JP2009282900A - Manufacturing method for noncontact ic card, and noncontact ic card - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a noncontact IC card of high mass productivity excellent in a plane property, and a manufacturing method therefor. <P>SOLUTION: In this manufacturing method for the noncontact IC card, a moisture curing type hot melting adhesive is applied onto an obverse base material sheet 11 and a reverse base material sheet 13, an antenna sheet 12 is inserted thereafter and temporarily fixed to form a sheet laminate 15, then the sheet laminate 15 is passed through between hot rollers to be degassed, and the sheet laminate 15 is smoothedly pressed to uniformize a thickness. The noncontact IC card 1 is inserted with the antenna sheet 12 to expose its end face in four peripheries of the card, and is constituted to make overall thickness between an upper face of an IC chip 3 and an outer surface of the obverse base material sheet 11 equal to overall thickness between an under face of the IC chip and an outer surface of the reverse base material sheet 13. The IC card of excellent smoothness and printing characteristic is provided by this method. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a non-contact IC card and a non-contact IC card manufactured by the method. Specifically, it has front and back sheet materials constituting an IC card, and after applying a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive to the front and back sheet materials, an IC chip is placed on the antenna between the adhesive-coated surfaces of the sheet. A non-contact IC card manufacturing method in which a mounted antenna sheet is inserted and the moisture-curable hot melt adhesive is bonded by reaction between both surfaces of the antenna sheet and the front and back sheet materials and the manufacturing method is manufactured. It relates to a non-contact IC card.

  In recent years, contactless IC cards, which can communicate information with terminals without contact, have advantages such as ease of communication work, ease of system maintenance, and ease of handling due to no contact damage. More and more frequently used.

Conventionally, a laminate method or a resin filling method has been adopted as a method for manufacturing this type of non-contact IC card. In the laminating method, for example, as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 8, the core sheets 102 and 103 are laminated through the adhesive sheets 106 and 107 on the antenna sheet 10 in which the non-contact IC chip 3 is mounted on the antenna coil (not shown). Further, a structure in which the front and back oversheets 104 and 105 are laminated via the adhesive sheets 108 and 109 and this temporary stack is integrated by hot pressing is adopted. Usually, through holes 7 and 8 that absorb the thickness of the IC chip 3 are formed in the adhesive sheets 106 and 107 and the core sheets 102 and 103 so that the IC chip 3 does not have irregularities on the card surface. A reinforcing plate 31 is bonded to the IC chip 3 used in the non-contact IC card 1 by an epoxy resin 33, and a reinforcing plate 32 is also bonded to the surface corresponding to the IC chip 3 through the antenna sheet 10 by an epoxy resin 34. is doing. Recently, an IC chip having such a chip reinforcing structure may be used.
Although the thing of FIG. 8 consists of a material of a total of nine layers, in order to improve a function, smoothness, etc., in order to improve a function, smoothness, etc., a material may be laminated | stacked and it may become about 10 layers from 12 layers.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the resin filling method is such that an IC module composed of an IC chip 3 and an antenna coil 2 is placed on a base material 10a, and is a spacer that is larger than the IC module 30 and has a card thickness. 6 is placed around the card, an IC module is placed therein, adhesive resin 9 is filled in the spacer 6, the IC module is filled, the oversheet 10b is bonded, and the resin is applied with UV light or heat. This is a method for producing a non-contact IC card 1 by hardening.

  However, the laminating method has a problem in that it takes many steps and labor, and a variety of materials are laminated, so that an IC card cannot be manufactured at low cost. On the other hand, if the resin filling method employs a UV resin, a transparent base material or an oversheet that transmits UV light must be employed. Therefore, the finished IC card needs to be made of a transparent sheet on at least one of the card surfaces, and there is a problem that it cannot meet the demands for various design cards.

Various manufacturing methods for solving such problems and producing non-contact IC cards in large quantities at low cost have been proposed. In particular, many IC cards and manufacturing methods have been proposed in which an IC module composed of an IC chip and a coil is inserted between the front and back oversheets, and the resulting gap is filled with hot melt resin. In this case, with a normal hot melt adhesive, the heat resistance does not exceed the bonding processing temperature because the bonding processing temperature is the same as the softening temperature of the adhesive.
For this reason, when high heat resistance is required, a high bonding processing temperature is required. However, when bonding is performed at such a high temperature, there is a problem that the card substrate is likely to warp or is easily damaged when there is an image receiving layer on the card surface. On the other hand, since the reactive hot melt adhesive is cured after the bonding process, there is an advantage that the heat resistant temperature is higher than the bonding processing temperature. Therefore, the above problems can be solved. As an example of a reactive hot melt adhesive, a urethane polymer having an isocyanate group at the molecular end is the main component, this isocyanate group reacts with moisture to activate it, and further reacts with a prepolymer to form a crosslinked structure. There is. This is a so-called moisture-curing adhesive.

  Related patent documents include the following. Patent Document 1 relates to a non-contact IC card or the like in which an IC module composed of an IC chip and a coil is sandwiched between a base material and an oversheet, and the gap is filled with a hot-melt resin or a reactive moisture-curable polyurethane resin. Since the resin is applied to the IC module, it is different from the manufacturing method of the present application. Patent Document 2 proposes a manufacturing method in which an intermediate sheet on which an IC module is placed is interposed between front and back sheets, and the intermediate sheet and the front and back sheets are pressed and bonded under reduced pressure using a reactive polyurethane hot melt resin. Yes. It differs from the manufacturing method of the present application in that a solid hot melt resin sheet is used so as not to include a coating process.

