TWM679084U - Metal sensor card with contactless sensing chip - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention provides a metal sensing card with a contactless sensing chip, comprising a card body, a contactless sensing chip, and a chip sensing antenna. The card body includes a first layered component and a second layered component; the first layered component is coupled to the second layered component, and the second layered component has a chip recess. The contactless sensing chip is disposed in the chip recess. The chip sensing antenna is disposed on the first layered component or the second layered component and electrically connected to the contactless sensing chip, and supplies a sensed current to the contactless sensing chip after sensing. The first layered component or the second layered component is made of a metal material, and the first layered component covers the contactless sensing chip in a shielding manner, preventing the contactless sensing chip from being exposed externally.

Description

Metal sensor card with contactless sensing chip

This work relates to the technical field of a sensor card, and more particularly to a metal sensor card with a contactless sensing chip.

In recent years, contactless sensor cards have been widely used in various applications such as access control, financial transactions, and identity verification. These contactless sensor cards typically include a contactless chip module and an antenna structure, exchanging data or verifying identity through sensed current. Traditional sensor cards are mostly made of plastic, with their contactless chips typically housed in recesses inside the card, and external openings corresponding to the chip's position to facilitate sensing functionality. However, if the chip is visibly exposed, it may be damaged or illegally removed, posing a potential risk to card security.

Furthermore, despite the wide range of applications for wireless sensor cards, they are also subject to many limitations, such as a very limited choice of card material. When the antenna of a wireless sensor card generates induced current, if the card material is a conductive material such as metal, the induced current will be interfered with or dissipated, thus failing to generate sufficient current to drive the chip. Therefore, wireless sensor cards are usually made of non-conductive materials such as PVC. However, PVC and other plastics lack sufficient physical strength and are easily broken or deformed due to bending or impact. Therefore, card materials with higher strength are needed to prevent damage. Thus, current technology has not completely solved the problem of "difficulty in integrating metal card bodies with sensing elements."

Furthermore, although the designs of cards, such as patterns and colors, can be continuously changed, for consumers, sensor cards are merely tools for consumption or identification, and are not significantly different from other types of cards in use. To enhance user willingness and enjoyment, sensor devices are designed with corresponding shapes to differentiate them from card-type sensor devices, and further enhance the user experience with sound and light effects. However, driving these additional prompting elements often creates conflicts in the design of the sensor chip itself, such as differences in power supply variations. This makes it difficult for the sensor device to simultaneously handle sensor operation and sound/light operation, failing to achieve the desired effect.

In conclusion, while traditional sensor cards or alternative sensor carriers have basic functionality, there is still room for improvement in areas such as "chip invisibility," "integration of sensor modules with metal materials," and "overall appearance design," especially in preventing the chip from being illegally damaged or copied, which is a key security requirement.

In view of the problems of the prior art described above, the purpose of this invention is to provide a metal sensing card with a non-contact sensing chip to solve the problems that need to be improved in the prior art.

To achieve the above objectives, this invention provides a metal sensing card with a contactless sensing chip, comprising a card body, a contactless sensing chip, and a chip sensing antenna. The card body includes a first layered structure and a second layered structure; the first layered structure is coupled to the second layered structure, and the second layered structure has a chip recess. The contactless sensing chip is disposed in the chip recess. The chip sensing antenna is disposed on the first layered structure or the second layered structure and electrically connected to the contactless sensing chip, and supplies a sensed current to the contactless sensing chip after sensing. The first layered component or the second layered component is made of metal, and the first layered component covers the non-contact sensing chip in a shielding manner so that the non-contact sensing chip is not exposed from the outside.

Preferably, the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip includes a protective layer disposed on one side of the first layered structure and opposite to the second layered structure.

Preferably, the protective layer is a printed layer.

Preferably, the second layered structure includes a prompting element recess; the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip includes a prompting element and a prompting element antenna; the prompting element is disposed in the prompting element recess; the prompting element antenna is disposed in the first layered structure or the second layered structure, and the chip sensing antenna and the prompting element antenna are each independently configured; the prompting element antenna is electrically connected to the prompting element antenna and supplies a sensing current to the prompting element after sensing; the first layered structure has an opening corresponding to the position of the prompting element.

Preferably, the opening is provided with a light-transmitting filling layer; the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip includes a pattern printing layer; the pattern printing layer has a light-transmitting area corresponding to the position of the opening.

Preferably, the operating power difference of the non-contact sensing chip is less than or greater than the operating power difference of the indication element.

