JPH07129729A - IC card system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To increase the data transfer rate between an IC card and its read / write device. The IC card system of the present invention comprises an IC card 1 and a read / write device 2 for reading and writing data from and to the IC card 1 and is of a type in which data is exchanged between the two by electromagnetic coupling between coils. Belong to Particularly in the present invention, m coils for reading and m coils for writing (or m leads) for transmitting / receiving the writing or reading data of the IC card 1 in parallel m (integer of 2 or more) bits, respectively. / Light dual-purpose coil) is I
It is provided in each of the C card 1 and the read / write device 2. It is desirable to make the number m of the read or write coils equal to the number n of parallel bits of the parallel data WD / RD exchanged with the external device by the read / write device 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an IC card system which comprises an IC card and a read / write device for the IC card, and exchanges data between them by electromagnetic coupling between coils, and more particularly to improvement of data transfer speed. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional IC card system of this type will be described with reference to FIG. An IC memory card (hereinafter referred to as an IC card) 1 includes a data memory (hereinafter referred to as a memory) 3, a battery 4 for the memory 3, read / write control of the memory 3, addressing, and operation of other circuits. The control circuit 5 for controlling, the modulation circuit 6 for serially reading the data stored in the memory 1 bit by bit and modulating the carrier wave by the read signal, and the read / write device 2 excited by the output of the modulation circuit 6 Read coil 1R that is electromagnetically coupled to the read coil 2R, write coil 1W that is electromagnetically coupled to the write coil 2W of the read / write device 2, control coil 2C and power supply coil 2P of the read / write device 2. A control coil 1C and a power supply coil 1P, which are electromagnetically coupled with each other, and a light receiving coil 1W and a control coil 1C, respectively. A demodulation circuit 7 that demodulates the modulated wave and supplies the demodulated data to the memory 3 and the control circuit 5 and a received signal that is induced in the power supply coil 1P are rectified and smoothed to be converted into a DC voltage, which is then supplied to each circuit. A power receiving circuit 8 that supplies operating power is mounted.

The data WD written to the IC card 1 is n
(N = 4, 8, 16 etc.) bit parallel data is input from an external device such as a personal computer to the parallel / serial conversion circuit 12 through the interface circuit 11 of the read / write device 2 and converted into serial data. This serial data is input to the modulation circuit 13, the carrier wave is modulated by this data, and the modulated wave is supplied to the write coil 2W.

On the other hand, the lead coil 1R of the IC card 1
The modulated wave of serial data formation induced in the lead coil 2R electromagnetically coupled with is demodulated by the demodulation circuit 14, input to the serial / parallel conversion circuit 15, converted to parallel data, and passed through the interface circuit 11. Then, the read data RD is supplied to the external device. The interface circuit 11 is provided with an interface for transmitting and receiving the control signal CS between the external device and the read / write device 2.
It is connected to the control circuit 16. Read / write device 2
A control signal for controlling the IC card 1 is input from the control circuit 16 to the modulation circuit 13, the carrier wave is modulated by the signal, and the control coil 2C is excited by the modulation signal.

An AC signal is output from the power transmission circuit 17, and the power supply coil 2P is excited by the signal. I
In the C card system, modulation methods such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), phase modulation (PM) are used. In the conventional IC card system, the data read from or written in the memory 3 is serial data and is performed bit by bit. Also, the coil 1W for the light that is electromagnetically coupled,
The 2W and the read coils 1R and 2R each have only one set, and the data transmitted and received through these coils are also serial data and are transferred bit by bit.

[0006]

In the conventional IC card system, the write / read data WD / RD exchanged with an external device is n-bit parallel data, whereas the IC card 1 has a built-in data read / write data WD / RD. Data to be written in or read out from the memory 3 and a lead coil 1R for electromagnetically coupling,
Write or read data to or from the memory 3 transferred through the 2R or the write coils 1W, 2W is serial data and is transmitted bit by bit. Therefore, there is a drawback that the data transfer time in the system becomes long.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the conventional problems and to speed up the data transfer time in the IC card system.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

(1) An IC card system comprising an IC card and a read / write device for reading and writing data from and to the IC card, wherein data is exchanged between the two by electromagnetic coupling between coils. In the first invention, m coils for reading and m for writing for transmitting / receiving the writing or reading data of the IC card in parallel m (integer of 2 or more) bits respectively.
The coils are provided in each of the IC card and the read / write device.

(2) In the invention of claim 2, the read coil and the write coil used in the IC card and the read / write device are common read / write type coils. (3) In the invention of claim 3, in the IC card system according to (1) or (2), the data memory built in the IC card includes the number of the read coils and the number of the write coils (or the number of the read coils). The parallel data having a bit number equal to (the number of read / write coils) m can be read / written.

