JP2003288575A - Ic card - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent an IC chip from being broken and having its join part separated owing to pressing or heat and to prevent the IC chip from being broken and having its join part separated even when the IC card is applied with bending or torsional stress. <P>SOLUTION: The IC card 1 which has a face image on the surface of a card base material and is provided with the IC chip C1 and a communication coil in the card base material has the IC chip C1 arranged in an area at a distance of 1 mm from the position of the face image 5. Further, the IC chip C1 is arranged in an area at a distance of ≥2 mm from the center position of the IC card 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a non-contact type IC card having a face image such as a driver's license of an automobile or a personal identification card called an ID card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various types of ID cards having face images such as licenses such as driver's licenses, identification cards, membership cards with photos, business cards with photos, etc. have become popular. With the advent of the card society, forgery and falsification of cards has become a problem. So-called ICs that have an IC chip built into this ID card
Cards have become very popular over the last few years.

A face image for authentication and identification formed on such an IC card is often formed by a sublimation thermal transfer system having high gradation and excellent resolution. Especially recently, there has been a great demand for thin IC cards with a thickness of 800 μm or less,
When an image is to be formed on this by a transfer method, the pressure and heat of the thermal head or the like are directly applied to the IC chip, the antenna, and the joint portion thereof, so that these damages are conspicuous.

[0004]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a face image on an IC card in which an IC chip and a communication coil are provided in a card base material. When forming, it is to prevent the destruction of the IC chip and the detachment of the joint due to pressure and heat.

When carrying a non-contact type IC card, for example, in a state where the person puts on the pants in a pocket or the like, the person wearing the pants changes his / her posture. Is subject to bending and twisting stress. Since the card base material constituting the non-contact type IC card is often formed of a flexible material such as plastic, it may be bent or twisted when a large amount of bending or twisting stress is applied. . In this case, since the non-contact type IC card becomes more bent and twisted as it approaches the center, the I-type IC card located near the center of the non-contact type IC card.
There has been a problem that a large amount of bending or twisting stress is applied to the C-chip, and there is a high possibility that it will be damaged.

An object of the present invention is to provide a non-contact type IC card even if a bending or twisting stress is applied to it.
It is to prevent the C chip from breaking and the joint from coming off.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and to achieve the object, the present invention has the following constitution.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an IC card having a face image on a surface of a card base material and an IC chip and a communication coil provided in the card base material.
The IC card is characterized in that the C chip is arranged in an area 1 mm or more away from the position of the face image.

According to the invention described in claim 1, the IC
By defining the arrangement positions of the chip and the face image, it is possible to prevent the destruction of the IC chip and the detachment of the joint portion due to pressure and heat.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an IC card having a face image on a surface of a card base material and an IC chip and a communication coil provided in the card base material.
The IC card is characterized in that the C chip is arranged in a region 2 mm or more away from the center position of the IC card.

According to the invention of claim 2, the IC
By defining the placement position of the chip from the center position of the IC card, even if stress of bending or twisting is applied to the non-contact type IC card, destruction of the IC chip and detachment of the joint part can be prevented. can do.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in an IC card having a face image on the surface of a card base material and an IC chip and a communication coil provided in the card base material,
The IC card is characterized in that the C chip is arranged in an area 1 mm or more away from the position of the face image, and the IC chip is arranged in an area 2 mm or more away from the center position of the IC card.

According to the invention of claim 3, the IC
By defining the arrangement position of the chip and the face image, it is possible to prevent the destruction of the IC chip and the detachment of the joint due to pressure and heat, and to define the arrangement position of the IC chip from the center position of the IC card. Then, in a non-contact type IC card,
Even when a stress such as bending or twisting is applied, it is possible to prevent the IC chip from being broken and the joint from coming off.

The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that a writing layer is provided on the surface of the card substrate opposite to the surface having the face image.
The IC card described in the item.

According to the invention of claim 4, a writing layer is provided on the surface of the card base material opposite to the surface having the face image, and the cash card, employee ID card, employee ID card, membership card, Student ID card, Alien Registration Card, various driver's licenses, business cards,
It can be used for cards including name plates, passports, medical examination cards, telephone cards, commuter passes, etc.

