JPH0620629Y2 - 2-terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is applied to office automation office Automat.
ion, OA), Factory Automation (Factory Au
The present invention relates to an information card such as an IC card used in the field of tomography (FA) and the like, and particularly to a two-terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card for receiving power and transmitting and receiving signals in a contact state.

(Prior Art) In a general information card, an integrated circuit such as a semiconductor memory is built in a card body made of plastic or the like, and a contact terminal with an external device is provided on the card surface.

Conventionally, as a technology in such a field, Nikkei Mechanical, (1985-10-21) Nikkei McGraw-Hill "IC card" P.16
7-170, Nikkei Electronics, (1985-12-2) Nikkei McGraw-Hill, Inc. "Electronics manufacturer that sinks into the IC card market (above)" P.275-292, Nikkei Electronics, (1985-12-6) Nikkei McGraw-Hill, Inc. An electronics maker (bottom) plunging into the IC card market ”P.249-26
2. Some were described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-109166. The configuration will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional information card, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an implementation example thereof.

In FIG. 2, 1 is an external device for reading and writing information, 2 is an information card, and DC power V _C , E is supplied from the external device 1 to the information card 2 and the external device 1 Between the input and output card 2 and the input / output signal I / 01
~ I / 0n is given and received. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the information card 2 has a rectangular card body 3 made of plastic or the like, and the card body 3 has a large number of power sources and signals exposed on its surface. A contact type terminal 4 is provided and an electronic integrated circuit (hereinafter referred to as IC) is provided inside.
5 are provided. The IC 5 has a semiconductor memory 6 and a microprocessor 7 that controls writing and reading of information to and from the memory 6.

In this type of information card 2, when it is inserted into the external device 1, each terminal 4 on the card 2 side comes into contact with each terminal on the external device 1 side, and the information stored in the memory 6 is externally transmitted through these terminals 4. It is read by the device 1 or written in the information memory 6 on the external device 1 side.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) However, since the information card having the above-mentioned configuration requires a large number of terminals 4, the terminal contact portion is contaminated, oxidized,
There was a problem in reliability because contact failure due to corrosion, abrasion, etc., malfunction due to leak current, and protection of the IC 5 due to static electricity and external voltage were difficult.

In addition, the direction in which the information card 2 is inserted into the external device 1 is limited to a certain direction because the terminal 4 on the card 2 side and the terminal on the external device 1 side need to be in contact with each other. When it was inserted, it had to be inserted again from the correct direction, which was disadvantageous in use.

In order to solve this, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-80482 discloses a technique of providing a plurality of sets of terminals at symmetrical positions which are always at the same position with respect to the insertion direction of the information card, thereby improving the flexibility of the insertion direction. Have been described. However, in this technique, since the number of terminals increases, not only the formation position is restricted, but also the reliability problem as described above cannot be fundamentally solved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a two-terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card that solves the problems of the above-mentioned conventional technique, namely, low reliability and restriction of insertion direction.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is provided on the surface of a card body having a substantially rectangular shape, and receives power from the outside and exchanges signals with the outside. In an information card including a terminal for performing a state and a memory capable of reading and writing information provided in the card body, for reading information from the memory through the terminal and writing external information to the memory , The following measures are taken.

That is, the terminals are composed of a set of terminals (substantially a pair of two terminals) symmetrically arranged with respect to the center line of each side of the card body, and input through the set of terminals. A multiplexing circuit is provided in the card body for separating the power supply signal and the signal and outputting the internal signal to the set of terminals.

(Operation) According to the present invention, since the information card is configured as described above, the multiplexing circuit separates the power source power and the signal input through a set of terminals, and causes the signal to access the memory. . The internal signal is output to the outside from a set of terminals by the multiplexing circuit. Thus, power reception and signal transmission / reception can be performed by one set of terminals, and reliability can be improved by reducing the number of terminals. Further, the set of terminals has a constant transmission function without being restricted in the insertion direction. Therefore, the above problems can be eliminated.

(Embodiment) FIGS. 1 (1) and (2) are configuration block diagrams of a two-terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card showing an embodiment of the present invention.
(1) and (2) show a state in which the insertion direction of the information card is turned upside down. These circuits are based on the Frequency Division Multiplex Transmission System.
m, hereinafter referred to as FDM communication method) is used to transmit and receive signals.

In FIGS. 1 (1) and 1 (2), 10 is an external device, and an information card 20 is inserted into the external device 10.

