United States Patent [191
`Dupre et al.
`
`[54] REINFORCED I.C. CARD
`
`[75]
`
`Inventors:
`
`Francois Dupre, Aubagne;
`Jean-Pierre Gloton, Aix En
`Provence, both of France
`
`[73] Assignee: Gemplus Card International,
`Gemenos, France
`
`[21] Appl. No.1 723,615
`
`[22] Filed:
`
`Jul. 1, 1991
`
`Foreign Application Priority Data
`[30]
`Jul. 10, 1990 [FR] France .............................. .. 90 08734
`
`[51] 1111.01.5 ....................... .. 006K 19/06; B32B 3/00
`[52] us. c1. .................................. .. 361/392; 361/380;
`174/35 R; 428/902
`Field of Search ........... .. 361/380, 392; 174/35 R,
`174/35 MS; 428/902, 402
`
`[58]
`
`[56]
`
`References Cited
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`Nishimura CI al. ............... ..
`4,879,153 ll/1989 Ohaslu et a1. ............. .. 235/492
`4,908,937 3/1990 Gloton et al. . . . .
`. . . . . . . .. 29/840
`
`HIIIIllllllllllllllllIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
`Us005214566A
`Patent Number:
`5,214,566
`May 25, 1993
`Date of Patent:
`
`[11]
`[45]
`
`FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`0071255 7/1982 European Pat. Off. .
`0211360 7/1986 European Pat. Off. .
`
`338
`
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`Patent Absracts of Japan, vol.
`10, No.
`(P-516)[2394], 15 Nov. 1986; & JP-A-61 141089.
`Primary Examiner-Davis L. Willis
`Assistant Examiner-Esther H. Chin
`Attorney, Agent, or Firm—-Pollock, VandeSande &
`Priddy
`ABSTRACI‘
`[57]
`To provide I.C. cards that are reinforced and above all
`in which the card body is compatible both with using
`theILC. in the card and with using a surface of the card
`that is coated with a ?lm of magnetic material, at least
`two reinforcing sheets made of different types of rein
`forcing material are provided so as to adapt the expan
`sion coefficient and the strength coefficient of the card
`so that both these coefficients lie within a range that is
`common to both card technologies. It is shown that this
`provides greater synergy in use of cards having both
`electronic memory and magnetic memory since in spite
`of temperature expansion magnetic card shapes are
`maintained’ thereby making possible to use magnetic
`t
`k th t
`1
`.th
`d ta t
`.
`t
`‘ac S
`3‘. °°mp y ‘Y’ mass 3 5 (“age requ‘rcmn 5
`
`4,941,257 7/1990 6101011 . . . . . . . . . . . . .
`
`. . . .. 29/840
`
`for “Se W111‘ magnet“: tracks‘
`
`4,943,464 7/1990 GlOlOn et a1. . . . .
`. . . .. 428/76
`4,990,759 2/1991 GlOIOl'l et a1. ..................... .. 235/492
`
`2 Claims, 2 Drawing Sheets
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`

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`US. Patent
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`May 25, 1993
`
`Sheet 1 of 2
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`5,214,566
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`ELECTRICALLY
`CONDUCTIVE
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`2/6
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`DOJ EX. 1014
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`US. Patent
`
`May 25, 1993
`
`Sheet 2 of 2
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`5,214,566
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`F|GJ+
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`3O
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`31
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`XXXXXXX
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`X )
`I}
`XXXXX‘XX WW}
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`1
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`> L
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`CHIP 1
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`DOJ EX. 1014
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`

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`1
`
`REINFORCED LC. CARD
`
`FIELD OF THE INVENTION
`The present invention relates to a reinforced inte~
`grated circuit card, I.C. card, i.e. a card whose body is
`better able to withstand the external mechanical stresses
`applied thereto while being handled by its user. An
`other main object present invention is to make the tech
`nology of LC. cards more compatible with that of mag
`netic track cards, in order to improve the performance
`of these two technologies in combination.
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`5,214,566
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`rudimentary equipment is all that is required for dupli
`cating the-information from such cards to cards made
`unprofessionally, thereby enabling cards to be used in
`ways that were not intended when they were issued.