  Patent Document 3 discloses an unreacted isocyanate in a reactive hot-melt adhesive layer in an IC card in which an IC module is enclosed in a reactive hot-melt adhesive layer interposed between a first and a second sheet material. IC cards, etc. with a base amount of 5% or less are proposed. It differs from the manufacturing method of the present application in that no antenna sheet is used. Patent Document 4 describes a method for producing a personal authentication card using a long sheet, and also describes the use of a moisture curable adhesive. Patent Document 5 is similar to Patent Document 3, but proposes that a urethane-type moisture-curing adhesive is used and the curing rate is 60% or more. Patent Documents 6 and 7 relate to a non-contact communication medium (IC chip) used by the present invention.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-34548 JP 2000-148959 A JP 2001-22912 A JP 2002-175510 A JP 2006-133901 A JP 2000-222549 A JP 2007-272748 A

  Another object of the present invention is to mass-produce non-contact IC cards by a resin filling method. Conventionally, in the case of the resin filling method, it is impossible to adjust the thickness of the IC chip by providing a through hole as in the laminate method, and unevenness occurs due to the hardening of the resin after filling, and the flatness of the IC card is good. There was a problem that things could not be obtained. An object of the present invention is to realize a non-contact IC card having a more excellent planar property by adjusting the coating amount of the filling resin.

  The gist of the present invention that solves the above problems includes the following steps (1) to (9), (1) a predetermined thickness in a fluidized state in which a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive is heated on the front substrate sheet. (2) The back substrate sheet is coated to a predetermined thickness in a fluidized state in which the moisture-curable hot melt adhesive is heated, and then, Returning the room temperature to solidify the adhesive; (3) facing the hot melt adhesive coated surface of the front and back substrate sheets as an inner surface, and in the meantime, an antenna sheet having a non-contact IC chip mounted on the antenna, The process of aligning and inserting the design of the front and back base material sheet and the antenna pattern of the antenna sheet, (4) In the aligned state, the front and back base material sheet and the antenna sheet are partially hot melted at the outer periphery outside the design Melt adhesive (5) a step of passing the sheet laminate between hot rolls to melt the hot melt adhesive and venting air from the melted adhesive layer; 6) Further, the step of passing the sheet laminate between metal heat rolls kept at regular intervals to remove excess adhesive and adjusting the thickness of the sheet laminate, (7) after thickness adjustment A step of smooth pressing and cooling the sheet laminate, and (8) a step of curing and degassing the moisture-curable hot melt adhesive by storing the sheet laminate after the smooth press in a constant temperature and humidity state for a predetermined time. (9) A method for producing a non-contact IC card, comprising the step of cutting the sheet laminate into individual non-contact IC cards.

  In the above, the front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet have a pattern for IC card consisting of a plurality of rows and columns, and the antenna sheet is a multi-sided sheet having an antenna pattern consisting of the same rows and columns, and so on. The moisture curable hot melt adhesive of the front and back substrate sheets can be made of a urethane resin.

  The second aspect of the present invention is an antenna sheet in which an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate between a front substrate sheet and a back substrate sheet, and a flat plate IC chip with upper and lower reinforcing plates is mounted on the antenna circuit. Is inserted so that the end face appears around the card 4, and the front base sheet and the antenna sheet and the antenna sheet and the back base sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot-melt adhesive. In the non-contact type IC card, the entire cross-sectional thickness of the IC card is 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and between the upper surface of the upper reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the outer surface of the front base sheet. The non-contact IC card is characterized in that the thickness and the thickness between the lower surface of the lower reinforcing plate of the IC chip bonded to the antenna sheet and the outer surface of the back substrate sheet are made equal.

  The gist 3 of the present invention is an antenna sheet in which an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate between a front substrate sheet and a back substrate sheet, and a flat plate IC chip with upper and lower reinforcing plates is mounted on the antenna circuit. Is inserted so that the end face appears around the card 4, and the front base sheet and the antenna sheet and the antenna sheet and the back base sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot-melt adhesive. In the non-contact type IC card, the entire cross-sectional thickness of the IC card is 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and the thickness between the upper and lower reinforcing plates of the flat plate IC chip is 420 μm to 460 μm. Equal thickness between 40 μm and 70 μm between the upper reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet and between the lower reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet. A non-contact IC card having the cured hot-melt adhesive layer.

  The fourth aspect of the present invention is an antenna sheet in which an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic base material between a front base material sheet and a back base material sheet, and a flat plate IC chip with upper and lower reinforcing plates is mounted on the antenna circuit. Is inserted so that the end face appears around the card 4, and the front base sheet and the antenna sheet and the antenna sheet and the back base sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot-melt adhesive. In the non-contact type IC card, the entire cross-sectional thickness of the IC card is 0.78 ± 0.04 mm, and the thickness including the reinforcing plate of the flat plate IC chip is 300 μm to 350 μm. Equal thickness between 37 μm and 62 μm between the upper reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet and between the lower reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet A non-contact IC card having the cured hot-melt adhesive layer.

  The fifth aspect of the present invention is an antenna in which an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate between a front substrate sheet and a back substrate sheet, and a flat IC chip having no reinforcing plate is mounted on the antenna circuit. The sheet is inserted so that the end face appears around the card 4, and the front base sheet and the antenna sheet and the antenna sheet and the back base sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive. In the non-contact type IC card, the IC card has an overall cross-sectional thickness of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and the thickness between the upper surface of the IC chip and the outer surface of the front substrate sheet, The contactless IC card is characterized in that the thickness between the lower surface of the antenna sheet and the outer surface of the back substrate sheet is made equal.

  The sixth aspect of the present invention is an antenna in which an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate between a front substrate sheet and a back substrate sheet, and a flat IC chip having no reinforcing plate is mounted on the antenna circuit. The sheet is inserted so that the end face appears around the card 4, and the front base sheet and the antenna sheet and the antenna sheet and the back base sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive. In the non-contact type IC card, the IC card has an overall cross-sectional thickness of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and the flat IC chip has a thickness of 200 μm to 250 μm. , Between the upper surface of the IC chip and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet and between the antenna sheet on the lower surface of the IC chip and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet, with a thickness of 25 μm to 50 μm. A non-contact IC card having the hot-melt adhesive layer formed.