Preferably, the first layered component is made of aluminum, copper, stainless steel, silver, gold, platinum, or an alloy thereof; the second layered component is made of a metal or plastic material, the plastic material including PVC, PE, ABS, PA, PEI, PET, PETG, or PS.

Preferably, when the first layered component or the second layered component is a metallic material, the first layered component or the second layered component includes a break.

Preferably, an absorbing layer is disposed between the induction antenna and the first or second layered component, which is made of a metallic material; the absorbing layer is made of an absorbing material, including graphene, graphite, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, ferrite or silicon carbide.

Preferably, the microwave absorbing layer is made of a microwave absorbing material, including graphene, graphite, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, ferrite or silicon carbide.

Preferably, the tear is serrated or straight. The tear extends inward from the long side of the card body, and its length is less than or greater than half the length of the short side. Alternatively, the tear is serrated or straight. Or, the tear extends inward from the short side of the card body, and its length is less than or greater than one-third of the length of the long side.

Preferably, the width of the tear is 0.5 mm to 2 mm. The thickness of the card body is 0.5 mm to 2 mm.

The following detailed description of the technical features of this invention, with specific examples and accompanying diagrams, will make it easy for those skilled in the art to understand the purpose, technical features, and advantages of this invention.

The advantages, features, and technical methods of this invention will be described in more detail and made easier to understand with reference to the exemplary embodiments and accompanying drawings. This invention can be implemented in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, the embodiments provided will make this disclosure more thorough, comprehensive, and complete in conveying the scope of this invention to those skilled in the art. This invention will be defined only by the appended claims.

It should be understood that although the terms "first," "second," etc., may be used in this work to describe various elements, components, regions, sections, layers, and/or parts, these elements, components, regions, sections, layers, and/or parts should not be limited by these terms. These terms are used only to distinguish one element, component, region, section, layer, and/or part from another element, component, region, section, layer, and/or part.

In this specification, the terms "comprising," "including," or any other variation thereof are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Unless otherwise specified, an element defined by the phrase "comprising a…" does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes that element.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms used in this work (including technical and scientific terms) have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the field to which this work pertains. It will be further understood that terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with their meaning in the relevant technical and contextual context of this work, and will not be interpreted as having an idealized or overly formal meaning unless expressly defined herein.

It should also be understood that the terminology used in this work is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the work. As used in this specification and/or the scope of the appended patent applications, the singular forms of "a" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Please refer to Figures 1 through 3. Figure 1 is an exploded view of the first embodiment of the metal sensor card with a contactless sensing chip of this invention. Figure 2 is an assembled view of the first embodiment of the metal sensor card with a contactless sensing chip of this invention. Figure 3 is a layered structure view of the first embodiment of the metal sensor card with a contactless sensing chip of this invention. The metal sensor card with a contactless sensing chip of this invention can be mainly applied to electronic tickets such as identification cards, credit cards, general debit cards, debit cards, EasyCards, and iPasses. As shown in the figures, the metal sensor card 1 with a contactless sensing chip of this invention mainly includes a card body 2, a contactless sensing chip 3, and a chip sensing antenna 51.

The card body 2 includes a first layered component 21 and a second layered component 22. The first layered component 21 is coupled to the second layered component 22; where coupling refers to methods such as bonding, fusion, or pressing. The second layered component 22 is provided with a chip recess 23; where recess refers to an accommodating space that does not penetrate or pass through the second layered component. The first layered component 21 or the second layered component 22 may be provided with an antenna recess, for example, the first layered component 21 is provided with an antenna recess, or the second layered component 22 is provided with an antenna recess.

To prevent the chip 3 from being exposed, in this embodiment, the first layered component 21 covers the non-contact sensing chip 3 in a shielding manner, so that the chip is not exposed from the outside of the card, thereby improving its appearance integrity and damage resistance.

The contactless sensing chip 3 is a contactless control chip that senses an electronic device via near-field communication for identification or transaction procedures. The contactless sensing chip 3 is disposed in a chip recess 23. The chip sensing antenna 51 is disposed in one of the antenna recesses of the first layered component 21 or the second layered component 22, and is electrically connected to the contactless sensing chip 3, and supplies a sensed current to the contactless sensing chip 3 after sensing.

