JPH1044655A - IC card and method of manufacturing IC card - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an IC card and a method of manufacturing an IC card which do not warp when a non-contact type IC card having a large antenna shape is manufactured by injection molding. In an IC card in which labels are arranged opposite to each other at equal intervals on the front side and the back side, and a resin-filled card base is formed between the two labels, the IC card includes the label on the front side and the back side. An IC module is mounted on one of the labels, and a dummy module is mounted on the other label so that the IC module and the dummy module face each other at a position substantially symmetrical with respect to a center line of the center in the thickness direction of the card. Positioning the two labels in a mold,
IC card and IC filled with resin between both labels
Card manufacturing method.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a card in which an IC module made of an electronic component is incorporated inside the card, and a method of manufacturing the card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when power is supplied to an IC card or information is read / written by a reader / writer (this is generally called communication?), Input / output terminals are provided on the surface of the card. Provided and performed via this terminal. However, according to this method, inconveniences such as breakage of terminals due to repeated use of the card, adhesion of sweat, grease, dust, and the like when the user holds the card with a finger, and short-circuiting due to charging of the card itself have occurred. Therefore, in recent years, as a non-contact type IC card, an antenna in which an electric wire is wound in a coil shape is incorporated in the card, and the electromagnetic induction generated in the antenna is used to read and write information and supply power for the information.
C cards are being developed.

An IC card using power supply, reading and writing of information, and an electromagnetic wave therefor is generally divided into an antenna unit and an IC unit as an IC module. When an electromagnetic wave or the like is obtained by this antenna as energy for driving the IC, more energy can be obtained as the number of turns and the area of the coil forming the antenna are larger. Therefore, when the communication distance is increased or the power consumption of the IC is large, it is necessary to increase the shape of the antenna, and accordingly, the size of the IC module is increased.

As a method of manufacturing a card incorporating this IC module, a laminating method shown in FIG.
The injection molding method shown in FIG. The laminating method is a method in which oversheets on which characters and pictures are printed are laminated on both sides of a center core on which an IC module is mounted, and the cards are integrated by a hot press.
However, with this lamination method, particularly large I
When the C module 35 is coated, the oversheet 36 is torn or distorted, or a load is intensively applied to the IC module 35 to cause breakage, thereby lowering production efficiency. Therefore, an injection molding method is promising as a method for improving the production efficiency.

[0005] By the way, in order to manufacture a card by injection molding and improve the production efficiency, it is an issue how to reduce the number of steps. That is, in order to fit the IC module 31 in the card, how many steps are required to mount the IC module 31 on the label and simultaneously paint. This is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-160594, in which a label 33a on which the IC module 31 is mounted is inserted into a mold, and another label 33b is placed on the label 33a.
Is inserted, and a resin is injected between the labels 33a and 33b by a so-called insert injection method. This makes it possible to manufacture a card by approximately one molding.

[0006]

However, when an IC card is manufactured by the above manufacturing method, the center of the IC module in the thickness direction is not at the center of the card in the thickness direction, but is shifted to the front side or the back side. In Therefore, when cooling the molten / injected resin inside the mold, the resin having a large shrinkage due to the difference between the heat shrinkage of the antenna portion in the metal IC module and the heat shrinkage with the injected resin. There was a problem that the card was warped on the side. This is based on the same principle as a thermoswitch that performs on / off operation, utilizing the fact that when heat is applied to a bimetal in which metals having different coefficients of thermal expansion are bonded to each other, the bimetal deforms to a smaller coefficient of thermal expansion. In particular, in the case of an IC card, it has been found that this phenomenon appears remarkably when the antenna is large and rectangular.

Therefore, as an attempt to solve the above-mentioned problems, first, the thermal expansion coefficients of the respective members were examined, and an attempt was made to eliminate the difference to solve the problems. Tables 1 and 2 show the coefficient of thermal expansion of the resin filled between the labels and the coefficient of thermal expansion of the metal forming the IC module. As can be seen, the thermal expansion coefficients of the two are different by an order of magnitude, and in order to reduce the difference, the resin filled between the labels was filled with a large amount of an inorganic substance having a low thermal expansion coefficient. The strength was reduced, and it was not an effective method for solving this problem.

