JPH10240398A - Optical communication ic card and data processor for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a non-contact type optical communication IC card with which high-reliability communication is performed and communication time can be shortened. SOLUTION: An optical communication IC card 1 is provided with a power supply part 11 and an operation part 21. The power supply part 11 is provided with a coil 12 for contactlessly receiving driving power from external equipment under electromagnetic guidance. The current received by the coil 12 is rectified, stabilized and sent to the operation part 12 later. The operation part 21 is provided with a light emitting part 22 composed of a laser diode array for performing 8-bit parallel transmission and a light receiving part 24 composed of a photodiode for receiving 8-bit parallel data outputted from the external equipment. The data received by the light receiving part 24 are stored through a bus line into a memory and the data stored in the memory are sent through the light emitting part 22 to the external equipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical communication IC card for transmitting and receiving data using a laser beam.
In particular, optical communication ICs that perform data communication in a non-contact and parallel manner
About the card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, non-contact type IC cards have been devised. In these conventional non-contact IC cards,
The electromagnetic coupling method has been used for both power supply and data transmission.

[0003]

The conventional non-contact type IC card has the above-mentioned structure. In recent years, there has been a demand for a CPU used in an IC card to have a smaller size and higher performance to increase the data transmission speed. In response to such demands, a very high carrier frequency such as a microwave band has been required as a modulation frequency. When a high frequency such as a microwave is used for communication, communication becomes impossible due to absorption of a signal by a human body, or unintended communication is performed due to communication with an unintended communication partner (such as a data processing device). There was a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical communication IC card capable of avoiding unintended communication failure or establishment of communication and capable of exchanging a large amount of data in a short time. With the goal.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical communication IC card for transmitting and receiving data to and from an external device using light in a non-contact manner. An output unit that outputs a plurality of surface emitting laser beams in parallel to an external device using power, a light receiving unit that receives a plurality of surface emitting laser beams in parallel from the external device using driving power, and a driving power. Means to receive,
Means for controlling the input means and the output means are included.

[0006] Parallel communication can be performed between an external device and a card using a surface emitting laser beam by receiving driving power from the outside.

As a result, without causing unexpected communication,
An optical communication IC card capable of exchanging a large amount of data in a short time can be provided.

[0008] In the optical communication IC card according to the second aspect, the optical communication IC card further includes magnetic information recording means. Since the same data as the existing magnetic card can be recorded on the magnetic information recording means, compatibility with the existing magnetic card can be obtained.

In this case, in order to avoid interference with the electromagnetic coil, it is preferable to coat a magnetic shielding material such as a high magnetic permeability alloy around the magnetic recording portion.

[0010] In the optical communication IC card according to the third aspect, positioning means for positioning the optical communication IC card at a predetermined position in the external device is provided. Since the optical communication IC card can be accurately positioned with respect to the communication portion in the external device by the positioning means, data can be transmitted and received reliably.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data processing device for an optical communication IC card for performing data communication with the optical communication IC card according to the first aspect of the present invention. It includes means for receiving data or means for sending data to the light receiving means of the optical communication IC card.

Since the data processing device includes means for transmitting output data from the optical communication IC card or data corresponding to the optical communication IC card, data communication with the optical communication IC card becomes possible.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an optical communication IC according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a main part of the card 1. Referring to FIG.
An optical communication IC card (hereinafter abbreviated as a card) 1 is a card 1
And an operating unit 21 that operates the card 1 based on the power received from the power supply unit 11. The power supply unit 11 includes a coil 12 for inducing a voltage by an electromagnetic induction method from a card reader / writer 2 provided outside, which will be described later, and a diode 13 connected to the coil 12 for rectifying the induced current.
And a stabilizing circuit 14 connected to the diode 13 for stabilizing the rectified current.
Sent to The power receiving coil 12 provided on the card 1 is formed on a printed circuit board constituting the card 1 by pattern formation. The coil 12 may be, for example, a winding.

FIG. 2 shows an operating portion 2 of the card 1 according to the present invention.
1 is a block diagram showing a main part of FIG. Referring to FIG. 2, an operation unit 21 includes a surface emitting semiconductor laser (VCSEL, Vertial
Cavity Surface Emitting Laser), and a light receiving unit 24 composed of a photodiode that receives a signal from the reader / writer 2. Light emitting unit 22
The light-receiving unit 24 also performs parallel communication by facing the reader / writer 2 by 8 bits each.

The light emitting section 22 is driven by an LD driver IC 23. Data received in parallel by the light receiving unit 24 is amplified by the preamplifier unit 25 and sent to the memory 28 via the comparator unit 26. A CPU 27 is provided for controlling the light emitting unit 22, the LD driver IC 23, the light receiving unit 24, the preamplifier unit 25, the comparator 26, and the memory 28. A synchronous clock is sent from the CPU 27 to the light emitting unit 22 and the light receiving unit 24 via the synchronous clock signal line 30.

The memory 28 is an electrically erasable EEPROM.
OM, FROM, FRAM and the like.

