JP3388392B2 - IC card manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a thin contactless IC.
The present invention relates to an IC card manufacturing apparatus suitable for use in manufacturing a card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an IC card having a built-in electronic component such as an IC chip is known. Since an IC card accommodates electronic components inside the card, it is necessary to manufacture the IC card so that the surface of the card does not have irregularities, and various manufacturing methods and apparatuses for that purpose have been proposed (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. No. 2-16234, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-1762
No. 14, JP-A-9-277766, JP-A-1
1-48660, etc.).

By the way, recently, a flexible thin non-contact IC card having a thickness of several hundreds of micrometers has been put into practical use. FIG. 9 shows such a thin contactless IC.
1 shows a typical conventional IC card manufacturing apparatus 50 for manufacturing a card. The IC card manufacturing apparatus 50 includes a lower press plate 51 and an upper press plate 52. The lower press plate 51 is attached to the base portion 54 via a heat insulating plate 53, and the upper press plate 52 is moved up and down via a heat insulating plate 55. Attach to the body 56. As a result, the lower press board 51 becomes the fixed side and the upper press board 52 becomes the movable side. Further, heating heaters 57 ... And cooling water channels 58 ... Are provided inside the lower press board 51, and the heating heater 5 is provided inside the upper press board 52.
9 and a cooling water channel 60 are provided. Further, the base portion 54
Is a cylindrical lower chamber portion 6 that covers the lower press platen 51.
1, the upper press plate 52
An upper chamber portion 62 is provided to cover the surroundings. The lower chamber portion 61 and the upper chamber portion 62 are engaged with each other when the upper press platen 52 is lowered to form a chamber 63 whose inside is sealed. On the other hand, reference numeral 64 denotes a deaeration port provided in the upper chamber portion 62, and by connecting a deaeration device (a vacuum pump or the like) (not shown) to the deaeration port 64, the inside of the chamber 63 is deaerated. You can In addition, 65 is a sealing material provided in the upper chamber portion 62.

According to such an IC card manufacturing apparatus 50, the laminated base material M used when manufacturing an IC card is set on the lower press platen 51. In this case, the laminated member M
Are configured as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. P is I
An electronic component including a C chip Pi and an antenna Pa,
The electronic component P is sandwiched by a pair of upper and lower sheet cloth materials Sa and Sb. In this case, each sheet material Sa, Sb
Is a thermoplastic resin sheet (polyethylene terephthalate, etc.) La, Lb and the non-woven fabric Ta, T adhered to the back side thereof.
It consists of b. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the laminated base material M is usually spliced into a plurality of continuous IC cards (generally n × m), and the laminated base material M is heated by an IC card manufacturing apparatus. After crimping, cutting is performed to manufacture a target IC card. On the other hand, when thermocompression bonding the laminated base material M,
After the elevating body 56 is lowered, the inside of the chamber 63 is degassed and the laminated base material M is pressed by the lower press plate 51 and the upper press plate 52 which are heated by energizing the heating heaters 57 and 59. Then, the laminated base material M is thermocompression-bonded with the bubbles contained therein removed. After that, the heater 57 for heating
... and 59 ... are de-energized, and the cooling water channels 58 ... And 60
When the cooling water is flowed through the laminated base material M, the laminated base material M is cooled.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional IC card manufacturing apparatus 50, in the initial stage of pressure for thermocompression-bonding the laminated base material M, the laminated base material M itself is pressed while it is not sufficiently heated. Therefore, excessive pressure is applied to the electronic component P via the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb that are not sufficiently plasticized, and when the electronic component P is manufactured by the conventional IC card manufacturing device 50, There is a problem in that a manufacturing defect such as breakage of the part P is likely to occur and a yield rate is reduced during production.

