PT83681B - PORTABLE DATA CARD AND DATA RECORDING AND DEVICE - Google Patents

Abstract

An element of credit and/or access constituted of a substratum having the shape of a card (10) in which is embedded an integrated circuit chip (11) interconnected by pairs of stripes of electrically conductive material (12) (12') to inductive coupling terminals (14) through which the transmission of data from the card to an electronic terminal equipment is effected by electromagnetic induction. The invention is also related to a data registering/reading device incorporating a number of electromagnetic inducing elements (27), equal to the number of inductive coupling terminals (14) of the card element in use, said inducing elements being arranged in such a configuration that when the card (10) is introduced in the referred electronic terminal (26) each inductive coupling terminal (14) is positioned in a corresponding air gap (25) of the inducing elements, permitting that the registering/reading device induces a current in the inductive coupling terminal, when transmission of data is to be made.

Description

invention relates to. a credit and / or access card to electronic equipment terminals comprising a substrate in the form of a card (10), into which an integrated circuit chip (11) is embedded, interconnected via pairs of connections (12) (12 ¹ ) to inductive coupling terminals (14), through which, through electromagnetic induction, data transfer between the card and the electronic terminal equipment is provided. The invention also relates to a reading / writing device comprising a plurality of inductive elements (27), in an amount equal to the inductive coupling terminals (14) of the card used, such inductive elements being arranged with a configuration such that, with the inserting the card (10) in said equipment (26), each of the inductive coupling terminals (14), occupies the air gap region (25), which corresponds to the inductive element, enabling the coupling reading / writing device inductive, when given.

inducing a current in the terminal is necessary to transfer

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-2MEMURY ^ DESCRIPTIVE

In general, the invention relates to a credit card and / or access to electronic equipment terminals whose capacity to store access codes and / or credit is not limited by its physical dimensions. More specifically, the invention relates to a credit card and / or access to electronic equipment terminals, consisting of a substrate having an integrated circuit chip embedded in its body, the data being transferred between it and the equipment terminal. electronic made by electromagnetic induction. It also refers to a reading / writing device for transferring data between said card and the terminal of the electronic equipment without physical contact or any displacement to carry out said data transfer, which is done by electromagnetic induction.

As is well known, the use of credit and / or access cards has been increasing day by day, the referred cards, in general, comprising a fixed code that identifies their holder and / or authorized access and the elements credit cards, which are altered by the machine responsible for reading and collecting the authorized credit, as occurs, for example, in multiple travel cards used in metropolitans, which include a code identifying the type of authorized service, in this case, multiple trips , and a plurality of credits, which are consumed whenever the card is inserted in the entry equipment.

Among the types of cards currently known, magnetic cards, due to their simplicity and ease of reading / writing, are usually the most used, however, other types can be found, such as optical reading cards, holographic cards, or even a combination of these.

Magnetic cards, despite reading and writing facilities, have the inconvenience of requiring the input equipment to have the means to move it, or that of the read / write headUAD ORIGINAL

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-3ção, so that the data can be read or written, as it occurs in a magnetic tape of sound recording, which results in the use of displacement mechanisms with moving parts in general subject to damage and wear, and that require periodic maintenance . In addition to this, such cards also present as a drawback the fact that the data recorded on them are highly vulnerable to the action of undesirable magnetic fields, different from, for example, magnets, motors, transformers, etc. Another drawback presented by magnetic cards when used as a credit element, lies in the fact that, since the credit contained therein is not destroyed after the provision of the service, but only changed, they can be rewritten and reused fraudulently.

With regard to machine-readable cards, in which both codes and credits are registered through mechanical perforations, due to their simplicity, they can be easily altered by obstructing existing perforations or by opening new perforations, therefore, its use as a reliable credit card, in addition to involving, both for recording and reading, quite complex mechanical equipment which has a high rate of breakdowns and consequently expensive maintenance.

on the holographic cards, the code and credits are recorded on a track in the form of differentiated reliefs, the reading of which is made by identifying the different angles according to which a laser light, when impacting on that track, is reflected , processing the collection of the credit contained therein by destroying the relief by heating and pressure. In order for the laser light to read the entire track, it is necessary to move the light source or card, resulting in a highly complex system requiring highly specialized maintenance.

Brazilian patent no ^. 7004885 describes how the aforementioned drawbacks can be easily eliminated by using a card containing a plurality of electronic cells, each of which corresponds to an original bad

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-4— credit unit, whose reading and collection is carried out by electromagnetic induction and in accordance with the principles of the invention described in that patent, the credit cells are destroyed after the provision of the service, thus preventing their recovery, and allowing the user to identify by visual inspection the amount of credits still available _to

However, despite the advantages presented in relation to the other types described, due to the dimensions of each of the credit cells used in their manufacture (of the order of 4 mm), their use is compromised in applications that require the recording of a high number of codes and / or credit elements.

Based on the above, it is therefore an object of the invention to provide a credit and / or access card whose code storage capacity is not limited by its physical dimensions.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide a credit and / or access card on which it is possible to change the number of codes recorded without the need to change their dimensional characteristics.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a read / write device with the capacity to transfer data between the card and the terminal of the electronic equipment without having physical contact to carry out said data transfer.