The number of elements of the light emitting section 22 and the light receiving section 24 is each 8 bits + the number of synchronization signals + the number of control signals. The number of signal bits may be 16 bits.

Here, the distance d1 between the surface emitting laser diode elements forming the light emitting section 22 and the light receiving section 24 is about 2 mm, and the diameter d2 is about 50 μm. The light receiving portion diameter d3 of the photodiode constituting the light receiving portion 24 is about 2 mm.
It is. As a result, the width dimension of each of the light emitting unit 22 and the light receiving unit 24 can be suppressed to about 20 mm.

On the other hand, since the diameter d2 of the surface emitting semiconductor laser constituting the light emitting section 22 is about 50 μm as described above, the interval d1 can be set to about 0.5 mm. By doing so, the body of the card 1 can be made smaller.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are views showing the configuration of the card shown in FIG. 2 in the sectional direction indicated by line III-III. (A) has a normal thickness (about 5 mm), and (B) has a thin thickness of 0.76 mm. Referring to FIG. 3A, a light emitting section 22 includes a surface emitting semiconductor laser 31 provided on a substrate 36, a light emitting portion or a light receiving portion 32 thereof, a lens 33 provided thereon, a filter 34, and a gold wire. The whole is resin coating 3 including bonding 35
7 covered. With this configuration, the dimension in the thickness direction can be kept within 5 mm.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
The chip is directly mounted on the electrode pattern on the solder 6 by solder 38, so that the mounting height of about 1 mm and the ISO 78
It is also possible to store it in a thickness of 0.76 mm defined by the 10 standards.

Next, the current consumption of the card 1 will be described. Laser diode 31 constituting light emitting section 22
Is 2 mA at 0.8 μm wavelength.
It is as follows. Therefore, even when the 8-bit data is transmitted in parallel, the current can be reduced to about 40 mA at the maximum, including the synchronization signal current and other circuit control currents.

When a surface emitting laser diode having a wavelength of 0.8 μm is used as described above, a photodiode array of silicon can be used as a light receiving element. As a result, costs can be relatively suppressed.

[0024] On the other hand, the wavelength 0.
Even when the surface emitting laser diodes of 98 μm, 1.3 μm and 1.5 μm are used, the light receiving element can be formed by using a photodiode array such as InGaAs. In addition, since a 1.3 μm or 1.5 μm surface emitting laser is used for optical fiber communication,
Inexpensive cards can be obtained with mass production effects.

Next, a card reader / writer 2 for communicating data with the card 1 will be described. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an external configuration of the card reader / writer 2. FIG. 4A is one example, and FIG. 4B is another example.

Referring to FIG. 4A, reader / writer 2
Is a slot 41 into which the card 1 is inserted, a power lamp 42 provided on the side of the card slot 41, a lamp 44 indicating that the card 1 is being read or the reading is completed, and writing data to the card 1. Or a lamp 44 for notifying the end of writing. The card 1 inserted into the card slot 41 is sent to a predetermined fixed position by a motor (not shown). Outlet 41
If the height is set high and the type is set according to the shape of the groove of the insertion port 41, the maintenance inside the insertion port 41 becomes easy.

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram showing another example of the reader / writer. In this case, the card 1 is placed at the card fixing position 45. A groove corresponding to the shape of the card 1 is provided at the card fixing position 45, and data communication is performed by placing the card 1 there. The description of each of the lamps 42 to 44 in FIG. 4B is the same as that in the case of FIG.

As described above, since the diameter of each element of the light receiving section 24 is about 2 mm, the laser diode on the reader / writer 2 side, the photodiode on the card 1 side, Reader / writer 2
It is preferable that the deviation between the photodiode on the side and the laser diode on the side of the card 1 from the central axis be kept within 1 mm.

When the card 1 and the reader / writer 2 according to the present invention are used, the interval between them, that is, the interval at which data communication can be performed, avoids crosstalk with other bits to maintain communication reliability. For this reason, it is preferable that the thickness be about 3 mm at the maximum.

Next, the internal configuration of the reader / writer 2 will be described. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the reader / writer 2. Referring to FIG. 5, reader / writer 2 has a surface emitting laser diode array 51 for transmitting data to card 1 in parallel, and a laser diode driver 52 for driving surface emitting laser diode array 51.
A photodiode array 53 for receiving data from the card 1 in parallel, a preamplifier 54 for amplifying the data received by the photodiode array 53, and a comparator 55 for determining the data amplified by the preamplifier 54
And The above-mentioned laser diode array 51 to comparator 55 are controlled by the CPU 56, respectively.
Data received from the card 1 via the photodiode array 53 via the photodiode 8 is stored in the memory 57, and data stored in the memory 57 is sent to the card 1 via the laser diode array 51. The reader / writer 2 further includes a power supply circuit 59 that supplies power to the card 1 using electromagnetic induction or the like as described above and also supplies power to itself. Since the details of the laser diode array 51 to the memory 57 are the same as those provided in the card 1, the description is omitted.