`There also exist combined cards having both electronic
`and magnetic memory. The purpose is to make best use
`of the performance available from each of the two types
`of memory media. At present, practical use of such
`cards is prevented by problems associated with different
`tolerances in use.
`It has also been observed that problems of dimen
`sional stability occur because of the range of tempera
`tures to which cards are subjected in use. Dual memory
`type cards, in particular, can only be made both long
`lasting and highly reliable if they are simultaneously of
`great dimensional stability and also of considerable
`mechanical stiffness. In addition, making the card body
`of plastic gives rise to considerable electrostatic dis
`charge phenomena which are injurious both to an elec
`tronic micromodule and to a magnetic track.
`An object of the invention is to remedy the above
`mentioned drawbacks by proposing a technique for
`reinforcing cards that leads to such mechanical stability
`independently of temperature and which adapts itself to
`the mechanical and/or thermal expansion behavior of
`the micromodule or of the magnetic track. Thermal
`expansion can change a magnetic track to such an ex
`tent that the resulting format thereon no longer lies
`within the standards laid down. In order to adapt the
`deformation effects so as to keep them within a range of
`tolerances that is compatible with both of the technolo
`gies and regardless of temperature, the card body is
`reinforced in accordance with the invention by using at
`least two sheets of different strengthening materials.
`Each of these sheets is organized in a matrix con?gura- '
`tion and the two matrix con?gurations are preferably
`intermeshed, e.g. by offsetting one of the sheets by half
`a pitch relative to the other. It is then observed that the
`card body made of plastic itself absorbs the differential
`forces due to the two different materials, and instead of
`this leading to the card breaking up, it leads on the
`contrary to tolerances being satis?ed accurately.
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`I.C. cards are known that are usable in banking and
`also for prepayment purposes: e.g. prepayment of a
`telephone call, prepayment of parking time for a vehi
`cle, etc. Such I.C. cards normally include a card body
`made of plastic in which a cavity is formed, which
`cavity receives an electronics micromodule provided
`with contact metallization for providing electrical com
`munication between the micromodule and the outside
`world. LC. cards have also been envisaged in which the
`micromodule is not provided with contact metalliza
`tion. In such applications, communication with the card
`takes place by radio.
`_
`One of the problems encountered with LC. cards is
`their mechanical strength. To this end, in order to be
`acceptable for use by the general public, cards must be
`capable of passing severe stress testing. During such
`testing which simulates situations that may arise in use,
`a card is curved some number of times perpendicularly
`to its long axis or to its short axis. A card is considered
`as passing such a test if the micromodule has not be
`come detached after a series of curving operations has
`been completed, and/or if the stresses have not been
`transferred to the micromodule suf?ciently to break it.
`Other tests relate to the bending strength of card bodies.
`In such tests, manufactured cards are required to with
`stand as high a bending force as possible. Beneath a
`given bending force card bodies are rejected, above it
`they are accepted.
`For the reasons mentioned above, card bodies have
`thus been reinforced, either overall or else in the prox
`imity of the region in a card body having the cavity
`which receives the micromodule. For example, Euro
`pean patent application number 0 071 255 published on
`Feb. 9, 1983 describes I.C. card media in which the
`plastic material used for the card body medium is rein
`forced with glass ?bers. In such a con?guration, during
`50
`co-lamination of the layers of the card body, use is made
`of a co-lamination core constituted by epoxy resin rein
`forced with glass ?bers.
`In magnetic track card applications, the back of a
`card is covered with a magnetic track in which informa
`tion is recorded. A reader can receive such cards and
`decode the information recorded thereon for the pur
`pose of identifying the card bearer. Normally the den
`sity of information actually stored on such tracks is low
`so as to provide tolerance to large variations in use. The
`difference between magnetic track cards and LC. cards
`comes from the fact that the quantity of information
`that can be stored with magnetic tracks is greater than
`the quantity that can be stored with electronic micro
`modules, but that access to the information is slower
`with magnetic tracks than it is with micromodules. In
`contrast, from the security point of view, magnetic
`track cards provide no security guarantee at all. Very
`
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`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`The present invention thus provides an LC. card
`comprising a card body made of plastic whose stiffness
`is reinforced by strengthening ?bers, the card body also
`being provided with a cavity for receiving an integrated
`circuit chip provided with means for establishing com
`munication between the chip circuit and the world
`outside the card, wherein the strengthening ?bers are,
`at least locally, of two different types and are placed in
`the card body in at least two sheets in two matrix con
`?gurations.