The present invention solves the problems existing in the prior art as described above, prevents damage to electronic parts due to application of excessive pressure during manufacturing, and significantly increases the yield rate during production. It is an object of the present invention to provide an IC card manufacturing apparatus capable of improving quality and reliability.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems and Embodiments The present invention is directed to a laminated base material M in which an electronic component P such as an IC chip is sandwiched by a pair of sheet material materials Sa and Sb containing thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb. When the IC card manufacturing apparatus 1 is provided with the thermocompression bonding press section 2 which is sandwiched by a pair of pressing surfaces 3u and 3d from both sides and is thermocompression bonded, the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb are attached to the pressing surfaces 3u and 3d. In the non-plasticized state, the laminated base material M elastically deforms according to the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb when the laminated base material M is pressed, and when the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb are plasticized, the laminated base material M
Elastic plate 4 having a predetermined thickness that elastically returns when pressure is applied
u and 4d are attached.

In this case, according to a preferred embodiment, elastic metal plates or elastic synthetic resin plates can be used as the elastic plates 4u and 4d. In addition, the elastic plates 4u and 4d are connected to the pressing surface 3 via flexible plates 5u and 5d having a predetermined thickness.
It is desirable to attach it to u and 3d.
A rubber plate can be used for u and 5d.

Accordingly, when the laminated base material M is thermocompression-bonded, the elastic plates 4u and 4d are deformed according to the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb in a state where the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb are not plasticized. Because of the elastic deformation, the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheets La, Lb by the electronic component P is absorbed by the elastic plates 4u, 4d. Therefore, damage to the electronic component P due to application of excessive pressure during manufacturing is avoided. On the other hand, when the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb are plasticized, the elastic plates 4u and 4d elastically return to their original shapes, so that the laminated base material M is thermocompression bonded by the original flat shape of the elastic plates 4u and 4d. To be done.

[0010]

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of the IC card manufacturing apparatus 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

The IC card manufacturing apparatus 1 includes a laminated base material holding portion 10 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Laminated substrate sandwiching section 10
Is composed of an upper holding portion 11 and a lower holding portion 12, and the upper holding portion 1
By stacking 1 on the lower sandwiching portion 12, the laminated base material sandwiching portion 10 having a sealed inside is formed.

The upper holding portion 11 has an upper frame portion 13 formed in a rectangular frame shape, and a groove portion 13s is provided on the outer side surface of the upper frame portion 13. Further, the upper plate portion 14 is provided with the sandwiching surface portion 14p which is larger than the upper surface of the laminated base material M and which is larger than the upper surface, and the groove-shaped absorbing surface portion 14a which is bulged upward along the outer edge of the sandwiching surface portion 14p. Then, the outer edge portion 14v of the upper plate portion 14 is attached to the lower surface of the upper frame portion 13 with a stopper 15 such as a screw. The upper plate portion 14 can be made of a stainless material having a constant thickness, and the thickness is within 3 [mm], preferably 1 mm.
[Mm] is suitable. A sealing material 16 is fixed to the outer edge portion 14v located below the lower surface of the upper frame portion 13.

On the other hand, the lower holding portion 12 is basically constructed similarly to the upper holding portion 11. That is, it has a lower frame portion 17 configured in the shape of a rectangular frame, and a sandwiching surface portion 18p that overlaps the lower surface of the laminated base material M and is larger than the lower surface and a groove that bulges downward along the outer edge of the sandwiching surface portion 18p. It has a lower plate portion 18 provided with a sheet-shaped absorbing surface portion 18a, and an outer edge portion 18v of the lower plate portion 18 is attached to the upper surface of the lower frame portion 17 by a stopper 19 such as a screw. The lower plate portion 18 can also be made of a stainless material or the like having the same constant thickness as the upper plate portion 14. A sealing material 20 is fixed to the outer edge portion 18v located above the upper surface of the lower frame portion 17.

The lower surface of the holding surface portion 14p is the press surface 3
u, the flexible plate 5u is fixed to the pressing surface 3u, and the elastic plate 4u is fixed to the lower surface of the flexible plate 5u. In this case, the elastic plate 4u elastically deforms according to the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheet La when the laminated base material M is pressed in a state where the thermoplastic resin sheet La is not plasticized, and the thermoplastic resin sheet La is plasticized. In this state, an elastic metal plate having a certain thickness that elastically recovers when the laminated base material M is pressed, preferably a stainless plate having a thickness of about 0.1 to 0.5 [mm] is used. On the other hand, the flexible plate 5u is a rubber plate having a constant thickness, preferably 0.5 to 3.0 [m
m] of silicon rubber plate is used. The elastic plate 4u
As the material, an elastic steel plate or a non-ferrous material having heat resistance, specifically, an elastic synthetic resin plate using polyimide or the like has also obtained good results. The flexible plate 5u has a thickness of 1 [m
Good results were also obtained for thick paper of about m].

