JP2015146081A - Ic card and method for manufacturing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an IC card that can be relatively easily manufactured and has high flatness and little damage on an antenna pattern affected in a heat-pressing process in the manufacture of the card.SOLUTION: The IC card is obtained by heat-pressing a laminate that includes an inlet, a spacer enclosing a periphery of the inlet, and a core sheet laminated on both surfaces of the inlet and the spacer. The inlet has an antenna substrate including an aperture, and an antenna pattern on the antenna substrate. The spacer in the laminate has a protruding part; and the protruding part overlaps the antenna pattern near the aperture.

Description

  The present invention relates to an IC card and a manufacturing method thereof. In particular, the present invention relates to an IC card that can be manufactured relatively easily, has high flatness, and has little damage to an antenna pattern that is subjected to a hot pressing process during manufacturing, and a manufacturing method thereof.

  As shown in FIG. 1, there is known a non-contact type IC card in which a core sheet 2 is bonded to both surfaces of an inlet 3 and a surface sheet 1 is further laminated. Here, the inlet 3 is obtained by mounting the IC chip 31 and the antenna pattern 32 on the antenna substrate 33. The inlet and these sheets are laminated by hot pressing.

  Generally, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is used for the antenna substrate, and amorphous polyethylene terephthalate copolymer, particularly PET-G, is used for the core sheet. In this case, since the adhesiveness between the PET used as the antenna substrate and the PET-G used for the core sheet is low, when the opening 3 is provided in the inlet 3 and hot-pressed, the core sheets are connected through this hole. Is adhered.

  However, the inlet and the sheet may peel off at the end portion, and moisture or the like may enter from the gap and adversely affect the antenna. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, the inlet 3 can be made smaller than the core sheet 2 and the core sheets can be directly bonded to each other even at the end of the card. However, in this case, there is a problem that the thickness of the card becomes uneven. is there.

  Therefore, Patent Document 1 discloses a non-contact type IC card in which a spacer 4 is provided outside the inlet 3 in order to keep the thickness of the card constant while using a small inlet as shown in FIG. .

JP 2010-176477 A

  Although the thickness nonuniformity is improved to some extent by the invention described in Patent Document 1, if there is an antenna pattern on the outer peripheral portion of the card, the antenna pattern is deformed during hot pressing depending on the position of the hole, It was found that it adversely affects communication characteristics. Although not being bound by theory, it is considered that this is because stress is likely to concentrate on the antenna pattern during hot pressing at locations where the thickness is not constant.

  Furthermore, even for the non-contact type IC card described in Patent Document 1, the uniformity of the thickness may still be insufficient for the IC card that has recently been required to have multiple functions. That is, in the vicinity of the opening, the card may be thinned by the amount of flow of the core sheet resin when hot pressed, and the thickness may not be constant.

  Such a problem is not only when opening a hole in the antenna base material for improving adhesiveness, but also when a contact type IC chip is embedded on the surface of a non-contact type IC card. It also occurs when an opening for an IC chip is provided. The same problem may also occur for a combination card having a contact IC chip with a non-contact function provided on the surface without an IC chip in the inlet.

  That is, when a contact type IC chip is further embedded on the surface of the IC card, a contact type IC chip opening 35 as shown in FIG. 4 may be provided. By having such an opening 35, when cutting a groove for a contact IC chip on the card surface, there is an effect of suppressing burr at the time of cutting.

  In the case of manufacturing such an IC card with a contact IC chip, the above problem becomes more prominent. That is, the flatness of the card becomes lower near the opening 35 for the IC chip. In addition, since the place where the contact type IC chip is embedded is a predetermined place at the end of the card, the shape of the antenna pattern must be complicated in this vicinity, and the antenna pattern becomes complicated during the heat press. The stress is concentrated and the antenna pattern is more easily deformed. And the communication characteristic of a non-contact type IC card may deteriorate. Further, in this case, the uniformity of the thickness of the IC card is often insufficient due to the influence of the relatively large opening and / or the complicated shape of the antenna pattern.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an IC card that can be manufactured relatively easily, has high flatness, and has little damage to an antenna pattern that is subjected to a hot press process during manufacturing, and a method for manufacturing the same. To do.

