JP2843804B2 - IC card and IC card reader / writer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an IC card and an IC card.
It relates to improvement of a C card reader / writer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, IC cards are being used in various fields. An IC chip containing a microcomputer is embedded in a card-shaped housing, and the IC chip is driven using an IC card reader / writer. Reads and writes information from and to this IC chip. Such an IC card can be used for various purposes, for example, in place of a telephone card or used for paying a subscriber's telephone charge.

[0003] When selling such frequency information of a telephone, for example, into such an IC card, it is desirable to be able to easily distinguish whether the IC card is unused or in use from the viewpoint of security and the like. For example, as shown in FIG.
A C-chip 1 and a loop-shaped coil 2 embedded in a card-shaped casing 3 are wrapped with, for example, a translucent protection member 4, and at the time of sale, an IC card wrapped with the protection member 4 is sold, and this IC card is made public. When used by telephone, the unused state and the used state can be distinguished by peeling off the protective member 4 and using it. When reading or writing information from or to the IC chip 1 of such an IC card, a loop-shaped coil on the reader / writer side is arranged to face the loop-shaped coil 2 in a non-contact manner, and power is supplied to the loop-shaped coil. By doing so, control is performed such that a current flows through the loop-shaped coil 2 by electromagnetic coupling, thereby driving the IC chip 1.

[0004]

However, if a member without any countermeasure is used as the protective member 4, the IC chip 1 can be driven even while the wrapping is being performed, so that it is impossible to distinguish between the unused and the in-use. Inconvenience occurs. However, if an electromagnetic shielding material is used as the protection member 4, the IC chip 1 cannot be driven at all unless the protection member 4 is peeled off. For example, the side that sells the IC card checks information stored in the IC chip 1. The inconvenience of being unable to do so occurs.

Therefore, the invention according to claim 1 is used when
IC card library with one current supply loop coil
The information is read from the IC chip by the
And it is possible to more reliably distinguish between unused and used.
Provide a C card. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an IC card reader / writer capable of reading and writing information from and to an IC chip of the IC card according to the first aspect.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
The current receiving loop-shaped coil is connected to the IC chip and housed in a card-shaped casing, and at least both sides of the casing are wrapped with protective members, and the protective member on one side covers a part of the loop-shaped coil. The first electromagnetic shield is applied as described above, and the second electromagnetic shield is applied to the protection member on the other surface so as to cover the rest of the loop-shaped coil. An operable IC card.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pair of current supplying loop-shaped coils, wherein each loop-shaped coil is provided on each side of the IC card according to the first aspect. The current-receiving loop-shaped coil is disposed so as to face the coil, and the current-supplying loop-shaped coil is energized so that the current-receiving loop-shaped coil is passed through the non-electromagnetic shield portion of the protection member of the IC card. An IC card reader / writer reads and writes information to and from an IC chip of an IC card by applying a current to the current receiving loop-shaped coil by applying lines of electromagnetic force to the IC card.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an IC card main body.
The current receiving loop-shaped coil 13 connected to the IC chip 12 is buried at the center. The whole of the IC card main body 14 including both surfaces of the housing 11 is wrapped with protective members 15 and 16 as shown in FIGS.

A first electromagnetic shield 17 is provided on the protection member 15 covering one surface side of the IC card main body 14 from a central portion so as to cover substantially half of the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13. The protection member 16 covering the other surface of the main body 14 has a second half from the center so as to cover the remaining half of the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13 so as not to overlap the first electromagnetic shield 17. Of the IC card 1 in an unused state.
9.

As shown in FIG. 4, the IC chip 12 has a central control unit 21 comprising a CPU, a memory controller unit 22, a memory unit 23, and an antenna current receiving device for receiving current from the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13. Each circuit unit such as the unit 24 is accommodated, and these are electrically connected by a bus line or a power supply line. When the antenna current receiving unit 24 receives a current from the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13, the central control unit 21 can control the operation of each unit according to a program.

When checking information on the IC chip 12 of an unused IC card 19 wrapped by the protection members 15 and 16 provided with the electromagnetic shields 17 and 18, an IC card reader shown in FIG. -It is designed to be performed using the writer 31. The IC card reader / writer 31 includes a pair of loop coils 3 for supplying current.
2, 33, and each of the current supply loop-shaped coils 3
The current-receiving loop-shaped coil 13 of the IC card 19 with the current-supplying loop-shaped coil 32 facing upward and the current-supplying loop-shaped coil 33 facing down with respect to each surface of the IC card 19. And are arranged so as to face each other in a non-contact state.

As shown in FIG. 5, the IC card reader / writer 31 is connected to a central control unit 41 comprising a CPU, a memory controller unit 42, a memory unit 43, a display controller unit 44, a display unit 45, and a connection terminal 46. And a circuit section such as an antenna current supply section 48 for supplying a current to the current supply loop-shaped coils 32 and 33, which are electrically connected by a bus line or a power supply line.

In such a configuration, the unused IC card 19 is provided with the first electromagnetic shield 17 from the center to a half so as to cover substantially half of the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13. Since the second electromagnetic shield 18 is provided on the half from the center so as to cover substantially the other half of the loop-shaped coil 13, for example, one current supply loop is provided for the current-receiving loop-shaped coil 13. Since only approximately half the electromagnetic coils are electromagnetically shielded when they are opposed to each other, no loop current flows through the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13 due to electromagnetic coupling. Therefore,
Since the IC chip 12 of the IC card 19 is not driven, information cannot be read from or written to the IC chip 12.

