PROCEDURE FOR MANUFACTURING A CARD WITH INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing and graphic customization of a card with integrated circuit, such as a bank card, a card for portable telephones, a prepaid card, an identification card. . . A common method of manufacturing cards with integrated circuit is to print a decorative element on one side of the card body, preferably to cover the decorative element with a protective layer, to implant the integrated circuit in the body of the card. , printing personalization data such as a serial number and / or information corresponding to the card holder, particularly in alphanumeric forms or bar codes, and writing in a storage area of the integrated circuit the data corresponding to the personalization data of the body of the card. The integrated circuit is provided with conductive areas, which extend in relief of the decorative element or the protective layer, so that during the thermal transfer printing of the personalization data, it happens that the print head hits the conductive areas. The print head, as well as the conductive areas, then have the risk of being damaged. In order to alleviate this drawback, it has been sought to fully introduce the conductive areas in the card body, or to perform a floating assembly for the print head of the graphic personalization data, but the solutions considered have not proved to be satisfactory. According to the invention, a method of manufacturing a card is proposed, which comprises in order the steps of: - printing personalization data on one side of the card body, implanting an integrated circuit in a card body, writing in a integrated circuit storage area data corresponding to the personalization data of the card body. The printing of the personalization data is thus done before the placement of the integrated circuit, the print head is not at risk of being damaged, without it being necessary to provide for a special assembly for the print head. Advantageously, a decorative element is printed simultaneously with the personalization data. The manufacturing process is thus simple and of simple application. A further drawback of the manufacturing process of the known type resides in the fact that the personalization data, printed on the protective layer of the decorative element, are exposed to external aggressions, so that they have the risk of being erased, example accidentally, following the repeated rubs, or intentionally, with the help of a solvent, with a view to an unauthorized modification of the data. In order to improve the strength of these data, it has been thought to inscribe the personalization data by laser engraving of the face of the card body, or by plastic deformation of the card body to form an embossed inscription. The inscriptions thus made can not be deleted. However, these forms of registration require long operations and expensive material, which increases the cost of the factory so personalized cards. Preferably, the method comprises, after the step of printing the decorative element and the personalization data, the step of coating the face of the card body with a protective layer. The protection layer thus ensures the protection of the personalization data, and if necessary the decorative element, both during the manufacture of the card and during the subsequent use thereof. The personalization data can not be accidentally erased, and any attempt to modify the personalization data requires the contraction of the protective layer, which makes the modification very difficult without reaching the destruction of the card. On the other hand, with the method of known type, in order that the printed data on the card body correspond in a certain way to the data written in the storage area, the writing of the personalization data in the storage area and the printing of the corresponding personalization data are carried out card by card, and synchronously. The procedure is thus not very flexible. In addition, the step of electrical personalization, that is to say of writing the personalization data in the storage area, is generally a faster operation than the graphical personalization stage, that is, of printing the personalization data. It turns out that the machine that performs the electrical customization works with sub-load, in order to avoid a nuisance of the graphic personalization machine. According to another aspect of the invention, the method comprises, prior to the step of writing in a storage area, the step of recognizing the personalization data of the body of the card. Thus, thanks to the previous recognition of the data of the body of the card, the electric personalization stage can be carried out at any time after the graphical personalization stage. The method is thus particularly flexible. In addition, the personalization data can be printed on batches of cards, for example on areas grouping several cards, and then proceed individually to write to the storage area of the integrated circuit of the data corresponding to the data of the cards. Personalization previously recognized. The manufacturing process is thus rationalized, and allows to exploit as much as possible the possibilities of the machines used for the application. The invention also allows to perform graphic personalization and electrical customization on different sites. Other features and advantages of the invention will be highlighted by reading the following description of a particular, non-limiting mode of the invention. Reference will be made to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of an application mode of the manufacturing process according to the invention; Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of a card corresponding to the method of the invention. With reference to the figures, the method described herein is intended for the manufacture of cards comprising a card body 1. According to the illustrated embodiment, the method comprises step 3 of simultaneous printing on a face 4 of the body of card 1 of a decorative element 5, here in the form of a grid, and personalization data 6. Personalization data is understood in the sense of the invention any identification data such as a serial number, the name or an identification code of the owner of the card, the address of the cardholder, a bar code, a photograph, digital prints,. . . The simultaneous printing of the decorative element and the personalization data is carried out, for example, on a digital printing machine. A step 7 for coating the face 3 of the card body 1 with a transparent protective layer 8 occurs at the printing stage 3. In a manner known per se, the protective layer 8 can be deposited by offset or screen printing , or in the form of a film such as a polyvinyl chloride film. After the coating, an integrated circuit 2 is inserted into the body of the card 1 during an implantation step 11, for example by manufacturing a cavity in the card body and adhering a module comprising the integrated circuit. A step 9 of recognizing the personalization data 6 printed on the face 3 is done below. The recognition of the personalization data 6 is effected, for example, optically, by laser in the case of a bar code, by a camera or another. Personalization data corresponding to the personalization data 6 are then written in a storage area of the integrated circuit during a step 10. The decorating and personalization procedure then completed. Of course, the invention is not limited to the described embodiment, and variants of embodiment may be provided without departing from the scope of the invention, as defined by the claims. In particular, although the invention has been described in relation to a card comprising only an integrated circuit, the invention is equally applicable to a card comprising both an integrated circuit and a magnetic track. In this case, you can either proceed to a unique recognition of the graphic personalization, and then carry out in sequence the electric personalization and the magnetic personalization, or on the contrary, perform an acknowledgment before each of these operations performed separately. Although in the described procedure, the printing of the decorative element and the printing of the personalization data are carried out simultaneously, the decorative element and the personalization data could be printed successively. Although the method according to the invention which has been described comprises a step of recognizing personalization data, the graphic personalization and electrical personalization steps can be performed card by card synchronously, so that the recognition stage is not necessary .