JPH0256751A - Formation of card-shaped memory medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily and inexpensively produce an optical card by selectively driving the respective elements of thin film semiconductor light emitting element arrays according to data while relatively moving the arrays and the card-shaped recording medium. CONSTITUTION:A sheet 21 having a photosensitive layer has the width equiv. to one sheet of the optical card to be formed and is transported at a constant speed in an arrow direction. Three pieces of the thin film semiconoductor light emitting arrays (TFEL) TELs 22-1 to 22-3 are used and are so disposed as to trisect the sheet 21 in the transverse direction. The respective TFELs are subjected to the driving control according to the information to be recorded while the sheet 21 is transported. Luminous fluxes are projected through lenses 23-1 to 23-3 to the corresponding recording blocks of the sheet 21 and plural sets of the data are successively recorded simultaneously on the sheet in the direction orthognal with the transporting direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for producing a card-shaped recording medium.

(Prior art) For example, as a method for producing an optical card, a sheet having a photosensitive layer is used, this sheet is exposed to pattern light through a mask formed according to the information to be recorded, and then developed, and then the sheet is used as a card base. Conventionally, optical cards having recorded information, so-called ROM cards, are obtained by adhering the optical fiber to a material and then cutting it into card units.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional optical card manufacturing method, a mask corresponding to the information to be recorded is formed by scanning a laser beam, which increases the cost of the mask, which makes it especially difficult for small numbers. In the case of producing several optical cards, there are problems in that the cost per optical card increases and it takes a long time to produce the optical card.

In order to solve these problems, the applicant proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 63-3142 that the light beams from a large number of semiconductor lasers are guided through optical fibers to a predetermined position on a sheet for making an optical card. We have already proposed a method in which a sheet is directly exposed to light by driving these semiconductor lasers in accordance with the data to be recorded, thereby recording a plurality of data simultaneously. According to this optical card creation method, optical cards can be created without using grids, so
It has the advantage that optical cards can be produced in a short time and at low cost.

However, as a result of studies by the present inventors, it has been found that there are points to be improved in this optical card manufacturing method as described below.

In other words, in this optical card manufacturing method, a large number of semiconductor lasers are used, and the light beams from these semiconductor lasers are each guided to a predetermined position on the sheet via an optical fiber. Becomes complex and expensive.

This invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to easily and inexpensively create an information recording device for creating a card-like recording medium such as a mask or an optical card corresponding to recorded information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for producing a card-shaped recording medium that can also produce a recording medium at low cost.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention uses a thin film semiconductor light emitting element array capable of simultaneously projecting a plurality of light beams, and connects this thin film semiconductor light emitting element array and a recording medium in a direction perpendicular to the extending direction of the thin film semiconductor light emitting element array. While moving the thin film semiconductor light emitting element array relative to the light emitting element array, each light emitting element of the thin film semiconductor light emitting element array is selectively driven according to the data to be recorded, thereby simultaneously recording a plurality of data on the recording medium.

[For production]

As the thin film semiconductor light emitting element array, for example, a thin film semiconductor in which fine light emitting elements are arranged in a row recently developed by the Westinghouse Company in the United States can be used. This thin film semiconductor light emitting element array is a TFEL
(Thin Film Electr.

It takes advantage of the fact that the light emitted from the end face of a zinc sulfide thin film is more than 100 times brighter than the light emitted from the surface of the thin film.One electrode of each light emitting element is connected in common, and this common By applying a required voltage between the electrode and the other electrode of each light emitting element via a switch, it is possible to selectively cause the plurality of light emitting elements to emit light. Therefore, by driving and controlling each light emitting element of this TFEL according to the data to be recorded, a plurality of data can be recorded simultaneously, and the apparatus can be made simpler and cheaper than when using a large number of semiconductor lasers.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows the structure of an example of an optical card as a card-shaped recording medium produced according to the present invention. This optical card 1 has two recording areas 11a and 11b formed on its front surface so that information can be read by inserting the front surface into an optical card reader with the front side reversed. In order to detect the relative position with respect to the reading position in the optical card reader, each recording area 11a,
Position detection marks 12a and 12b are formed corresponding to llb. Further, in each recording area 11a, llb, a large number of tracks are formed extending in the direction of insertion into the optical card reader, and seek portions 13a; 13b, 14aH14b are formed in which track numbers and the like are recorded at both ends of these tracks. At the same time, data sections 15a and 15b in which necessary information is recorded between the seek sections are also formed.

