WO2001008091A1

WO2001008091A1 - Electronic label and method for making same

Info

Publication number: WO2001008091A1
Application number: PCT/FR2000/002045
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bernard Calvas; Jean-Christophe Fidalgo; Philippe Patrice
Original assignee: Gemplus
Priority date: 1999-07-23
Filing date: 2000-07-13
Publication date: 2001-02-01
Also published as: AU6576200A; FR2796760A1; FR2796760B1

Abstract

The invention concerns a method for making an electronic label for use in particular for identifying and/or tracking objects, comprising a chip connected to a communication interface with antenna and/or contact pads, said method comprising steps which consist in: providing rather thin large-sized integrated circuits (2) on a support (6), said integrated circuit comprising output pads on their active face; producing, in particular by printing or fixing, said communication interface inside the surface area of said active face, and producing connections; and, if required, cutting out individual circuits each comprising and electronic label.

Description

ELECTRONIC LABEL AND METHOD FOR ITS MANUFACTURE

The present invention relates to the manufacture of integrated circuit devices useful as electronic labels. It relates more particularly to an economical process for the production of electronic labels.

Electronic tags are typically used for identification and / or tracking. They comprise an integrated circuit connected to a communication interface with inductive antenna, hereinafter simply called antenna, and / or with contact pads.

The term “integrated circuits” is understood here to mean both simple integrated circuits and integrated circuits also comprising passive elements, such as for example capacitors, resistors, inductors, etc., as in the case of logic circuits with resistors. capacitors-transistors (RCTL, in English resistor-capacitor-transistor logic). The integrated circuit constituting the chip is electrically connected to a spiral antenna. The antenna is an interface element, which must be connected with appropriate pins of the microcircuit.

In all existing electronic label type integrated circuit products, the microcircuit occupies a small proportion of the space covered by said electronic label.

Both the making of the connections and the positioning of the integrated circuit chip with respect to the connection areas and to the conductive tracks require very high precision and delicate and consequently expensive operations.

The main object of the present invention is to provide less expensive means for the manufacture of electronic labels. Another object of the invention is to provide an electronic label comprising the original support with which the integrated circuit has been provided.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for the manufacture of electronic labels with a reduced number of operating steps.

Another object of the invention is to provide an electronic label comprising a less fragile microcircuit, in particular less brittle, than those produced with thick silicon wafers.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide an electronic tag which can also function both with contact and without contact, via a communication interface with antenna and / or with contact pads.

The invention provides a method for manufacturing an electronic label which can be used in particular for identifying and / or tracking objects, comprising a chip connected to a communication interface with antenna and / or contact pads, said method comprising the steps of: providing thin and large integrated circuits on a support, said integrated circuits having output pads on their active face, producing, in particular by printing or fixing, said interface inside the 'area of said active face, and to make connections, and if necessary cut individual circuits each constituting an electronic label.

According to a preferred form of implementation of the method according to the invention, the wafer is fitted with integrated circuits with pads or "bumps" by a known technique, and the interface is printed or formed by metallization or otherwise fixed of communication so that it is fully circumscribed in the area of the active surface of the integrated circuit.

According to the invention, preferably integrated circuit boards or integrated circuits having a thickness of approximately 3 to 20 μm are used. The plate is practically transparent and flexible at this thickness.

The integrated circuit chips used advantageously have a surface area greater than 0.5 cm ² and preferably between 1 and 10 cm ² . According to one embodiment, the wafer or the integrated circuit can be fixed on a support by means of an adhesive, while according to the cases said support is peelable leaving the adhesive material on the integrated circuit or said integrated circuit is peelable by leaving the adhesive material on the support.

If said support is sufficiently thin and flexible, it can be kept as original support to constitute labels or rolls of electronic labels according to the invention. If, on the contrary, said plastic support is more rigid or less thin, the presence of a peelable adhesive is desirable, since it is thus easy to separate the integrated circuit board from its support and transfer it to a new thin and flexible support. The electronic labels produced according to the invention can thus comprise the original support of the integrated circuit, a part of said support and / or another added support. Such a support can be, in particular made of plastic or paper, among others.

