IC card and method of manufacturing the same

• US 20030209362A1
• Filed: 03/25/2003
• Published: 11/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Tsuchihashi, Fukumi, Kamakura, Tomoyuki, Miyazawa, Wakao, Kasuga, Masashi
• Granted Patent: US 7,090,139 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 174/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0718 the sensor being of the biometric kind, e.g. fingerprint sensors fingerprint sensors in general G06V40/13; biometric access-control systems in general, see G07C9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/073 Special arrangements for circuits, e.g. for protecting identification code in memory protection against unauthorised use of computer memory G06F12/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/077 Constructional details, e.g. mounting of circuits in the carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07703 the interface being visual
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/082 Features insuring the integrity of the data on or in the card
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/20 by affixing prefabricated conductor pattern H05K1/187, H05K3/046, H05K3/4658, H05K3/4682 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/281 by means of a preformed insulating foil H05K3/284 takes precedence

Abstract

The invention provides an IC card in which it is difficult to separate IC chips from the IC card. In accordance with the invention, an IC card formed by laminating a plurality of substrates can include a sensor for identifying an authorized person, a signal processing circuit for processing the identification based on an output from the sensor and a card-shaped card medium containing the sensor and the signal processing circuit. At least the signal processing circuit can include a thin film circuit which is sufficiently thinner than the card medium and contains a material which is dissolvable equally to or more than the card medium.

Claims

1. An IC card formed by laminating a plurality of substrates, comprising:

a sensor that identifies an authorized person;

a signal processing circuit that processes an identification based on an output from the sensor; and

a card-shaped card medium containing the sensor and the signal processing circuit,

at least the signal processing circuit including a thin film circuit which is sufficiently thinner than the card medium and contains a material which is dissolvable equally to or more than the card medium.

2. The IC card according to claim 1, the substrate of the thin film circuit being selected from a material which prevents the melting point of the substrate from being in excess of the melting point of the card medium.

3. The IC card according to claim 1, further comprising a display formed of a thin film that displays a result of the identification processing.

4. The IC card according to claim 1, the signal processing circuit comprising an arithmetic operation circuit and a memory circuit.

5. The IC card according to claim 4, the memory circuit recording information that identifies the authorized person.

6. The IC card according to claim 1, the sensor being a fingerprint detection sensor.

7. The IC card according to claim 5, the information that identifies the authorized person being a fingerprint characteristic parameter.

8. An IC card formed by laminating a plurality of substrates, comprising:

a first substrate having a sensor device and a display device disposed on a first surface and a signal processing device comprising a thin film circuit and disposed on a second surface;

a second substrate having a sensor window and a display device window at positions corresponding to the sensor device and the display device, respectively, having wiring films on a surface facing the first surface of the first substrate, and bonded to the first substrate; and

a third substrate bonded to the other surface of the first substrate.

9. The IC card according to claim 8, wirings between the substrates being connected through anisotropic conductive films.

10. The IC card according to claim 8, the first substrate comprising an FPC substrate.

11. The IC card according to claim 8, the display device being a flat display device and including at least one of a liquid crystal display and an organic EL display.

12. The IC card according to claim 8, the sensor device comprising at least a fingerprint sensor and a hand writing sensor.

13. The IC card according to claim 8, connection terminals for external connection being formed on the front surface or the back surface of the IC card.

14. The IC card according to claim 8, the first substrate having through-holes that connect the circuits on the first surface to the circuits on the second surface.

15. The IC card according to claim 8, the display device window of the second substrate being formed transparent.

16. The IC card according to claim 8, the first substrate being a thin film substrate, and the second and third substrates being thick film substrates relatively thicker than the first substrate.

17. The IC card according to claim 8, wherein the second and third substrates are substrates for protecting the first substrate.

18. The IC card according to claim 8, a wiring film connected to any device of the first substrate being formed on the surface of the second or third substrate facing the first substrate.

19. An IC card formed by bonding a plurality of substrates, comprising:

a first substrate having a sensor device and a signal processing device disposed on a first surface; and

a second substrate having a wiring film, a window, and a display device disposed on a surface facing the first surface of the first substrate, the wiring film forming wirings between or in the devices, the window exposing the sensor device, and the display device being disposed on correspondence to the signal processing device.

20. The IC card according to claim 19, further comprising anisotropic conductive films that connect at least any device of the first substrate to the wiring film of the second substrate.

21. An IC card formed by bonding a plurality of substrates, comprising:

terminals formed at an end of a substrate that connect internal circuits to the outside,

the terminals protruding from any one substrate and being exposed on the front surface of the IC card and are fitted into fitting portions formed on other substrate.

22. A method of manufacturing an IC card, comprising:

forming a thin-film-circuit-mounted substrate by transferring thin film circuits formed on a tentative substrate onto a thin film substrate for the IC card; and

bonding protective substrates to both sides of the thin-film-circuit-mounted substrate, respectively.

24. The method of manufacturing an IC card according to claim 22, wherein:

connection terminals are previously formed to the thin film circuits, and wiring films are previously formed to the protective substrate; and

at the bonding step, the thin film circuits are connected to the wiring films by bonding the thin film substrate to the protective substrate through anisotropic conducive films.

23. A method of manufacturing an IC card, comprising:

forming a thin-film-circuit-mounted substrate by transferring thin film circuits formed on a tentative substrate onto a thin film substrate for the IC card; and

bonding a protective substrate to the thin-film-circuit-mounted substrate.

25. The method of manufacturing an IC card according to claim 23, the bonding step comprising a positioning step of fitting connection terminals formed to any one of the substrates into fitting portions formed to the other substrate.