It is worth mentioning that the first layer component 21 or both the first layer component 21 and the second layer component 22 can be made of metal. Conventional chip-based contactless cards, for reasons such as production cost and weight reduction, mostly use plastics such as PVC as the material, thus sacrificing card strength and aesthetic appeal. This invention uses at least one layer of metal to enhance both strength and aesthetics. In this embodiment, the first layer component 21 is made of metal, and the second layer component 22 is made of plastic. The metal material is one of aluminum, copper, stainless steel, silver, gold, platinum, or their alloys. The plastic material includes PVC, PE, ABS, PA, PEI, PET, PETG, or PS.

The first layered component 21, made of metal, may have a notch 26. The notch 26 is visible from the front of the first layered component 21, and even the chip sensing antenna 51 is visible. Because the metal sensing card 1 of this invention includes the notch 26, the first layered component 21, made of metal, will not affect the antenna's generation of induced current when the sensed magnetic field changes. Therefore, it can still generate induced current to drive the non-contact sensing chip 3 to read information from the chip. The non-contact sensing chip 3 is positioned in a fixed location to match a conventional chip reader, while the notch 26 can be configured arbitrarily. For example, when the notch 26 is located on the long side of the first layered component 21, its length can be less than half or greater than half the short side. When the opening 26 is located on the short side of the first layered component 21, its length can be less than 1/3 or greater than 1/3 of the long side. The opening 26 can be located in any manner, but its extension must cross the antenna groove so that the antenna can be used normally. The width of the opening 26 can be from 0.5mm to 2mm, preferably from 0.5mm to 1mm.

Incidentally, either the first layer component 21 or the second layer component 22 can have grooves, patterns, or designs formed on their surfaces through laser engraving, stamping, or any other method to enhance the aesthetics of the metal-sensor card. The thickness of the first layer component 21 and the second layer component 22 after being stacked can be from 0.5mm to 2mm, preferably from 0.5mm to 1mm. This improves the texture of the metal-sensor card while maintaining its physical strength.

Preferably, the metal sensor card 1 with a non-contact sensing chip of this invention may include a protective layer 61; the protective layer 61 is disposed on one side of the first layered component 21 and opposite to the second layered component 22. The protective layer 61 can prevent moisture or foreign objects from contacting the antenna, thereby protecting the antenna and increasing structural strength. The protective layer 61 may be a printed layer, on which a predetermined pattern or a specific pattern is printed. The opening 26 may be covered by the protective layer 61 or correspond to the predetermined pattern or the specific pattern in any form such as straight lines or serrations, to reduce the visual abruptness of the opening 26. In addition, the arrangement of the opening 26 can also be used as an additional aesthetic design, and this invention is not limited to this.

With the above structural configuration, this embodiment can effectively integrate sensing function, chip shielding, security protection and metal appearance, and is suitable for high-end access cards, identity cards or financial cards.

Please also refer to Figures 4, 5, and 6, which are related schematic diagrams of a second embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of this invention. In this embodiment, the components with the same component symbols are configured and operated in the same or similar manner as in the aforementioned embodiments, and the similarities will not be described again here.

As shown in the figure, the second embodiment includes all the elements and structures of the first embodiment described above, and further includes a prompting element 4 and a corresponding prompting element sensing antenna 52. The prompting element 4 may be, for example, a light-emitting diode or a buzzer, which is used to provide feedback effects when sensing, such as emitting light or sound.

Structurally, the second layered component 22 is additionally provided with a prompting element groove 24, in which the prompting element 4 is embedded. This can be a prompting device without data processing functions, such as an LED or a buzzer. The first layered component 21 or the second layered component 22 may have two antenna grooves. For example, the first layered component 21 may have two antenna grooves, or the second layered component 22 may have two antenna grooves, or both the first layered component 21 and the second layered component 22 may each have one antenna groove. Therefore, the chip sensing antenna 51 and the prompting element sensing antenna 52 can be simultaneously disposed in the first layered component 21 or the second layered component 22; or, the chip sensing antenna 51 and the prompting element sensing antenna 52 can be respectively disposed in the first layered component 21 and the second layered component 22.

It is worth mentioning that the indicator antenna 52 and the chip antenna 51 are configured independently, resulting in less interference between them in the sensing magnetic field. This facilitates independent control of the required power supply, making the operation of the contactless sensing chip 3 and the indicator antenna 4 more efficient. In use, when the card reader emits sensing energy, the chip antenna 51 and the indicator antenna 52 can simultaneously receive the sensing energy. The former drives the contactless sensing chip 3 to perform communication, while the latter drives the indicator antenna 4 to emit light or sound, providing the user with a sensory prompt to identify whether the card reading was successful.