  The present inventors have found that the above-mentioned problems can be solved by using a specific laminated structure, and have completed the present invention. That is, the present invention is as follows.

[1] An IC card obtained by hot pressing a laminate including a core sheet laminated on both sides of the inlet, the spacer surrounding the inlet, and the inlet and the spacer,
The inlet has an antenna base including an opening, and an antenna pattern on the antenna base, and the spacer of the laminate has a protrusion, and the protrusion has the antenna in the vicinity of the opening. An IC card that overlaps the pattern.
[2] The IC card according to [1], wherein the protruding portion extends over the opening portion.
[3] The contact type IC chip is provided on a surface thereof, and the opening portion of the antenna base is located at a position corresponding to a position where the contact type IC chip is embedded. IC card.
[4] The IC card according to [3], wherein the contact IC chip has a function of a non-contact IC chip and can be used as a contact type or a non-contact type.
[5] The IC card according to any one of [1] to [4], wherein the spacer and the core sheet each include an amorphous polymer.
[6] The IC card according to any one of [1] to [5], further including a surface sheet containing a crystalline polymer on a surface.
[7] The IC card according to any one of [1] to [6], wherein the inlet includes a non-contact type IC chip.
[8] The IC card according to [7], wherein the core sheet has an opening at a position where the non-contact IC chip overlaps.
[9] The IC card according to [8], further including an additional core sheet containing an amorphous polymer between the core sheet having the opening and the surface sheet.
[10] The IC card according to any one of [1] to [9], wherein the total area of the protruding portion is 50% or less of the total area of the inlet.
[11] IC card manufacturing method including the following steps:
A step of superimposing a spacer having a protrusion around an inlet, wherein the inlet has an antenna base including an opening, and an antenna pattern on the antenna base, and the protrusion of the spacer is Overlaying the antenna pattern in the vicinity of the aperture of the antenna substrate;
Superimposing the spacer and the core sheet;
A step of further superimposing the core sheets to obtain a laminate of spacers and inlets sandwiched between the core sheets; and a step of hot pressing the laminate.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an IC card that can be manufactured relatively easily, has high flatness, and has little damage to the antenna pattern that is received in the hot pressing process during manufacturing.

It is the schematic of the cross section of the non-contact type IC card known conventionally. In this configuration, the core sheets 2 may be separated at the end portions. It is the schematic of the cross section of the non-contact type IC card known conventionally. In this configuration, the thickness of the card may not be constant. The figure of (a) is the schematic of the cross section of the non-contact type IC card conventionally known. The figure of (b) is the schematic of the top view at the time of combining the inlet 3 and the spacer 4. FIG. This configuration is advantageous in that it has the spacer 4, but the antenna pattern in the vicinity thereof may be deformed during hot pressing, and / or the thickness of the card may not be constant near the opening 34. is there. It is the schematic of the top view of the inlet 3 which provided the opening 35 so that a contact type IC chip can be mounted in an IC card. It is the schematic of the top view of the layer containing the inlet 3 and the spacer 4 of the laminated body used when manufacturing the IC card of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. Note that the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments, and can be implemented with various modifications within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

≪IC card≫
The IC card of the present invention is equivalent to the IC card defined by JIS and ISO, and includes an inlet, a spacer that surrounds the inlet, and a core sheet that is stacked on both sides of the inlet and the spacer. Obtained by hot pressing the body. As an IC card, a non-contact type IC card including an IC chip in an inlet; a contact type IC card including a contact type IC chip on the card surface; IC cards (so-called combination cards) that can be used as non-contact types.

<Inlet>
The inlet has an antenna base including an opening and an antenna pattern on the antenna base, and the core sheet sandwiching the inlet is fused through the opening when the laminate is hot-pressed. The inlet is smaller than the final card and is surrounded by a spacer. The inlet can have a non-contact type IC chip.

The antenna substrate has one or more apertures, and when hot pressed, the core sheet and / or spacer resin melts and the core sheets are fused together.