  In the non-contact IC cards of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 described above, the moisture curable hot melt adhesive may be made of a urethane resin.

In the non-contact IC card manufacturing method of the present invention, the heat pressing process for stacking the base materials is reduced, and the energy consumption can be reduced. Moreover, mass production is possible with a simple manufacturing process.
In the non-contact IC card manufacturing method of the present invention, compared to the conventional laminating method, a step of forming a through hole in the base material is not necessary in order to absorb the thickness of the IC chip, and a step of laminating various base materials Therefore, the process can be simplified as a whole.

Since the non-contact type IC card of the present invention uses a moisture-curable hot melt resin without using a normal hot melt adhesive for laminating the base material as in the case of a laminate system, the use condition of high temperature There is no delamination even underneath, and an IC card with high heat resistance can be realized.
The non-contact type IC card of the present invention has a high smoothness on the card surface because the layer thickness between the IC chip and the card surface is regulated, and the concave and convex shape resulting from the IC chip does not appear on the card surface and has an excellent appearance. Show. Therefore, even when various recording layers are provided on the card surface, printing defects due to irregularities on the card surface do not occur.
In the non-contact type IC card of the present invention, since the edge of the antenna sheet appears around the card, the edge portion does not become thin.

Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing a non-contact IC card will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 to 3 are diagrams illustrating a manufacturing process, FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an antenna sheet, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a cross section of a non-contact IC card according to a first form, and FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a second form. The figure which shows the cross section of a non-contact IC card, FIG. 7 is a figure which shows the cross section of the non-contact IC card of a 3rd form.

(1) First, the surface base sheet is coated with a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive in a fluidized state to a predetermined thickness, and then returned to room temperature to solidify the adhesive.
As shown in FIG. 1, the front base sheet 11 is used in which necessary patterns 11 d are printed in multiple faces. Multi-face-to-face means that the front substrate sheet 11 has a unit IC card design composed of a plurality of rows and columns. Although not shown in the drawing, a magnetic tape transferred to the image receiving layer for printing is used if necessary. The front substrate sheet simply refers to a substrate sheet on the surface side on which the type and use of the card are displayed, but it is not necessary to have special characteristics different from the back substrate sheet described later. A sheet colored white can be used as the front and back base sheet. As described later, various materials can be used for the front and back base sheet, but in recent years, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and PET-G are often used.
The reason for processing in a sheet form is that there are few cases where a large number of cards having the same specifications and the same design are produced, and it is not wasteful to process in a sheet form of about 10-30 impositions.
In this step, the hot melt adhesive 11a is applied to the surface of the front substrate sheet 11 that becomes the antenna sheet 12 side.

There are various types of hot melt adhesives, and those made of moisture-curing urethane resin are preferably used. Moisture curable urethane-based hot-melt resins are characterized by absorbing moisture in the air and causing a chain extension reaction and generating carbon dioxide during the curing reaction.
The coating is preferably performed by heating a hot melt resin as an adhesive to a fluidized state, and allowing it to flow out from the head of the die coater to uniformly apply a predetermined amount. The temperature at which the hot melt resin is heated is about 90 ° C to 130 ° C.

  The overall thickness of the card is defined by the thickness of the front substrate sheet and the adhesive coating thickness, the back substrate sheet thickness and the adhesive coating thickness, and the antenna sheet thickness. In order not to cause surplus adhesive, the thickness calculated in advance is applied. The coating thickness is at least thicker than the height of the IC chip 3 of the antenna sheet 12. Empirically, the total thickness obtained by adding the thickness of the adhesive 11a to the thickness of the front base sheet 11 of the completed IC card, and the total thickness of the back base sheet 13 plus the thickness 13a of the adhesive, It has been confirmed that the cards are almost equal in terms of smoothness and little warpage. After coating, it is cooled if it is exposed to room temperature for several seconds to several tens of seconds, and the hot melt adhesive loses tackiness and returns to a solid, non-tacky state.

(2) Similarly, a process of applying a moisture curable hot melt adhesive to a predetermined thickness in a fluidized state on the back substrate sheet, and then returning to room temperature to solidify the adhesive.
The back substrate sheet 13 is also a multi-sided sheet composed of the same row structure having substantially the same size as the front substrate sheet. The thickness of the back substrate sheet is not necessarily the same as that of the front substrate sheet 11. There are cases where the back base sheet 13 does not have a design, but the card usage conditions and handling rules are often printed in a multi-sided manner as well. May have a magnetic tape. In this step, the same hot melt adhesive 13a is applied as in the front substrate sheet.

(3) Next, the front and back substrate sheets are faced with the hot-melt adhesive coated surface as the inner surface, and the antenna sheet having a non-contact IC chip mounted on the antenna is placed between the front and back substrate sheet design and the antenna sheet. The step of aligning and inserting the antenna pattern is performed.
The antenna sheet 12 is also supplied in a multi-faceted state as shown in FIG. Similar to the front and back substrate sheets 11 and 13, the multifaceted antenna sheet 12 having the same row configuration is used.
There are cases where the IC chip 3 is inserted in a state of protruding to the front base sheet 11 side and cases of insertion in a state of protruding to the back base sheet 13 side. Don't be. When printing on the front surface or the like, it is often in a state of protruding toward the back substrate sheet 13 side. The alignment of each sheet is performed visually or by a mechanical alignment method with reference to an alignment mark previously formed on each sheet.