When data communication is performed between the card 1 and the reader / writer 2 according to the present invention, optical communication can be performed in parallel, so that data communication at 1 Gbit / sec is possible. As a result, for example, information 4.7 G for one DVD
The byte is 4.7G × 8 / (1G / sec) = 40 seconds,
Communication takes about 40 seconds.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between the light emitting section 22 and the light receiving section 24 in the card 1 according to the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 2A shows a light emitting unit 22 and a light receiving unit 24 arranged side by side.
Corresponds to the configuration shown in FIG. In this case, the size of the card 1 is I
54 mm wide x 85 mm long according to the standard of SO7810
× 0.76 mm in thickness.

FIG. 6B is a diagram showing another example of the structure of the card 1. In this case, the light emitting section 22 and the light receiving section 24 are provided at both ends in the longitudinal direction of the card. In this way, even when the card is warped in the center, the light emitting unit 22 and the light receiving unit 24 are not significantly affected. Also, the width dimension of the card is 54 mm in FIG.
About 27 mm, which is about a half. The size can be reduced to a minimum size of about 3 cm × 3 cm including the coil.

In the above embodiment, since the card 1 has both the light emitting section 22 and the light receiving section 24, both writing and reading of data can be performed. On the other hand, a read-only card having only the light receiving section 24 without the light emitting section 22 may be used.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the power supply to the card 1 is performed by the power supply such as electromagnetic induction from the reader / writer 2. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Is also good. In this case, the battery may be a solar cell.

Next, the above-mentioned card 1 and reader / writer 2
An application example of will be described. FIG. 7 shows card 1 and reader /
It is a schematic diagram which shows the whole structure at the time of using the card 1 as an electronic medical record as an example of the application example using the card etc. which concerns on this invention which consists of a writer 2. Referring to FIG. 7, an electronic medical record system 70 reads and writes data from and to a terminal 72 provided at, for example, a hospital reception or each examination room, and a card 3 connected to the terminal 72 and serving as an electronic medical record. A reader / writer 71 for reading, a search terminal 76 and a reader / writer 77 for the card 3 connected to a host computer 75 of the hospital, and a host computer 75
And a reader / writer 78 for the card 3 directly connected to the card 3. In this system, a card 3 is used as an electronic medical record as shown in the figure.

That is, personal medical data is recorded on the card 3 by the terminal 70 or 72 every time. This information can be collated via the card 3 at any location in the hospital. For example, even if the hospital is changed, by submitting the card 3 having the data to the new hospital, the past medical histories including the images can be understood, which helps the new medical treatment.

A conventional optical card has a storage capacity of about 4M.
Because of the small number of B, it was possible to record only a reference image such as a compressed one or only a necessary part. However, in the card 3 according to the present invention, the communication speed increases, and a large-capacity memory (about 50 M
By mounting B), data such as an X-ray image can be recorded as it is. As described above, it goes without saying that the data to be recorded on the card can be not only text data, but also audio data, image data including still images and moving images.

Next, another application example will be described. Another application example is a digital library. A large amount of electronic book data is recorded on a host computer 75 provided in a library. The reader searches for necessary data via the search terminal 76 and downloads the data to the card 3 as high-speed data. This card 3
To return to, for example, a personal computer 72 provided at home.
Can be easily read. Since only the necessary pages of many books can be printed out and carried or stored, the space on the home bookshelf can be reduced. In addition, it may be output as voice for a blind person.

Next, still another embodiment of the present invention will be described. As still another embodiment, for example, an electronic art museum can be considered. Similar to the above-mentioned electronic library, high-definition, large-capacity museum data is stored in the museum's host computer 75 in advance. The user can download desired data to the card 3 or make it into a ROM and watch it at home through the personal computer 72. In the future, it can be used as a medium for storing data of high-definition digital cameras.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a main part of a card according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the contents of an operating section of the card according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a portion indicated by line III-III in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of a card reader / writer.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a reader / writer.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit on a card.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an application example of a card and a card reader / writer according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,3 Optical communication IC card 2 Reader / writer 11 Power supply unit 12 Coil 21 Operating unit 22 Light emitting unit 23 LD driver IC 24 Light receiving unit 25 Preamplifier unit 26 Comparator unit 27 CPU 28 Memory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An optical communication IC card for transmitting and receiving data to and from an external device in a non-contact manner using light, comprising: means for receiving driving power from the external device; Output means for outputting a plurality of surface emitting laser beams in parallel to the device, means for receiving a plurality of surface emitting laser beams in parallel from the external device using the driving power, and means for receiving the driving power, An optical communication IC card including means for controlling output means and input means. 2. The optical communication IC card according to claim 1, further comprising magnetic information recording means. 3. A positioning device for positioning the optical communication IC card with respect to the external device.
The optical communication IC card according to claim 1. 4. An optical communication IC card data processing device for performing data communication with the optical communication IC card according to claim 1, wherein: the means for receiving data from an output means of the optical communication IC card in parallel; Optical communication I including means for transmitting data in parallel to the light receiving means of the optical communication IC card
Data processing device for C card.