  The material used for the antenna substrate is not particularly limited, but a thermoplastic polymer can be suitably used. Such a thermoplastic polymer may be a crystalline polymer, and specifically, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can be suitably used. This crystalline polymer film layer may be a transparent or colored crystalline polymer film layer such as white. The antenna substrate may have a multilayer structure, or a paper substrate or the like may be used.

  The thickness of the antenna substrate is preferably 1 μm or more, 5 μm or more, or 10 μm or more, and preferably within a range of 100 μm or less, 60 μm or less, or 30 μm or less.

  When the antenna pattern is close to an external information writing / reading device, a current flows due to electromagnetic induction from the information writing / reading device. This current is supplied to the IC chip, and data can be input / output between the information writing / reading device and the IC chip. As shown in FIG. 3 (b) or FIG. 4 showing the inlet for the non-contact type IC card, the antenna pattern 32 is on the antenna base, and usually circulates around the outer periphery of the antenna base a plurality of times. A non-contact type IC chip 31 is connected.

  The antenna pattern may be deformed during hot pressing during card manufacture, and communication characteristics with the information writing / reading device may be adversely affected. Deformation often occurs mainly in an antenna pattern in the vicinity of the aperture of the antenna substrate. Here, the vicinity of the opening means a position closest to the opening. For example, the deformation of the antenna pattern is likely to occur when the distance between the antenna pattern and the aperture is within 10 mm, within 8 mm, within 5 mm, or particularly within 3 mm.

  Particularly, the antenna pattern is deformed as shown in FIG. 4 having at least a corner portion and / or a curved portion at the outermost part of the antenna line and a distance between the corner portion and / or the curved portion and the opening portion. It was found that this is likely to occur when Here, the corner portion refers to a point where straight lines extending the sides close to the aperture of the antenna line intersect, and the curved portion refers to a portion where the antenna pattern is not linear.

  As described above, stress concentrates on the complicated antenna pattern at the time of hot pressing, and the antenna pattern becomes more easily deformed.

  In order to reduce the manufacturing cost, an inlet provided with such an IC chip opening 35 may also be used for a non-contact type IC card that does not use a contact type IC chip.

  The antenna pattern may be formed by using a wound coil made of a metal such as copper, or an antenna pattern may be formed by etching a metal thin film such as copper or aluminum.

  An IC chip is electrically connected to the antenna pattern. The IC chip may be resin-sealed. Moreover, you may have reinforcement boards, such as a stainless steel board (SUS board). When an inlet having a non-contact type IC chip is used, the thickness of the inlet where the non-contact type IC chip is mounted depends on the thickness of the antenna and the IC chip, but is generally 100 μm or more, 150 μm or more, 200 μm or more. Or 250 μm or more, and may be 600 μm or less, 400 μm or less, 350 μm or less. As a method for connecting the antenna and the IC chip, for example, an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) or an anisotropic conductive paste (ACP) is formed by using bumps formed on the IC chip and antenna connection lands provided at the end of the antenna. However, the present invention is not limited to this.

<Spacer>
The spacer exists in the state of the laminated body before being hot-pressed on the final IC card and surrounds the periphery of the inlet, and the protruding portion overlaps with the antenna pattern near the opening of the antenna substrate. Here, the “protrusion” refers to a portion of the spacer that overlaps the inlet in the state of the laminate before hot pressing.

  The spacer is intended to prevent unevenness originally derived from the inlet from affecting the flatness of the final card surface, but the present inventors can overlap a part of the spacer up to the inlet. Unexpectedly, the final card surface can be improved in flatness and the antenna pattern can be prevented from being deformed.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the protrusion 41 of the spacer 4 overlaps the antenna pattern 32 in the vicinity of the opening 35 for the contact IC chip. Preferably, the protrusion 41 of the spacer 4 also overlaps the opening 35. Naturally, the antenna pattern in which the protruding portions of the spacer overlap may be in the vicinity of the opening 34 for fusing the front and back core sheets, and in this case, preferably also overlaps the opening 34. Further, when there are a plurality of openings, one or more protrusions of the spacer can overlap on the plurality of antenna patterns near the openings and optionally on the plurality of openings.