The invention according to a fifth aspect is the IC card according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the thickness of the card is 800 μm or less.

According to the invention described in claim 5, the thickness of the card is defined so that the card is not bulky when carried.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the card base material is composed of two first and second substrates facing each other.
When the thickness of the substrate is T1 and the thickness of the second substrate is T2, the relationship between the thickness t of the IC chip provided in the card base material and T1 and T2 is expressed by the equation (1). The IC card according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein:

T <(T1 + T2) / 2 (Equation (1)) According to the invention of claim 6, the relationship between the thickness of the first substrate, the thickness of the second substrate, and the thickness of the IC chip. By prescribing, it is possible to prevent the destruction of the IC chip and the detachment of the bonded portion even when stress such as bending or twisting is applied.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the face image is
7. The IC card according to claim 1, wherein the IC card is formed by a sublimation type thermal transfer system.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, since the face image is formed by the sublimation type thermal transfer system, it is possible to obtain a face image for authentication identification which has high gradation and excellent resolution.

[0022]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of an IC card of the present invention will be described below. The present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

The IC card of this embodiment includes a cash card, an employee ID card, an employee ID card, a membership card, a student ID card, an alien registration card and various driver's licenses, business cards, name plates,
Cards that include passports, medical examination cards, telephone cards, commuter passes, etc., are generally about the size of a hand, and are often carried and used. Specifically, an example of an employee card of a company to which an IC card with a facial photograph is applied will be described.

An IC card has an IC unit housed in a recess provided in a part of a base body made of a synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride resin. The IC card is contacted by a method of electrical contact between the IC and an external circuit. There are a mold and a non-contact type. However, when the contact terminals are exposed on the surface of the card as in the contact type, deterioration of the contact surface, contact failure, etc. occur, and there arises a problem that power supply to the IC card and input / output of data signals are not performed. . Therefore, an IC card having a configuration in which an electromagnetic wave is generated and / or received by an antenna coil for transmitting and receiving electric signals in a contactless manner has appeared.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of a non-contact type IC card having no metal terminal on its surface.

In the figure, the IC card 1 is provided with an IC unit C having an IC chip C1 and an antenna coil C2 as a signal transfer unit for R / W (read / write). The key information portion C3 is attribute identification information for identifying the IC card 1 and another card, and is a code number attached to the surface of the IC card 1, for example. Further, the character information section C4 is the name, workplace, issue date, etc. attached to the surface of the IC card 1, and the image information section C5 is image information such as a face.

Thermal transfer is preferable as a method of forming image information including a face image, and as a method of forming a thermal transfer image,
It may be a method of writing with a thermal head, a method of transferring an image from an already written image sheet by thermal transfer, a photographic image obtained by thermal development, or the like. Particularly, it is preferable that the face image is formed by the sublimation type thermal transfer method, because an image having high gradation and excellent resolution can be formed relatively easily. The image formed by thermal transfer is preferably a gradation image such as a photographic image, and particularly preferably a gradation image formed by a sublimation type thermal transfer dye. These sublimation type thermal transfer dyes are preferably post-chelate type dyes capable of forming a chelate in the image receiving layer. Examples of post-chelate dyes include JP-A-59-78893 and JP-A-59-109349.
No. 2, Japanese Patent Application No. 2-213303, No. 2-214719.
No. 2,203,742, a cyan dye capable of forming at least a bidentate chelate,
Mention may be made of magenta dyes and yellow dyes.
A preferable post-chelating dye can be represented by the following general formula.

General Formula X1-N = N-X2-G In the formula, X1 is necessary for completing an aromatic carbocycle or a heterocycle in which at least one ring is composed of 5 to 7 atoms. It represents a group of atoms, and at least one of the adjacent positions of the carbon atoms bonded to the azo bond is a nitrogen atom or a carbon atom substituted with a chelating group. X2 represents an aromatic heterocycle or an aromatic carbocycle in which at least one ring is composed of 5 to 7 atoms. G represents a chelating group. The image-receiving layer preferably contains a metal compound (also referred to as a metal source) capable of chelating with the thermally transferred post-chelate dye.