Further, the upper surface of the holding surface portion 18p becomes a pressing surface 3d, and the flexible plate 5d is fixed to the pressing surface 3d, and the elastic plate 4d is mounted on the upper surface of the flexible plate 5d.
To fix. In this case, the elastic plate 4d and the flexible plate 5d
Can be the same as the elastic plate 4u and the flexible plate 5u, respectively.

On the other hand, the absorption surface portion 18a is provided with a deaeration port 21, and this deaeration port 21 is connected to a deaeration device (a vacuum pump or the like) not shown through a ventilation pipe 22. As a result, the inside of the laminated base material holding portion 10 can be degassed, and
By switching control of the switching valve connected to the ventilation pipe 22, it is possible to supply air to the inside of the laminated base material holding portion 10. Further, at a plurality of positions of the upper sandwiching portion 11 and the lower sandwiching portion 12, positioning portions 23 ... Which position the upper sandwiching portion 11 and the lower sandwiching portion 12 when they are stacked are arranged. One positioning part 23 (the same applies to the other parts) includes a positioning pin 24 protruding upward from the lower frame part 17 and a positioning hole 25 provided in the upper frame part 13.

The laminated base material holding portion 10 having the above structure
When the laminated base material M is set on the lower plate portion 18 of the lower sandwiching portion 12 and the upper sandwiching portion 11 is overlaid thereon, the positioning pin 24 is inserted into the positioning hole 25 so that the upper sandwiching portion 11 and Accurate positioning and displacement prevention of the sandwiching portion 12 are achieved, and the upper frame portion 13 and the lower frame portion 17 are in close contact with each other via the sealing materials 16 and 20. Therefore, the holding surface portion 1
The positions and intervals of 4p and 18p are the elastic plate 4 in this state.
u and 4d are set so as to be appropriately pressed against both surfaces of the laminated base material M, respectively.

Further, the manufacturing apparatus main body is provided, and the manufacturing apparatus main body is provided with three press parts, that is, a preheating press part (not shown), a thermocompression bonding press part 2 and a cooling press part (not shown). FIG. 1 shows only the movable press platen 30u arranged on the upper side and the fixed press platen 30d arranged on the lower side of the thermocompression bonding press unit 2, and the movable press platen 30u is moved up and down by an elevating unit (not shown). A heater for heating is built in each of the fixed press board portion 30d and the movable press board portion 30u.
The thermocompression bonding press section 2 applies a regular heating temperature to the laminated base material sandwiching section 10 sent from the preheating press section to press it,
It has a function of thermocompression-bonding the laminated base material M. The preheating press section applies a preheating temperature lower than the regular heating temperature to the laminated base material sandwiching portion 10 that has housed the laminated base material M and degassed,
While having a function of heating the laminated base material M at a preheating temperature, the cooling press section cools the laminated base material M while pressurizing the laminated base material holding section 10 sent from the thermocompression bonding press section 2. Have a function.

Next, the operation (function) of the IC card manufacturing apparatus 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, the laminated base material M is housed in the laminated base material holding portion 10. That is, the holding surface portion 18p of the lower holding portion 12
The laminated base material M is placed on the upper surface of and the upper sandwiching portion 11 is overlapped from above, so that the laminated base material M is sandwiched between the upper sandwiching portion 11 and the lower sandwiching portion 12. Then, the deaerator is operated to deaerate the inside of the laminated base material sandwiching section 10. As a result, the laminated base material M is pressed by the upper and lower sandwiching surface portions 14p and 18p, and the air bubbles contained in the laminated base material M are completely removed. In particular, the laminated base material holding portion 10 has a groove-shaped absorbing surface portion 1
Since the layers 4a and 18a are provided along the entire circumference of the sandwiching surface portions 14p and 18p, the laminated base material M is uniformly degassed.
This state is shown in FIGS. 2 and 4.

