JP3906782B2 - Non-contact IC card reader device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a non-contact IC card reader device that performs data communication with a non-contact IC card inserted up to a predetermined communication position through an antenna unit that is electromagnetically coupled to the IC card.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In a card insertion type non-contact IC card reader / writer used for a card payment terminal or the like, a non-contact IC card (hereinafter simply referred to as an IC card) is placed in a predetermined communication position in a main body case having a card insertion slot. The antenna unit is provided with an antenna unit that is electromagnetically coupled to the IC card in the inserted state, and a control unit for controlling the data communication operation through the antenna unit. In this case, a plate-like travel guide for smooth running of the IC card at the time of insertion and ejection of the IC card is arranged at the card insertion slot. Since this traveling guide is arranged so that the warp of the IC card can be corrected, it will be in mechanical contact with the IC card. For this reason, the travel guide is generally formed of a metal having a hardness higher than that of the material (resin) of the IC card, because it is necessary to suppress wear caused by contact with the IC card and to extend the life. Yes.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
Since this type of contactless IC card reader / writer is configured to perform communication between the antenna unit and the IC card by electromagnetic coupling, a magnetic field generated from the antenna unit is linked to the metal travel guide. As a result, an eddy current is induced. When an eddy current is induced in this way, a magnetic field is generated on the traveling guide side, which affects the magnetic field generated by the antenna unit, and the magnetic field strength by the antenna unit may be reduced. On the other hand, in recent years, downsizing of the IC card reader / writer has been demanded, and along with this downsizing of the main body case, there is a tendency that the antenna unit and the traveling guide are arranged close to each other. For this reason, as the miniaturization of the IC card reader / writer is promoted, the level of the eddy current induced in the traveling guide, the strength of the magnetic field generated on the traveling guide side increases, and the influence is increased on the antenna unit side. Therefore, it is inevitable that the phenomenon that the magnetic field intensity is reduced by the antenna portion becomes remarkable.
[0004]
In order to cope with such a situation, conventionally, in order to sufficiently secure the magnetic field strength of the antenna unit even under the influence of the magnetic field from the traveling guide side, the output of the antenna unit is increased to increase the magnetic field. Is being generated. However, when the output of the antenna unit is increased in this way, there arises a problem that the cost of circuit components rises. Further, since the degree of temperature rise of the antenna portion becomes large, there arises a problem that the quality of the IC card including semiconductor components that are vulnerable to heat is deteriorated.
[0005]
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems. The object of the present invention is to suppress an increase in the cost of circuit components even when the entire size is reduced, and to provide a non-contact IC card for reading data. An object of the present invention is to provide a non-contact IC card reader device capable of preventing quality deterioration.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the plate-shaped travel guide disposed at the card insertion slot is made of metal, a magnetic field from the antenna unit is linked to the guide and an eddy current is induced. In this case, the running guide is formed with a slit opened at the edge near the antenna portion, so that the induced eddy current is divided by the presence of the slit and the current level is suppressed to a low level. It will be. In addition, eddy currents are also induced in the non-slit portion of the traveling guide, but this portion has a form in which the area is substantially reduced due to the presence of the slit and is positioned relatively far from the antenna portion. Therefore, the induced current level in the non-formed portion of the slit is also lowered. For this reason, the level of the magnetic field generated by the eddy current on the traveling guide side is lower than when no slit is formed, and the influence of the magnetic field on the antenna portion is reduced.
[0007]
As a result, even when the antenna unit and the traveling guide are brought close to each other as the overall size is reduced, there is no possibility that the magnetic field strength lowering phenomenon due to the antenna unit becomes remarkable. Therefore, since it is not necessary to increase the output of the antenna portion as in the conventional case, it is possible to suppress an increase in the cost of circuit components. Further, since there is no fear that the temperature of the antenna unit will increase as in the prior art, it is possible to prevent quality deterioration due to heat of the non-contact IC card to be read.
[0008]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, since a plurality of slits are formed in the traveling guide, the eddy current induced by the linkage of the magnetic field from the antenna section is subdivided, and the current level Will be further reduced.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a card insertion type non-contact IC card reader / writer will be described below with reference to FIGS.