It is possible, if desired, to treat the active face of said wafers in order to improve the wettability, the grip and / or the electrical conductivity. Interface connections are made to the right of the chip's output pads and / or by means of routing. For the implementation of the method according to the invention, the communication interface with antenna and / or with contact pads, and optionally conductive tracks, can be produced by a printing process such as, for example, screen printing, pad printing, inkjet printing, spray or spraying through a mask or stencil, vacuum evaporation, and / or by a metallization process such as, for example, electrolytic deposition, non-electrolytic deposition, a metallization initiation process or any other known metallization process, implemented according to an appropriate metallization grid.

It is also possible to fix on said active face of the integrated circuit, preferably by means of an adhesive, connection pads and possibly a wound or printed antenna previously formed.

Advantageously, the printing or the fixing on the active face of the integrated circuits is carried out on a wafer or wafer of silicon or other semiconductor materials comprising the integrated circuits concerned, before cutting this wafer or wafer into individual chips. In practice, the individual chips are obtained by cutting, in particular by sawing along appropriate lines, the semiconductor wafer.

In this advantageous form of implementation of the method according to the invention, the operation is preferably carried out on a wafer of semiconductor material on a support, comprising a plurality of integrated circuits arranged in practice in a square matrix and the cutting of which into individual chips is then carried out according to cutting plans which follow lines and columns of this matrix. Two high-speed steps are then sufficient for the production of the electronic labels thus produced. As a variant, the printing or fixing step according to the invention of the communication interface can be carried out on a continuous strip carrying a succession, advantageously over several rows, of individual chips placed on an appropriate support material.

The method according to the invention also advantageously comprises at least one step of applying a varnish and / or a label to the external surfaces of the integrated circuit to be protected, outside of the connection pads.

The subject of the invention is also an electronic label which can be used in particular for identifying and / or tracking objects, comprising a chip connected to a communication interface with antenna and / or contact pads, said electronic label comprising: a integrated circuit of small thickness and large size on a support, a communication interface with antenna and / or contact pads, electrically connected to output pads located on the active face of said integrated circuit, and produced, in particular by printing or fixing, inside the area of said active face.

Another object of the invention is a set of such electronic labels, produced on a wafer of integrated circuits, and the subsequent cutting of which gives individual electronic labels in accordance with the invention.

According to a first option, a thin adhesive, having a calibrated thickness of a few micrometers, is placed between the integrated circuit wafer support and said wafer. Such an adhesive has the advantage of allowing the support / adhesive / antenna complex to retain all of its flexibility and therefore to withstand stresses resulting from bending or twisting, for example. Such an adhesive can be a thermosetting or thermoplastic adhesive material, activated by UV radiation or crosslinkable to UV, activatable or crosslinkable under the effect of a quantity of heat, or else sensitive to pressure. Before being used according to the invention, such an adhesive may have been printed, for example by ink jet, spraying, screen printing, offset or pad printing, or may have been deposited with a brush, transferred by transfer from a film. , deposited after cutting a film or applied by pressure deposition of a small ball of adhesive, on the face of the support intended to receive the integrated circuit board.

As an option and depending on the applications envisaged, said integrated circuit can be fixed to a support by means of an adhesive, said support being peelable leaving the adhesive material on the integrated circuit, or even said integrated circuit being peelable leaving the material adhesive on the support.

It may be a thermoplastic adhesive, a two-phase thermosetting adhesive, a hot-reactivatable adhesive or activatable by light radiation, in particular under UV, or a pressure-activatable adhesive.

Other particularities and advantages of the present invention will emerge from the description which follows, given by way of illustrative and nonlimiting example, and made with reference to the appended figures, which represent:

Fig. 1, a top view of a portion of integrated circuit board on which antenna turns have been printed, so as to constitute electronic labels according to an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2, a front elevation view of the plate portion according to FIG. 1, after cutting for individualization of the electronic labels. The integrated circuit board 1 comprises chips 2, intended to be separated along lines 3.3 ′ and advantageously provided on their active face with studs (not shown) at the right of which are printed or fixed an antenna 4 and the studs 5, 5 'of the antenna ends ensuring the connection with them. The plate is itself carried by a support 6.

The support material 6 is preferably chosen from paper and plastics, in particular of the poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polycarbonate type.

(PC), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene polymer (ABS), polystyrene (PS), poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), poly (vmyl chloride)

(PVC), polyethylene (PE), polyamide (PA), polyimide (PI), polyether imide (PEI) and polypropylene (PP), or any other suitable material.