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`An embodiment of the invention is described by way
`of example with reference to the accompanying draw
`ings, in which:
`FIG. 1 is a diagram of a reinforced I.C. card of the
`invention;
`FIG. 2 shows an electronic micromodule suitable for
`insertion in the card body of FIG. 1;
`FIG. 3 shows one example of how a card body of the
`invention may be manufactured by using a co-lamina
`tion method; and
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`3
`FIG. 4 is a section through an embodiment of an
`application of the invention using a micromodule belt.
`
`5
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`30
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`35
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`DETAILED DESCRIPTION
`FIG. 1 shows an LC. card body of the invention. The
`card body is made of plastic, e.g. PVC or ABS, and its
`stiffness is reinforced by strengthening ?bers 2. The
`card body further includes a cavity 3 for receiving an
`integrated circuit (I.C.) chip 4 as shown in FIG. 2. The
`electronic chip 4 is contained in a micromodule 3 pro
`vided on its surface with metal tabs such as 5 to 10
`which are connected to the chip and which are intended
`to enable electrical communication to be established
`between the circuit 4 and the world outside the card.
`The special feature of the invention lies in the fact that
`the strengthening ?bers 2 comprise at least two sheets:
`a sheet 11 shown in continuous lines, and a sheet 12
`shown in dashed lines. The two sheets are made of
`materials of different types. In one example, the sheet 11
`is a sheet of carbon graphite while the sheet 12 is a sheet
`of boron ?ber Both of these sheets and 12 are made to
`have matrix con?gurations. In the example shown, the
`matrix con?gurations are simple con?gurations com
`prising perpendicular rows and columns with the inter
`row pitch being equal to the inter-column pitch. The
`25
`two matrix con?gurations 11 and 12 are intermeshed in
`each other, preferably by being offset by half of the
`pitch. In one embodiment, the ?bers in these two sheets
`are at a spacing of about 1 millimeter (mm). The diame
`ter of the ?bers is then about 0.05 mm.
`-
`The intermeshing of the sheets is not a necessary
`condition for enabling card body expansion to adapt to
`the constraints of the two technologies. However, in
`preferred manner, this intermeshing improves the trans
`fer of the reinforcing forces produced by the ?bers to
`the body of the card.
`As mentioned above, a card made in this way is pref
`erably a card having both magnetic and electronic
`memory. Thus, it includes a magnetic track on one of its
`faces 13 (the face that is not shown in FIG. 1) and occu
`pying all or a portion of the back of the card.
`FIG. 3 shows a co-lamination type manufacturing
`method. The bottom of the ?gure shows the conven
`tional manufacturing method prior to the reinforcement
`of the invention which is represented by the top of the
`?gure and by the outline arrow. For co-lamination,
`rotary presses 14 and 15 superpose layers of plastic that
`are presented flat after being paid out from reels 16 and
`17. A stack of two layers is shown, but in practice a
`larger number may be used. Above the top layer, a
`machine 18 is shown diagrammatically for the purpose
`of punching holes in the top layer to constitute card
`receiving cavities 3. In the invention, at least two rein
`forcing sheets (respectively 11 and 12) are co-laminated
`in an intermediate position in the card body. For exam
`ple, this means that the sheets 11 and 12 wound on
`respective reels 19 and 20 engage in the co-lamination
`method after layers 32 and 33. Each of the two sheets 11
`and 12 may be supported by natural gluing on a very
`?ne ?lm. So as to adjust the half-pitch offset between
`the matrix con?gurations of the two sheets, means are
`provided (represented in this case by a micrometer
`screw 21) for offsetting the axes of the reels 19 and 20
`relative to each other.