1 and 2 show a configuration of a main part of the non-contact IC card reader / writer by a schematic longitudinal side view and a schematic transverse plan view. 1 and 2, for example, a rectangular main body case 1 made of resin has a structure in which a cover portion 1b is attached to the front side of the main body portion 1a, and the cover portion 1b is not contacted with the cover portion 1b. A card insertion slot 3 for inserting and discharging an IC card (hereinafter simply referred to as an IC card) 2 is formed. The IC card 2 inserted from the card insertion slot 3 is guided to a predetermined communication position by a guide roller 4 rotated by a driving mechanism (not shown).
[0010]
At the communication position, the antenna unit 5 that is electromagnetically coupled to the IC card 2 guided to the communication position is arranged in parallel with the IC card 2. The antenna unit 5 has a loop antenna pattern 5b formed on a printed wiring board 5a, and has a well-known configuration for supplying power and data communication to the IC card 2 guided to the communication position. The IC card 2 for which a series of communication processing including reading and writing of data has been completed at the communication position is guided in the reverse direction by the guide roller and is ejected from the card insertion slot 3.
[0011]
On the upper edge side of the card insertion slot 3, a metal plate-shaped travel guide 6 has a pressing piece 6 a on the tip side thereof and a lower edge part of the card insertion slot 3 (a part of the cover part 1 b). It is arranged in the form of facing each other with a gap. In addition, the dimension of the said gap is set to the magnitude | size which can correct the deformation | transformation of the IC card 2 inserted.
[0012]
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an overview of the traveling guide 6, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are a longitudinal side view and a longitudinal front view of a main part schematically showing an example of the mounting structure of the traveling guide 6. Has been.
[0013]
In FIG. 3, the travel guide 6 is formed by stamping and sheet metal processing a metal plate such as an iron plate, a steel plate, a stainless steel plate and the like, and in addition to the pressing piece portion 6a, a lower edge portion is the pressing piece. A flat plate-shaped mounting piece 6b that is continuous with the portion 6a and protrudes at both right and left ends; a temporary holding piece 6c that is bent at the upper edge of the mounting piece 6b; and a tip of the pressing piece 6a ( The edge portion on the side of the free end is provided with a rising piece portion 6d that is bent, and two positioning holes 6e are formed in the attachment piece portion 6b. The holding piece 6a of the traveling guide 6 is formed with a plurality of slits 6f that are opened at the edge near the antenna portion 5, whereby the holding piece 6a has a comb-like shape. Has been.
[0014]
4 and 5, a rectangular frame portion 7 corresponding to the card insertion slot 3 protrudes from the back surface of the cover portion 1 b of the main body case 1. In addition, a groove portion (not shown) into which the temporary holding piece 6c of the travel guide 6 enters is formed on the back surface of the cover portion 1b so as to be along the upper edge portion of the rectangular frame-shaped portion 7, and the travel guide 6 Two protrusions 8 are formed so as to protrude into the positioning holes 6e (not shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5). The travel guide 6 has the provisional holding piece 6c inserted into the groove (not indicated) and the positioning hole 6e engaged with the projection 8 before the cover 1b is attached to the main body 1a. Temporarily held in a state. When the cover 1b is mounted on the main body 1a from this temporarily held state, the left and right ends of the attachment piece 6b of the travel guide 6 are fixed in the rectangular frame 7 on the cover 1b side and the main body 1a. In this state, the metal frame 9 is sandwiched between a pair of flange portions 9a formed on both sides of the metal frame 9, so that the travel guide 6 is firmly attached to a predetermined position.
[0015]
On the other hand, FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram schematically showing the circuit configuration of the non-contact IC card reader / writer. In FIG. 6, the R / F control unit 10 connected to the loop antenna pattern 5b of the antenna unit 5 includes a signal generation circuit that generates a carrier signal of a predetermined frequency transmitted through the antenna unit 5, and the carrier signal during data transmission. And a demodulating circuit for demodulating a received signal by the antenna unit 5. The data conversion unit 11 converts the transmission data from the CPU 12 into an analog signal and supplies it to the modulation circuit in the R / F control unit 10, and converts the demodulated signal by the demodulation circuit in the R / F control unit 10 into a digital signal. The conversion is applied to the CPU 12.