Examples of chelatable metal compounds include inorganic or organic salts of metal ions and metal complexes,
Of these, salts and complexes of organic acids are preferable. As a metal,
Examples include monovalent and polyvalent metals belonging to Groups I to VIII of the Periodic Table, among which Al, Co, Cr, Cu,
Fe, Mg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Sn, Ti and Zn are preferable, and Ni, Cu, Cr, Co and Zn are particularly preferable.

A specific example of the metal source is Ni.
Examples thereof include ²⁺ , Cu2 ⁺ , Cr2 ⁺ , Co2 ⁺ and Zn2 ⁺ and an aliphatic salt such as acetic acid and stearic acid, or a salt of an aromatic carboxylic acid such as benzoic acid and salicylic acid.

Particularly, the complex represented by the following general formula is particularly preferably used since it can be stably added to the image-receiving layer and is substantially colorless.

Formula [M (Q1) x (Q2) y (Q3) z] P ⁺ · (L ⁻ ) P In the formula, M is a metal ion, preferably Ni ^{2 +} , Cu ^{2 +} ,
Represents Cr2 ⁺ , Co2 ⁺ , Zn2 ⁺ . Q1, Q2, Q3
Each represents a coordination compound capable of forming a coordination bond with the metal ion represented by M, and may be the same as or different from each other. These coordination compounds can be selected, for example, from the coordination compounds described in Chelate Science (5) (Nankodo). L- represents an organic anion group, and specific examples thereof include a tetraphenylboron anion and an alkylbenzene sulfonate anion. x represents an integer of 1, 2 or 3, y represents 1, 2 or 0,
z represents 1 or 0, and these are determined depending on whether the complex represented by the general formula is tetradentate or hexadentate,
Alternatively, it is determined by the number of Q1, Q2, and Q3 ligands. P represents 1 or 2.

Specific examples of this type of metal source include those exemplified in US Pat. No. 4,987,049. The post-chelate dye is easily transferred by sublimation from the ink layer to the image-receiving layer with a small amount of heat during image formation, and reacts with the metal compound in the image-receiving layer to become a chelate dye, which is immobile and has strong weather resistance. It will be. When used as an ID card, the title, face image, bibliographic items, etc. of the card are usually mounted on one surface, and the other surface is often a writable surface for the purpose of additional description.

The writing layer having such writability includes, for example, inorganic fine powder of calcium carbonate, talc, diatomaceous earth, titanium oxide, barium sulfate or the like, and thermoplastic resin (polyolefins such as polyethylene, various copolymers, etc.). ) It is contained in the film and formed. As the material of the card substrate, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), ABS resin, vinyl chloride resin, polycarbonate resin or the like can be used.
Among these, white PET, which has a relatively small load on the environment and is excellent in whiteness and durability, is particularly preferable.
A thermoplastic film such as polyester is used as a printed board on which an IC chip is mounted, and polyimide is advantageous when heat resistance is required.

In this case, the IC chip and the antenna pattern are joined by a conductive adhesive such as silver paste, copper paste, carbon paste (Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd. EN-4000 series, Toshiba Chemical's XAP series, etc.) or anisotropic Conductive conductive film (Anisolum manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.) is used.

Examples of the resin for enclosing the component including the IC chip include a thermosetting resin, a hot melt resin and an ultraviolet curing resin. As the thermosetting resin, any of epoxy type, phenol type, urethane type and unsaturated polyester type can be adopted. Examples of the hot-melt resin include ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) -based, polyester-based, polyamide-based, thermoplastic elastomer-based, and polyolefin-based resins. As a UV curable resin. Any epoxy resin and acrylic resin can be used as long as they can be cured by irradiation with ultraviolet rays.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view schematically showing the layer structure of the IC card.

An IC card consisting of a card base material in which an IC unit C having an IC chip C1 and an antenna coil C2 is enclosed in adhesive layers 31 and 32 interposed between the first substrate 10 and the second substrate 20. It is the configuration of 1. The IC unit C is placed directly on the second substrate 20 or with the adhesive layer 32 interposed therebetween, and the adhesive layer 31 is further placed on the IC unit C.
Then, the first substrate 10 is bonded and the IC card 1 is manufactured.

