WO2001097169A1

WO2001097169A1 - Method for treating chips which are mounted on a carrier tape

Info

Publication number: WO2001097169A1
Application number: PCT/NL2001/000447
Authority: WO
Inventors: Benjamin Slager
Original assignee: Nedcard B.V.
Priority date: 2000-06-13
Filing date: 2001-06-13
Publication date: 2001-12-20
Also published as: AU7467101A

Abstract

Method for treating chips, mounted on a carrier tape, the contact surfaces of said chips being free accessible, according to which method the tape is unwounded from a first reel (16), guided along one or more treating stations (20, 22, 24) and wound onto a second reel (18), whereby one of said treating stations (24) comprises contact pins which are pressed onto the contact surfaces of the chip which is present in said station (24) so that a connection is formed between the chip and a test generator (26) for subjecting the chip to a test program. After finishing the test program the pins are connected to a load circuit (32) for loading an operating system into the chip.

Description

Method for treating chips which are mounted on a carrier tape

The invention relates to a method for treating chips, mounted on a carrier tape, the contact surfaces of said chips being free accessible, according to which method the tape is unwounded from a first reel, guided along one or more treating stations and wound onto a second reel, whereby one of said treating stations comprises contact pins which are pressed onto the contact surfaces of the chip which is present in said station so that a connection is formed between the chip and a test generator for subjecting the chip to a test program. Such a method may be part of a process for manufacturing chip pay cards, telephone cards, credit cards, etcetera. The chips, delivered from a chip manufacturing process, are mounted on a carrier tape having conductors through which the contact pins of the chips can be brought into contact with one or more bus lines extending over the whole length of the tape. Thereafter the tape is guided through a galvanising station whereby predetermined voltages are provided to the bus conductors such that a gold layer (or a layer of another suitable electrically conducting material) is deposited on the surface of the chip such that therewith the externally accessible contact surfaces are formed. At the end of this part of the process the tape is wound onto a reel. Thereafter a further part of the above-mentioned process is performed, whereby in a first station the conducting connections between the bus conductors and the chips are disturbed whereafter the tape is transported further to a second station in which the chip is tested.

Thereafter the tape is in general delivered to a separate receiving instance which takes care of programming the chips, i.e. loading the operating system into the memory and loading specific memory places with data for personalising the chip. For that purpose the tape is again wound off and guided along at least one programming station, where by means of pressed on pins a contact is realised between the inner part of the chip and the program generator. The generator takes care of loading the operating system into the chip so that the chip is ready to be personalised thereafter by loading personal data such as code numbers, etcetera, related specifically to a predetermined person. Before or after individualising the chip can be taken off from the carrier and mounted onto a card or similar device. An object of the invention is now to simplify the whole process carried out by the card producer such that the card producer only has to individualise the chip.

In agreement with said object the method is carried out such that after the test program the pins are connected with a load circuit for loading an operating system into the chip.

According to a further embodied development the inventive method is carried out such that after loading the operating system the pins are connected to a data source for loading specific data into the chip so that the chip becomes personalised.

The invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to the attached drawings.

Figure 1 illustrates schematically the applied method according to the prior art. Figure 2 illustrates schematically a method according to the invention. Figure 3 illustrates schematically a further developed method according to the invention. In figure 1 schematically the method according to the state of the art is presented.

The system which is applied according to the state of the art will be discussed with reference to figure 1. The whole method is subdivided into four stages, indicated with the phases A, B, C, and D. During phase A a wafer 10, supplied by a company which makes such wafers, is subdivided into the separate chips, whereby one of the chips is indicated by 12 in figure 1 and these separate chips are attached thereafter to the surface of a tape which is references by 14 in the figure. This tape is thereafter wound into a coil and ready for the treatments which will take place in phase B.

In phase B the tape 14 is unwound from the reel 16, guided along a number of treating stations and finally wound onto the reel 18. During the transfer from reel 16 to reel 18 the tape with the thereon mounted chips 12 will pass a number of stations, schematically indicated by 20 and 22, where the contact surfaces which thereafter should be accessible are manufactured, where the connections between the contact surfaces and the chips are realised and where the chip furthermore, with the exception of the contact surfaces, is completely encapsulated in a protecting material. All these steps are known as such and do not need any further explanation. With reference to the invention it is important that in phase B the tape also passes a station 24 in which the chip is subjected to a test process. The station 24 comprises a number of pins or other contacting elements which can be brought into contact with the now ready made contact surfaces. Because of that the generator 26 is able to carry out a test program by means of which the respective chip which is momentarily present in the station 24, will be tested. Eventually erroneously functioning chips are marked by the station 24 and thereafter the tape with the now tested chips is wound onto the reel 18. It is remarked that in phase A the chips as example are mounted in rows of two.