[0008]

[Table 1]

[0009]

[Table 2]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an IC card and a method of manufacturing an IC card which do not warp even when a non-contact type IC card having a large antenna shape is manufactured by injection molding. The purpose is to provide.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the IC card of the first invention, labels are arranged facing each other at equal intervals on the front side and the back side, and a resin is interposed between the two labels. In an IC card having a filled card base formed thereon, an IC module is mounted on one of the front side and rear side labels, and a dummy module is mounted on the other label. The dummy modules are opposed to each other at a position substantially symmetrical with respect to a center line at the center in the thickness direction of the card.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an IC card manufacturing method comprising the steps of: disposing a label on a front side and a rear side at equal intervals to face each other, and forming a resin-filled card base between the two labels; In the method for manufacturing a card, an IC module is mounted on one of the front side and rear side labels, and a dummy module is mounted on the other label, and the two labels are inserted into a mold. The two labels are positioned so that the IC module and the dummy module face each other at a position substantially symmetrical with respect to the center line of the center in the thickness direction of the card, and a resin is filled between the two labels.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail.

As shown in FIG. 1, the labels 3a and 3b are printed on the card 10 with a pattern, characters and the like, and at the same time, the IC module 1a and the dummy module 1b are placed in the molds 20a and 2b.
It is a sheet as a support for fixing at 0b. The labels 3a and 3b are sequentially formed on the label base 4 by a printing layer 5,
The protective layer 6 is formed as needed.

As the material of the label substrate 4, any paper having printability, synthetic paper, plastic film, or a sheet made of a composite of these materials can be used. As paper and synthetic paper, high quality paper, coated paper,
Materials having printability such as art paper and card paper can be used. In addition, as a plastic film or sheet, a material such as a polyolefin resin such as polyethylene or polypropylene, a polyester resin, a polycarbonate resin, a polyvinyl chloride resin, an ABS resin, or the like, which is manufactured by an extrusion molding method, a calendar roll molding method, or the like, or And the like. The thickness is 10 μm to 200 μm in consideration of printability and embossability.
m can be used.

The label substrate 4 is provided with a printed layer 5 composed of characters, pictures, etc., for providing a decorative effect. As a method for forming the printing layer 5, a known printing method such as offset printing, gravure printing, or screen printing is used. In the case of the offset printing method, a material of the printing layer 5 is a polyester acrylate resin, a polyurethane acrylate resin, an epoxy acrylate resin, an alkyd resin, or the like. Similarly, in the case of the gravure printing method,
Polyester resin, polyurethane resin, acrylic resin,
Cellulose-based resins, chlorinated propylene, vinyl chloride / vinyl acetate copolymer, acrylic polyol-based resins, and the like are used.

A protective layer 6 can be provided on the print layer 5 for the purpose of improving the wear resistance of the print layer 5. Protective layer 6
A known printing method such as a gravure printing method or a roll coating method is used as the method for forming the slag. As the material of the protective layer 6, resins such as acrylic resin, vinyl chloride resin, nitrocellulose, hydroxycellulose, carboxymethylcellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, styrene-maleic acid copolymer, polyester resin and ABS resin can be used. Further, a curable resin such as a thermosetting resin, an ultraviolet curable resin, and an electron beam curable resin may be used.

The IC module 1a is generally divided into an antenna section 8 and an IC section 9 as shown in FIG. The most common antenna unit 8 is a wire wound in a coil shape.
It receives power supply using electromagnetic induction and reads and writes data. The shape of the coil varies from a circular type of about 10 mmΦ to a spiral shape using a printed wiring board and a credit card size. Further, an electrostatic plate may be used.