(4) Next, in the aligned state, the front and back base material sheet and the antenna sheet are partially fused on the outer periphery outside the pattern and temporarily fixed to form a sheet laminate.
Temporary fixing means that the front and back base material sheets 11 and 13 and the antenna sheet 12 are temporarily bonded in a partial spot rather than the whole. This is to prevent the positional relationship between the sheets from shifting in subsequent processing steps. As shown in FIG. 2, a process of temporarily fixing the outer peripheral portion having no card design by spot-bonding 5 at several places is performed. After temporary fixing, the sheet laminate 15 is obtained.
Spot fusion can be performed with an ultrasonic welder, with a heated head pierced and fused, or with a thermocompression bonding machine. Alternatively, temporary bonding by applying an adhesive may be used. Temporarily fix the front end and the outer periphery of the side of the sheet laminate 15 in the direction of travel (arrow Y), and the rear end can be opened without temporarily fixing, so that excess molten adhesive can flow out of the practical area of the card. It is preferable to do so.

(5) The sheet laminate is passed between hot rolls to melt the hot melt adhesive, and air is removed from the melted adhesive layer.
In this step, the hot melt adhesive that has returned to the solid state is heated again to a molten state, and the air remaining between the sheets and in the adhesive layer is deaerated (extracted). The adhesive is again melted while being conveyed between the upper and lower heating rubber rollers which are gradually increased in temperature in multiple stages.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the sheet stack 15 is sequentially supplied from the sheet supply unit 101 of the IC card manufacturing apparatus 100. This is performed by passing between a plurality of heated rubber rollers 102 heated to a temperature of 80 ° C. to 100 ° C. at which the hot melt adhesive is melted.
In this step, the interval between the upper and lower rubber rollers 102 is maintained at a smaller interval (about 500 μm to 700 μm) than the prescribed card thickness. The diameter of the rubber roller and the interval between the rubber roller pair are set to a diameter and an interval that can hold a set of sheet laminates 15 at two or more locations.
However, if the diameter is too small, it is close to line contact, and uniform compression becomes difficult. A desirable roller diameter is about 70 mm to 120 mm. The reason why the rubber roller is used is that the remaining air is reduced in the process of melting the adhesive.
The air between the sheets is mainly pushed out from the end of the sheet laminate 15.

(6) Furthermore, the process of adjusting the thickness of a sheet | seat laminated body while passing the said sheet | seat laminated body between the metal hot rolls maintained at the regular interval and removing an excess adhesive agent is performed.
In this step, the integrated sheet laminated body 15 passes between the three pairs of metal heat rollers 103 maintained at a constant temperature. Since the sheet laminated body 15 is temporarily fixed at the front end in the advancing direction and the outer periphery of the two side edges, the excess molten adhesive is pushed out to the downstream end of the sheet laminated body 15. However, it is not preferable that the extruded adhesive flows out from the end of the sheet laminate 15 and sticks to a roller or the like. This is because work such as machine cleaning is required. For this reason, the end portion of the sheet laminate 15 is provided with an extra region to which the adhesive that has flowed out adheres. However, the end portion of the sheet laminate 15 is an actual design portion (actual IC card). After the portion) has passed, it is preferable that the space between the upper and lower rollers is widened so that excess molten adhesive remains only on the end surface of the sheet laminate 15 and does not adhere to the rollers or the like. In order to do this, it is also important to adjust the coating amount in the first step to the optimum amount.

The metal roller diameter has the same problem as the rubber roller. A desirable roller diameter is about 120 mm to 200 mm. The reason why the metal roller is used is that the roller is not deformed when the laminated body is nipped, and the roller gap can be kept constant.
The interval between the upper and lower metal rollers needs to be smaller than the prescribed thickness dimension of the completed non-contact IC card. This is because the thickness increases due to the elastic component of the adhesive which is a viscoelastic body after passing through the roller. The sheet laminate 15 that has passed between the plurality of pairs of metal heat rolls is held in the heat retaining zone 104 for a while. The heat retention temperature is preferably in the range of 65 ° C to 90 ° C.

(7) The sheet laminate after thickness adjustment is subjected to a smooth pressing and cooling step.
In this step, the sheet laminate 15 is introduced into the smooth press machine 105. A set of sheet laminates 15 is introduced one by one into flat upper and lower specular press plates cooled to about 20 ° C., and the sheet laminate is pressed smoothly. If the press pressure is too strong, the non-contact IC chip 3 is damaged. Therefore, it is appropriate to apply a pressure of about 1 ton to the entire surface of the sheet laminate 15. When converted, the pressure is about 0.1 MPa to 0.2 MPa.

(8) The sheet laminate after the smooth press is stored for a predetermined time in a constant temperature and humidity state, and a moisture curable hot melt adhesive is cured and degassed.
Since the adhesive is not completely cured after the smooth press, it is stored at a constant temperature and humidity for a predetermined time, and a process of promoting curing and degassing the generated carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) is performed.
The sheets after smooth pressing are stored for about 24 to 48 hours in a stacked state in the same direction. The temperature is in the range of 20 ° C to 40 ° C, more preferably 25 ° C to 30 ° C. The relative humidity is in the range of 40% to 60%, more preferably 45% to 55%. This is because moderate moisture is required for curing. Moisture (moisture) that reacts with the adhesive is absorbed through the front and back sheet layers, and the generated carbon dioxide gas is also deaerated through the front and back sheet layers. Although it is related to the thickness of the substrate, about 1 to 3 g of adhesive is applied to one IC card. The amount of carbon dioxide gas generated from this is about 6 cm ³ or 18 cm ³ .
The carbon dioxide gas permeability of the PET sheet is low, about 15 ml / m · day · atm, but this small amount of gas is absorbed and absorbed through the front and back substrate sheets during the curing time of about 48 hours. can do. In the case of PET-G, the gas permeability is superior to that in the case of PET.

(9) Finally, the sheet laminate is cut into individual non-contact IC cards.
The multi-sided sheet laminate 15 that has been cured is punched into individual card units to form a non-contact IC card. If the curing is incomplete, the adhesive sticks to the punching blade, resulting in a problem that a beautiful cut surface cannot be obtained. Furthermore, functional inspections such as appearance inspection and communication performance are performed to complete the contactless IC card.