  The total area of the protruding portion of the spacer is 50% or less, 40% or less, 30% or less, 20% or less, 10% or less, 8% or less, or 5% or less, or 3% or less of the total area of the inlet. be able to.

  The area of the protrusion of the spacer can be selected in consideration of the size of the opening in the vicinity and the above-described area.

  A material for the spacer is not particularly limited, and a thermoplastic polymer, particularly an amorphous polymer can be used. Examples of such an amorphous polymer include polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polypropylene, amorphous polyester, polycarbonate, and polyacrylic resin. Particularly, amorphous polyester, for example, an amorphous polyethylene terephthalate copolymer, Good. Here, as such an amorphous polyethylene terephthalate copolymer, a dehydration condensation resin of ethylene glycol, another diol and terephthalic acid, particularly a dehydration condensation resin of ethylene glycol, cyclohexanedimethanol and terephthalic acid, that is, so-called PET-G can be mentioned. Moreover, it is preferable to use the same material as a core sheet from the point of adhesiveness.

  The thickness of the spacer is preferably 5 μm or more, 10 μm or more, or 30 μm or more, and is preferably 200 μm or less, 100 μm or less, or 80 μm or less. In particular, the thickness is preferably equal to or greater than the thickness of the antenna substrate, and is preferably equal to or less than the thickness of the antenna substrate and the antenna pattern.

<Core sheet>
The core sheet sandwiches the inlet and the spacer in the laminated body before hot pressing to the final IC card. When the final IC card is obtained by hot pressing, the core sheets on the front and back sides are fused through the opening of the inlet and the melted spacer to seal the inlet.

  When the inlet has a non-contact type IC chip, the core sheet may have an opening at a position where the non-contact type IC chip overlaps. Thereby, a core sheet can be used also as a spacer which planarizes the convex part of an IC chip. In this case, an additional core sheet can be further laminated on the core sheet having openings.

  The materials that can be used for the core sheet are the same as the materials described above that can be used for the spacer.

  The thickness of the core sheet is preferably 30 μm or more, 50 μm or more, or 100 μm or more, and preferably 500 μm or less, 300 μm or less, or 200 μm or less. In this case, the front and back sheets may have different thicknesses. Furthermore, the additional core sheet may have a different thickness than the first core sheet sandwiching the inlet and the spacer.

<Surface sheet>
A surface sheet can be used on the surface of the IC card of the present invention. The material for the top sheet is not particularly limited, and thermoplastic resin, paper, and the like can be used. Among them, a crystalline polymer can be used for the purpose of protecting the surface, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can be particularly preferably used.

  The thickness of the surface sheet may be 10 μm or more, 30 μm or more, or 50 μm or more, and may be 500 μm or less, 300 μm or less, or 150 μm or less.

<Other layers>
The IC card of the present invention can include other layers in addition to the above-described sheet. For example, a crystalline polymer sheet can be inserted between any sheets to improve the crack resistance of the card. Moreover, in order to give printing to the surface, a printing layer can be included, and an adhesive layer may be provided to bond these layers. Moreover, you may have a magnetic tape, a reversible thermosensitive recording sheet, etc. arbitrarily.

≪IC card manufacturing method≫
Next, an example of the IC card manufacturing method of the present invention will be described. In this case, in order to manufacture a plurality of cards at a time, the sheets are stacked and hot-pressed, and then cut into a card size. In the manufacturing method of the present invention, an IC card can be obtained relatively easily without particularly changing the conventional manufacturing apparatus.

  Specifically, the spacer is overlaid on the core sheet and / or the inlet is overlaid around the spacer. Here, the order of superposition can be random. At this time, the inlet and the spacer are arranged so that the antenna pattern in the vicinity of the opening in the antenna substrate overlaps the protruding portion of the spacer. Then, the core sheet is further overlapped to obtain a laminate in which the spacer and the inlet are sandwiched between the core sheets. Each layer can also be bonded with an adhesive, particularly a hot melt adhesive. Finally, this laminate can be hot-pressed and cut to obtain an IC card. When connecting a contact IC chip, the groove for the contact IC chip is cut after cutting.

