Joint Ic Card And Wireless Transceiver Module For Mobile Communication Equipment

• US 20080261656A1
• Filed: 11/25/2004
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Inventors: Borean, Claudio, Bella, Valter
• Granted Patent: US 8,611,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/558
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3226 Use of secure elements separate from M-devices
• 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: G06Q 20/3563 Software being resident on card
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/35765 Access rights to memory zones
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/10 together with a coded signal , e.g. in the form of personal identification information, like personal identification number [PIN] or biometric data
• 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: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces

Abstract

An integrated circuit card for a mobile terminal incorporates a radio transceiver module intended for communications that do not pass through the mobile network. To allow using, for the chip of the IC card and the radio transceiver module, the same chips as would be used for conventional IC cards and transceivers not integrated together, the IC card further includes a finite state machine chip interconnecting the IC card chip and the chip(s) of the transceiver module so that they have access to the card contacts establishing connection between the card and the terminal.

Claims

1-24. -24. (canceled)

25. An integrated circuit card for a user terminal, which card is equipped with a first functional unit allowing operation of said terminal in a telecommunication system, and with a second functional unit performing the functions of a radio transceiver allowing wireless functionalities independent of said telecommunication system, said first and second functional units being interconnected by a third functional unit establishing connection between said first and second functional units and said terminal, said first, second and third functional units being made as independent units.

26. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 25, wherein said third functional unit is an arbitrating unit arranged to allow a direct communication between said first and second functional units or between said second functional unit and said terminal.

27. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 26, wherein said third functional unit is arranged to allot different priorities to the communications between said first functional unit and said terminal, between said first functional unit and said second functional unit or between said second functional unit and said terminal, the highest priority being allotted to the communications between said first functional unit and said terminal and the lowest priority being allotted to the communications between said second functional unit and said terminal.

28. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 27, wherein said third functional unit comprises a core unit, performing, based on said priorities, communication management and arbitration among concurrent communication requests, and first, second and third interfaces for connection to said terminal, said first functional unit and said second functional unit, respectively, said core unit comprising a request generation circuit arranged to generate access requests to any one among said terminal, said first functional unit and said second functional unit, based on an analysis of instructions read from reception buffers of said interfaces.

29. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 28, wherein said request generation circuit is arranged to recognise from the contents of predetermined fields of the instructions, whether or not an instruction is defined by a standard for communication between said terminal and said first functional unit, and wherein said request generation circuit comprises a look-up table associating such contents with an instruction destination address, and outputting said destination address as an access request to said terminal or said first functional unit if the instruction is defined by the standard, or to said second functional unit, if the instruction is not defined by the standard.

30. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 28, wherein said request generation circuit is arranged to recognise, from the contents of predetermined fields of the instructions, whether an instruction is a writing/reading instruction into/from a memory area of said first functional unit or an instruction not belonging to an addressing area of said first functional unit, and to generate an access request to said terminal or said first functional unit in the former case, or to said second functional unit in the latter case.

31. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 25, wherein said third functional unit is a finite state machine.

32. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 31, wherein said finite state machine is reconfigurable.

33. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 25, wherein said first, second and third functional units are made as a multi-chip module, and the chips of said first and second functional units have access to contacts of said card through the chip of said third functional unit.

34. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 33, wherein said multi-chip module is located under the card contacts.

35. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 25, wherein said first, second and third functional units are made of separate library blocks embodied into a single chip.

36. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 25, comprising a card performing identification and security-related functions for said user terminal.

37. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 36, comprising a subscriber identity module or a universal subscriber identity module card of a mobile terminal.

38. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 25, wherein said second functional unit is a transceiver for personal area network applications.

39. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 38, wherein said second functional unit is a transceiver according to ZigBee™

standard.

40. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 33, wherein said second functional unit is made of a single chip comprising a radio-frequency part of the transceiver and a whole protocol stack, from a physical layer to the networking and application functions, of a communication according to said ZigBee™

standard.

41. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 33, wherein said second functional unit comprises a microcontroller chip for communication protocol implementation and a reception-transmission chip comprising a radio-frequency part of the transceiver.

42. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 38, wherein said second functional unit is associated with a printed radiating element.

43. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 42, wherein said printed radiating element is formed on a card surface opposite to the surface bearing the card contacts.

47. Mobile communication equipment comprising the integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 42, wherein said second functional unit is a transceiver module for personal area network applications.

49. The integrated circuit card as claimed in claim 39, wherein said second functional unit comprises a microcontroller chip for communication protocol implementation and a reception-transmission chip comprising a radio-frequency port of the transceiver.

44. A multi-function communication terminal for operation both as a user terminal in a telecommunication system and as a terminal for performing wireless functionalities independently of said telecommunication system, the terminal being equipped with an integrated circuit card bearing a first functional unit allowing operation of the equipment in said telecommunication system, and a second functional unit performing the functions of a radio transceiver allowing said wireless functionalities, said integrated circuit card bearing a third functional unit establishing connection of said first and second functional units with each other and with electronic circuitry in the terminal, said first, second and third functional units being made as independent units.

45. The user terminal as claimed in claim 44, wherein said integrated circuit card is a card performing identification and security-related functions for said user terminal.

46. The user terminal as claimed in claim 45, wherein said integrated circuit card comprises a subscriber identity module or a universal subscriber identity module card of a mobile terminal.

48. A mobile communication terminal comprising a multi-function communication terminal as claimed in claim 44, wherein said second functional unit is a transceiver of a ZigBee™

node.