However, that is not necessary. Also one single row or more rows can be applied.

The reel 18 with the now tested tubes will in most cases be transported to another company where the chips will be loaded with programs and data and will be mounted onto telephone cards, pay cards, identification cards, etcetera. This company carries out the steps C and D whereby in step C the tape 14 with the now tested chips 12 is wound from the reel 18 and guided along a station 30 and wounded thereafter onto the reel 34. The station 30 is of the same type as station 24 and comprises pins or other contacting elements by means of which contact can be made with each of the chips on the tape 14 to load an operating system present in the generator 32 into the respective chip. At the end of this step C the tape 14, which is in the meantime wound onto the reel 34, carries chips which are both tested and loaded with an operating system.

Finally the step D has to be performed whereby the chips are taken off from the tape and are mounted onto a card or other carrier indicated by 36 in figure 1. The card 36 is guided through a station 38 where the card is personalised or individualised by loading the card with data in the form of code numbers, address data, etcetera, whereby the card gets a completely personalised or individualised character. The ultimately ready card is indicated by 36 A in figure 1.

The invention now proposes to simplify this whole process, at least partly in the way as is illustrated in figure 2. The simplified system according to the invention knows only three phases, i.e. A, B, and D. Phase A relates to the subdivision of the wafer in chips and mounting the chips on a tape 14. This phase is completely identical to phase A in figure 1. In phase B the tape 14 is first of all guided from the reel 16 along a number of treatment stations 20 and 22 in a manner identical to the manner described with reference to figure 1 and is finally guided along the station 24 where- after the tape is wound up onto the reel 18. In the station 24 through the thereto destined contact elements contact is made with the chip and a test program is performed by the generator 26 to establish correct functioning of the chip. At the end of this test program 26 the chip is loaded with an operating system which is derived from the source 32. The result thereof is the chips which are present onto the reel 18 are both tested and loaded with an operating system. As a result thereof the phase C indicated in figure 1 can be skipped and the reel 18 can be transferred to the company which finally makes the cards, etcetera through phase D of the system. Phase D is completely identical to phase D in figure 1. The end result of phase D is just as in figure 1 a collection of cards or other carriers 36A onto which chips are mounted which chips are completely loaded with an operating system and do comprise the necessary data to personalise the respective card 36A.

According to a preferred embodiment also phase D can be simplified by shifting a number of treatments carried out during said part of the operation to phase B. That is illustrated in figure 3. Phase A in figure 3 is again identical to phase A in figures 1 and 2 and does not need any further explanation.

In phase B the tape 14 is unwound from reel 16 and transported along stations 20, 22, and 24. Again in station 24 first of all the chips are tested through a program which is stored in the test generator 26. Thereafter the operating system is loaded from the generator 32 and following that data is supplied from a data source 40 so that therewith the respective chip is personalised or individualised. The result thereof is that the tape 14 on the reel 18 now comprises chips which are completely operational. In phase D in figure 3 it is only necessary to unwind tape 14 from reel 18, whereby the separate chips 12 are separated from the tape and are mounted onto a card or other carrier. In the figure this card is indicated by 36A to indicate that this is the completely operational ready card.

Claims

1. Method for treating chips, mounted on a carrier tape, the contact surfaces of said chips being free accessible, according to which method the tape is unwounded from a first reel, guided along one or more treating stations and wound onto a second reel, whereby one of said treating stations comprises contact pins which are pressed onto the contact surfaces of the chip which is present in said station so that a connection is formed between the chip and a test generator for subjecting the chip to a test program, characterised in that in that after finishing the test program the pins are connected to a load circuit for loading an operating system into the chip.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that after loading the operating system the pins are connected to a data source for loading specific data into the chip so that the chip becomes personalised.

3. Apparatus for performing the method according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the apparatus comprises a first memory for storing the test program and a second memory for storing the operating system, both memories being connected to the same treatment station.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3, characterised in that the apparatus comprises a third memory for storing said data source, said third memory being connecting to the same treatment station as indicated in claim 3.