The IC section 9 has functions such as data communication and power control, and may be sealed with a silicon bare chip or epoxy resin. It also has a memory and is usually composed of an IC of one or more chips. Further, a diode, a resistor, a capacitor, or the like may be used as a peripheral component. They may be mounted on a printed wiring board, or may be formed on a silicon wafer of an IC.

The dummy module 1b includes an antenna 9 in which the molded card is embedded in the IC module 1a.
Embedded in the card to prevent warping due to the difference between the heat shrinkage of the molding resin and the heat shrinkage of the molding resin, and mounted on a label 3a different from the label 3a on which the IC module 1a is mounted, The IC module 1a is provided at a position substantially symmetric with respect to a center line AA 'at the center in the thickness direction of the card. Here, the dummy module 1b has a coefficient of thermal expansion of 4
× 10 ^-5 / ° C or less. In addition, the material may be a single metal such as copper, iron, aluminum, nickel, silver, gold, lead, or titanium, or a compound thereof, or a laminate of a plurality of materials, but is not limited thereto. .

As a method of fixing the IC module 1a and the dummy module 1b to the labels 3a and 3b, fixing by heat fusion, solvent bonding, high frequency welding, ultrasonic welding, use of an adhesive or the like can be considered. As a method of heat fusion,
Examples of the method include a heat sealer and a heat lamination.
The solvent bonding method is a method in which the bonding surface is dissolved with a solvent having high solubility in common to both the label 3a and the resin sealing the IC module 1a, and then dried and bonded and integrated. Further examples of adhesives are polyester-based,
One- or two-part curable adhesives made of epoxy-based, urethane-based, silicone rubber-based, acrylic-based, and polyamide-based resins, hot melt waxes, and the like can be used.

The card base 2 forms a card main body and imparts mechanical strength to the card, and the IC module 1
a, also serves as a hangar for storing components such as the dummy module 1b. Examples of the resin for molding the card base 2 include a polystyrene resin for general use, a polystyrene resin for impact resistance, an acrylonitrile styrene resin, an ABS resin,
Acrylic resin, polyethylene resin, polypropylene resin, polyamide resin, polyacetal resin, polycarbonate resin, vinyl chloride resin, modified PPO resin, polybutylene terephthalate resin, thermoplastic resin such as polyphenylene sulphate resin, or alloy based on composite of these materials Resin, or a reinforced resin by addition of glass fiber, or the like can be used.

Next, a method of manufacturing an IC card according to the present invention will be described. 2 to 7 show the steps of manufacturing the IC card. First, the labels 3a and 3b formed by forming the printing layer 5 and, if necessary, the protective layer 6 on the label substrate 4 are taken out from a rack (not shown) (FIG. 2) and transported to the IC module and dummy module mounting position. I do. Therefore, preparation is made for forming the module fixing portion 7 by applying an adhesive or the like and mounting the IC module 1a and the dummy module 1b on the labels 3a and 3b (FIG. 3). Labels 3a and 3b have I
When the C module 1a and the dummy module 1b are mounted (FIG. 4), they are inserted into the dies 20a and 20b and positioned at predetermined positions. Thereafter, the molds 20a and 20b are closed (FIG. 6), a molding resin is filled between the labels 3a and 3b (FIG. 7), and the molding resin is cooled and solidified.
a, 20b are opened, and the card 10 is taken out. As shown in FIG. 7, the obtained card 10 was a high-quality card without warpage.

Here, the opening and closing of the dies 20a and 20b may be performed by moving only one or both of the dies 20a and 20b forward and backward. The filling of the molding resin may be a normal injection molding or an injection compression molding method for the purpose of improving the filling property of the resin into the thin portion.