The IC unit C is embedded between the adhesive layer 31 and the adhesive layer 32. The IC chip C1 is preferably arranged in a region 1 mm or more away from the position of the face image. Here, the IC chip C1
"1 mm or more away from the face image" means that the shortest distance between the IC chip end and the face image end is 1 mm or more. Further, it is preferable that the IC chip C1 is arranged in a region separated by 2 mm or more from the center position of the IC card. Here, the fact that the IC chip C1 is separated from the center position of the IC card by 2 mm or more means that the shortest distance between the end of the IC chip and the center position of the IC card is 2 mm or more.

The center position of the IC card 1 is a position where two diagonal lines L1 and L2 connecting the opposite corners of the IC card 1 intersect as shown in FIG. Furthermore, the first
The thickness of the substrate 10 is T1, and the thickness of the second substrate 20 is T2.
Then, it is preferable that the relationship between the thickness t of the IC chip C1 enclosed in the card base material and T1 and T2 is expressed by the following relational expression (1).

Relational expression (1) t <(T1 + T2) / 2 An image receiving layer is provided on the front surface side of the first substrate 10, and
A writing layer is provided on the surface side of the substrate 20, and a hot stamp layer and a UV resin layer are further provided on the card after bonding on the image receiving layer. The thickness of the IC card 1 is 800 because it is not bulky when carried.
It is preferably μm or less. Example The first substrate has a sublimation-type image transfer layer for thermal transfer shown below on one side of a white PET film support having a thickness of 200 μm. (Image-receiving layer for sublimation type thermal transfer) The image-receiving layer for sublimation type thermal transfer is composed of a material that traps and fixes a dye when the sublimation dye ink is heated by a thermal head and thermally diffuses.
Dissolve vinyl chloride powder in methyl ethyl ketone solvent,
It was formed by applying a gravure coater a number of times and then drying it to evaporate the solvent. The sublimation type image receiving layer for thermal transfer has a thickness of 2.5 μm. The second substrate has a writing layer on one surface side of the white film support having the same thickness as the first substrate and having a thickness of 200 μm.

The writing layer is made by dispersing calcium carbonate and silica fine particles in a polyester emulsion,
Like the image-receiving layer of the first substrate, it was formed by dissolving with a solvent, applying it with a gravure coater, etc., and then drying it to vaporize the solvent. The thickness of this writing layer is almost the same as that of the image receiving layer. (Example 1-1) A transmitter / receiver antenna coil having a maximum thickness of 300 μm was formed by coating a hot melt adhesive layer on the surface of the second substrate opposite to the surface having the writing layer. An IC unit consisting of an IC chip was placed. The thickness of the IC chip in this IC unit was 100 μm. As the hot melt adhesive layer, Macroplast QR3460 manufactured by Henkel was used.

On the mounted IC unit, the same hot melt adhesive layer as that described above and the surface opposite to the surface having the image receiving layer of the first substrate were superposed, and the end plate flat heat press was used. Thermocompression bonding was performed under the condition of heating at 5 ° C. and 5 kgf / cm ² , and this was punched out to manufacture an IC card having a thickness of 760 μm and including an IC chip and an antenna coil.

A face image was formed on the image receiving layer of the obtained IC card in a region 2 mm away from the IC chip by a sublimation type thermal transfer system. The face image was formed by controlling the thermal diffusion amount of the sublimation dye ink by changing the applied pulse width of the thermal head so as to give gradation to each dot by the thermal head.

The IC chip of the IC card on which the face image was formed in this manner did not have problems such as breakage and detachment of the joint. (Example 1-2) An IC card having a face image formed thereon was produced in the same manner as in Example 1-1, except that the face image was formed in a region 5 mm away from the IC chip. The obtained IC chip of the IC card having the face image did not have problems such as breakage and detachment of the joint. (Comparative Example 1-1) An IC card having a face image was produced in the same manner as in Example 1-1, except that the face image was formed on the surface of the card substrate so that the entire surface of the IC chip overlaps the face image. The resulting card could not be used as an IC card because the IC chip was cracked when a face image was formed. (Example 2-1) A transmitting / receiving antenna coil having a maximum thickness of 300 μm is formed by coating a hot melt adhesive layer on the surface of the second substrate opposite to the surface having the writing layer. An IC unit consisting of an IC chip was placed. The thickness of the IC chip in this IC unit was 100 μm. As the hot melt adhesive layer, Macroplast QR3460 manufactured by Henkel was used.