Next, a non-contact IC card obtained by the above manufacturing method will be described.
The non-contact IC card 1 includes a front substrate sheet 11, a back substrate sheet 13, an antenna sheet 12, a hot melt adhesive 11a, and a hot melt adhesive 13b.
The antenna sheet 12 is formed by forming the antenna pattern 2 on the surface of the insulating plastic substrate and mounting the non-contact IC chip 3 on the antenna pattern 2.
The non-contact IC card 1 has a card thickness of 0.76 mm ± 0.08 mm defined by ISO, and more preferably 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm.
Since it is a non-contact IC card, there is no contact terminal board on the card surface, and the non-contact IC chip 3 is embedded in the card substrate. The front substrate sheet 11 and the back substrate sheet 13 are maintained in parallel, and the antenna sheet 12 is inserted between the front and back substrate sheets 11 and 13 in parallel to the front and back substrates so that the edge thereof can be seen from the outside. Yes.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the antenna pattern 2 is usually a planar coiled antenna, but various shape patterns are used depending on the purpose of the card, communication performance, the surface embossed character position, and the like. Moreover, it may be formed on one side or front and back surfaces of the insulating plastic substrate 12b and may have a capacity consisting of front and back patterns. The antenna pattern 2 is often formed by etching a copper foil or an aluminum foil laminated on the surface of the base material 12b. However, the antenna pattern 2 may be a screen printing of conductive printing ink, or a pattern obtained by transferring a shoreline. . As the non-contact IC chip 3, one having a memory and a microcomputer is usually used. The antenna coil 2 has a function of receiving, demodulating and responding to electromagnetic waves from an external device, and also generates chip driving power. The IC chip 3 of the antenna sheet 12 may be protruded to the card front surface side or the back surface side, and is not limited to any one.

The non-contact IC chip 3 is made of a flat silicon material, and one side surface is an active surface on which an integrated circuit is formed, and pads or bump electrodes (bumps) are formed. Usually, there are two protruding electrodes, and these two protruding electrodes are flip-chip mounted on the end of the antenna circuit by an anisotropic conductive sheet or the like. The back side is a flat surface without a circuit.
The thickness of the IC chip 3 varies depending on the manufacturer, but is usually in the range of about 50 μm to 200 μm. In the case of a single IC chip without a reinforcing plate, it is 200 to 250 μm, but when it has a reinforcing plate, it is about 300 to 500 μm. The planar shape is often square or rectangular, and varies depending on the function and memory capacity, but is usually in the size of 0.5 mm to 5 mm square.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a cross section of the contactless IC card according to the first embodiment. The embedded portion of the IC chip is shown with an enlarged thickness, and the antenna structure and the like are omitted. The same applies to FIGS. 6 and 7 below.
The non-contact IC chip 3a used for the non-contact IC card 1a of the first form is characterized by having a reinforcing plate. The thickness of the reinforcing plate is usually 50 to 75 μm, and is about 100 μm at most.
As shown in FIG. 5, the upper reinforcing plate 31 is bonded to the upper surface of the IC chip 3 by an epoxy resin 33 that also serves to seal the IC chip. Further, the lower reinforcing plate 32 is bonded to the back surface of the insulating plastic substrate 12b via the epoxy resin 34 in the region facing the IC chip 3a. However, the reinforcing plates 31 and 32 may be attached to the IC chip 3a by an adhesive sheet.
The upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 constitute a chip reinforcing structure that protects the IC chip 3a from external stress. A pair of the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 is not always provided, and at least only the upper reinforcing plate 31 may be provided. Such an IC chip 3a with a reinforcing plate is described in detail in Patent Documents 6 and 7 described above.

  The non-contact IC card of the first form is used by mounting an IC chip 3a with a reinforcing plate on the antenna sheet 12. The material of the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 is not particularly limited as long as a reinforcing effect is obtained, but a stainless steel material is generally used. When the thickness of the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 is 40 to 50 μm and the thickness of the insulating plastic substrate 12b is 38 to 40 μm, the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32, the epoxy resins 33 and 34, and the IC chip 3a are included. The total thickness H1 is about 420 to 460 μm. The plane sizes of the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 are slightly larger than the plane size of the IC chip 3a itself.

When the card thickness is 0.80 μm, which is the central value of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, the total thickness of the adhesive layers 11a and 13a including the thickness of the insulating plastic substrate 12b, H2 is 500 to The distance H3 between the upper surface of the upper reinforcing plate 31 and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet 11 or the lower surface of the lower reinforcing plate 32 and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet 13 is about 40 to 70 μm. The front and back substrate sheets 11 and 13 have a thickness of about 100 to 150 μm.
In Claim 4, it is required that the thickness of the H3 + front substrate sheet 11 and the thickness of the H3 + back substrate sheet 11 are equal. This is because the resin layer thickness is uniform on both the front and back sides of the card.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a cross section of the non-contact IC card of the second form. The non-contact IC chip 3b used for the non-contact IC card 1b of the second form is also characterized by having a reinforcing plate.
As shown in FIG. 6, the upper reinforcing plate 31 is bonded to the upper surface of the IC chip 3b by an epoxy resin 33 that also serves to seal the IC chip. Further, the lower reinforcing plate 32 is bonded to the back surface of the insulating plastic substrate 12b via the epoxy resin 34 in the region facing the IC chip 3b. Other conditions are the same as in the first embodiment, but the thickness of the IC chip 3 itself is thinner than that in the first embodiment.

When the thickness of the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 is 50 to 100 μm and the thickness of the insulating plastic substrate 12b is 38 to 40 μm, the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32, the epoxy resins 33 and 34, and the IC chip 3b are included. The total thickness H1 is about 300 to 350 μm.
When the card thickness is 0.80 μm, which is the central value of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, the total thickness of the adhesive layers 11a and 13a including the thickness of the insulating plastic substrate 12b, H2 is 500 to The distance H3 between the upper surface of the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet 11 or the lower surface of the lower reinforcing plate 32 and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet 13 is about 37 to 62 μm. The front and back substrate sheets 11 and 13 have a thickness of about 188 μm.

