JPH0496193A - Circular token and method and device for reading said token - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To attain simplification by connecting the pad of an integrated circuit to contact blocks provided on one surface of a token, arranging the contact block according to adjacent sectors having the same opening, and extending a 1st sector to the area including the center of the token. CONSTITUTION: The respective significant components of a connection frame are provided with six separated circular sectors 1-6 integrated through leg parts 1a-6a to the remaining parts of the frame, for example. Then, the pad of an integrated circuit 10 is connected to the contact blocks provided on the surface of the token, these contact blocks are arranged according to the adjacent sectors 1-6 having the same surface and as one of these sectors, the 1st sector 1 is extended to an area 8 including the center of the token. Thus, the simple and strong token can be provided.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a contact structure on a circular token containing an integrated circuit chip, as well as to a manufacturing method and a readout device therefor.

Over the years, various memory card systems have been developed, firstly based on magnetic memory and then based on electronic memory containing integrated circuit chips.

For some applications, for example public telephones, devices that use coins coexist with devices that read cards. This requires the installation of separate telephone booths, some of which take coins and others use cards. In order to avoid the duplication of such devices, use only devices adapted to receive coins, into which it is possible to introduce prepaid tokens containing integrated circuit chips as far as electronic cards are concerned. It is proposed to do so.

However, difficulties are encountered with such tokens due to the fact that the token introduced into the input slot arrives at a rotational position that is not determined with respect to the read head. To solve this problem, one resorts to a system in which the token is electromagnetically coupled to the readhead via an antenna.

These devices are complex and often prefer to rely on mechanical contactors. In that case, the simplest solution to the problem is to use a circular contactor whose areas are formed by concentric rings. Experience shows that a circular arrangement of such contactors represents disadvantages for the manufacture of tokens and contact areas. More specifically, to achieve this objective it is generally necessary to form the contact area through integrated circuit technology,
That is, circular metallized tracks are produced on the insulating substrate. As a result, a generally fragile structure is formed and the number of possible contact areas is limited.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to allow the use of known techniques to provide particularly simple and strong tokens.
The purpose is to provide a new electronic token structure.

Another object of the invention is to provide a reading method for such tokens.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a reading device for coins and/or electronic tokens.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a circular token containing at least one integrated circuit chip, the integrated circuit pads being connected to contact areas provided on the surface of the token, and the contact areas being connected to a surface of the token. are arranged according to adjacent sectors with the same surface, and one of those sectors, the first
The sector extends to the sector containing the center of the token.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the contact area is constituted by the first surface of the connection frame, and the chip of the integrated circuit is arranged substantially in the center of the token on the second surface of the frame, and the contact area is covered with a layer of encapsulating material after connection to each sector of integrated circuit terminals.

A reading device for such a token, according to the invention, comprises the following steps: using a reading head comprising a central contactor and a number of peripheral contactors than sectors of the token; measuring the impedance between each peripheral contactor and the central contactor and the inverse impedance between each peripheral contactor and the first contactor to detect the contactor); determining whether there is a contactor between the two contact areas; and measuring the impedance between the two adjacent contactors;
thereby determining whether there are two contactors on the same contact area.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 is an example of a connection frame that can be used in accordance with the present invention. This connection frame is of the type conventionally used for mounting integrated circuits. It usually has the shape of a strip and is made of iron-nickel 42, for example.

Each useful component of the connecting frame is, for example, a leg 1a
It includes six separate circular sectors 1 to 6 which are integral with the rest of the frame via 6a to 6a. The first sector, 1, extends to include the center 8 of the circular area. Open lowers regularly spaced along the largest sides of the frame allow the frame to be driven and indexed. Region 9 is also opened in an unused area of the frame.

The integrated circuit chips 10 contained in the token are welded on their rear surfaces to the central area 8 and are conventionally connected to each sector, for example via gold wires. The entire surface delineated by the external periphery of sectors 1 to 6 is then encapsulated in plastic via transfer molding or injection, and the resulting token folds legs 1a to 6a. This separates it from the connection frame. Thus, an integrated circuit chip 10 and an encapsulating resin 12 are formed in the token shown schematically in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 in which sectors 1 and 4 are visible.