The external device 10 includes a high output impedance power supply circuit 11 that outputs power supply power and a multiplexing circuit. The multiplexing circuit, the input signal S transmitting circuit _{12 i} is converted to a transmission signal of a frequency f _i, the frequency f _o receiving circuit 13, and each frequency f _i to convert the transmission signal into an output signal S _{o of,} f _o It has a filter circuit 14 which assigns a signal for each. The power supply circuit 11 and the filter circuit 14 are connected to one terminal 15 of the pair of two terminals 15 and 16. The other terminal 16 is grounded to form a return loop.

The information card 20 has a substantially rectangular card body 21 made of plastic or the like, and a front surface and a back surface of the card body 21 are, for example, thin plates at positions facing the terminals 15 and 16 on the external device 10 side. A set of two terminals 22 and 23 are provided, and an IC 24 is embedded in the card body 21.

In the IC 24, a diode circuit 25 including diodes D1 to D4 that are connected to the terminals 22 and 23 and regulate the current flow path in one direction is provided, and a power supply circuit 26 and a filter circuit 27 connected to the diode circuit 25. A receiving circuit 28 and a transmitting circuit 29 connected to the filter circuit 27, and a memory control circuit 30 and a memory 31 connected to the receiving and transmitting circuits 28, 29 are provided. The diode circuit 25, the filter 27, the receiving circuit 28, and the transmitting circuit 29 form a multiplexing circuit.

Here, the power supply circuit 26 is a circuit for converting the power input through the diode circuit 25 into a stabilized DC voltage V _dc , the filter circuit 27 is a circuit for allocating a signal for each frequency f _i , f _o , and the receiving circuit 28 is The circuit for converting the transmission signal of the frequency f _i output from the filter circuit 27 into the original signal, and the transmission circuit 29, the output signal of the memory control circuit 29, the frequency f i
It is a circuit for converting into a transmission signal of _o and sending it to the filter circuit 27. The memory control circuit 30 is, for example, a microprocessor, and is a circuit that controls reading and writing of the memory 31 and serial / parallel exchange of data. The memory 31 is a medium that stores various kinds of information, and is a read-only memory (ROM), a writable ROM (PROM), an electrically erasable and writable ROM (EEPROM), an ultraviolet erasable and writable ROM.
(EPROM) etc.

The input signal S _i in the external device 10 is the information card
The initial setting (initial setting) of the memory control circuit 30 on the 20 side, control signals for reading and writing information, and signals to be written in the memory 31 are serialized. The output signal S _o is the read information of the memory 31, the operation confirmation signal inside the information card, etc. serialized in the memory control circuit 30.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a mounting example of the information card 20 in FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is a main part configuration diagram of FIG. In this information card 20, as shown in FIG. 4, a set of terminals 22, on the center line Y is set with reference to the intersection of the center line X in the long side direction and the center line Y in the short side direction of the card body 21. 23 are arranged symmetrically. As shown in FIG. 5, each of the terminals 22 and 23 is a pair of electrode plates exposed on the front side and the back side of the card body 21, respectively.
It is composed of 22a, 22b, 23a and 23b. The plates 22a and 22b of one terminal 22 are connected to each other, and the plates 23a of the other terminal 23 are
And 23b are connected to each other. Corresponding to these terminals 22 and 23, terminals 15 and 16 on the external device 10 side are also arranged.

FIGS. 6 (1) to 6 (4) are diagrams showing the contact state between the terminals 22 and 23 of the information card 20 and the terminals 15 and 16 of the external device 10 in the insertion direction. Figures 6 (1) and (3) correspond to Figure 1 (1), and
In (1), the information card 20 is inserted into the external device 10 with the front side facing upward, and in FIG. 6 (3), the information card 20 is inserted with the back side facing upward. 6 (2) and (4) correspond to FIG. 1 (2), and in FIG. 6 (2), the information card 20 is inserted from the front and back in the reverse direction, and FIG. 4) In Information Card 2
It is the figure which inserted 0 from the front-back reverse direction with the back side facing up.

Next, the operation will be described.

When the information card 20 is inserted into the external device 10 as shown in FIG. 1 (1) with the front side up as shown in FIG. 6 (1) or the back side as shown in FIG. 6 (3), The terminals 15 and 22, 16 and 23 are in contact with each other. The power supply circuit 11 on the external device 10 side outputs electric power and outputs the power to the terminals 15 and 22 → the diode D in the diode circuit 25.
It is supplied to the power supply circuit 26 and the filter circuit 27 on the information card 20 side through the route of 1, D2 → terminals 23, 16. Similarly, the transmission circuit 12 converts the input signal S _i into a transmission signal of frequency f _i , and passes it through the filter circuit 14 through the route of terminals 15 and 22 → diodes D1 and D2 → terminals 23 and 16 on the information card 20 side. It is applied to the power supply circuit 26 and the filter circuit 27.

