Product label, method of producing product labels and method for identifying products in a contactless and forgery-proof manner

• US 7,012,531 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2002
• Issued: 03/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
• Inventors: Fries, Manfred, Houdeau, Detlef
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T.
• Application Number:
  US10/164,552
• Publication Number:
  US 20020167407A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,376 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.7, 340/572.3, 340/572.8, 340/572.5
• US Class Current: 340/572.7
• 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 19/0739 the incapacitated circuit being part of an antenna
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07749 the record carrier being capable of non-contact communication, e.g. constructional details of the antenna of a non-contact smart card

Abstract

A product label includes a semiconductor chip and an antenna. The semiconductor chip stores information about a product. The antenna transmits the information about the product to a reading device. The antenna has a predetermined breaking point at which the antenna can be destroyed during the reading operation by energy introduced by the reading device so that the product label can be read only for a specific number of read cycles. A method of producing product labels and a method for a contactless, forgery-proof identification of products are also provided.

Claims

1. A product label, comprising:

a semiconductor chip for storing information related to a product;

an antenna operatively connected to said semiconductor chip, said antenna being configured to transmit the information related to the product with a first energy at a first frequency to a reading device;

said antenna having a cross-section and a predetermined breaking point, said predetermined breaking point being configured as a narrowing in said cross section; and

said antenna being destructible at said predetermined breaking point by a second energy having a second frequency introduced with the reading device during a reading operation such that the product label is no longer legible after the energy has been introduced.

2. The product label according to claim 1, wherein said antenna is a rod antenna.

3. The product label according to claim 2, wherein said rod antenna is one of a filament and a strip of electrically conductive plastic.

4. The product label according to claim 1, wherein said antenna is an antenna coil.

5. The product label according to claim 1, including a further antenna operatively connected to said semiconductor chip.

6. The product label according to claim 1, including:

a rod antenna, and

said antenna being capacitively coupled to said rod antenna.

7. The product label according to claim 6, wherein said antenna is an antenna coil.

8. The product label according to claim 7, wherein said predetermined breaking point is formed in said antenna coil, and said antenna coil is short-circuited.

9. The product label according to claim 7, wherein said semiconductor chip and said rod antenna are electrically conductively connected to one another.

10. The product label according to claim 6, wherein said rod antenna is one of a filament and a strip of electrically conductive plastic.

11. The product label according to claim 1, including a plastic film as a base element for carrying said semiconductor chip and said antenna.

12. The product label according to claim 11, wherein said plastic film is a cast film.

13. The product label according to claim 11, wherein said antenna in embedded in said base element.

14. The product label according to claim 11, wherein said semiconductor chip is embedded in said base element.

15. The product label according to claim 11, wherein said antenna is printed onto said base element.

16. The product label according to claim 1, including a label surface with an adhesive coating.

17. The product label according to claim 16, wherein said label surface with said adhesive coating is configured such that the product label cannot be removed in one piece from a labeled product.

18. A method of producing product labels according to claim 1, the method which comprises:

a) fixing semiconductor chips to an antenna element selected from the group consisting of an antenna filament and an antenna strip, the antenna element including a plurality of rod antennas;

b) producing electrically conductive contacts between the semiconductor chips and associated ones of the rod antennas;

c) producing a cast film including a plurality of product label base elements such that, when casting a film for producing the cast film, a preliminary stage of the rod antennae produced in step a) is embedded in the film such that for each of the base elements there is a respective one of the rod antennas with a respective one of the semiconductor chips; and

d) separating the cast film into product labels.

19. The method according to claim 18, which comprises printing respective further antennas onto respective surfaces of the base elements prior to separating the cast film into the product labels.

20. The method according to claim 19, which comprises applying an adhesive layer on the respective surfaces of the base elements subsequent to printing the further antennas onto the respective surfaces of the base elements.

21. The method according to claim 18, which comprises applying an adhesive layer on respective surfaces of the base elements prior to separating the cast film into the product labels.