Then, the laminated base material holding portion 10 accommodating the laminated base material M is first preheated by a preheating press portion (not shown). That is, the laminated base material sandwiching portion 10 is pressed by a pair of press plates, and a preheating temperature lower than the regular heating temperature during thermocompression bonding, specifically, the sheet material S
It is heated to a temperature (for example, around 70 ° C.) immediately before plastic deformation or welding of a and Sb starts. As a result, the laminated base material M is gradually heated by the preheating temperature while being pressurized.

Next, the preheated laminated base material holding portion 1
0 is supplied to the thermocompression bonding unit 2. In this case,
As shown in FIG. 6, since the movable press platen 30u is raised, the laminated base material sandwiching part 10 is placed on the fixed press platen 30d, and then the movable press platen 30u is lowered to move the laminated base material sandwiching part 10u. The movable press platen 30u and the fixed press platen 30
The laminated base material M is thermocompression-bonded by heating and pressing from above and below by d. At this time, the fixed press platen 30d and the movable press platen 30u are respectively heated by the heating heaters to the regular heating temperature T.
It is heated to s (for example, around 120 ° C.). In addition,
Both sides of the laminated base material M have an upper sandwiching portion 11 and a lower sandwiching portion 1.
The laminated base material M is housed inside the laminated base material sandwiching portion 10 which is sandwiched by 2 and is hermetically sealed, and the inside of the laminated base material sandwiching portion 10 is degassed by the degassing device.
Even if the sheet moves from the preheating press section to the thermocompression bonding press section 2, the continuity of the heated state and the pressed state is ensured, that is, the laminated base material M.
The heat retention property and the pressure retention property are secured.

By the way, at the time of thermocompression bonding of the laminated base material M, since the laminated base material M itself is pressed in a state of not being sufficiently heated at the initial stage of pressurization, the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb which are not sufficiently plasticized are interposed. As a result, pressure is applied to the electronic component P. However, since the elastic plates 4u and 4d are elastically deformed in accordance with the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb by the electronic component P as shown in FIG. 5, the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb is not limited to the elastic plate 4u. , 4d, and damage to the electronic component P due to application of excessive pressure during manufacturing is avoided. On the other hand, if a certain amount of time has passed and the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb have been sufficiently plasticized, the elastic plate 4
u and 4d elastically return to their original shapes, and the laminated base material M is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the elastic plates 4u and 4d are thermocompression bonded by the original flat shape.

Then, set time (for example, around 20 seconds)
When the time elapses, the movable press platen 30u is lifted and thermocompression-bonded laminated base material M, that is, the manufactured IC card M.
i is transferred to the cooling press section and cooled. In the cooling process, the IC card Mi is cooled while being pressurized.
At this time, as in the thermocompression bonding process, the sandwiching surface portions 14p, 18p
The contraction and plastic deformation of are absorbed by the absorbing surface portions 14a and 18a.

On the other hand, after the cooling treatment, in order to take out the IC card Mi from the laminated base material sandwiching portion 10, the deaerator is switched to the air supply function by switching the switching valve (not shown).
Air is supplied to the inside of the laminated base material holding unit 10. As a result, the degassed state of the laminated base material holding portion 10 is released, and the laminated base material M is separated from the laminated base material holding portion 10. Therefore,
The upper holding portion 11 can be raised and the manufactured IC card Mi can be taken out as shown in FIG.

As described above, when the IC card manufacturing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is used, heat is applied to the press surfaces 3u and 3d when the laminated base material M is pressed in a state where the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb are not plasticized. A stainless steel plate having a certain thickness is elastically deformed according to the deformation of the plastic resin sheets La and Lb, and elastically returns when the laminated base material M is pressed when the thermoplastic resin sheets La and Lb are plasticized. Elastic plate 4u,
Since 4d is attached, damage to electronic components due to application of excessive pressure during manufacturing is avoided, and the yield rate during production is significantly increased. Further, since the elastic plates 4u and 4d are attached to the press surfaces 3u and 3d via the flexible plates 5u and 5d using a silicon rubber plate having a smaller elasticity than the elastic plates 4u and 4d, the elastic plates 4u and 4d are elastic. The plates 4u and 4d are stably supported, and the laminated base material M is thermocompression-bonded stably and reliably. Furthermore, since the laminated base material M is housed inside the laminated base material holding portion 10 which is in a hermetically sealed and degassed state, continuity of the heated state and the pressurized state is ensured, that is, the heat retention and the heat retention for the laminated base material are maintained. The pressure is secured, and the product characteristics are dramatically improved by improving the quality and homogeneity.