The power supply circuit 26 on the side of the information card 20 converts the power of the input power and the transmission signal into a stabilized DC voltage V _dc, and converts it into a power supply voltage V _dc for each circuit in the IC 24. ,
It is applied as a power supply voltage to each circuit in the IC24. The filter circuit 27 separates the transmission signal inputted power and frequency f _i, gives only the transmission signal component to the receiving circuit 28. The reception circuit 28 converts the transmission signal into the original signal S _i and supplies it to the memory control circuit 30. Then, the memory control circuit 30 informs the information contained in the input signal S _i ,
For example, by specifying an address based on the write information, the memory 31
After writing the information to, the write completion signal is output.
After this signal is converted into a transmission signal of a frequency f _o at the transmitting circuit 29, a route of the diode D1, D2 → terminal 22,15 → terminal 16 and 23 through the filter circuit 27, the external device 10 side to the filter circuit 14 Is transmitted.

The transmission signal input to the filter circuit 14 is converted into the original signal in the reception circuit 13 through the filter circuit 14 and output in the form of the output signal S _o .

Next, as shown in FIG. 6 (2), the information card 20 should be face-up and its front and back should be reversed, or, as shown in FIG. 6 (4), its back should be its top and its front and back should be reversed. When it is inserted into the external device 10 side as shown in FIG. 1 (2), the terminals 15 and 23 and 16 and 22 come into contact with each other. However, the diode circuit 25 transmits the power and transmission signal on the external device 10 side to the power supply circuit 26 and the filter 27 on the information card 20 side, and the transmission signal on the information card 20 side to the filter circuit 14 on the external device 10 side, respectively. Therefore, the same operation as in FIG. 1 (1) is performed. In this way, even if the information card 20 is inserted into the external device 10 in any direction, that is, the top, bottom, left and right, the front and the back are reversed, a constant operation is always possible.

FIGS. 7 (1) and 7 (2) are block diagrams of a two-terminal contact insertion direction free type information card showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 1 (1) and (2) are information card insertions. It shows a state in which the direction is turned upside down.

This circuit corresponds to the filter circuits 14 and 27 in FIGS. 1 (1) and (2).
Is replaced by switch circuits 114 and 127. The switch circuit 114 on the external device 10 side includes a switch 114A inserted between the output side of the transmission circuit 12 and the terminal 15, and a switch 114B inserted between the terminal 15 and the input side of the reception circuit 13. , Those switches 114A, 114B are control signals CS
1 turns it on and off. Similarly, the switch circuit 127 on the information card 20 side is inserted between the switch 127A inserted between the diode circuit 25 and the input side of the receiving circuit 28, and between the output side of the transmitting circuit 29 and the diode circuit 25. Switch 12
7B, and the switches 127A and 127B are turned on / off by a control signal CS2 output from the memory control circuit 30.

FIG. 8 is a time chart showing the operation from the insertion of the information card 20 of FIG. 7 into the external device 10 to the removal thereof.
When the information card 20 is inserted into the external device 10, the terminals 15 and 22, 16 and 23 are in contact with each other in FIG. 7 (1), and the terminals are in contact with each other in FIG. 7 (2).
15 and 23, 16 and 22 contact. Then, the output power of the power supply circuit 11 is transmitted to the power supply circuit 26 via the terminals 15, 22, 16, 23 and the diode circuit 25, and the power supply circuit 26 operates. Further, the switches 114A, 127A are turned on, the output signal of the transmission circuit 12 is transmitted to the reception circuit 28 via the switch 114A, the terminals 15, 16, 22, 23, the diode circuit 25 and the switch 127A,
The memory control circuit 30 operates. External device 10 is an information card
When receiving the output signal of 20, the receiving circuit 13 operates and the switches 114B and 127B are turned on, and the output signal of the transmitting circuit 29 is the switch 127B, the diode circuit 25, and the terminals 22, 23, 15, and 1.
It is transmitted to the receiving circuit 13 via 6 and the switch 114B.
In this way, the same operations as those in FIGS. 1 (1) and (2) are performed.

FIG. 9 is an information card showing another implementation example of FIGS. 1 and 7.
FIG. 20 is a perspective view of FIG. 20, and FIG. 10 is a main part configuration diagram of FIG. In this information card 20, terminals 22 and 23 made of polar plates are arranged at the intersections of the center lines X and Y so as to be opposed to the front side and the back side of the card body 21, respectively. Corresponding to these terminals 22 and 23, terminals 15 and 16 on the external device 10 side are also arranged.

