DATA CARRIER HAVING A CONTACT PLATE WITH PRINTING THEREON

• US 20130008968A1
• Filed: 06/08/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDEMIA France (Advent International Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oberthur Technologies SA (Advent International Corporation)
• Inventors: Launay, Franois, Guerard, Denis
• Granted Patent: US 9,117,153 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/492
• 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 19/10 at least one kind of marking being used for authentication, e.g. of credit or identity cards verification of coded identity or credit cards in mechanisms actuated by them G07F7/12
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49204 Contact or terminal manufacturing

Abstract

A data carrier (1) having a main card body (2) and a contact plate (3) included on a surface of said main card body, wherein an area of the contact plate (3) has a printed image (9) thereon. In particular the image (9) on the contact plate of the card is personalized and matches an image (10) on the main card body (2) so providing a further security feature for the data carrier (1).

Claims

1. A data carrier having a main card body and a contact plate included on a surface of said main body, wherein an area of the contact plate has a printed image thereon.

2. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the image is in a discrete area of the contact plate leaving one or more areas of the contact plate free from having a printed image thereon.

3. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the one or more areas are the areas where there are external contacts for the contact plate.

4. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the printed image is printed on a monochrome base layer on the contact plate.

5. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the printed image is printed with a security ink.

6. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the data carrier is a Smart Card, a bank card, a credit card, a debit card or a passport.

7. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the printed image corresponds to a printed image on the main card body of the data carrier.

8. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the printed image is partially on the contact plate and partially on the card body.

9. A data carrier according to claim 1, wherein the contact plate and the main card body of the data carrier are of different materials.

10. A method of manufacturing a data carrier wherein a contact plate is printed with an image and embedded in a main card body of said data carrier.

13. A method according to claim 10, wherein the contact plate is first coated with a base layer and then the image is printed onto the base layer.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein prior to printing the base layer the external contacts on the contact plate are masked.

15. A method according to claim 10 wherein the printing process is selected from at least one of the following:

direct LASER beam application on the contact plate, local LASER ablation of a base layer pre-deposited on the contact plate, laser printing or Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer.

11. A method of manufacturing a data carrier wherein a contact plate is embedded in a main card body of the data carrier and the contact plate is printed with an after embedding.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the contact plate and the main card are printed with images in one printing pass.