The material of the support 6 is advantageously coated with an adhesive with high adhesiveness, such as for example an epoxy resin with high adhesion, on which is fixed the face opposite to the active face of said integrated circuit.

For the practical use of the electronic tags according to the invention, equipment is proposed according to the invention, preferably portable, capable of receiving discs of tags forming an assembly as indicated above (obtained from integrated circuits not separated) and arranged to allow the removal of individual labels, with or without their substrate, and their transfer to the target product to be labeled. The invention therefore also relates to such equipment for the distribution of labels according to the invention, comprising: means for receiving discs of electronic labels grouped on integrated circuit boards according to the invention, means for removing one or more of said electronic labels, with or without the substrate carrying the wafers, and means for transferring the labels taken from a target product to be labeled.

As a variant, the labels initially grouped on such a disc can be previously transferred to a flexible support, advantageously in the form of a strip in order to allow them to be rolled up, for their storage and distribution as required.

The invention therefore also relates to a set of such electronic labels on a roll. These means can be grouped in an apparatus of the type of those conventionally used for the distribution of labels in big box stores. Such a device is compact, has a large capacity and allows a transfer of the labels on the target products at a high rate.

Claims

1. Method for manufacturing an electronic label usable in particular for the identification and / or tracking of objects, comprising a chip connected to a communication interface with antenna and / or contact pads, said method comprising the steps consisting in: providing integrated circuits (2) of small thickness and large size on a support (6), said integrated circuits having output pads on their active face, producing, in particular by printing or fixing, said communication interface to 1 inside the area of said active face, and to make connections, and if necessary cut individual circuits each constituting an electronic label.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises the formation by printing or metallization of said communication interface, which is entirely circumscribed in the area of the active surface of the integrated circuit (2).

3. Method according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that wafers (1) of integrated circuits or integrated circuits are used which are approximately 3 to 20 μm thick, said integrated circuits having a surface greater than 0.5 cm ² and preferably between 1 and 10 cm ² .

4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that said wafer or said integrated circuit is fixed on a support (6) by means of an adhesive, said support being peelable leaving the adhesive material on the integrated circuit.

5. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that said wafer or said integrated circuit is fixed to a support (6) by means of an adhesive, said integrated circuit being peelable leaving the adhesive material on the support.

6. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that said support is made of plastic or paper.

7. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that the active face of said wafers is treated in order to improve the wettability, the grip and / or the electrical conductivity.

8. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the printing or the fixing on the active face of the integrated circuits (2) is carried out on a wafer comprising the integrated circuits concerned, before cutting this wafer or slice into individual chips.

9. Method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that it further comprises at least one step of applying a varnish and / or a label to the external surfaces of the integrated circuit to be protected , outside the connection periods (5.5 ').

10. Electronic label usable in particular for the identification and / or tracking of objects, comprising a chip connected to a communication interface with antenna and / or with contact pads, characterized in that it comprises: an integrated circuit ( 2) thin and large in size on a support (6), and - said communication interface, electrically connected to output pads located on the active face of said integrated circuit and produced, in particular by printing or fixing, to the inside the area of said active face.

11. Electronic label according to claim 10, characterized in that it comprises the support original circuit or part of said support.

12. Electronic label according to claim 10, characterized in that said support is chosen from paper and one or more plastic materials of PMMA, PC, ABS, PS, PET, PEN, PVC, PE, PA, PI, PEI and PP.

13. Electronic label according to claim 10, characterized in that said integrated circuit is fixed on a support (6) by means of an adhesive, said support being peelable leaving the adhesive material on the integrated circuit.

14. Electronic label according to claim 10, characterized in that said integrated circuit is fixed to a support (6) by means of an adhesive, said integrated circuit being peelable leaving the adhesive material on the support.

15. Set of non-separate electronic labels, produced on a wafer (1) of integrated circuits, and the subsequent cutting of which gives individual electronic labels according to any one of claims 10 to 14.

16. Set of electronic labels, obtained according to any one of claims 1 to 9, in the form of a roll.

17. Equipment for the distribution of electronic labels according to claim 10, comprising: means for receiving discs of electronic labels grouped in the form of a roll, means for picking up one or more of said electronic labels, with or without the support carrying the plates, and means for transferring the labels taken from or from a target product to be labeled.