As shown in FIG. 2 for track 16 of one recording area 11a, each track has a clock pattern for clock generation consisting of a black pattern at equal intervals across a seek section 13a, a data section 15a, and a seek section 13b in the center. form 17. Also, a seek section 13a.

A track number pattern representing the track number is formed in 13b, and a fixed recognition pattern common to each track for recognizing this track number pattern is formed. Further, in the data section 15a, each track 16 is provided with a plurality of frames 18, and frames for recognizing each frame are provided between adjacent frames and between the seek sections 13a, 13b and the adjacent frames 18. Form a number pattern. In this manner, in this example, 8-bit data is recorded on each side of the clock pattern 17, and these data are read simultaneously in synchronization with the clock pattern 17. Tracks in the other recording area 11b are similarly formed.

3A and 3B are a front view and a plan view for explaining an example of the process of exposing a sheet 21 having a photosensitive layer to light according to information in order to create the optical card 1 shown in FIG. 1. The sheet 21 is, for example, a roll-shaped sheet having a width equivalent to one optical card to be produced, and is unrolled and conveyed at a constant speed with good flatness in the longitudinal direction as shown by the arrow. In this example, three TPELs 22-1 to 22-3 are used, and these TFELs 22-1 to 22-3 extend in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the sheet 21 so as to divide the sheet 21 into three in the width direction. These TFII! L22-1~22-
A plurality of pieces of data are simultaneously and sequentially recorded in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction by projecting the light beams from 3 onto the corresponding recording blocks of the sheet 21 via lenses 23-1 to 23-3, respectively.

Each of TPEL22-1 to 22-3 is one TF
i! As shown in FIG. 4, part of L22-1 is attached to the substrate 25.
A plurality of thin film semiconductor light emitting elements 26-1 to 26 are arranged corresponding to the data recording position in the sheet width direction of the recording block corresponding to the recording block.
- form and configure n. That is, in the parts constituting the tracks, as shown in FIG. 5, there is a thin film semiconductor light emitting device 27 for forming a clock pattern 17 (see FIG. 2) corresponding to each track, and a thin film semiconductor light emitting device 27 on both sides thereof. Bit data (including track number pattern, recognition pattern, and frame number pattern in Figure 2)
Thin film semiconductor light receiving elements 28-1 to 28- for forming
16 is provided.

In FIG. 4, one electrode of the light emitting elements 26-1 to 26-n is connected to a common electrode 31, and switches 32-1 to 32-n are connected between this common electrode 31 and the other electrode, respectively. Connect the power supply 33. In this way, the switches 32 to 1 to 32-n are controlled according to the data to be recorded to drive the corresponding light emitting elements, and the light beams emitted from the end faces of the light emitting elements are directed to the lens 23-1 (see FIG. 3A).

(see B) to the corresponding data recording position,
The sheet 21 is exposed as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 6, hatched areas indicate exposed data recording positions.

After the sheet 21 is exposed to light and data is recorded in the manner described above, the state of data recorded on the sheet 21 is inspected after performing current handling processing and the like. FIG. 7 shows the configuration of an example of the inspection device. In this example, a thin film semiconductor light emitting element 35 having a linear light emitting end face is used as a light source,
While conveying the sheet 21 in the longitudinal direction, the sheet 21 is projected from an oblique direction through the lens 36 so that the linear light from the light emitting element 35 is in the width direction of the sheet 21,
The reflected light is received by a photodetector 38 such as a CCO having a light receiving element corresponding to the data recording position in the sheet width direction through a lens 37 to inspect the data recording state.

