JPH11288446A - Radio card and communication equipment and method using the card - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To hold data recorded in a ferroelectric non-volatile memory as a data recording medium when the supply of power is interrupted. SOLUTION: It is possible to correctly hold data recorded in a ferroelectric non-volatile memory 25 capable of a high speed operation as a data recording medium to be used for a radio card even when supply of power is interrupted. The ferroelectric non-volatile memory 25 is provided with a first storage area in which received data are successively written, and a second storage area in which data processed after read-out from the first storage area are stored. It is desired that this ferroelectric non-volatile memory 25 is provided with a third storage area for storing information related with writing processing of the data read from the first storage area in the second storage area.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement of a portable wireless card for transmitting and receiving data by wireless communication, and an improvement of a communication device and a communication method using the wireless card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, in recent years, automatic ticket gate systems have become widespread especially at public transportation stations represented by railways. Meanwhile, the automatic ticket gate system currently used adopts a so-called contact type in which a magnetic ticket, a magnetic card, or the like is inserted into an insertion slot provided in the automatic ticket gate body, and the ticket is exited.

For this reason, in the current automatic ticket gate system,
Various issues have been pointed out, such as measures to alleviate congestion near the ticket gates, elimination of the complexity of toll settlement, and expansion of the range of common use. At present, it cannot be said that the system conforms to the above.

Therefore, in order to solve the problems pointed out by the contact-type automatic ticket gate system, a wireless card is used instead of a magnetic ticket, and data communication with the automatic ticket gate is performed wirelessly. A so-called non-contact automatic ticket gate system has been considered, and development for its practical use is being actively conducted.

This wireless card has wireless communication, data processing, and data recording functions, and is configured to be a portable size such as a commuter pass. In addition, a reader / writer for performing wireless data communication with a wireless card and a main controller for controlling the reader / writer are installed in the automatic ticket gate body.

[0006] Here, the wireless card is an area where a user carrying the card can normally receive radio waves transmitted from a reader / writer when passing through an automatic ticket gate, a so-called communicable area. Only for the period within
Power supply can be received and data communication with the reader / writer can be performed.

[0007] By the way, in order to hold data even without power supply, a wireless card is an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable) which is a non-volatile memory as a data recording medium.
andProgrammable Read Only Memory).

In this case, the wireless card uses an EEPROM.
Considering the long time it takes to write data,
The data transmitted from the reader / writer is written in real time to a volatile RAM (Random Access Memory) with a fast write operation, and then the EE is read from this RAM.
A method of transferring and writing data to the PROM is adopted.

[0009] However, in the conventional wireless card employing the above-described method, if data goes out of the communicable area while data is being transferred from the RAM to the EEPROM and is being written, the power supply power is reduced. Is shut off, so that the contents stored in the RAM cannot be retained.

[0010] For this reason, the wireless card enters the communicable area again and is supplied with power.
Even if the data transfer to M is restarted, since the stored contents of the RAM are not already held, there arises a problem that correct data cannot be written to the EEPROM.

[0011]

As described above, the conventional wireless card stores received data at a high speed in a volatile RAM.
And then, from the RAM, the nonvolatile EEPROM
Since data is transferred and written to M, E
If the power supply is interrupted while data is being written to the EPROM, the contents stored in the RAM will not be retained.
Even if the data transfer to the ROM is restarted, there is a problem that correct data is not written in the EEPROM.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and uses a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory as a data recording medium so that data recorded in the memory can be stored even when power supply is cut off. It is an object of the present invention to provide an extremely good wireless card that can be held and a communication device and a communication method using the wireless card.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A wireless card according to the present invention is intended for a wireless card capable of supplying power and transmitting and receiving data by wireless communication. Further, a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory for storing received data is provided.

A wireless card according to the present invention is used for a communication system for transmitting a carrier wave including data, and is intended for a device in which power is supplied and data is received by entering a range of the carrier wave. I have. And
First recording means for sequentially writing received data to a first storage area of a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory in a power supply state; and data recorded in the first storage area by the first recording means, And a second recording means for reading out from the first storage area, performing predetermined processing, and storing it in the second storage area of the ferroelectric nonvolatile memory in the supply state.