[0016]
The CPU 12 is for executing a known control operation necessary for the operation of the non-contact IC card reader / writer. In addition to the data conversion unit 11, the CPU 12 includes a RAM unit 13 for data storage and the above-described control unit. A motor control unit 14 for a drive mechanism (not shown) and an external interface unit 15 including a connector 15a are connected. Note that power for the R / F control unit 10 and the CPU 12 is supplied from a power supply unit 16 that is fed from a power supply terminal 16a.
[0017]
Next, of the operations and effects obtained by the configuration of the above-described embodiment, portions related to the gist of the present invention will be described.
That is, since the plate-shaped travel guide 6 disposed in the card insertion slot 3 is made of metal, there is an advantage such as excellent wear resistance. However, since the magnetic field from the antenna unit 5 is linked to this, an eddy current is generated. Will be induced. In this case, since the traveling guide 6 is formed with a plurality of slits 6f opened at the edge near the antenna portion 5, the induced eddy current is subdivided by the presence of the slit 6f, The current level is suppressed in the direction of significantly lowering. Further, eddy currents are also induced in the portion where the slit 6 f is not formed in the travel guide 6, but this portion has a form in which the area is substantially reduced due to the presence of the slit 6 f and is relatively relative to the antenna unit 5. Therefore, the induced current level at the portion where the slit 6f is not formed is also low. For this reason, the level of the magnetic field generated by the eddy current on the traveling guide 6 side is lower than that in the case where the slit 6f is not formed, and the influence of the magnetic field on the antenna unit 5 is reduced.
[0018]
As a result, even when the antenna unit 5 and the traveling guide 6 are brought close to each other as the overall size is reduced, there is no possibility that the magnetic field intensity lowering phenomenon due to the antenna unit 5 becomes remarkable. Therefore, since it is not necessary to increase the output of the antenna unit 5 as in the prior art, it is possible to suppress an increase in the cost of circuit components. In addition, since there is no fear that the temperature of the antenna unit 5 will increase as in the prior art, it is possible to prevent quality deterioration due to heat of the IC card 2 to be read.
[0019]
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified or expanded as described below.
Although the plurality of slits 6f are provided in the holding piece 6a of the travel guide 6, as shown in FIG. 7 showing another embodiment of the present invention, the holding piece 6a of the running guide 6 has a relatively large shape 1 It is good also as a structure which provides the piece slit 6g. Moreover, although the example applied to the non-contact IC card reader / writer was demonstrated, it is applicable also to the non-contact IC card reader provided only with the reader function.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal side view of a main part showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional plan view of the main part. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a travel guide. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional side view of a main part schematically showing an example. Fig. 5 is a vertical front view of a main part schematically showing an example of a mounting structure of a travel guide. Fig. 6 is a functional block diagram schematically showing a circuit configuration. ] FIG. 3 equivalent diagram showing another embodiment [Explanation of symbols]
1 is a main body case, 1a is a main body portion, 1b is a cover portion, 2 is a non-contact IC card, 3 is a card insertion slot, 5 is an antenna portion, 6 is a travel guide, 6a is a holding piece portion, 6f and 6g are slits. Show.

Claims (2)

A metal plate-shaped travel guide that is arranged in the card insertion slot and guides the non-contact IC card inserted from the card insertion slot in a predetermined communication position direction, and the communication position is inserted by the guide roller and inserted in the card insertion slot. In the non-contact IC card reader device comprising the non-contact IC card guided to and the antenna unit electromagnetically coupled , the magnetic field generated from the antenna unit is configured to interlink with the travel guide ,
The travel guide has a holding piece formed with an open slit for subdividing eddy current at an edge near the antenna , and a lower edge is continuous with the holding piece and both right and left ends protrude. A flat mounting piece portion of the above-mentioned form, a temporary holding piece portion bent at the upper edge portion of the attachment piece portion, and a rising piece portion bent at the edge portion on the tip side of the pressing piece portion, A non-contact IC card reader device characterized in that the pressing piece is arranged in a form facing the lower edge of the card insertion slot with a predetermined gap .   The non-contact IC card reader device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the slits are formed.

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