[0025]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, specific embodiments of the present invention will be described. [Example 1] On a white vinyl chloride sheet having a thickness of 50 µm, a pattern printing layer was provided by 1 µm by offset printing, and a protective layer was further provided thereon by offset printing at 2 µm by offset printing. Further, a non-contact type module having a coefficient of thermal expansion of 1.2 to 2.3 × 10 ⁻⁵ / ° C. was fixed using a polyester adhesive to obtain a surface label. Next, a pattern printing layer was provided by 1 μm by offset printing on a 50 μm thick white vinyl chloride sheet, and a protective layer was provided by 2 μm by offset printing on the entire surface of the sheet. Further, the coefficient of thermal expansion is 1.8 to 2.3 × 10 ^−5.
A dummy module having the same type as the above-mentioned non-contact type module of / ° C. was fixed using a polyester-based adhesive to obtain a back label.

The two labels obtained by the above method are
Acrylic nitrile-butadiene-styrene resin having a coefficient of thermal expansion of 10 × 10 ⁻⁵ / ° C. is inserted into and adsorbed at positions corresponding to the front and back surfaces of the mold formed in the shape of a card so that the printing surface is in contact with the mold. And solidified by cooling to obtain a card. A good card without warpage and distortion can be obtained by one injection step.

Comparative Example 1 A card was made by replacing the dummy module in Example 1 with a rigid vinyl chloride resin having a coefficient of thermal expansion of about 5.5 × 10 ⁻⁵ / ° C.

Comparative Example 2 A card was formed without using the dummy module in Example 1 described above.

With respect to the three types of cards obtained above, JI
Based on the S standard (X6301: credit card with magnetic stripe), the degree of warpage (height when the card was placed on a horizontal surface) was measured. Table 3 shows the results. In the IC card of the present invention, the warpage of the card was hardly recognized.

[0030]

[Table 3]

[0031]

The IC card of the present invention is a non-contact type IC card having a large antenna shape, and has no terminals exposed on the card surface. It was excellent and high quality.
In addition, by manufacturing a non-contact type IC card by the manufacturing method of the present invention, there is almost no occurrence of card warpage,
Efficient production by injection molding has become possible without choosing the type of molding resin.

[0032]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an IC card of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a label used for the IC card of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a label used for the IC card of the present invention is prepared by applying an adhesive or the like to mount an IC module and a dummy module.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a state in which an IC module and a dummy module are mounted on a label used for the IC card of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state where a label used for the IC card of the present invention is positioned at a predetermined position in a mold.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a state where a label used for the IC card of the present invention is positioned at a predetermined position in a mold, and then the mold is closed.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the label used for the IC card of the present invention is positioned at a predetermined position in the mold, the mold is closed, and the molding resin is filled.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a cross section of an IC card of Comparative Example 2.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing an example of an IC module.
It is.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a completed card.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of a card manufactured by a lamination method.

FIG. 12 is a sectional view of a card manufactured by a conventional injection molding method.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a ‥‥ IC module 1b ‥‥ Dummy module
2 Card base 3a, 3b Label 4 Label base 5 Print layer 6 Protective layer 7 Module fixing section 8 IC section 9 Antenna section 10 IC card 20a, 20b {Mold 31} IC module 32} Card base 33
a, 33b {label 34} label base 35 35 printed layer 36 protective layer 37 over sheet

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Agency reference number FI Technical indication // B29L 31:34

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An IC card in which labels are arranged opposite to each other at equal intervals on the front side and the back side, and a resin-filled card base is formed between the two labels. An IC module is mounted on one of the labels, and a dummy module is mounted on the other label. The IC module and the dummy module face each other at a position substantially symmetrical with respect to a center line in the thickness direction center of the card. An IC card characterized in that: 2. A method of manufacturing an IC card, comprising: a label disposed opposite to a front side and a rear side at equal intervals, and a card base filled with resin being formed between the two labels. An IC module is mounted on one of the side labels, a dummy module is mounted on the other label, and both labels are inserted into a mold. A method of manufacturing an IC card, comprising: positioning a card so as to face each other at a position substantially symmetrical with respect to a center line of a center in a thickness direction of the card; and filling a resin between the two labels.