JP2024059157A - IC module sheet, electromagnetic coupling type IC module, and dual IC card - Google Patents

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a sheet for IC modules that can easily make electromagnetically connectable IC modules that cannot support electromagnetic coupling. [Solution] The sheet for IC modules 1 comprises an insulating film 10 having a hole 10a, and a coil 20 formed of a conductor on a first surface of the film. (Selected Figure)

Description

The present invention relates to an IC module sheet for attachment to an IC module. It also mentions an electromagnetically coupled IC module and a dual IC card that use this IC module sheet.

Dual IC cards capable of both contact and non-contact communication are known.
A general structure of a dual IC card is disclosed in Patent Document 1. The dual IC card described in Patent Document 1 includes an IC module including a terminal for contact communication, and a coil-shaped booster antenna. The IC module is an electromagnetically coupled IC module including a coil for electrically connecting to the booster antenna, and the IC module and the booster antenna are electromagnetically coupled via the coil.

Patent No. 6357919

In addition to the above-mentioned electromagnetic coupling type, there are also IC modules that include terminals for contact communication and are not compatible with electromagnetic coupling because they only have metal pads for physical connection. Both types have in common the fact that they include terminals for contact communication and an IC chip, but because the manufacturing processes are different, they are completely different products.
For this reason, depending on the production conditions of each company, it may be difficult to procure sufficient IC modules that are capable of electromagnetic coupling. In such cases, even if IC modules that are not compatible with electromagnetic coupling could be easily procured, it would currently be difficult to use these in the manufacture of dual IC cards.

In view of the above circumstances, the present invention aims to provide a sheet for IC modules that can easily enable electromagnetic coupling of IC modules that are not compatible with electromagnetic coupling.

The first aspect of the present invention is a sheet for IC modules that includes an insulating film having a hole and a coil formed on the first surface of the film.

A second aspect of the present invention is an electromagnetically coupled IC module comprising the IC module sheet of the first aspect, a physically bonded IC module having a contact communication terminal, an IC chip connected to the contact communication terminal, and a connection pad connected to the IC chip, in which a coil and the connection pad are electrically connected.
A third aspect of the present invention is a dual IC card equipped with the electromagnetic coupling type IC module according to the second aspect.

The present invention makes it possible to easily electromagnetically couple IC modules that are not compatible with electromagnetic coupling.

FIG. 1 is a bottom view of a typical physically bonded IC module. 1 is a plan view of an IC module sheet according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 11A to 11C are diagrams showing a process of attaching the IC module sheet to a physically joined IC module. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a physically bonded IC module to which the IC module sheet is attached. FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an inlay that constitutes a card body. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a dual IC card according to a first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a plan view of an IC module sheet according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a physically bonded IC module to which the IC module sheet is attached. FIG.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
1 shows a bottom view of a typical physically bonded IC module 100. The IC module 100 includes an IC chip 102 capable of communicating in a predetermined communication frequency range on the bottom surface of a substrate 101. The IC chip 102 is covered and protected by a sealing resin 103.
Contact communication terminals 104 connected to the IC chip 102 are formed on the upper surface of the opposite side of the substrate 101. The contact communication terminals 104 cannot be seen when viewed from the bottom of the IC module 100, and are therefore indicated by dashed lines in FIG.

Connection pads 105 made of a conductor are further arranged on the lower surface of the substrate 101. The connection pads 105 are connected to the IC chip 102, and are used when connecting the IC module 100 to a mechanism on the card body side using solder or the like.
Since the IC module 100 does not include a coil for electromagnetic coupling, it cannot be connected to the mechanism on the card body side by electromagnetic coupling.

Figure 2 shows a plan view of an IC module sheet (hereinafter simply referred to as "sheet") 1 according to this embodiment. The sheet 1 includes an insulating film 10, and a coil 20 and terminal pads 30 formed on the film 10.

The film 10 according to this embodiment is generally rectangular in plan view and has a hole 10a in the center. Various synthetic resins can be used as the material for the film 10, and considering the process of attaching the film 10 to an IC module, which will be described later, suitable examples include polyimide and fluororesin, which have high heat resistance.
There is no particular limit to the thickness of the film, and it can be, for example, about 10 μm to 100 μm, but a thinner film is more advantageous since it reduces the dimensional change of the IC module caused by the attachment of the sheet.

The coil 20 is made of a conductor on the first surface of the film 10, which corresponds to the top surface, and winds around the hole 10a multiple times. The coil 20 can also be made using a conductor wire, but it is easier to form it by etching a metal layer such as aluminum or copper. The coil of this embodiment is formed by etching an aluminum layer, and both ends are expanded in width to form a roughly square connection portion 20a.