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, the proposed objectives are achieved with a substrate in the form of a card, containing an integrated circuit chip, embedded in its body interconnected through electrically conductive connections to a plurality of inductive coupling terminals with a substantially annular shape, each being connected to a pair of connections and arranged on the surface of said card through which the transfer of data between the terminal of the electronic equipment and said card is provided by electromagnetic induction.

As is known, in general, integrated circuits are basically made up of

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-5 millimeter, with an area not exceeding 4 mm, comprising a plurality of active and passive elements, such as transistors, resistors, diodes, etc ..., arranged in order to provide the most varied configurations of circuits, arriving contain a few thousand elements. Among the types of integrated circuits currently known, those intended to act as data memories, can comprise thousands of bits of memory and are therefore particularly suitable for the present invention.

In order that a certain data can be read or written in a specific position of an integrated electronic memory, it is necessary to address that position and an indication that the data must be read or written in the addressed position, and it is also necessary to provide a bus for insertion of the data. memory and a bus for extracting the data contained therein. For addressing memory locations, an addressing technique known as parallel can be used, according to which the combinations of the code that make up the addresses are sent through a bus containing as many conductors as there are bits that make up the combinations, or even a technique called serial, according to which the combinations of the address code are sent through a bus made up of a single conductor, each combination having its beginning and end identified through an additional command, being the use of this technique, given the small number external accesses quite adequate to the present invention.

Although the card, object of the present invention is not limited to a particular type of integrated circuit chip, integrated electronic memories and microprocessors are particularly suitable for most applications, the definition for the use of one or the other circuit being a function of the level of intelligence required by the type of application the card will be used for.

Also, according to the principles of the invention, a reading / writing device that allows the detection of the presence of a card and provides the transfer of data between

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between this and the terminal of the electronic equipment, by applying an induced signal to the inductive coupling terminals contained in said card, said device comprising as many inductive elements as there are inductive coupling terminals contained in the card, each inductive element being formed by two coiled cores in the shape of a rod, separated from each other by a space corresponding to the air gap and arranged in the terminal of the electronic equipment in which the card is inserted by the user, according to a position that allows each inductive coupling terminal to be subjected to the action of the corresponding inducing element without any physical contact between them. Also due to this positioning, the reading / writing device does not require additional movements for the insertion and removal of the card, since these movements are performed manually by the user, being unnecessary the use of motors, moving parts or devices a and displacement.

_The present invention will be better understood from the following detailed description and the figures that refer to it, of which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the credit card and / or access accor- ding to one of the embodiments of the present invention, having one of the covers partially detached in order to show its internal constitution.

Figure 2 is a perspective view, partially in section, of the credit and / or access card when inserted in the terminal of the electronic equipment, showing the constitution of the reading / writing device according to one of the embodiments of the invention, as well as the positioning of the inductive elements in relation to the inductive coupling terminals contained in the said credit and / or access card *

Figure 3 is a perspective view, partially fragmentary, of an inductive coupling terminal positioned on the inductor element, during the transfer of a signal, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a perspective view, partially fragmented, of an inductive coupling terminal positioned on the

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-7 inductive element, during the transfer of a signal according to another embodiment of the invention.

Figure 5, 6 is a partially fragmented perspective view of a terminal and inductive coupling positioned on the inductive element during the transfer of a signal, according to another embodiment of the invention.

As can be inferred from Figure 1, the credit and / or access card according to the invention comprises a substrate (10), containing an integrated circuit chip (11), hereinafter called Apeias by Cl, which is embedded in an open window (13) in the body of the card and a plurality of inductive coupling terminals (14), each of which having a substantially annular shape whose contour is opened forming a pair of extreme points (1 $) (15 ¹ ), connected to a pair to and corresponding Cl terminals, through a pair of electrically conductive connections (12) (12 ·). This set is protected against harmful effects by two solidary layers (17) on both sides of the said credit and / or access card.

thus formed card, when inserted in a terminal of the electronic equipment, containing a reading / writing device, as the one of figure 2, will cause that each of the inductive coupling terminals (14) is positioned in the air gap (25) of the cores (24) (24 ¹ ) that constitute the corresponding inductive element, said inductive coupling terminals (14) acting as the secondary of a transformer whose primary consists of the inductive element itself, thus enabling both reading and recording data in Cl, by inducing a time-varying signal, normally modulated and applied to each inductive coupling terminal (14) by the inductive elements (27), said signal being subsequently recovered by Cl by rectification and / or demodulation. Thus, for data to be transmitted from the terminal of the electronic equipment to the card, the reading / writing device modulates a signal corresponding to the data to be transmitted and through the inducing elements is induced on the card and, when detected by Cl , will be demodulated and treated. In the case of data transmission from the card to the terminal of the electronic equipment, it is enBAD ORIGINAL

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-8 sent by it, through the read / write device, a time-varying signal that is received by the Cl contained in the card, thus allowing said Cl to transmit data by varying the impedance of the terminal corresponding to the transmission, according to the data to be transferred. This impedance variation is reflected in the reading / writing device, where it will vary the current corresponding to the signal sent, thus interpreting the data provided by the card.