The surface of the token opposite the surface supporting the integrated circuit and coated with resin, or the front surface of the token,
This is illustrated in FIG.

This token manufacturing method has the advantage of being compatible with conventional integrated circuit technology. Due to the arrangement of the contact areas in circular sectors, the pads of the integrated circuit and the connecting wires between each sector can be short. It will be noted that this type of manufacturing method is not possible if concentric circular tracks are provided. On the one hand, it is not possible to arrange such a track according to a connecting frame with temporary connecting legs. On the other hand, even if methods were devised to maintain the contact areas transiently (for example by fixing them on a plastic membrane), this would require too long connecting wires.

Another advantage of this invention is that since the contact areas are finally obtained in conformity with the parts of the metal connection frame, those areas are particularly prone to withstand strong and repeated frictional contact, and it is possible to In other words, this is not the case when a

Furthermore, the invention provides a method for reading data contained on such an electronic token by a read head in front of which the token is positioned according to a random angular orientation.

The read head includes a central contactor 20 and a plurality of peripheral contactors provided by a greater number of sectors of the token.

In the example illustrated in FIG.
Seven contactors 21 to 27 are represented for one sector or contact area design to 6.

Each contactor 21 to 27 must have an angular size (perimeter size) lower than the opening of the insulation area between the two token sectors, otherwise the contactor It is possible to short the sector. Therefore, a number of contactors greater than the number of contact sectors is selected, because otherwise for some positions of the tokens with respect to the read head, all contactors are located in the insulation area between the contact areas. This is because there is a possibility that the data may be located at the same time, and reading is impossible.

Since the read head is stationary and the tokens arrive according to a random angular orientation close to this head, it is necessary for each contactor to identify the sector by which the contactor contacts. .

To achieve this objective, the present invention provides the following operations.

The act of determining which contactor corresponds to the center contact.

For this purpose, the impedance between each peripheral contactor 21 to 27 and the central contactor 20 is measured. In the example shown the contactor 23 is connected to the first sector 1
is in contact with. It will be noted that in some particular cases two contactors are likely to contact this first sector 1.

An act of determining whether a contactor is placed in front of the insulation region between two sectors. For this purpose, we exploit the normal property of an integrated circuit pad being protected from reverse overvoltages by a diode that routes the reverse overvoltages towards ground.

For simplicity it will be considered that the ground of the integrated circuit, for example its rear surface, is connected to the central contactor and to the first sector 1. Opposite voltages are then applied between each contactor (other than the contactor identified during the previous step) and the center contactor. thus,
Contactors arriving above the insulation area are identified.

An operation that determines whether multiple contactors are placed on the same sector. To this end, it is easy to measure the resistance between two adjacent contactors and then determine which of those contactors is shorted (in the example shown contactor 25 and 26).

The sequence of steps above can be carried out in different orders, and this sequence can be achieved very quickly with a readout device,
It will be noted that steps tend to last less than 1 millisecond.

Once the operation of their identification has been achieved, the reading and processing of the tokens will be carried out conventionally, in the same way as the contact areas of electronic chip cards are processed.

Of course, the token and the method for reading it are subject to numerous variations. In particular, the number of sectors in the token can be freely chosen as a function of the desired application;
The number of contactors may be equal to the number of sectors plus 1.2.3 or more.

For reliability, if the available surface is large enough, it would be possible to choose a number of contactors that is twice as many as the number of sectors.

4 and 5 are drawings of a payment device adapted to read coins and tokens. The payment device includes an input slot 30 into which coins and tokens are introduced and an electronic selector 32 which detects whether the object being passed is a valid coin, a valid token or an invalid object. They can be circulated in the rotating path 31 for passing in front. A routing device 33 located downstream of the selector 32 allows invalid objects to be discarded. The selector 32 may, for example, select magnetic characteristics (si
It may also be an apparatus for detecting gnature). The valid coin or token is then routed towards the storing channel 34 and the first stored coin or token is routed to the motor-driven ejector 3
5. In FIG. 4, a token 36 is shown followed by two coins 37 in front of the storing channel.