To ensure the illumination of the indicator element 4, the first layered component 21 has an opening 25 corresponding to the position of the indicator element. A light-transmitting filling layer 7 can be provided in the opening 25 to fill the opening and guide light while providing physical protection. Alternatively, a light-transmitting area 63 can be provided on the protective layer 61 or the pattern printing layer 62, corresponding to the position of the opening 25, to provide better visual penetration. In different embodiments, the opening 25 can also be directly covered by the pattern printing layer 62. It is worth mentioning that the positions of the indicator element 4, the opening 25, and the light-transmitting area 63 can be configured to correspond to a predetermined pattern or a specific pattern, such as on the pearl of a dragon spitting out a pearl, or in the eyes of a person, animal, or mythical beast. The opening 26 can be covered by the protective layer 61 or correspond to a predetermined or specific pattern in any form, such as a straight line or a serrated edge, to reduce the visual abruptness of the opening 26. Furthermore, the arrangement of the opening 26 can also serve as additional aesthetic design; this work is not limited to this.

Furthermore, the driving power supply voltages for the contactless sensing chip 3 and the indicator element 4 can be designed differently. For example, the sensing chip can operate at 1.8V, while the indicator element requires a voltage of 2.5V or higher to activate, thus preventing false triggering of the indicator element due to low-intensity sensing. This differential power supply design helps improve the overall stability of the system and the accuracy of card reading.

In different embodiments, both the first layered component 21 and the second layered component 22 may be made of metal. Both the first layered component 21 and the second layered component 22 are provided with a notch 26. Because the metal sensor card 1 with a non-contact sensing chip of this invention includes the notch 26, when the sensed magnetic field changes, the first layered component 21 and the second layered component 22 made of metal will not affect the antenna generating an induced current. Therefore, an induced current can still be generated to drive the non-contact sensing chip 3 to read information from the chip and to drive the indicator element 4 to emit light.

Through the above design, this embodiment not only has the concealment and sensing function of the first embodiment, but also provides real-time prompts and feedback, which is suitable for application scenarios that need to enhance the user response experience, such as financial transaction cards, commuter transportation cards, etc., and improves the overall ease of operation and recognition clarity.

Please refer to Figure 7, which is a schematic diagram of the layered structure of the third embodiment of the metal sensor card with prompting elements of this invention. In this embodiment, the elements with the same element symbols are arranged and operated in the same or similar manner as in the aforementioned embodiments, and the similarities will not be described again here.

As shown in the figure, in this embodiment, the first layered component 21 is made of metal, while the second layered component 22 is made of plastic. The main difference from the previous embodiment is that an absorbing layer 8 is provided between the chip sensing antenna 51 and the prompting element sensing antenna 52 and the first or second layered component 21 (made of metal). In this embodiment, the absorbing layer 8 is located between the first layered component 21 and the antenna. The absorbing layer 8 is made of absorbing materials, including graphene, graphite, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, ferrite, or silicon carbide. The absorbing layer 8 eliminates interference from the radio frequency sensing of the metal sensor card 1, allowing the metal sensor card 1 to operate normally.

In different embodiments, both the first layered component 21 and the second layered component 22 are made of metal. An absorbing layer 8 is disposed between the chip sensing antenna 51 and the prompting element sensing antenna 52 and the first layered component 21 and the second layered component 22 made of metal.

Through the above design, this embodiment not only has the concealment and sensing function of the first embodiment, but also provides real-time prompts and feedback, which is suitable for application scenarios that need to enhance the user response experience, such as financial transaction cards, commuter transportation cards, etc., and improves the overall ease of operation and recognition clarity.

In summary, this invention provides a metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip. By embedding the sensing chip within the layered structure of the metal card body and covering the chip location in a shielding manner, the chip is not exposed externally, effectively improving the security and structural integrity of the sensor card. Compared to traditional designs with exposed chips or requiring corresponding holes, this invention achieves a hole-free appearance while maintaining stable sensing performance. Furthermore, this metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip uses metal as its card body, providing higher physical strength and preventing damage upon bending. Moreover, the use of a metal card body allows for polishing and engraving on the card surface, enhancing the overall aesthetics. In addition, the metal sensor card with non-contact sensing chip in this invention can provide the sensing current required by the non-contact sensing chip and the prompting element respectively through the dual antenna configuration, so as to avoid the problem that the metal sensor card cannot simultaneously perform sensing and light emission operations when different electronic components are subjected to different power supply conditions.