(4) According to the invention of claim 4, in the IC card system according to any one of (1) to (4), the number of each of the read coil and the write coil (or the read / write combined coil). Is set to be equal to the number n of parallel bits of write / read data (both are parallel data) with respect to the IC card that is exchanged with the external device by the interface circuit of the read / write device.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 by giving the same reference numerals to the portions corresponding to those in FIG. In the present invention, the write data / read data is exchanged between the IC card 1 and the read / write device 2 in parallel with m (integer of 2 or more) bits of parallel data. Therefore m
The number of write coils (1W1 to m = 4 in the example of FIG. 1)
1W4 or 2W1-2W4) and m lead coils (1R1-1R4 or 2R1-2R4) for the IC card 1
And the read / write device 2 (claim 1).
In accordance with this, the modulation circuit and the demodulation circuit are also expanded to handle parallel m-bit data.

As the memory 3 of the IC card 1, it is desirable to select a memory capable of writing or reading parallel data having a bit number equal to the number m of read coils and write coils. If not, it is necessary to provide a data conversion circuit between the modulation / demodulation circuit and the IC memory. Parallel n (n = 4, 8, 16 etc.) bits of write data WD or read data RD are exchanged between the read / write device 2 and an external device via the interface circuit 11. The conventional parallel / serial conversion circuit 12 and the serial / parallel conversion circuit 15 are not necessary.

If the number m of write / read coils and the number n of parallel bits of write / read data WD / RD between the external device and the external device are not equal, a data conversion circuit is provided in the interface circuit 11, for example. Match the number of parallel bits. In the case of m = n, such a data conversion circuit is not necessary and the structure of the read / write device 2 is simplified.

Although the write coil and the read coil are separately provided in the IC card 1 and the read / write device 2 in the above description, as shown in FIG. 2, the read / write coils 1R / W1 to 1R are provided. / W4 and 2R /
It is also possible to provide W1 to 2R / W4 so as to be used for both reading and writing (claim 2), and switch them by the switch means SW1 and SW2.

In the above description, one set of control coils 1 is used.
Although C and 2C are provided and the control signal given to the IC card 1 from the read / write device 2 is transmitted, an arbitrary number of coil groups (referred to as a first type control coil) may be provided if necessary. Good. In addition to these control signals, it is also possible to provide a control signal from the IC card 1 to the read / write device 2, and an arbitrary number of control coils (referred to as a second type control coil) for that purpose are provided. You may Further, like the read / write combined coil, the first and second kinds of control coils can be shared by a common coil and can be used by switching with a switch.

In FIG. 2, the switches SW1 and SW2 may be omitted by changing the frequency band of each carrier wave between the modulated wave of the write data and the modulated wave of the read data transmitted / received between the read / write coils. it can. With respect to the control signal transmitted / received by the control coil for both type 1 and type 2 as well, if the frequency is changed depending on the transmission direction, the switch is not necessary.

[0017]

According to the present invention, m coils for reading and m coils for writing (or m for both reading and writing) for transmitting / receiving the writing or reading data of the IC card 1 in parallel m bits respectively. Individual coils)
It is provided in both the IC card 1 and the read / write device 2. Therefore, the IC card 1 and the read / write device 2 are different from the conventional system that transmits and receives serial data using one read coil and one write coil.
The data transfer time between them can be greatly reduced.

By selecting, as the memory 3 of the IC card 1, a type capable of reading / writing parallel data having a bit number equal to the number m of write / read coils, the IC card 1 and the read / write device 2 are selected. Since it can be matched to the data transfer rate between
The configuration of the IC card becomes simple without requiring a parallel / serial mutual conversion or a data conversion circuit for parallel bit number matching.

When the number m of write / read coils is selected to be equal to the number n of parallel bits of write / read data WD / RD to / from an external device, a data conversion circuit is not required and read / write is performed. The configuration of the device becomes simple.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a modified embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional IC card system.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An IC card system comprising an IC card and a read / write device for reading and writing data to and from the IC card, wherein data is exchanged between the two by electromagnetic coupling between coils. The m cards for reading and the m coils for writing for transmitting / receiving the writing or reading data of the IC card in parallel m (integer of 2 or more) bits respectively are the IC card and the read / write. An IC card system, which is provided in each device. 2. An IC card system comprising an IC card and a read / write device for reading and writing data from and to the IC card, wherein exchange of data between the both is performed by electromagnetic coupling between coils. Each of the IC card and the read / write device is provided with the m number of read / write coils for transmitting / receiving the write / read data of the IC card in parallel m (integer of 2 or more) bits. An IC card system characterized by the following. 3. The IC card system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the number of the read coils and the number of write coils in the data memory built in the IC card (or the number of the read / write combined coils) is increased. It is characterized in that parallel data having a bit number equal to m can be read / written. 4. The IC according to claim 1.
In the card system, the number of each of the read coil and the write coil (or the number of read / write combined coils) m is written to the IC card which is exchanged with the external device by the interface circuit of the read / write device. / Set to be equal to the number of parallel bits n of read data (all are parallel data).