`In an improvement, one of the two sheets, e.g. the
`sheet 11, is wider than the sheet 12 and is even wider
`than the layers used in co-laminating the card bodies. In
`this way, the sheet 11 presents fringes 22 that project
`from the edges of the cards (as visible in FIG. 1). The
`
`5,214,566
`4
`sheet 11 is then preferably made of a material that con
`ducts electricity, and preferably of graphite. Under
`these conditions by rubbing against the edges of inser
`tion slots in LC. card readers that subsequently receive
`the cards, these fringes serve to establish an equipoten
`tial electrical surface within the body of the card itself,
`and above all to greatly simplify evacuating any charge
`that may accumulate during such electrostatic dis
`charges as may occur. To this end, the graphite of the
`sheet 11 could even be replaced by a con?guration of
`metal wires, e.g. wires made of copper or of aluminum.
`With different types of reinforcing materials, the
`expansion and the strength coef?cients are adapted so
`that these coef?cients lie in a range which is common to
`both card technologies: i.e. to magnetic cards and to
`electronic cards. To improve this adaptation, the fol
`lowing may be performed: either the shape of one of the
`matrix con?guration is altered, or the strength of a sheet
`is increased by changing the ?ber material or the ?ber
`diameter, or else a third sheet is used. In addition, the
`reinforcing forces can be limited locally within the card
`by extending the reinforcing con?guration or network
`only over portions of the ?lm carrying it, at least for one
`of the two sheets. On co-lamination, these localized
`reinforcing regions are placed close to the cavity.
`Thus, instead of treating the entire card body, the
`reinforcing action may be limited to a mechanical belt
`30 formed around the micromodule 31: see FIG. 4. This
`belt is preferably ?xed to the micromodule before the
`micromodule together with the belt is ?xed in'the card.
`With composite boron~carbon reinforcement as men
`tioned above, this has shown that it is possible to control
`the mechanical stresses that are transmitted to the mi
`cromodule per se when bending takes place. The micro
`module together with its belt is then not too rigid as
`would be the case using ?ber reinforcement made of a
`single, too hard type material. Consequently, the micro
`module and its belt do not become detached during
`bending tests. However, the reinforcement is strong
`enough to protect the micromodule itself. This rein
`forcement is stronger than that which can be obtained
`using ?bers of a single, too-soft type.
`In the invention, by controlling stiffnesses by an ap
`propriate selection of composite materials, the number
`of cards that pass bending tests is increased.
`We claim:
`1. An LC. card comprising a card body made of plas
`tic whose stiffness is reinforced by strengthening ?bers,
`the card body also being provided with a cavity for
`receiving an integrated circuit chip provided with
`means for establishing communication between the chip
`circuit and the world outside the card, wherein the
`strengthening ?bers are, at least locally, of two different
`types and are placed in the car body in at least two
`sheets and in two matrix con?gurations, wherein the
`two con?gurations are intermeshed.
`2. An I.C. card comprising a card body made of plas
`tic whose stiffness is reinforced by strengthening fibers,
`the card body also being provided with a cavity for
`receiving an integrated circuit chip provided with
`means for establishing communication between the chip
`circuit and the world outside the card, wherein the
`strengthening ?bers are, at least locally, of two different
`types and are placed in the card body in at least two
`sheets ‘and in two matrix con?gurations, wherein the
`two strengthening sheets are disposed in a belt ?xed
`around the micromodule including the chip prior to the
`micromodule and its belt being ?xed in the car body.
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`

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`UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
`CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION
`5,214,566
`May 25, 1993
`
`PATENT N0. :
`DATED
`;
`
`INVENTQMS) ;
`
`Francoise Dupre et al.
`
`It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby
`corrected as shown below:
`
`Column 1 , line 9, after "object" insert --of the—-.
`
`Column 3, line 21, after "fiber" insert --.——.
`
`Column 3, line 21 , afterv "sheets" insert -—l1-—.
`
`Column 4, line 53, change "car" to --card-—.
`
`Column 4, line 67, change "car" to --card——.
`
`Signed and Sealed this
`
`Fifteenth Day of February, 1994
`
`AM:
`
`64144 W
`
`Arresting O?icer
`
`Commissioner of Parents and Trademarks
`
`BRUCE LEHMAN
`
`6/6
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`DOJ EX. 1014