The embodiment has been described in detail above.
The present invention is not limited to such an embodiment,
The detailed configuration, shape, quantity, material, numerical values, etc. can be arbitrarily changed, added, or deleted without departing from the scope of the present invention.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the elastic plate 4u is used as the upper plate portion 14 and the elastic plate 4d is used as the lower plate portion 18, and the flexible plate 5u is placed on the lower surface of the movable press board portion 30u. The flexible plates 5d may be directly attached to the upper surface of the fixed press board portion 30d. In this case, the lower surface of the movable press board portion 30u becomes the press surface 3u, and the upper surface of the fixed press board portion 30d becomes the press surface 3d. Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the elastic plate 4u is directly attached to the lower surface of the movable press platen 30u serving as the pressing surface 3u via the flexible plate 5u without using the laminated base material sandwiching portion 10, and the pressing is performed. The elastic plate 4d may be directly attached to the upper surface of the fixed press board portion 30d, which is the surface 3d, via the flexible plate 5d. On the other hand, the structure and material of the laminated base material M (IC card) are not limited to the examples, and can be applied to any type.

[0030]

As described above, in the IC card manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, when the thermoplastic resin sheet is not plasticized, the IC card manufacturing apparatus is elastic on the pressing surface according to the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheet when the laminated base material is pressed. In the deformed state and the thermoplastic resin sheet being plasticized, an elastic plate having a predetermined thickness that elastically returns when the laminated base material is pressed is attached, so that the following remarkable effects are exhibited.

It is possible to prevent damage to electronic components due to application of excessive pressure during manufacturing, significantly increase the yield rate during production, and contribute to quality improvement and reliability improvement.

According to the preferred embodiment, when the elastic plate is attached to the pressing surface via the flexible plate having a predetermined thickness, the elastic plate can be stably supported, and thus the laminated base material can be stably and surely provided. It can be thermocompression bonded.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing an essential part of an IC card manufacturing apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention and a manufactured IC card;

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a laminated base material sandwiching unit in the IC card manufacturing apparatus,

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a laminated base material sandwiching unit in the IC card manufacturing apparatus,

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part for explaining the operation of the IC card manufacturing apparatus,

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part for explaining the operation of the IC card manufacturing apparatus,

FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part for explaining the operation of the IC card manufacturing apparatus,

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a main part of an IC card manufacturing apparatus according to a modified embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 8 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a main part of an IC card manufacturing apparatus according to another modified embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 9 is a vertical cross-sectional view of an IC card manufacturing apparatus according to a conventional technique,

[Explanation of symbols]

1 IC card manufacturing equipment 2 Thermo-compression press section 3u ... Press surface 4u ... Elastic plate 5u ... Flexible plate La ... Thermoplastic resin sheet Sa ... Sheet material P electronic parts M laminated base material

Front page continuation (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06K 19/00-19/18 B42D 15/10 B32B 31/20 B29C 65/02

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A thermocompression-bonding press section for thermocompression-bonding a laminated base material, in which an electronic component such as an IC chip is sandwiched between a pair of sheet material materials including a thermoplastic resin sheet, from both sides by a pair of press surfaces. In an IC card manufacturing apparatus provided with the thermoplastic resin sheet, the thermoplastic resin sheet is elastically deformed according to the deformation of the thermoplastic resin sheet at the time of pressurizing the laminated base material in a state where the thermoplastic resin sheet is not plasticized, and the thermoplastic resin. An IC card manufacturing apparatus, characterized in that an elastic plate having a predetermined thickness that elastically returns when the laminated base material is pressed when the sheet is plasticized is attached. 2. The IC card manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the elastic plate is an elastic metal plate or an elastic synthetic resin plate. 3. The IC card manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the elastic plate is attached to the pressing surface via a flexible plate having a predetermined thickness. 4. The IC card manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the flexible plate is a rubber plate.