Booster antenna configurations and methods

• US 9,633,304 B2
• Filed: 11/23/2015
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AmaTech Group Limited (Paragon Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Féinics AmaTech Teoranta (Paragon Group Limited)
• Inventors: Finn, David, Ummenhofer, Klaus
• Primary Examiner(s): Haupt, Kristy A
• Application Number:
  US14/948,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20160118711A1
• Time in Patent Office: 519 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07769 the further communication means being a galvanic interface, e.g. hybrid or mixed smart cards having a contact and a non-contact interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07773 Antenna details antennas for wireless devices, e.g. RFID tags, in general H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07794 the record carrier comprising a booster or auxiliary antenna in addition to the antenna connected directly to the integrated circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H01F 38/14 Inductive couplings for wireless supply or distribution of electric power using inductive coupling H02J50/10
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2216 used in interrogator/reader equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2225 used in active tags, i.e. provided with its own power source or in passive tags, i.e. deriving power from RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2283 mounted in or on the surface of a semiconductor substrate as a chip-type antenna or integrated with other components into an IC package
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/29 Combinations of different interacting antenna units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q25/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/00 Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/0239 Signal transmission by AC coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/165 incorporating printed inductors
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/09036 Recesses or grooves in insulating substrate recess in metallic substrate H05K2201/09745
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/10098 Components for radio transmission, e.g. radio frequency identification [RFID] tag, printed or non-printed antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2201/10287 Metal wires as connectors or conductors
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 2203/0285 Using ultrasound, e.g. for cleaning, soldering or wet treatment
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/103 by bonding or embedding conductive wires or strips
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49162 by using wire as conductive path

Abstract

A booster antenna (BA) for a smart card comprises a card antenna (CA) component extending around a periphery of a card body (CB), a coupler coil (CC) component at a location for an antenna module (AM), and an extension antenna (EA) component contributing to the inductance of the booster antenna (BA). At least one of the components may have a pitch which is different than one or more of the other components. A method of wire embedding is also disclosed, by controlling a force and ultrasonic power applied by an embedding tool at different positions on the card body (CB).

Claims

1. Booster antenna (BA) comprising the following components:

a card antenna (CA) component;

a coupler coil (CC) component; and

an extension antenna (EA) component;

characterized in that;

at least one of the components has a pitch which is different than one or more of the other components.

2. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the card antenna (CA) component has an outer winding (OW) and an inner winding (IW).

3. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the pitch of the outer and inner windings are substantially the same as one another.

4. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the pitch of the outer and inner windings are different than one another.

5. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the components comprises an outer winding (OW, ow) and an inner winding (IW, iw).

6. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the card antenna component has a pitch of approximately 200 μ

m.

7. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the coupler coil (CC) component has a pitch of approximately 150 μ

m.

8. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the booster antenna comprises wire having a diameter; and

the pitch of at least one of the components is approximately 2×

(twice) the diameter of the wire, resulting in a spacing between adjacent turns of components on the order of 1 wire diameter.

9. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the coupler coil (CC) and extension antenna (EA) components are combined with one another, as a coil, wherein the turns increase in pitch as the combined CC/EA booster antenna component extends across an area of a card body (CB) of a smart card (SC).

10. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the pitch of the extension antenna (EA) component varies as it extends across an area of a card body (CB) of a smart card (SC).

11. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the pitch of the extension antenna (EA) component is different than the pitch of the coupler coil (CC) component.

12. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the extension antenna (EA) and coupler coil (CC) components have pitches different than that of the card antenna (CA) component.

13. A smart card (SC) incorporating the booster antenna (BA) of claim 1.

14. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the extension antenna (EA) component lowers the resonance frequency of the booster antenna BA to a desired resonance.

15. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the pitch of individual turns of the extension antenna (EA) are adjusted to match the booster antenna (BA) resonance frequency.

16. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, wherein:

the extension antenna (EA) concentrates the electromagnetic field when in close coupling proximity to an external contactless reader.

17. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one additional extension antenna (EA) component.