In the embodiments provided in this work, it should be understood that the disclosed devices can be implemented in other ways. For example, the above embodiments can be arbitrarily combined and applied without conflict; for example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative, and the division of the modules is merely a logical functional division, and other division methods may be used in actual implementation; for example, multiple modules or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed.

The modules described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as modules may or may not be physical modules; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network modules. Some or all of the modules can be selected to achieve the purpose of the embodiment according to actual needs.

Furthermore, in the various embodiments of this invention, the functional modules can be integrated into a single processor, or each module can exist as a separate physical entity, or two or more modules can be integrated into a single module. The integrated modules described above can be implemented in hardware or as software functional modules.

The above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the technical solutions of this invention and are not intended to limit it. Although the invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that modifications can still be made to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent substitutions can be made to some of the technical features. Such modifications or substitutions do not cause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to deviate from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of this invention.

1: Metal sensor card with non-contact sensing chip 2: Card body 21: First layer structure 22: Second layer structure 23: Chip recess 24: Indicator element recess 25: Opening 26: Split 3: Non-contact sensing chip 4: Indicator element 51: Chip sensing antenna 52: Indicator element sensing antenna 61: Protective layer 62: Pattern printing layer 63: Light-transmitting area 7: Light-transmitting filling layer 8: Wave-absorbing layer

To more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, the accompanying drawings used in the description of the present invention will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the accompanying drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, other accompanying drawings can be obtained based on these accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is an exploded schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the layered structure of a first embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of the present invention.

Figure 4 is an exploded schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the layered structure of a second embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the layered structure of a first embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of the present invention.

Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the layered structure of a third embodiment of the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip of the present invention.

1: Metal sensor card with contactless sensing chip

2: The Card Itself

21: First layered structure

22: Second layered structure

23: Wafer Groove

26: Breach

3: Non-contact sensing chip

51: Chip-based sensor antenna

61: Protective Layer

Claims (12)

A metal sensing card with a non-contact sensing chip includes: a card body comprising a first layered component and a second layered component; the first layered component being attached to the second layered component; wherein the second layered component has a chip recess; a non-contact sensing chip disposed in the chip recess; and a chip sensing antenna disposed on the first layered component or the second layered component and electrically connected to the non-contact sensing chip, and supplying a sensing current to the non-contact sensing chip after sensing. The first layered component or the second layered component is made of metal, and the first layered component covers the non-contact sensing chip in a shielding manner so that the non-contact sensing chip is not exposed from the outside. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 1, wherein the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip includes a protective layer disposed on one side of the first layered structure and opposite to the second layered structure. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 2, wherein the protective layer is a printed layer. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 1, wherein the second layered component includes a prompting element recess; the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip includes a prompting element and a prompting element antenna; the prompting element is disposed in the prompting element recess; the prompting element antenna is disposed in the first layered component or the second layered component, and the chip sensing antenna and the prompting element antenna are each independently configured; the prompting element antenna is electrically connected to the prompting element antenna and supplies a sensing current to the prompting element after sensing; the first layered component has an opening corresponding to the position of the prompting element. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 4, wherein the opening is provided with a light-transmitting filling layer; the metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip includes a pattern printing layer; the pattern printing layer is provided with a light-transmitting area corresponding to the opening. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 5, wherein the operating power difference of the non-contact sensing chip is less than or greater than the operating power difference of the indicator element. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the metal material of the first layer is one of aluminum, copper, stainless steel, silver, gold, platinum or an alloy thereof; and the second layer is a metal material or a plastic material, wherein the plastic material includes PVC, PE, ABS, PA, PEI, PET, PETG or PS. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 7, wherein when the first layered component or the second layered component is a metal material, the first layered component or the second layered component includes a break. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 8, wherein an absorbing layer is disposed between the sensing antenna and the first layered component or the second layered component, which is made of metal; the absorbing layer is made of an absorbing material, including graphene, graphite, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, ferrite or silicon carbide. The metal sensor card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 9, wherein the absorbing layer is made of a microwave absorbing material, including graphene, graphite, carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, ferrite, or silicon carbide. The metal sensing card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 10, wherein the nick is serrated or straight; the nick extends inward from the long side of the card body and its length is less than 1/2 or greater than 1/2 of the short side; the nick is serrated or straight; the nick extends inward from the short side of the card body and its length is less than 1/3 or greater than 1/3 of the long side. The metal sensing card with a non-contact sensing chip as described in claim 11, wherein the width of the opening is 0.5 mm to 2 mm; and the thickness of the card body is 0.5 mm to 2 mm.