After that, the sheet 21 is cut into card units, and the sheet on which the data has been correctly recorded is connected to the card base material. As shown in FIG. 6, the exposed part has a low reflectance (black) and the non-exposed part has a high reflectance. (White) The optical card 1 shown in FIG. 1 is obtained. Note that the inspection shown in FIG. 7 may be performed after the sheet is adhered to the card base material.

In the above embodiment, data is recorded by arranging the thin film semiconductor light emitting devices in a line in each recording block of the sheet 21, but in another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. Using two rows of thin film semiconductor light emitting device rows 41, 42 spaced apart in the transport direction, each element 41-N, 42-N in these device rows 41, 42 is arranged so that there is no gap in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction. Record data by arranging them in a staggered manner.

In this way, when both adjacent data recording positions in the width direction of the sheet are exposed, there will be no areas with high reflectance left between them, reducing the effect of flare during reading. can.

In addition, in order to reduce the influence of flare during reading,
Since it is better for the low reflectance portion to be large, the elements 41-N and 42-N of the element rows 41 and 42 may partially overlap in the sheet width direction.

The two element rows 41 and 42 may be formed on both sides of the same substrate 43 as shown in FIG. 9, or formed and arranged on different substrates 44 and 45, respectively, as shown in FIG. 1O. It's okay. In this way, by using two rows of element rows 41 and 42, the spacing between the elements can be widened in each element example, making it easier to manufacture the TFEL and reducing the contact area between each element and the common electrode. It also has the advantage that it can be easily made larger and therefore the emission intensity can be increased.

Note that this invention is not limited only to the embodiments described above, and numerous modifications and changes are possible. For example, in the above example, a case was explained in which data was recorded by exposing a sheet having a photosensitive layer to create an optical card, but this invention is also effective when creating a mask corresponding to data to be recorded. It can be applied to In this case, as shown in FIGS. 11A and 11A, for example, a thin film semiconductor light emitting device 35 having a linear light emitting end surface similar to that shown in FIG. The linear light from 35 is a mask 47
For example, while moving the mask 47 in the longitudinal direction, the transmitted light is projected from the vertical direction through the lens 36 so that the transmitted light is transmitted through the lens 37 to the light receiving element corresponding to the data recording position in the mask width direction. The light is received by a photodetector 38 such as a CCO having a CCO, and the recorded state of the data is inspected.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, since TFEL is used to record data when creating a card-like recording medium, the recording device can be made simple and inexpensive.
Therefore, the cost of the card-shaped recording medium can be effectively reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an example of an optical card as a card-shaped recording medium produced according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of its track format, and FIGS. 3 A and B are one embodiment of the present invention. A diagram for explaining the data recording method in the example, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of the TFEL shown in FIGS. 3A and B, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the arrangement of the light emitting elements of the TFEL shown in FIG. 4. , FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a recording mode, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of an example of a device for inspecting the recording state of data, and FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining another embodiment of the present invention. , FIGS. 9 and 10 are diagrams showing two examples of forming the element array shown in FIG. 8, and FIGS. 11A and B are apparatuses for inspecting the recording state of data when the card-shaped recording medium is a mask. It is a figure showing the composition of an example. 1... Optical card lla, llb... recording area 12a, 12b... position detection mark 13a,
13b, 14a, 14b... seek section 15a,
15b...Data section 16...Track 17...Clock pattern 18...Frame 21...Sheet 2
2-1~22-3...TFII! L 23-1
~23-3...Lens 25...Substrate

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Using a thin film semiconductor light emitting element array that can simultaneously project a plurality of light beams, while relatively moving the thin film semiconductor light emitting element array and the recording medium in a direction perpendicular to the extending direction of the thin film semiconductor light emitting element array, Creation of a card-shaped recording medium characterized by comprising the step of selectively driving each light emitting element of the thin film semiconductor light emitting element array according to data to be recorded to simultaneously record a plurality of data on the recording medium. Method.