The terminal pads 30 are formed on the second surface, which corresponds to the lower surface of the film 10, and are conductive. The terminal pads can be easily formed by etching a metal layer, similar to the coil 20. The terminal pads 30 cannot be seen in a plan view of the sheet 1, and are therefore indicated by dashed lines in FIG.
2, the connection portion 20a of the coil 20 and the terminal pad 30 are in an overlapping positional relationship when viewed from above the sheet 1. The connection portion 20a and the terminal pad 30 are in contact with each other by displacing a part of the film 10 located therebetween by crimping. This provides electrical continuity between the connection portion 20a and the terminal pad 30.

The sheet 1 of this embodiment having the above-mentioned configuration can be attached to a physically joined IC module 100 to enable electromagnetic coupling with the IC module 100.
An example of the mounting procedure will be described below. In this example, the IC module 100 and the sheet 1 are roughly the same shape and size in a plan view, and when the IC module 100 and the sheet 1 are stacked so that their plan view shapes are roughly the same, the connection pads 105 and the terminal pads 30 are in a positional relationship where they roughly overlap.

First, place the IC module 100 with the IC chip 102 facing up, and then place the sheet 1 on top of it with the first surface facing up, as shown in FIG. 3. Because the sheet 1 has a hole 10a, when the sheet 1 is brought closer to the IC module 100, the upper part of the sealing resin 103 passes through the hole 10a, and the sheet 1 comes even closer to the IC module 100.

When the sheet 1 and the IC module 100 are brought close enough, the terminal pads 30 located on the second surface side of the sheet 1 and the connection pads 105 of the IC module 100 face each other with almost no space between them. When the terminal pads 30 and the connection pads 105 thus positioned are electrically connected, the attachment of the sheet 1 to the IC module 100 is complete. There are no particular limitations on the means of electrical connection, and examples include solder, anisotropic conductive film (ACF), conductive adhesive, etc.

Figure 4 shows a cross-sectional view of the IC module 100 with the sheet 1 attached. This cross-sectional view is taken along line I-I shown in Figure 3. The terminal pads 30 on the second surface 10c of the sheet 1 are electrically connected to the connection pads 105 of the IC module 100, thereby electrically connecting the coil 20 on the first surface 10b of the sheet 1 to the IC chip 102. This makes the IC module 100 an electromagnetically coupled IC module 2 according to this embodiment, capable of electromagnetic coupling using the coil 20.

As explained above, the sheet 1 according to this embodiment can easily impart an electromagnetic coupling function by attaching it to a physically connected IC module that does not have an electromagnetic coupling function. Therefore, even if it is difficult to procure an electromagnetically connected IC module, if a physically connected IC module can be procured, it can be given an electromagnetic coupling function and used to manufacture dual IC cards. This is a major advantage in light of the current global situation where the supply of IC chips is not necessarily sufficient compared to the demand.

Since the film 10 of the sheet 1 has a hole 10a, when the sheet 1 is attached to the physically bonded IC module, the sealing resin 103 passes through the hole 10a, thereby reducing or eliminating interference between the sheet 1 and the physically bonded IC module. As a result, bending of the sheet due to interference is reduced or prevented, and electrical connection between the terminal pads 30 and the connection pads 105 can be easily and reliably made.

In a normal electromagnetically coupled IC module, the coil for electromagnetic coupling can only be formed on the underside of the substrate, and must be formed to avoid the sealing resin. This places significant restrictions on the manner in which the coil can be formed in a normal electromagnetically coupled IC module, but in the sheet 1, the coil 20 can be formed in the area that overlaps with the sealing resin in a planar view by adjusting the dimensions of the hole 10a, etc. Furthermore, it is also possible to place coils on both the first and second surfaces, as will be described in detail later. In this way, the sheet 1 offers a significantly higher degree of freedom in terms of the form of the electromagnetic coupling coil compared to conventional electromagnetically coupled IC modules, and is therefore also excellent in that it is easy to make adjustments to optimize the electromagnetic coupling with the mechanism on the card body side.