Further, a communication device using a wireless card according to the present invention is a communication device for transmitting a carrier wave including data, and a wireless card for receiving power and receiving data from a carrier wave transmitted from the communication device. It is intended for those with Then, in the wireless card, first recording means for writing received data to a first storage area of the ferroelectric nonvolatile memory in a power receiving state, and the first recording means records the received data in the first storage area. In the power receiving state, the first
And a second recording means for reading out from the storage area, performing predetermined processing, and storing it in the second storage area of the ferroelectric nonvolatile memory.

A communication method using a wireless card according to the present invention is directed to a method in which a carrier including data is transmitted from a communication device to supply power to the wireless card and receive data. Then, a first step of sequentially writing received data to a first storage area in a power supply state with respect to a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory provided in the wireless card, and the first step A second process of reading data recorded in the storage area of the first storage area from the first storage area in a power supply state, performing predetermined processing, and storing the data in the second storage area. .

According to the wireless card and the communication device and the communication method using the same as described above, the ferroelectric nonvolatile memory having a high data write / read speed is used as the data recording medium. Even if the supply of power is interrupted while data is being written from the first storage area to the second storage area, the data in the first storage area of the memory is retained, so that the power supply is stopped. When restarted, correct data can be continuously written to the second storage area of the memory.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. That is, FIG.
(A), (b) has shown the external appearance of the automatic ticket gate 11 used for a non-contact type automatic ticket gate system. The automatic ticket gates 11 are usually arranged as a set of two at a ticket gate of a station, etc., so that a passage for a user is formed between the two.

The automatic ticket gate 11 includes a main body 12 and a pole section 13 provided above the main body 12 along the direction of the passage. Exit detectors 14a and 14b, human detector 14c, and approach detectors 14d and 14e are arranged at predetermined positions on the side surfaces of the main body 12 and the pole portion 13, respectively.

Each of the exit detectors 14a and 14b, the human detector 14c, and the entry detectors 14d and 14e is constituted by an optical sensor.
The traffic condition of the user is grasped from the detection result of 4e.

Also, at both ends of the main body 12 in the passage direction,
Doors 15 and 16 for controlling the traffic of the user are respectively installed so as to be openable and closable, and based on the determination result of the traffic permission,
The doors 15 and 16 are controlled to open and close.

Further, on the upper surface of the main body 12, a reader / writer 17 for performing wireless data communication with a wireless card described later is provided. This reader / writer 17
As shown in FIG. 2, radio waves are emitted upward,
Data communication is performed between the wireless card 18 and the reader / writer 17 by positioning the wireless card 18 in an area where the electromagnetic wave (carrier) can be normally received, that is, in a communicable area 19. Become like

In this case, the reader / writer 17 sends out a carrier wave including (superimposed on) data. And
The wireless card 18 generates driving power from the received carrier wave and extracts data such as commands from the carrier wave.

FIG. 3 shows details of the wireless card 18. That is, the carrier transmitted from the reader / writer 17 is received by the loop antenna 20 and supplied to the detection and rectification circuit 21, where the data component is detected and the power component is rectified.

The power component rectified by the detection and rectification circuit 21 is supplied to a power supply control circuit 22.
It is used for generating and controlling power supply power for driving each circuit unit in the wireless card 18.

The data component detected by the detection and rectification circuit 21 is transmitted through the reception control circuit 23 to the CP.
After being supplied to an arithmetic processing circuit 24 having a built-in U (Central Processing Unit) and subjected to predetermined data processing, a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory (hereinafter referred to as FeRAM) 25 is provided.
Is written and stored.

The FeRAM 25 is a non-volatile memory that requires much less time to write and read data than an EEPROM and can operate at a high speed, and has a feature of maintaining a recording state without power supply. The data read from the FeRAM 25 is subjected to data processing by the arithmetic processing circuit 24, and then transmitted through the transmission control circuit 26, the detection and rectification circuit 21, and the antenna 20.
It is returned to the reader / writer 17.

FIG. 4 shows the storage area of the FeRAM 25. The storage area includes a data area in which data is finally stored, a processing information area in which information relating to a process of writing data to the data area is recorded, a system area in which system information is recorded, and a received data area. Are temporarily divided into a reception buffer area in which the data is temporarily recorded.

The data is written and read in a predetermined block unit.
The storage area of the FeRAM 25 is divided into N blocks each having a physical block number.