On the mounted IC unit, the same hot melt adhesive layer as that described above and the surface opposite to the surface having the image receiving layer of the first substrate were superposed, and the end plate flat heat press was used. Thermocompression bonding was performed under the condition of heating at 5 ° C. and 5 kgf / cm ² , and this was punched out to manufacture an IC card having a thickness of 760 μm and including an IC chip and an antenna coil.

Here, the IC chip was placed in a region 5 mm away from the center position of the IC card. A face image was formed on the image receiving layer of the obtained IC card by retransferring the sublimation dye once transferred to the intermediate transfer medium α by a thermal head.

The IC card on which the face image was formed in this way was tested for dynamic bending strength defined in JIS X6305.

The IC chip of the IC card after the test did not have problems such as breakage and detachment of the joint. (Example 2-2) An IC card on which a face image was formed was produced in the same manner as in Example 2-1 except that the IC chip was arranged in a region 10 mm away from the center position of the IC card.
With respect to the IC card on which the face image was formed in this manner, a dynamic twist strength test specified in JIS X 6305 was carried out. The IC chip of the IC card after the test did not have problems such as breakage and detachment of the joint. (Comparative Example 2-1) An IC card having a face image was produced in the same manner as in Example 2-1 except that the central position of the IC chip and the central position of the IC card were overlapped. Regarding the IC card with the face image formed in this way, J
The dynamic bending strength test specified in IS X 6305 was carried out. Since the joint between the IC chip and the antenna coil of the IC card after the test was removed, the obtained card could not be used as an IC card.

[0050]

As described above, the first to the seventh aspects are provided.
In the invention described in (1), when a face image is formed on an IC card in which the IC chip and the communication coil are provided in the card base material, it is possible to prevent the IC chip from being broken by the pressure or heat and from being detached from the joint. it can. Further, even when the IC card is subjected to stress such as bending or twisting, it is possible to prevent the IC chip from being broken and the joint from coming off.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a non-contact type IC card without a metal terminal on the surface 1
It is a top view which shows an example.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the layer structure of an IC card.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 IC card 10 First substrate 20 Second substrate 31,32 adhesive layer C1 IC chip C2 antenna coil C IC unit

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2C005 MA10 MB01 MB02 MB07 NA08                       NA36 NB05 NB10 PA03 PA14                       PA18 PA21 PA22 RA03 RA04                       RA10                 5B035 AA08 BA03 BA05 BB09 BB11                       BB12 BC01 CA01 CA03 CA05                       CA06 CA23

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An IC card having a face image on the surface of a card base, and an IC chip and a communication coil provided in the card base, wherein the IC chip is 1 mm or more from the position of the face image. An IC card characterized by being placed in a remote area. 2. An IC card having a face image on the surface of a card substrate and having an IC chip and a communication coil provided in the card substrate, wherein the IC chip is 2 mm or more from the center position of the IC card. An IC card characterized by being placed in a remote area. 3. An IC card having a face image on the surface of a card base, and an IC chip and a communication coil provided in the card base, wherein the IC chip is 1 mm or more from the position of the face image. And the IC chip is 2 from the center of the IC card.
An IC card characterized by being arranged in a region separated by at least mm. 4. The IC card according to claim 1, wherein a writing layer is provided on the surface of the card substrate opposite to the surface having the face image. 5. The IC card according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the card is 800 μm or less. 6. The first and second opposing card base materials
The first substrate has a thickness of T1 and the second substrate
6. The relationship between the thickness t of the IC chip provided in the card base material and T1 and T2 is represented by the equation (1), where T2 is the thickness of the substrate. The IC card according to any one of 1. t <(T1 + T2) / 2 ... Equation (1) 7. The IC card according to claim 1, wherein the face image is formed by a sublimation type thermal transfer system.