ° C.
A non-contact communication medium characterized by being a thermoplastic polymer material of. 3. The contactless communication medium according to claim 1, wherein the base material is polyethylene terephthalate. 4. A transmitting / receiving antenna and an IC on a base material.
After forming a recess that matches the shape of the IC module composed of a chip and fitting the IC module into the recess,
The method for producing a non-contact communication medium according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the entire surface is subjected to encapsulation molding. 5. The method for manufacturing a non-contact communication medium according to claim 4, wherein the recess of the base material is formed by using a roll whose surface is embossed to transfer the recess. 1. A method for producing a non-contact communication medium, which is characterized in that the base material is formed by continuously and periodically forming. 6. The method for producing a non-contact communication medium according to claim 5, wherein the roll has a heating mechanism. 7. The method for manufacturing a non-contact communication medium according to claim 4, wherein the entire surface encapsulation molding is performed by heat fusion using ultrasonic heating. Method of manufacturing communication medium.