  In the hot press, the press temperature, pressure, and press time are appropriately set according to the IC chip and resin to be used.

  When the IC card has a surface sheet, it can further include a step of disposing the surface sheet, and preferably includes a step of adhering each sheet using the above-mentioned adhesive. Moreover, the process of forming the layer which the above-mentioned IC card of this invention may have can be included.

The following layers were laminated in this order, and hot pressed under the conditions of a pressing temperature of 125 ° C., a pressing time of 40 minutes, and a pressing pressure of 12.5 kg / cm ² to produce a non-contact type IC card. Here, a non-contact type IC chip is connected to the inlet, and the antenna pattern and the opening have a shape as shown in FIG. Further, when manufacturing the non-contact type IC card of the example, a laminate in which the above inlet is overlapped with the spacer as shown in FIG. 5 using a spacer having a protrusion as shown in FIG. Was hot pressed. When manufacturing the non-contact type IC card of the comparative example, a laminate was formed using a square-shaped spacer such that the inner periphery of the spacer and the outer periphery of the inlet were equal, and hot-pressed.

-Surface sheet (thickness: 100 μm, material: PET);
Additional core sheet (thickness: 100 μm, material: PET-G);
A core sheet having a hole at the position of the inlet non-contact type IC chip (thickness: 100 μm, material: PET-G)
Inlet (PET antenna substrate) and surrounding spacer (thickness: 50 μm, material: PET-G)
A core sheet having a hole at the position of the inlet non-contact type IC chip (thickness: 100 μm, material: PET-G)
Additional core sheet (thickness: 100 μm, material: PET-G);
・ Surface sheet (thickness: 100 μm, material: PET)

  The non-contact type IC card of the example has a constant thickness and good communication characteristics with the information writing / reading device, but the non-contact type IC card of the comparative example has a portion where the thickness is not constant. In some cases, communication with the information writing / reading device is impossible.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Surface sheet 2 Core sheet 3 Inlet 31 Non-contact type IC chip 32 Antenna pattern 33 Antenna base material 34 Opening 35 Opening for contact type IC chip 4 Spacer 41 Spacer protrusion 10 IC card

Claims (11)

An IC card obtained by hot pressing an inlet, a spacer surrounding the periphery of the inlet, and a core sheet laminated on both sides of the inlet and the spacer,
The inlet has an antenna base including an opening, and an antenna pattern on the antenna base, and the spacer of the laminate has a protrusion, and the protrusion has the antenna in the vicinity of the opening. An IC card that overlaps the pattern.   The IC card according to claim 1, wherein the protruding portion extends over the opening portion.   The IC card according to claim 1, wherein the IC card has a contact IC chip on a surface thereof, and the opening portion of the antenna base is located at a position corresponding to a position where the contact IC chip is embedded.   4. The IC card according to claim 3, wherein the contact IC chip has a function of a non-contact IC chip and can be used as a contact type or a non-contact type.   The IC card according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the spacer and the core sheet each contain an amorphous polymer.   The IC card according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a surface sheet containing a crystalline polymer on a surface thereof.   The IC card according to claim 1, wherein the inlet has a non-contact type IC chip.   The IC card according to claim 7, wherein the core sheet has an opening at a position where the non-contact IC chip overlaps.   The IC card according to claim 8, further comprising an additional core sheet containing an amorphous polymer between the core sheet having the opening and the surface sheet.   The IC card according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein a total area of the protruding portion is 50% or less of a total area of the inlet. IC card manufacturing method including the following steps:
A step of superimposing a spacer having a protrusion around an inlet, wherein the inlet has an antenna base including an opening, and an antenna pattern on the antenna base, and the protrusion of the spacer is Overlaying the antenna pattern in the vicinity of the aperture of the antenna substrate;
Superimposing the spacer and the core sheet;
A step of further superimposing the core sheets to obtain a laminate of spacers and inlets sandwiched between the core sheets; and a step of hot pressing the laminate.

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