FIG. 7 is a view showing a cross section of the non-contact IC card of the third embodiment. The non-contact IC chip 3c used for the non-contact IC card 1c of the third form is characterized by having no reinforcing plate.
As shown in FIG. 7, when the thickness of the insulating plastic substrate 12b is 38 to 40 [mu] m, the total thickness H1 including the IC chip 3c is about 200 to 250 [mu] m.
When the card thickness is 0.80 μm, which is the central value of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, the total thickness of the adhesive layers 11a and 13a including the thickness of the insulating plastic substrate 12b, H2 is 300 μm, A distance H3 between the upper surface of the IC chip 3c and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet 11 and the inner surface of the antenna sheet and the back substrate sheet 13 is about 25 to 50 μm. The front and back substrate sheets 11 and 13 have a thickness of about 250 μm.
In Claim 7, it is required that the thickness of the H3 + front substrate sheet 11 and the thickness of the H3 + back substrate sheet 11 are equal. This is because the resin layer thickness is uniform on both the front and back sides of the card.

  A common feature of the above three types of IC cards is that an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate between the front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet, and a flat IC chip is mounted on the antenna circuit. The antenna sheet is inserted, the antenna sheet is inserted so that its end face appears around the four sides of the card, and between the front base sheet and the antenna sheet and between the antenna sheet and the back base sheet. It is bonded through a moisture-curing hot melt adhesive, the entire cross-sectional thickness is formed in the range of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and the top substrate sheet from the upper surface of the IC chip 3 The total thickness between the outer surfaces of the IC chip 3 and the total thickness between the outer surfaces of the back substrate sheet from the lower surface of the IC chip 3 are made equal. Equivalent means equal within a range of about ± 5 μm.

  By adopting such a non-contact IC card configuration, the IC card has an excellent appearance with few irregularities on both the front and back surfaces of the non-contact IC card 1 and has excellent printing performance. It can be. Furthermore, since the edge of the antenna sheet appears around the card, only the adhesive layer at the edge does not cure and shrink and become thin.

[Embodiments related to materials]
(About hot melt adhesive)
Various materials can be used for the hot melt adhesive filled between the front and back substrate sheets of the non-contact IC card, but various additives such as thermoplastics are added to the isocyanate group-terminated prepolymer that is crosslinked and cured by moisture in the air. Reaction in which resin (for example, olefin resin, etc.), tackifier (for example, dimethyl phthalate, etc.), antioxidant (for example, phenolic antioxidant, etc.) and catalyst (for example, dibutyltin dilaurate, etc.) are appropriately blended Type polyurethane hot melt resin can be preferably used.

  Examples of moisture curable hot melt adhesives that are crosslinked and cured by moisture in the air include, for example, TEO30 and TE100 manufactured by Sumitomo 3M, Hibon 4820 manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd., Macroplast QR3460 manufactured by Henkel, and Sekisui Chemical ( Sdyne 2013MK manufactured by Co., Ltd. can be used.

(Regarding the base sheet member)
As the front and back substrate sheet, for example, polyester resin such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polyethylene terephthalate / isophthalate copolymer, polyolefin resin such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polymethylpentene, polyvinyl fluoride, Polyvinylidene fluoride, polytetrafluoroethylene, ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene copolymer, polyamide such as nylon 6, nylon 6,6, etc., polyvinyl chloride, vinyl chloride / vinyl acetate copolymer, cellulose triacetate, polymethacryl Synthetic resins such as methyl acid, polyethyl methacrylate, polyethyl acrylate, polycarbonate, polyarylate, and polyimide, and paper such as fine paper, glassine paper, and sulfuric acid paper can be used.
The thickness of the front and back base sheet is preferably in the range of 100 to 250 μm as seen in the above embodiment.

(Insulating plastic substrate)
As the insulating plastic base material used for the antenna sheet, the above-described front and back base material sheets other than papers can be used.

As the insulating plastic substrate 12b for the antenna sheet 12, a biaxially stretched PET sheet having a thickness of 40 μm was used. After laminating a copper foil having a thickness of 20 μm on the base material 12b of the antenna sheet 12, an antenna coil-shaped pattern is formed by etching, and a non-contact IC chip (“RC-S915” manufactured by Sony Corporation) 3a is formed at the end of the antenna. Implemented.
The IC chip 3a is a non-contact IC chip having an upper reinforcing plate 31 on the surface side of the IC card and having a planar size of about 4.5 mm square. The upper reinforcing plate 31 is a stainless steel plate having a thickness of 50 μm. It is fixed to 3a.
Further, an antenna sheet was completed by adhering a lower reinforcing plate made of a stainless steel plate having a thickness of 50 μm to the side facing the IC chip 3a through the insulating plastic substrate 12b through an adhesive sheet. As a result, the total thickness H1 including the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 of the IC chip 3a, the epoxy resin, the adhesive sheet, and the insulating plastic substrate 12b was 450 μm.

A white foamed PET sheet having a thickness of 125 μm was used as the front substrate sheet 11 and the back substrate sheet 13.
Adhesion of urethane resin moisture-curing hot melt adhesive (“Night Lock 7M7024” manufactured by NSC Japan) heated to 120 ° C. and melted into a fluidized state on the front substrate sheet 11 The agent was applied using a die coater so that the thickness after solidification was about 300 μm.
Similarly, the same adhesive was applied to the back base sheet 13 so that the thickness after solidification was about 300 μm.

  The hot melt adhesive coated surface of the front substrate sheet 11 and the hot melt adhesive coated surface of the back substrate sheet 11 face each other, and the antenna sheet 12 prepared as described above protrudes from the IC chip 3a. Insert with the side facing the front substrate sheet 11 side, align the pattern of the front and back substrate sheet and the antenna pattern of the antenna sheet, and use the ultrasonic welder to The sheet laminate 15 was obtained by temporarily fixing the spot fusion 5 at several places (excluding the side portion serving as the rear end).