11 (1) to (4) are the information cards in FIGS. 9 and 10.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a contact state between terminals 22 and 23 and terminals 15 and 16 of the external device 10 in the insertion direction of 20. FIGS. 11 (1) and 11 (3) correspond to FIGS. 1 (1) and 7 (1). In FIG. 11 (1), the information card 20 is inserted into the external device 10 with the front side facing up. Figure, No. 11
In FIG. (3), the information card 20 is inserted with the back side facing up. Further, FIGS. 11 (2) and (4) correspond to FIGS. 1 (2) and 7 (2), and in FIG. 11 (2), the information card 20 is viewed from the front and back in the reverse direction with the front side facing up. Information card 2 in inserted view, Fig. 11 (4)
It is the figure which inserted 0 from the front-back reverse direction with the back side facing up.
In this way, the same operation is always possible even when the information card 20 is inserted upside down, leftward and rightward, and with the front and back reversed.

The above embodiments have the following advantages.

The two terminals 22 and 23, which are fewer than before, are used to receive power and input and output signals, so there are few restrictions on the position of the terminals, and due to dirt, oxidation, corrosion and wear of the terminals 22 and 23. Poor contact can be reduced. Furthermore, not only failure and malfunction due to leakage current can be reduced, but also protection of internal circuits due to external voltage and static electricity becomes easy. Therefore, the reliability can be improved.

Since the terminals 22 and 23 on the information card 20 side are arranged symmetrically with respect to the center lines X and Y of the card body 21, the information card 20 is oriented in the opposite direction, that is, the top, bottom, left, and right sides are reversed. Operation is possible even when inserted into the device 10. In this way, since the insertion direction of the information card 20 is not restricted, usability is improved.

The present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment, and various modifications can be made. It is also possible to change the shape and arrangement of the terminals 22 and 23 to those other than those shown in the drawings, and to change the circuit configuration inside the IC 24 to another one such as a hybrid system.

(Effects of the Invention) As described in detail above, according to the present invention, since the power supply power is input and the signals are input and output through one set of terminals by the multiplexing circuit, Not only are there few restrictions, but malfunctions due to poor contact with external devices and leakage current, as well as breakdown of internal circuits due to static electricity and external voltage, etc. can be reduced. Moreover, since the set of terminals is symmetrically arranged with respect to the center line of each side of the card body, the method of inserting the information card is not limited and the usability is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 (1) and 1 (2) are block diagrams of a two-terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional information card, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a mounting example, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a mounting example of FIG. 1, FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of main parts of FIG. 4, and FIGS. 6 (1) to (4) are 1 (1) and 1 (2) are views showing the insertion direction of the information card and the contact state of the terminals, and FIGS. 7 (1) and 7 (2) are other two-terminal contact insertion direction free type information cards of the present invention. Configuration block diagram, No. 8
FIG. 9 is a time chart showing the operation of FIG. 7, and FIG.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing another mounting example of FIG. 7 and FIG.
FIG. 11 (1) to FIG. 11 (4) is a diagram showing the configuration of the main parts of the drawing, showing the insertion direction of the information card and the contact state of the terminals in FIG. 10 …… External device, 11,26 …… Power supply circuit, 12,29 …… Transmission circuit, 13,28 …… Reception circuit, 14,27 …… Filter circuit, 15,1
6,22,23 …… Terminal, 20 …… Information card, 21 …… Card body, 24 …… IC, 25 …… Diode circuit, 30 …… Memory control circuit, 31 …… Memory, 114,127 …… Switch circuit.

Claims (3)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A terminal provided on the surface of a substantially rectangular card body for receiving power from the outside and transmitting and receiving signals to and from the outside in a contact state, and a terminal provided in the card body for reading and writing information. A memory capable of reading information from the memory through the terminal and writing external information to the memory, wherein the terminal is provided with respect to a center line of each side of the card body. A multiplexing circuit which is composed of a pair of terminals arranged symmetrically and which separates the power source power input through the pair of terminals from the signal and outputs an internal signal to the pair of terminals; A two-terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card provided in the card body. 2. The set of terminals are symmetrically arranged on the same plane with respect to the center line of each side of the card body, and the terminals are exposed on the front surface and the back surface of the card body. A two-terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card according to claim 1 of the utility model registration. 3. The utility model registration as claimed in claim 1, wherein the pair of terminals are arranged on the front surface and the back surface of the card body so as to face each other at an intersection of center lines of respective sides of the card body.
Terminal contact insertion direction free-form information card.