22. The method according to claim 18, which comprises using a punching operation for carrying out the step of separating the cast film into the product labels.

23. A method for producing antitheft devices, which comprises:

producing a product label according to claim 1 by a method including the following steps;

a) fixing semiconductor chips to an antenna element selected from the group consisting of an antenna filament and an antenna strip, the antenna element including a plurality of rod antennas;

b) producing electrically conductive contacts between the semiconductor chips and associated ones of the rod antennas;

c) producing a cast film including a plurality of product label base elements such that, when casting a film for producing the cast film, a preliminary stage of the rod antennas produced in step a) is embedded in the film such that for each of the base elements there is a respective one of the rod antennas with a respective one of the semiconductor chips; and

d) separating the cast film into product labels;

producing a theft detector configured to react to a frequency emitted by the antenna of the product label and configured to be deactivated when the antenna of the product label is destructed; and

attaching the product label to a product.

24. A method for preventing theft of a product until purchase, which comprises:

producing an antitheft device by a method including the following steps;

producing a product label according to claim 1 by a method including the following steps;

a) fixing semiconductor chips to an antenna element selected from the group consisting of an antenna filament and an antenna strip, the antenna element including a plurality of rod antennas;

b) producing electrically conductive contacts between the semiconductor chips and associated ones of the rod antennas;

c) producing a cast film including a plurality of product label base elements such that, when casting a film for producing the cast film, a preliminary stage of the rod antennas produced in step a) is embedded in the film such that for each of the base elements there is a respective one of the rod antennas with a respective one of the semiconductor chips; and

d) separating the cast film into product labels;

producing a theft detector configured to react to a frequency emitted by the antenna of the product label and configured to be deactivated when the antenna of the product label is destructed; and

attaching the product label to a product,

reading the information related to the product transmitted by the antenna at the first energy having the first frequency from the product label with a reading device; and

destroying the antenna of the product label with the second energy emitted by the reading device and thereby deactivating the theft detector.

25. A product label, comprising:

a semiconductor chip for storing product information;

an antenna operatively connected to said semiconductor chip, said antenna being configured to transmit the product information with a first energy at a first frequency during a reading operation;

said antenna having a cross-section and a predetermined breaking point, said predetermined breaking point being configured as a narrowing in said cross section; and

said antenna being destructible at said predetermined breaking point by a second energy having a second frequency introduced during the reading operation.

26. A method for a contactless identification of a produce, the method which comprises:

providing a product label having a semiconductor chip for storing information related to the product, and having an antenna operatively connected to the semiconductor chip, the antenna having a cross-section and a predetermined breaking point configured as a narrowing in the cross section;

transmitting, with the antenna, the information related to the product with a first energy at a first frequency to a reading device for performing a reading operation; and

destroying the antenna at the predetermined breaking point with a second energy having a second frequency introduced with the reading device during the reading operation such that the product label is no longer legible after the energy has been introduced.

27. The method according to claim 26, which comprises using the product label when taking an inventory of products.

28. The method according to claim 26, which comprises providing an anti-theft safeguarding by using the product label as a forgery-proof label.

29. An antitheft device, comprising:

a product label including;

a semiconductor chip for storing information related to a product;

an antenna operatively connected to said semiconductor chip, said antenna being configured to transmit the information related to the product with a first energy at a first frequency to a reading device;

said antenna having a cross-section and a predetermined breaking point, said predetermined breaking point being configured as a narrowing in said cross section; and

said antenna being destructible at said predetermined breaking point by a second energy having a second frequency introduced with the reading device during a reading operation such that the product label is no longer legible after the energy has been introduced; and

a theft detector configured to react to the first frequency emitted by said antenna of said product label.

30. The antitheft device according to claim 29, wherein said theft detector emits a warning tone when reacting to the first frequency emitted by said antenna of said product label before said antenna being destructed.

31. The antitheft device according to claim 29, wherein said theft detector is deactivated when said antenna is destructed by the second energy.