  The sheet laminate 15 was supplied from the sheet supply unit 101 of the IC card manufacturing apparatus 100. First, a process of passing between the hot rubber rolls 102 to melt the hot melt adhesive at a temperature of about 90 ° C. and extracting air from the end portion of the sheet laminate 15 from the melted adhesive layer was performed ( (See FIG. 3). In this final hot rubber roller, the interval between the upper and lower rollers is maintained at about 600 μm to 700 μm.

Next, the sheet laminate 15 was passed between the metal heat rollers 103 to remove excess adhesive and to adjust the thickness of the sheet laminate. In this final metal roller, the interval between the upper and lower rollers is maintained at about 700 μm to 750 μm. Narrower than the card finish is due to the elastic component of the adhesive.
After placing the sheet laminate 15 in a heat retention zone of about 65 ° C., a step of pressing with the smooth press 105 was performed. For this purpose, a card was introduced between mirror plate presses cooled to 20 ° C. so that a pressure of about 1 ton was applied to the sheet laminate 15.

The sheet laminate 15 after the smooth press was stored for 48 hours in a constant temperature and humidity state of 25 ° C. and a relative humidity (RH) of about 50% to cure and deaerate the moisture curable hot melt adhesive.
Finally, the sheet laminated body 15 was punched and finished into individual non-contact IC cards. Thereby, the non-contact IC card 1a having a total thickness of 780 μm was completed. Since the thickness of the front and back substrate sheets is 125 μm, the total thickness H2 of the adhesive layers 11a and 13a including the insulating plastic substrate 12b is 530 μm, and the distance H3 between the front and back substrate sheets and the upper or lower reinforcing plate is Both are 40 μm.

As the insulating plastic substrate 12b for the antenna sheet 12, a biaxially stretched PET sheet having a thickness of 40 μm was used. After laminating a copper foil having a thickness of 20 μm on the substrate 12b of the antenna sheet 12, an antenna coil pattern was formed by etching, and the non-contact IC chip 3b was mounted on the end of the antenna. The IC chip 3b is a non-contact IC chip having a planar size of about 5 mm square and having an upper reinforcing plate 31 on the surface side of the IC card. It is fixed.
Further, an antenna sheet was completed by adhering a lower reinforcing plate 32 made of a stainless steel plate having a thickness of 50 μm to the side facing the IC chip 3b via the insulating plastic substrate 12b via an adhesive sheet. As a result, the total thickness H1 including the upper and lower reinforcing plates 31 and 32 of the IC chip 3b, the epoxy resin, the adhesive sheet, and the insulating plastic substrate 12b was 325 μm.

A biaxially stretched white PET-G sheet having a thickness of 188 μm was used as the front substrate sheet 11 and the back substrate sheet 13.
For the front substrate sheet 11, a urethane resin moisture-curing hot melt adhesive (“Macroplast QR3460” manufactured by Henkel) was heated to 120 ° C. and melted, and the adhesive in a fluidized state was used. It coated so that the thickness after solidification might be set to 200 micrometers using the die coater. Similarly, the same adhesive was applied to the back substrate sheet 13 so that the thickness after solidification was 200 μm.

  Subsequent steps were performed in the same manner as in Example 1. However, the temperature between the hot rubber rolls 102 was about 80 ° C. Finally, the sheet laminated body 15 was punched and finished into individual non-contact IC cards. Thereby, a non-contact IC card 1b having a thickness of 780 μm was completed. Since the thickness of the front and back substrate sheets is 188 μm, the total thickness H2 of the adhesive layers 11a and 13a including the insulating plastic substrate 12b is 364 μm, and the distance H3 between the front and back substrate sheets and the upper or lower reinforcing plate is Both are 19.5 μm.

As the insulating plastic substrate 12b for the antenna sheet 12, a biaxially stretched PET sheet having a thickness of 40 μm was used. After etching in the same manner as in Example 1, a non-contact IC chip having a plane size of about 0.7 mm square (“Mifa Ultra Light” manufactured by NXP Semiconductors) 3c was mounted on the end of the antenna. Note that the contactless IC chip does not have a reinforcing plate.
As a result, the total thickness H1 including the insulating plastic substrate 12b of the IC chip 3c was 200 μm.

A white foamed PET sheet having a thickness of 250 μm was used as the front substrate sheet 11 and the back substrate sheet 13.
Adhesion of urethane resin moisture curing hot melt adhesive (“Perfect Lock M7024” manufactured by NSC, Japan) heated to 120 ° C. and melted into a fluidized state on the front substrate sheet 11 The agent was coated using a die coater so that the thickness after solidification was 170 μm.
Similarly, the same adhesive was applied to the back substrate sheet 13 so that the thickness after solidification was 170 μm.

  Subsequent steps were performed in the same manner as in Example 1. Finally, the sheet laminate 15 was cut out and finished into individual non-contact IC cards. Thereby, a non-contact IC card 1c having a thickness of 780 μm was completed. Since the thickness of the front and back substrate sheets is 250 μm, the total thickness H2 of the adhesive layers 11a and 13a including the insulating plastic substrate 12b is 280 μm, and the distance H3 between the front and back substrate sheets is 40 μm in both the upper and lower sides. .

  The contactless IC card of the present invention has been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various embodiments can be realized without departing from the scope of the claims.

It is a figure explaining the manufacturing process of a non-contact IC card. It is a figure explaining the manufacturing process of a non-contact IC card. It is a figure explaining the manufacturing process of a non-contact IC card. It is a figure which shows an antenna sheet. It is a figure which shows the cross section of the non-contact IC card of a 1st form. It is a figure which shows the cross section of the non-contact IC card of a 2nd form. It is a figure which shows the cross section of the non-contact IC card of a 3rd form. It is sectional drawing of the non-contact IC card by the conventional lamination system. It is sectional drawing of the non-contact IC card by the conventional resin filling system.