This data transfer is best seen in figure 3, where an inductor element (27) is represented, receiving the time-varying signal (V) and applied to the coil (20) that will circulate a current (21) around the cores (24) ) (24 '), giving rise to a magnetic flux (22) which, when passing through the inductive coupling terminal (14) positioned in the air gap (25), will induce a current (23) in it, being said current forwarded by the pair of connections (12 ) (12 ¹ ) to Cl (11) where it will be detected and treated depending on the Cl terminal at which it was applied.

Although the invention has been described in a specific way, it should be understood that various modifications and variations are possible, always within the scope of the present invention. Thus, for example, with reference to the reading / writing devices, several modifications are possible, among them, eliminating the coil of one of the cores of the inductive element (27) keeping only the coil around one of them, as shown in figure 4, without such · modification resulting in an effect different from that already described, this embodiment being a particularly useful alternative for a card in which the inductive coupling terminals are positioned in the central region of the card, preventing the extension of the coil (20 ) to the other core of said element.

In another embodiment, it is also possible to use a C-shaped core (31), as shown in figure 5, in place of the rod-shaped cores (24) (24 *), as already described.

With reference to the card, it should be noted that although pasBAD ORiGiNAL

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-9 Cl tile has been described as being embedded in the body of the card, it can also be superimposed on its surface without such a positioning resulting in an effect different from that already described, since its function is to store and supply data. In relation to inductive coupling terminals with a substantially annular shape as already described, these can also be formed by coils with one or more turns with the most varied geometries, without such variations resulting in any technical effect different from that already described, that is, the to generate an induced current when crossed by electromagnetic flow lines.

Claims (13)

- CLAIMS1®. - Portable data card, characterized by comprising a substrate in the form of a card, containing at least one chip of integrated circuit (11) embedded in its body, interconnected through pairs of connections (12) (12 ¹ ), electrically conductive , to a plurality of inductive coupling terminals (14), transferring signals from / to the integrated circuit chip (11) by means of electromagnetic induction applied to the inductive coupling terminals (14) to which it is located connected. 2®. Portable data card according to claim 1, characterized in that the integrated circuit chip is an integrated electronic memory. 3 ^e . - Portable data card, according to claim 1, characterized in that the integrated circuit chip is a microprocessor with memories. 4®. Portable data card according to claim 1, characterized in that each inductive coupling terminal (14) comprises a coil with at least one loop, with its end points (15) (15 ') connected to a pair of terminals ORIGINAL BAD -10 of the integrated circuit chip via a pair of connections (12) (12 '). 5 ^a . Portable data card according to claim 1, characterized in that the integrated circuit chip is placed on one of the surfaces of the card. 6 ^a . - Portable data card according to claim 1, characterized in that the power signal of the integrated circuit chip contained in the card, provided by means of a carrier signal, is induced in the corresponding inductive coupling terminal, said power signal being recovered afterwards of the integrated circuit chip through rectification and filtering. 7 ^a . - Portable data card, according to claim 1, characterized in that the transfer of data from an electronic terminal to the card is carried out through signals modulated by said terminal and transmitted to the card through a carrier signal, suitable for the response of inductors involved in said transfer, said carrier signal being demodulated by demodulating circuits contained in the integrated circuit chip and the data being recovered with this demodulation. 8 ^a . - Portable data card according to claim 1, characterized in that the transfer of data from the card to an electronic terminal is carried out by varying the impedance of the output terminal of the integrated circuit chip, contained in the card, when it is inserted. A carrier signal is applied, the said impedance variation being reflected in said terminal, causing the current variation corresponding to the carrier signal, and with this current variation, the transferred data is identified in the electronic terminal. 9 ^a . - Portable data card according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the inductive coupling terminals (14), as well as the connection pairs (12) (12 ¹ ) are arranged in a plane parallel to the largest surface of the card and contained therein. 10 ^a . - Device for reading and writing data, feature UruuiNAL L W57 - 11 characterized by containing a plurality of inductive elements (27), in an amount equal to the number of inductive coupling terminals contained in the card used, these elements being arranged in such a configuration that, with the introduction of the card (10) in said device (26 ), each of the inductive coupling terminals (14) occupies the region of the air gap (25) of the corresponding element. read. _ Device for reading and writing data, according to claim 10, characterized in that each inducing element contains two u-shaped cores (24), (24 '), aligned longitudinally by their axes and separated by a corresponding space to the air gap (25), such cores being surrounded by a coil (20) arranged in such a way that the current (21) that runs through it, does so in a single direction around the cores. 12 ^a . Device for reading and writing data, according to claim 10, characterized in that the winding of the coil (20) involves only one of the cores of each inductive element. 13 ^a . - Device for reading and writing data, according to claim 10, characterized by each inductive element, containing a C-shaped core (3D surrounded by a coil (20), the opening existing in the core reference acting as air gap, for card positioning. Lisbon, ”<8W.1986 By DALS0N ARTACH0 - 0 Official Agent -