Therefore, for example, when the frequency information of a telephone is stored in the IC chip 12 and the frequency information is read from the IC chip 12 by a public telephone and the telephone is used within the frequency range, one telephone is provided. If an IC card reader having a current supply loop coil is installed, the protection member 1
The wrapped IC card 19 at 5 and 16 cannot be used.

Further, the protection members 15 and 16 are peeled off and the IC
If only the card body 14 is used, the electromagnetic shields 17, 18
At this time, even in the case of an IC card reader having one current supply loop-shaped coil, the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13 and the current supply loop-shaped coil of the IC card are not interposed by the electromagnetic shield. They will be arranged facing each other. Therefore, the current receiving loop-shaped coil 1
3, a loop current due to electromagnetic coupling flows, and the IC chip 12 is driven.
To read information from the server.

As described above, when the IC card 19 is used, the protection members 15 and 16 must be peeled off. Therefore, when the protection members 15 and 16 are wrapped, they are unused and the protection members 15 and 16 are peeled off. If so, it can be reliably distinguished that it is in use.

When checking the information stored in the IC chip 12 of the IC card 19 with the protective members 15 and 16 wrapped, an IC card reader / writer 31 shown in FIG. 6 is used. That is, each current supply loop-shaped coil 3 of the IC card reader / writer 31
The IC card 19 is inserted between 2 and 33.

In this state, the IC card reader / writer 31
When the antenna current supply unit 48 is driven, as shown in FIG. 7, the protection member 15 is transferred from one current supply loop-shaped coil 32 to the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13 on the IC card side.
The line of electric force A1 acts through the non-electromagnetic shield of the protection member 16 from the other current supply loop-shaped coil 33 to the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13 on the IC card side. A2 works.

As a result, electromagnetic induction occurs and a loop current flows through the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13, and the IC chip 12 operates using the loop current as a power source. Thus, the central control unit 41 of the IC card reader / writer 31 controls each of the loop coils 32, 3
Information is exchanged with the central controller 21 of the IC chip 12 via the ICs 3 and 13, frequency information is read from the IC chip 12, and the display controller 45 drives the display 45 to display the frequency information. Further, it controls the external interface unit 47 and transmits information to, for example, a personal computer or the like connected to the connection terminal 46.

The use of the IC card reader / writer 31 makes it possible to read and write information on an unused IC card 19 that has been wrapped by the protection members 15 and 16.

In the above-described embodiment, the IC card body 14 is wrapped so as to be wrapped by the protective members 15 and 16, but the present invention is not limited to this. As shown in FIG. IC chip 12
The protective members 151 and 161 may be attached to both sides of the housing 11 in which the embedment is embedded and wrapped. Also in this case, the protection member 151 includes the current receiving loop-shaped coil 13.
The first electromagnetic shield 17 is applied to a half from the central portion so as to cover substantially half of the first electromagnetic shield. It goes without saying that the shield 18 is provided. The above-mentioned protective members 15, 16, 151 and 161 need not be easily restored to the wrapping state once they are peeled off.

[0022]

Effect of the Invention] According to the first aspect of the invention, use
IC with one loop coil for current supply when used
Information is read from IC chip by card reader
An IC card that can be more reliably distinguished from unused or in use. According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an IC card reader / writer capable of reading and writing information from and to an IC chip of the IC card according to the first aspect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an IC card main body showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exemplary perspective view showing the appearance of an unused IC card according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary sectional view showing the configuration of an unused IC card according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an IC chip of the IC card in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an IC card reader / writer according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary perspective view showing the appearance of the IC card reader / writer according to the embodiment;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary view for explaining the operation of the IC card reader / writer according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing an internal configuration of an unused IC card according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing the configuration of a conventional unused IC card.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Card-shaped housing | casing 12 ... IC chip 13 ... Current receiving loop-shaped coil 15, 16 ... Protective member 17, 18 ... Electromagnetic shield 19 ... IC card 31 ... IC card reader / writer 32, 33 ... Current supply loop Coil

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A current receiving loop-shaped coil is connected to an IC chip and housed in a card-shaped casing, at least both sides of the casing are wrapped with a protective member, and the loop-shaped coil is attached to one surface of the protective member. A first electromagnetic shield is applied so as to cover a part of the coil, and a second electromagnetic shield is applied to a protection member on the other surface so as to cover the remaining part of the loop-shaped coil. An IC card which is operable when a current flows through a loop-shaped coil. 2. The IC card according to claim 1, further comprising a pair of current-supplying loop-shaped coils, wherein each of said loop-shaped coils faces a current-receiving loop-shaped coil of said IC card with respect to each surface of said IC card. The current supply loop-shaped coil is energized by passing the current supply loop-shaped coil through the non-electromagnetic shield part of the protection member of the IC card. by the action of electromagnetic force lines flowing a current in the current power receiving loop-shaped coils, reading of information from or to the IC chip of the IC card, IC card reader-writer and performs writing.