5 shows a plan view of an inlay 200 as an example of a mechanism on the card body side that is electromagnetically coupled to the electromagnetically coupled IC module 2. The inlay 200 has a known configuration in which an electromagnetic coupling coil 201, a booster antenna 202, and a capacitance 203 for impedance adjustment are provided on a synthetic resin sheet 204. The card body is completed when the inlay 200 is sandwiched between plate-shaped synthetic resin that will become the outer layers and integrated by lamination under heat and pressure.
A stepped hole of the same size as the electromagnetic coupling type IC module 2 is formed at a position corresponding to the electromagnetic coupling coil of the outer layer, and the electromagnetic coupling type IC module 2 is fitted and fixed in the hole with the contact communication terminal 104 facing outward, so that the coil 20 of the IC module sheet and the electromagnetic coupling coil 201 face each other in a non-contact state, and are positioned so as to be electromagnetically coupled. This completes the dual IC card 3 according to this embodiment shown in Figure 6. The dual IC card 3 is capable of both contact communication using the contact communication terminal 104 and contactless communication using the booster antenna 202.
In the above-described manufacturing process, the holes formed in the outer layer may be formed either before or after lamination.

The second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 7. In the following description, components that are common to those already described will be given the same reference numerals, and some of the overlapping descriptions may be omitted.

7 is a plan view of the sheet 1A according to this embodiment. As in the first embodiment, the sheet 1A has a coil 20 on the first surface 10b of the film 10, but no terminal pads are provided on the second surface. The coil, except for the connection portion 20a, is covered with an insulating coating 40 in an area that overlaps with the connection pad 105 when the sheet 1A is overlaid on the IC module. Examples of materials for the insulating coating include various solder resists.
In the sheet 1A, the hole 10a formed in the film 10 is smaller than that in the first embodiment and is smaller than the diameter in a plan view of the sealing resin 103. A plurality of slits 41 are formed on the periphery of the hole 10a.

Unlike the first embodiment, the sheet 1A according to this embodiment is attached with the first surface 10b of the film 10 facing the physically joined IC module. Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view of an electromagnetically coupled IC module 2A according to this embodiment in which the sheet 1A according to this embodiment is attached to the IC module 100.

The connection pad 105 of the IC module is connected to the connection portion 20a of the coil 20. On the other hand, the coil 20 other than the connection portion 20a that faces the connection pad 105 is covered with an insulating coating 40, so that an electrical short circuit with the connection pad 105 is prevented.
Since hole 10a is smaller than the diameter of sealing resin 103, a portion of film 10 deforms to fit sealing resin 103, thereby attaching sheet 1A to IC module 100. Slits 41 provided around hole 10a facilitate such deformation and have the advantage of suitably reducing interference with sealing resin during attachment even if the hole is small, but providing slits 41 is not essential and can be omitted if not necessary.

Similarly to the first embodiment, the sheet 1A according to this embodiment can be easily provided with an electromagnetic coupling function by being attached to a physically-connected IC module.
Furthermore, since the connection to the IC module is not via the terminal pads, there is no need to connect the coil and the terminal pads by crimping or the like, which improves the reliability of the electrical connection.
Furthermore, since a coil can also be arranged on the film that runs onto the sealing resin 103, the degree of freedom in the coil layout is further increased, making it easier to optimize the electromagnetic coupling.

In this embodiment, the insulating coating 40 may be provided over a wider area than the area facing the connection pad 105. For example, the entire coil 20 except for the connection portion 20a may be covered with the insulating coating 40.

Although each embodiment of the present invention has been described above in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and configuration changes and combinations that do not deviate from the gist of the present invention are also included.

For example, the shape of the hole formed in the film may be different from the planar shape of the sealing resin. Even if the planar shapes of the two are not completely identical, by appropriately setting the dimensions, etc., it is possible to fully exert the effect of reducing interference during installation. However, it is preferable that the planar shape and dimensions of the hole are such that the entire sealing resin can be positioned inside it, as this completely prevents interference during installation.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1, 1A IC module sheet 2, 2A Electromagnetically coupled IC module 3 Dual IC card 10 Film 10a Hole 10b First surface 10c Second surface 20 Coil 30 Terminal pad 100 Physically bonded IC module 102 IC chip 104 Contact communication terminal 105 Connection pad

Claims (4)

an insulating film having a hole;
a coil formed of a conductor on a first surface of the film;
Equipped with
Sheet for IC modules. the film further comprises a terminal pad provided on a second surface opposite to the first surface and electrically connected to the coil;
The IC module sheet according to claim 1 . The IC module sheet according to claim 1 ,
a physical connection type IC module having a contact communication terminal, an IC chip connected to the contact communication terminal, and a connection pad connected to the IC chip;
Equipped with
The coil and the connection pad are electrically connected.
Electromagnetically coupled IC module. The electromagnetic coupling type IC module according to claim 3 is provided.
Dual IC card.

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