JPH086301Y2 - IC card inspection device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to an IC card inspection apparatus, and more particularly to an IC card inspection apparatus capable of sequentially inspecting a large number of IC cards while flowing them on a conveying path.

[Conventional technology]

IC cards are attracting attention as a new medium that replaces magnetic cards. Since this IC card incorporates complicated semiconductor elements such as a CPU and memory, it is necessary to inspect each IC card one by one before shipping it as a product. Conventionally,
In this type of inspection apparatus, inspection objects are set one by one on the inspection head and the quality of the inspection object is determined.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

When mass-producing IC cards, the inspection process must be suitable for mass processing. However, in the conventional device, as described above, the IC cards must be set in the inspection head one by one, and it is very difficult to continuously inspect a large number of IC cards.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an IC card inspection device capable of continuously inspecting a large number of IC cards.

[Means for solving the problem]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention has a function of holding an IC card slidably in the carrying direction by supporting the both sides of the IC card in an IC card inspection device by supporting the both sides of the IC card. A pair of rails divided into three parts, a front stage part, a middle stage part, and a rear stage part, a conveying means for continuously conveying a plurality of IC cards along the pair of rails, and a middle stage part. The inspection head body provided above the rails, the vertical movement means for moving the middle-stage rail toward the inspection head body, and the plurality of IC cards held by the middle-stage rail that has moved upwards. Of these, the front guide post is provided so as to project downward from the lower surface of the inspection head main body in order to position the front end of the IC card located at the forefront, and at least the rear end of the tip is tapered. , Of the IC cards held on the rail of the middle section that has moved upward, it projects downward from the lower surface of the inspection head main body in order to position the rear end of the IC card located at the rearmost position. Of the two IC cards that are adjacent to each other among the multiple IC cards that are held by the rear guide pillar that is tapered like at least the front side of the tip and the upper middle rail that has moved upward. An intermediate guide column that is provided so as to project downward from the lower surface of the inspection head main body in order to position the adjacent ends of each, and that is tapered on both the front side and the rear side of the tip. , Exchanging data with the IC card through the inspection electrode provided on the inspection head body so that it can contact the external connection terminals of the positioned IC cards. By performing, in which is provided a judging means for judging acceptability of the IC card, the.

[Action]

In the IC card inspection apparatus according to the present invention, the IC card to be inspected is held in the pair of rails. If this rail is inserted in the middle of a predetermined transport system, IC cards flowing through this transport system will sequentially pass through this rail and can be inspected at the time of this passage. When the IC card to be inspected enters the rail, the entire rail moves upward. An inspection head is provided above,
The external connection terminals of the IC card come into contact with the inspection electrodes provided on the inspection head, and data exchange for the quality judgment is performed. Since the inspection head is provided with a guide pillar for positioning, the IC card is reliably positioned. After the inspection is completed, the rail returns to the original position again, and the IC card that has been inspected is ejected from the rail to the transport system and the next IC
The card goes into the rail, and the inspection of this IC card continues. In this way, a large number of ICs flowing through the carrier system
The card can be continuously inspected.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 (a) is a bottom view of an inspection head 10 of an IC card inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 (b) is a side view thereof. This inspection head 10 can simultaneously inspect six IC cards at a time, and the broken line in FIG. 1 (a) shows the position of the IC card at the time of inspection. On the lower surface of the inspection head body 11, three central guide columns 12 and twelve peripheral guide columns 13 are provided. As shown in FIG. 1 (b), these guide columns are provided so as to project downward from the lower surface of the inspection head body 11, and the tips thereof are tapered. One IC card is positioned by one central guide column 12 and two peripheral guide columns 13. That is, the three sheets on the left side of FIG.
All of the IC cards have the front end (the right end in the figure: the IC card is conveyed from the left side to the right side in the figure as described later) by the central guide post 12 to the rear end (the left side in the figure). The ends are positioned by two peripheral guide posts 13 each. For the three IC cards on the right side, the relationship between this and the front and rear ends is reversed.