Here, when the data communication with the reader / writer 17 is started, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 sequentially writes and records the received data in the reception buffer area of the FeRAM 25 in real time for each block.

In this way, when all the data received from the reader / writer 17 is stored in the reception buffer area,
The arithmetic processing circuit 24 performs an operation of reading data in block units from the reception buffer area, performing predetermined data processing on the read data, and writing the data in the data area of the FeRAM 25. Execute repeatedly until it is written in the area.

The fact that the data has been written in the data area of the FeRAM 25 in block units indicates that the data has been formally stored in the FeRAM 25. Note that FIG. 4 shows that data is stored in four blocks of the data area, and the other blocks are unused.

Each time the arithmetic processing circuit 24 performs predetermined data processing on data read out from the reception buffer area in block units and writes the data in the data area, information indicating which block has been stored, ie, data Information on the process of writing data to the area is recorded in the processing information area. The data in the processing information area is updated each time data storage in the data area is completed in block units.

Here, even if the wireless card 18 goes out of the communicable area 19 and the power supply is interrupted while the data is transferred from the receiving buffer area to the data area and stored therein, The data recorded in the FeRAM 25 is held. For this reason, when the wireless card 18 enters the communicable area 19 again and the power supply is performed, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 looks at the contents of the processing information area to perform the data storage processing to the data area. Can be determined.

Thus, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 restarts the operation of transferring the correct data held in the reception buffer area to the data area and storing the same from the continuation of the point in time when the supply of the power is cut off. Can be.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show the reader / writer 17.
The wireless card 18 receives the data transmitted from the
5 shows a flowchart summarizing operations to be stored in the eRAM 25. First, when started (step S1),
In step S2, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 is in a standby state until power is supplied, that is, until the wireless card 18 enters the communicable area 19 of the reader / writer 17 and receives a carrier.

If it is determined that the power has been supplied (YES), the arithmetic processing circuit 24 proceeds to step S3.
Then, an initialization process is performed on each circuit unit, and in step S4, the contents of the processing information area in the FeRAM 25 are recognized to recognize the previous processing state (the state when the power supply is cut off).

Based on the result of step S4, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 determines in step S5 whether there is unprocessed data that has not been transferred from the reception buffer area to the data area, and determines that there is unprocessed data. (YE
S) In step S6, the unprocessed data is stored in the data area based on the processing steps recorded in the processing information area or the processed unprocessed data for each data block unit.

Then, after step S6 or when it is determined in step S5 that there is no unprocessed data (N
O), the arithmetic processing circuit 24 determines in step S7 that the reader /
The apparatus is in a standby state until data transmitted from the writer 17 is received, and when it is determined that there is received data (YE
S), in step S8, the received data is stored in FeRAM1
7 are sequentially written and recorded in block units. Thereafter, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 proceeds to step S
In step 9, information indicating the data reception buffer state is stored in the processing information area.

When all the received data is stored in the reception buffer area in this way, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 reads out one block of data from the reception buffer area in step S10, After performing data processing and writing and storing the data in the data area of the FeRAM 25, in step S11, information indicating which block has been stored is recorded in the processing information area.

Then, the arithmetic processing circuit 24 determines in step S
At 12, it is determined whether the storage of the data for one block in the data area and the recording of the storage completion information in the processing information area have been completed, and if it is determined that the storage has not been completed (NO), The process returns to step S10.

If it is determined in step S12 that the processing has been completed (YES), the arithmetic processing circuit 24 increments the physical block number of the reception buffer area in step S13, and in step S14, For all blocks where the received data of
It is determined whether storage in the data area and recording of the storage completion information in the processing information area have been completed.

If it is determined that the processing has not been completed (NO), the process returns to step S10, and if it is determined that the processing has been completed (YES), the arithmetic processing circuit 24
After the processing information area is initialized in step S15, a response indicating completion of data storage in the FeRAM 25 is transmitted to the reader / writer 17 in step S16, and the process returns to step S7.

Here, if the wireless card 18 goes out of the communicable area 19 of the reader / writer 17 and the supply of the power supply is cut off during the processing of steps S10 to S14, the processing of step S2 Return to processing, that is,
Next, when the wireless card 18 enters the communicable area 19 and power supply is performed, the data in the reception buffer area can be correctly transferred and stored in the data area.