Explanation of symbols

1, 1a, 1b, 1c Non-contact IC card 2 Antenna pattern 3, 3a, 3b, 3c Non-contact IC chip 5 Spot fusion 6 Spacer 7, 8 Through hole 10 Antenna sheet 11 Front substrate sheet 11a Hot melt adhesive 12 Antenna sheet 13 Back substrate sheet 13a Hot melt adhesive 15 Sheet laminate

Claims (9)

The following steps (1) to (9):
(1) A step of applying a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive to a surface substrate sheet in a fluidized state in a heated state, and then returning to room temperature to solidify the adhesive;
(2) A step of applying a moisture curable hot-melt adhesive to a back substrate sheet in a fluidized state in a heated state, and then returning to room temperature to solidify the adhesive;
(3) The front and back substrate sheets are faced with the hot-melt adhesive coated surface as an inner surface, and an antenna sheet having a non-contact IC chip mounted on the antenna is placed between the front and back substrate sheet pattern and the antenna sheet antenna. The process of aligning and inserting the pattern,
(4) In the aligned state, the front and back base material sheet and the antenna sheet are partially bonded to the outer periphery outside the pattern and temporarily bonded with a hot melt adhesive to form a sheet laminate,
(5) a step of passing the sheet laminate between hot rolls to melt the hot melt adhesive and venting air from the melted adhesive layer;
(6) Furthermore, the process of adjusting the thickness of the sheet laminate while removing the excess adhesive by passing the sheet laminate between metal hot rolls kept at regular intervals,
(7) A step of smooth-pressing and cooling the sheet laminate after thickness adjustment,
(8) A step of storing the sheet laminate after smooth press in a constant temperature and humidity state for a predetermined time to cure and deaerate the moisture curable hot melt adhesive;
(9) cutting the sheet laminate into individual non-contact IC cards;
A method for producing a non-contact IC card, comprising: The front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet have a plurality of rows and columns for an IC card pattern, and the antenna sheet is a multi-sided sheet having an antenna pattern composed of the same rows and columns. Item 2. A method for producing a non-contact IC card according to Item 1. The method for producing a non-contact IC card according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the moisture curable hot melt adhesive of the front and back substrate sheets is made of urethane resin. Between the front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet, an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate, and an antenna sheet in which a flat-plate IC chip with upper and lower reinforcing plates is mounted on the antenna circuit is an end surface around the card 4 In the non-contact type IC card inserted so as to appear, and between the front substrate sheet and the antenna sheet and between the antenna sheet and the back substrate sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive, The IC card has a total cross-sectional thickness of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and is bonded to the antenna sheet and the thickness between the upper surface of the upper reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the outer surface of the front substrate sheet. A non-contact IC card characterized in that the thickness between the lower surface of the lower reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the outer surface of the back substrate sheet is made equal. Between the front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet, an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate, and an antenna sheet in which a flat-plate IC chip with upper and lower reinforcing plates is mounted on the antenna circuit is an end surface around the card 4 In the non-contact type IC card inserted so as to appear, and between the front substrate sheet and the antenna sheet and between the antenna sheet and the back substrate sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive, The IC card has an overall cross-sectional thickness in the range of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and a thickness between the upper and lower reinforcing plates of the flat plate IC chip is in the range of 420 μm to 460 μm. The above-mentioned cured hot having an equal thickness of 40 μm to 70 μm between the upper reinforcing plate and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet and between the lower reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet A non-contact IC card having a melt adhesive layer. Between the front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet, an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate, and an antenna sheet in which a flat-plate IC chip with upper and lower reinforcing plates is mounted on the antenna circuit is an end surface around the card 4 In the non-contact type IC card inserted so as to appear, and between the front substrate sheet and the antenna sheet and between the antenna sheet and the back substrate sheet are bonded together via a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive, The IC card has an overall cross-sectional thickness of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm and a thickness including the reinforcing plate of the flat IC chip is in the range of 300 μm to 350 μm. The above-mentioned cured hot having an equal thickness of 37 μm to 62 μm between the upper reinforcing plate and the inner surface of the front substrate sheet and between the lower reinforcing plate of the IC chip and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet A non-contact IC card having a melt adhesive layer. Between the front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet, an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate, and an antenna sheet on which a flat IC chip having no reinforcing plate is mounted is mounted around the card 4 In the non-contact type IC card that is inserted so that the end face appears, and between the front substrate sheet and the antenna sheet and between the antenna sheet and the back substrate sheet are bonded through a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive, The IC card has an overall cross-sectional thickness in the range of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and the thickness between the upper surface of the IC chip and the outer surface of the front substrate sheet, the lower surface of the antenna sheet, and the back base A non-contact IC card characterized in that the thickness between the outer surfaces of the material sheets is made equal. Between the front substrate sheet and the back substrate sheet, an antenna circuit is formed on an insulating plastic substrate, and an antenna sheet on which a flat IC chip having no reinforcing plate is mounted is mounted around the card 4 In the non-contact type IC card that is inserted so that the end face appears, and between the front substrate sheet and the antenna sheet and between the antenna sheet and the back substrate sheet are bonded through a moisture-curable hot melt adhesive, The IC card has an overall cross-sectional thickness of 0.78 mm ± 0.04 mm, and the flat IC chip has a thickness of 200 μm to 250 μm. The cured hot melt having an equal thickness of 25 μm to 50 μm between the inner surfaces of the material sheets and between the antenna sheet on the lower surface of the IC chip and the inner surface of the back substrate sheet A non-contact IC card having an adhesive layer. The non-contact IC card according to any one of claims 4 to 8, wherein the moisture-curing hot melt adhesive is made of a urethane resin.

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