With the exception of the representation of token 36, the description made with respect to FIG. 4 constitutes a typical conventional payment device. Fourth
The figure is a side view with the front plate (visible in Figure 5) removed. According to the invention, this plate has an opening 3, the outline of which is shown in dotted lines in FIG.
8 is given. The reader rad 44 is visible in the cross-sectional front view taken near the downstream portion of the storing channel 34 shown in FIG. The storing channel is delineated by the rear plate 40 and the front plate 41. 1st coin or 1st token 3
6 abuts an ejection device 35 allowing it to be routed towards a collection channel 42 or a waste channel 43, for example.

The invention provides an opening 38 to allow the read head 44 to pass through for placement in the front plate 41 near the storage area.

This head, as determined by selector 32,
Only when the object arriving in the storing channel in front of the aperture is a token is it brought into contact with the token 36 through the aperture 38, for example by an articulated arm 45 driven by an electromagnet 46. . Third
As shown in the figure, the readhead includes, for example, a central contact 20 and peripheral contacts 21-27.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that it is easy to modify a conventional payment device to convert it into a payment device adapted to read coins and/or electronic tokens according to the present invention.
I would admit it. Similar modifications can be made to numerous other types of payment devices hitherto designed to operate solely with coins.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a top view of an embodiment of a connecting frame according to the invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a token according to the invention. FIG. 3 is a top view of a token according to the invention associated with a contactor of a readhead. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the path of coins in existing payment devices. FIG. 5 shows a token readhead arranged according to the invention. In the figure, 6 is a circular sector, 7 is an opening, and 8 is a circular sector.
is the center of the circular area, 10 is the integrated circuit chip, 12 is the encapsulating resin, 20 is the center contactor, 21 to 27 are the contactors, 30 is the input slot, 31 is the rotation path,
32 is an electronic selector, 33 is a routing device, 34 is a storing channel, 35 is an ejector, 36 is a token, 37
is a coin, 38 is an opening, 40 is a rear plate, 41 is a front plate, 42 is a collection channel, 43 is a waste channel,
44 is a reading head, 45 is an articulated arm, 4
6 is an electromagnet. Engraving of drawings (no changes to content)

Claims (1)

Claims: (1) A circular token comprising at least one integrated circuit chip (10), the integrated circuit pads being connected to a contact area provided on one surface of the token; A token in which said contact areas are arranged according to adjacent sectors (1 to 6) having identical openings, one of said sectors, the first sector, extending to an area (8) containing the center of the token. (2) the contact area is formed by a first surface of a connection frame, the chip of the integrated circuit is fixed substantially centrally on the chip on a second surface of the frame; Claim 1: After the connection of the terminals of the circuit to each sector, the circuit is covered with a layer of encapsulating material (12).
Tokens listed in. (3) using a read head comprising a central contactor (20) and a number of peripheral contactors (21 to 27) greater than the number of sectors of the token; ) to identify
measuring the impedance between each peripheral contactor and the central contactor; and determining whether there is a contactor between the two contact sectors; and measuring the impedance between two adjacent contactors to determine whether there are two contactors on the same sector. A method for reading a token according to claim 1. (4) a conventional coin dispensing device (31) comprising an electronic selector (32) and an associated rotational path allowing the detection of coins (37) or tokens (36); and/or a storing channel (34) in which the tokens are accumulated, further comprising an opening (38) in one of the side plates of the storing channel in a position where the tokens are likely to be blocked, and an articulated movable arm ( a read head (44) connected above the read head (45);
), and when the electronic selector detects that there is such a token in the storing channel before said aperture,
4. A device for reading tokens adapted to implement the method of claim 3, comprising means (46) for prompting a read head against the token (36).