As shown in FIG. 7, the data to be stored in the data area is divided into a file 1 and a file 2 as necessary, and a table is added for each file to store the data. Is also good. In this case, it is necessary to set a block area for recording the directories of file 1 and file 2 in the storage area. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0046]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
Extremely good wireless card using a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory as a data recording medium and capable of retaining data recorded in the memory even when power supply is cut off, and a communication device using the same And a communication method.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing an external appearance of a non-contact type automatic ticket gate, showing a wireless card according to the present invention, a communication device using the wireless card, and a portable device for carrying out a communication method.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a communicable area between the automatic ticket gate and the wireless card according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing details of a wireless card according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view showing an example of a storage area of a FeRAM provided in the wireless card.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart shown to explain an operation of storing data in the FeRAM.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of storing data in the FeRAM.

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining another example of the storage area of the FeRAM provided in the wireless card.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11: Automatic ticket gate, 12: Main body, 13: Pole part, 14a, 14b: Exit detector, 14c: Human detector, 14d, 14e: Entry detector, 15, 16: Door, 17: Reader / writer, 18 ... wireless card, 19 ... communicable area, 20 ... antenna, 21 ... detection rectifier circuit, 22 ... power supply circuit, 23 ... reception control circuit, 24 ... arithmetic processing circuit, 25 ... FeRAM, 26 ... transmission control circuit.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FIG06K 19/00 H

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A wireless card capable of supplying power and transmitting and receiving data by wireless communication, comprising a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory for storing received data. 2. The ferroelectric nonvolatile memory includes a first storage area in which the received data is sequentially written, and a second storage area in which data read from the first storage area and processed is stored. The wireless card according to claim 1, further comprising a storage area. 3. The ferroelectric nonvolatile memory has a third storage area for storing information relating to a process of writing data read from the first storage area to the second storage area. The wireless card according to claim 2, wherein: 4. Processing of unprocessed data remaining in the first storage area based on information stored in the third storage area in a state where power supply by the wireless communication is started. The wireless card according to claim 3, further comprising processing means. 5. A wireless card used in a communication system for transmitting a carrier wave including data, wherein power is supplied and data is received by entering a range of the carrier wave. A first method for sequentially writing data to a first storage area of a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory
Recording means, and data recorded in the first storage area by the first recording means are read from the first storage area in the power supply state and subjected to a predetermined process to perform the ferroelectric substance. The second data stored in the second storage area of the nonvolatile memory
A wireless card comprising: a recording unit. 6. The method according to claim 6, wherein information related to a process of writing data read from said first storage area by said second recording means to said second storage area is written in said ferroelectric substance in said power supply state. The wireless card according to claim 5, further comprising: third recording means for recording in a third storage area of the nonvolatile memory. 7. A communication apparatus comprising: a communication device for transmitting a carrier wave including data; and a wireless card for receiving power and receiving data from the carrier wave transmitted from the communication device, wherein A first recording means for writing received data to a first storage area of the ferroelectric nonvolatile memory in the power receiving state; and data recorded in the first storage area by the first recording means, And a second recording means for reading from the first storage area in the power receiving state, performing predetermined processing, and storing the read data in the second storage area of the ferroelectric nonvolatile memory. Communication device using. 8. The wireless card according to claim 6, wherein the information related to a process of writing data read from the first storage area to the second storage area by the second recording unit in the power receiving pole is transmitted to the ferroelectric card. 8. The communication device using a wireless card according to claim 7, further comprising: third recording means for recording in a third storage area of the non-volatile memory. 9. A communication method using a wireless card in which a carrier including data is transmitted from a communication device to supply power to the wireless card and receive data, wherein a ferroelectric element provided in the wireless card is provided. A first step of sequentially writing received data to a first storage area in the power supply state with respect to a body nonvolatile memory; and a step of writing data recorded in the first storage area in the first step. A second step of reading from the first storage area, performing a predetermined process, and storing the read data in the second storage area in the power supply state. 10. A second storage area for data read from the first storage area by the second recording means in a ferroelectric nonvolatile memory provided in the wireless card. 10. A communication method using a wireless card according to claim 9, further comprising: a third step of recording information relating to a writing process into the third storage area in the power supply state.