Adhesive format adapter for a storage device and method for the production thereof

• US 8,107,246 B2
• Filed: 05/05/2006
• Issued: 01/31/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gemalto SA (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Gemalto SA (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Fidalgo, Jean-Christophe, Martinent, Jean-Francois, Alleysson, Blandine
• Primary Examiner(s): LEVI, DAMEON E
• Application Number:
  US11/920,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20090040695A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,097 Days
• Field of Search: 361/737, 439/945, 439/946, 257/679, 235/488, 235/492, 235/441
• US Class Current: 361/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/077 Constructional details, e.g. mounting of circuits in the carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07739 comprising a first part capable of functioning as a record carrier on its own and a second part being only functional as a form factor changing part, e.g. SIM cards type ID 0001, removably attached to a regular smart card form factor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 439/945 Adapter for pcb or cartridge

Abstract

The invention relates to a format adapter comprising a storage device having: a front surface provided with electrical contact pads opposite a rear surface defining a lower peripheral border (2a); a body having a cavity (4) for receiving the device and opening on a front and rear side of the body, and; an adhesive film (8a), which is sensitive to pressure, adhered to the rear side of the body and which has at least one adhesive portion inside the cavity in order to hold the storage device. The adhesive film has an inner recess (10) essentially centered on the cavity and has at least one shoulder bordering on the cavity that assures a localized adhesion only on the lower peripheral border (2a) of the storage device. The invention also relates to a method for producing the adapter and to a use of the adapter for manufacturing and packaging the storage device.

Claims

1. Format adapter comprising a storage device having a front surface equipped with electric contact pads opposite to a rear surface defining a bottom peripheral border, said adapter comprising:

an adapter body having a cavity for accommodating the device which opens onto front and rear surfaces of the adapter body, and

a pressure-sensitive adhesive film, glued to the rear surface of the adapter body by contact between a side of the adhesive film having adhesive thereon and the rear surface of the adapter body, at least one portion of the side having adhesive thereon being arranged to contact and hold the storage device within the cavity,

wherein the adhesive film has an inner recess substantially centred on the cavity and at least one shoulder bordering on the cavity assuring localised adhesion only on the bottom peripheral border of the device.

2. Adapter according to claim 1, wherein the shoulder is continuous.

3. Adapter according to claim 1, wherein the shoulder has a width comprised between 0.1 and 5 mm.

4. Adapter according to claim 1, wherein the recess is sized such as to allow the device to be pressed directly with a finger through the recess.

5. Adapter according claim 1, wherein the film extends perfectly out to the outer edge of the adapter body.

6. Adapter according to claim 1, wherein said adapter is connected in a detachable manner to an attachment support body with a larger surface by a partial pre-cut.

7. Adapter according to claim 6, wherein the attachment body comprises a detachable device intended for the cavity.

8. Adapter according to claim 6, wherein the format of the attachment body corresponds to the ISO format.

9. Adapter according to claim 1, wherein the film has an adhesive strength that can withstand a pressing force on the mini-card of less than 8 N while providing resistance to delamination of more than 3 N/cm between the film and the adapter.

10. Adapter according to claim 1, wherein the external format of the adapter body is the same as the Plug-in UICC format and the cavity is sized to accommodate a Mini-UICC card.

11. Adapter according to claim 1, wherein the format of the adapter body is the same as the ISO format and the format of its cavity matches that of a Mini-UICC or Plug-in UICC card or any of the various storage-device formats such as SD, MMC, Mini SD, MMC Micro or Memory Stick or USB key or any memory-card format with accessible contacts on the top surface.

12. Method of producing a format adapter for a storage device, said method comprising the following steps according to which:

a support with a cavity for accommodating the device opening onto the front and rear surface of the body and an area for extraction of the adapter body is provided,

a pressure-sensitive adhesive film is fixed to the rear surface of the support, at least partially covering the cavity, by contact between a side of the adhesive film having adhesive thereon and the rear surface of the support, at least one portion of the side having adhesive thereon being arranged to contact and hold the storage device within the cavity, and

the adhesive film is sized and positioned so as to have an inner recess substantially centred on the cavity and at least one shoulder located only at the inner peripheral margin of the cavity.

13. Method according to claim 12, wherein the recess is formed by cutting, the film being fixed on the support.

14. Method according to claim 12, wherein

the support is provided with an area for extracting the body of the adapter,

the film is applied such as to cover at least the entire extraction area of the adapter,

a partial pre-cut of the adapter is made along a delimitation of its extraction area so as to cut the excess adhesive film beyond the surface of the adapter and to form a pre-determined breakage line ensuring that the adapter can be detached from the support.

15. Method according to claim 12, wherein the support also comprises an area for extracting a mini-card compatible with the adapter.

16. Method according to claim 15, wherein the mini-card is pre-cut so as to form a predetermined breakage line ensuring that the mini-card can be detached from the support.

17. Method according to claim 12, wherein the support is in ISO format.