In the area where each IC card is positioned, inspection electrodes
14 and a contact sensor 15 are provided. Inspection electrode 14
Are made of needle-shaped metal, and six IC cards are provided for each IC card in this embodiment. Six external connection terminals are formed at the corresponding positions on the IC card. When the IC card is positioned at a fixed position, the six inspection electrodes are
It comes into contact with two external connection terminals. Contact sensor 15
Is a sensor that detects when the IC card has come to a fixed position. The inspection electrode 14 and the contact sensor 15 are connected to the determination device 20 by a cable 16. When the determination device 20 confirms that the IC card has come to the fixed position by the signal from the contact sensor 15, the determination device 20 inputs the inspection data from the external connection terminal of the IC card into the IC card via the inspection electrode 14. Eventually, the response data to this inspection data is output from the external connection terminal, and this response data is sent to the inspection electrode 14
It is given to the determination device 20 via. The determination device 20 checks whether this response data is as expected, and
Determines whether the IC card is good or bad.

The above is the structure of the inspection head 10. Next, the structure of the transport system, that is, the rail will be described. FIG. 2 is a top view of this rail. In this embodiment, three transport paths A,
B and C are provided, and the direction from left to right in the figure is the transport direction. Each transport path has four rails extending in the transport direction
It is separated by 31-34. The IC cards 41 to 46 that move along the transport path are held by the rails on both sides. In this embodiment, an elongated groove extending in the carrying direction is formed in each rail, and both sides of the IC card are fitted in the groove to hold the IC card slidably in the carrying direction. FIG. 3 is a section line X- of the rail shown in FIG.
Although it is a cross-sectional view taken along the line X, a state in which both sides of the IC cards 41, 43, and 45 are supported by four rails is clearly shown. Driving bodies 51 to 56 are prepared for moving the IC card along the rails. Third
In the figure, the drivers 51, 53, 55 are the IC cards 41, 4 respectively.
It has a function to push the IC card forward by contacting the rear end of 3,45. A feature of the rails shown in FIG. 2 is that each rail is divided into three parts. That is, each of the rails 31 to 34 is divided into three parts, namely, a front stage part of the rails 31a to 34a, a middle stage part of the rails 31b to 34b, and a rear stage part of the rails 31c to 34c. The reason why the rails are divided in this way is that the rails 31b to 34b in the middle section move in the vertical direction (the direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 2).
The inspection head 10 described above is located above the rails 31b to 34b in the middle section, and the IC cards 41 to 46 are set to predetermined positions on the lower surface of the inspection head 10 by moving the rails 31b to 34b upward. It The front-stage rails 31a to 34a and the rear-stage rails 31c to 34c are connected to an IC card carry-in port and an IC card carry-out port, respectively. Alternatively, it may be directly connected to the transport system of another processing apparatus.

Finally, the operation of this device will be described. Like above-mentioned,
Since the front rails 31a to 34a are connected to the carry-in port of the IC card or the transport system of another processing device, the IC card has a predetermined cycle from the front rails 31a to 34a to the middle rail 31b to 34a. Introduced to 34b. In this embodiment, since two IC cards are carried together in one carrying path, as shown in FIG. 2, six IC cards 41 to 46 are carried at a time.
Will be introduced into the rails 31b to 34b in the middle section.
Since both sides of the IC card are supported by the grooves in the rail, it does not move out of the rail in the vertical direction (direction perpendicular to the paper surface of Fig. 2), but in the lateral direction (Fig. 2). Up and down). The IC card can only be moved in the carrying direction (left and right direction in FIG. 2). Therefore, it is sufficient to position the IC card only in this carrying direction.

Now, as shown in FIG. 2, six IC cards 41-
It is assumed that 46 is introduced to the rails 31b to 34b in the middle section,
Let's talk about how an inspection is performed on a single IC card. Figure 4 shows IC cards 41 and 42.
FIG. 3B is a side view showing a state immediately after being introduced between the middle-stage rails 31b and 32b. For the sake of clarity, the rails are only shown in dashed position. The above-described inspection head 10 is provided above the rail. In this state, if the middle rails 31b, 32b move upward as they are, the state as shown in FIG. 5 can be obtained.
That is, since the IC card is held by the rail, it moves upward together with the rail and reaches the fixed position indicated by the broken line in FIG. 1 (a). On the lower surface of the inspection head 10,
Although members such as guide pillars are projected, since these members are all located in the gap between the rails, they do not collide with the rails. When the IC card is slightly displaced from the fixed position in the carrying direction, the front end or the rear end contacts the tip of the guide column 12 or 13 as the rail rises. However, since the tip ends of the guide columns 12 and 13 are tapered surfaces, such positional deviation of the IC card in the carrying direction is naturally corrected as the rail rises. In this way, the IC card rises while being positioned at a fixed position, and the inspection electrodes 14 come into contact with the external contact terminals of the IC card. The contact sensor 15 is structured to be pushed back into the inspection head main body 11 when pressed by the IC card, and detects the degree of approach of the IC card. That is, it is detected that the IC card has sufficiently approached until good electrical contact is obtained between the inspection electrode 14 and the external contact terminal of the IC card. When the contact sensors on all six IC cards detect good contact, the rail stops moving up and stops at that position. Here, the inspection for determining the quality determination by the determination device 20 described above is performed. When the inspection is completed, the rail descends to its original position again and returns to the state shown in FIG. Although FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 show only the IC cards 41 and 42 for convenience of explanation, since the rails 31b to 34b in the middle section move up and down as a unit, other IC cards 43 are shown. The same test is performed for ~ 46. In this way, the six IC cards 41 to 46 that have been inspected are moved to the rails 31c to 34c at the rear stage by the driving bodies 51 to 56. Next, the next 6
The IC card is introduced from the front stage rails 31a to 34a to the middle stage rails 31b to 34b, and exactly the same thing is repeated.

As described above, this inspection device can be incorporated in the transport system, and it is possible to sequentially perform the inspection while a large amount of IC cards are flown into the transport system. In particular, the device described here can inspect six IC cards at one time, which is very efficient. Moreover, since each of the six IC cards can be brought into uniform contact with the inspection electrode, a reliable inspection can be performed.

The present invention has been described above based on the illustrated embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to this embodiment and can be implemented in various modes. In particular, in the above-mentioned embodiment, two IC cards are introduced into each of the three transport paths, and six IC cards are inspected at a time. However, the number of transport paths and the IC cards are introduced at one time. The number of sheets to be performed can be changed as appropriate. Further, means other than the groove may be used as means for supporting both sides of the IC card. Further, the shape and the number of guide columns can be freely changed in design. In short, the guide pillar may have a structure that corrects the displacement of the IC card in the carrying direction.

[Effect of device]

As described above, in the IC card inspection device according to the present invention,
Since both sides of the IC card are held by the rails built into the transport system and this IC card is guided to the prescribed position of the inspection head by the guide post, a large number of IC cards can be continuously inspected. Like

[Brief description of drawings]

1 (a) and 1 (b) show an IC according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Bottom view and side view of the inspection head of the card inspection device,
2 is a top view of a rail of an IC card inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the rail shown in FIG. 2 taken along section line XX, FIG. 4 and FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the IC card inspection apparatus equipped with the inspection head shown in FIG. 1 and the rail shown in FIG. 10 …… Inspection head, 11 …… Inspection head body, 12 …… Center guide column, 13 …… Around guide column, 14 …… Inspection electrode, 15
...... Contact sensor, 16 ...... Cable, 20 ...... Judgment device, 31
〜34 …… Rail, 41〜46 …… IC card, 51〜56 …… Drive unit, A, B, C …… Transport path

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A function for holding an IC card slidably in the carrying direction by supporting both sides of the IC card by extending in a predetermined carrying direction, and in order toward the carrying direction,
A pair of rails divided into three parts, a front stage part, a middle stage part, and a rear stage part, a transport means for continuously transporting a plurality of IC cards along the pair of rails, and a rail of the middle stage part. An inspection head body provided above, a vertical movement means for moving the rail of the middle section toward the inspection head body, and a plurality of IC cards held by the rail of the middle section moved upward Of these, the front is provided so as to project downward from the lower surface of the inspection head main body in order to position the front end of the IC card located at the forefront, and at least the front end is tapered at the rear side. The guide head and the inspection head book are used to position the rear end of the IC card located at the rearmost of the IC cards held on the rails of the middle section that has moved upward. Of the IC card held on the rear guide pillar that is provided so as to project downward from the lower surface of the rear end and at least the front side of the tip is tapered, and the rail of the middle section that has moved upward. Among them, in order to position adjacent ends of two adjacent IC cards, it is provided so as to project downward from the lower surface of the inspection head main body, and is tapered on both the front side of the front end and the rear side of the front end. The intermediate guide column provided with the inspection electrode provided on the inspection head main body so as to be able to contact the external connection terminals of the positioned IC cards, and the inspection electrode. An IC card inspection device comprising: a judgment unit for judging whether the IC card is good or bad by exchanging data with the IC card.