Shield element for mounting on an object

• US 9,836,689 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2015
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seibersdorf Labor GmbH (Government of Austria)
• Original Assignee: Seibersdorf Labor GmbH (Government of Austria)
• Inventors: Schmid, Gernot
• Primary Examiner(s): WALSH, DANIEL I
• Application Number:
  US15/116,368
• Publication Number:
  US 20160350641A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,051 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/005 the record carrier comprising an arrangement to facilitate insertion into a holding device, e.g. an arrangement that makes the record carrier fit into an etui or a casing ticket holders A45C11/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07309 Means for preventing undesired reading or writing from or onto record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07318 by hindering electromagnetic reading or writing jamming of communication, counter-measures H04K3/00; secret communication H04K1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07327 Passive means, e.g. Faraday cages Faraday-type protection of electric circuits in general H05K9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07345 by activating or deactivating at least a part of the circuit on the record carrier, e.g. ON/OFF switches
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07381 with deactivation or otherwise incapacitation of at least a part of the circuit upon detected tampering
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0739 the incapacitated circuit being part of an antenna
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07735 the record carrier comprising means for protecting against electrostatic discharge
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07773 Antenna details antennas for wireless devices, e.g. RFID tags, in general H01Q1/22

Abstract

A shield element for mounting on an object, in particular a flat object, such as a chip card. The object has a base body, an RFID or NFC transponder, a transponder chip and a coil-shaped transmission antenna connected to the RFID or NFC transponder chip. The shield element has a carrier made of non-conductive material. The carrier has a closed or closable conducting path which, upon mounting the shield element on the object, shields the object from the electromagnetic fields generated by an external reading device and directed at the transmission antenna of the RFID or NFC transponder chip.

Claims

1. A shield element for attachment to an object, the object containing a transponder chip and a transmission antenna connected to the transponder chip, the shield element comprising:

a carrier made of electrically nonconductive material;

a closed or closable conductor track on said carrier, said conductor track, when the shield element is mounted to the object, shielding against electromagnetic fields generated by an external read device and oriented onto the transmission antenna of the transponder chip of the object, said conductor track forming an antenna; and

a resonant oscillating circuit including at least one capacitor and said antenna;

said resonant oscillating circuit including at least one switch arranged so that, upon actuation of said switch, an element of said oscillating circuit is short-circuited or deactivated, or a further element of the oscillating circuit selected from the group consisting of a further capacitor, a resistor, and a further coil is switched into said oscillating circuit, so that a resonant frequency thereof changes by at least 10%.

2. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein the object is a flat chip card having a main body, an RFID or NFC transponder connected to the transponder chip, and the transmission antenna is a coiled transmission antenna connected to the RFID or NFC transponder chip.

3. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein said conductor track is arranged on said carrier to form an area enclosed by said conductor track at least half as large as an area enclosed by the transmission antenna of the object.

4. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein said carrier is a film and said conductor track is applied, printed, or vapor deposited onto said film or is integrated into said film, and wherein one or both of the following is true:

said film is an adhesive film to be glued onto a main body of the object;

or

a total thickness of said film is less than 0.5 mm.

5. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein said conductor track is arranged in an outer circumferential region of said carrier, and/or said carrier has a shape of the object.

6. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein said conductor track is a continuous conductor loop having an ohmic resistance of at most 5 ohms.

7. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein said antenna with antenna has one or more turns disposed at a distance of at most 5 mm from the transmission antenna of the object when the shield element is applied to the object.

8. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein said antenna extends along the transmission antenna of the object when the shield element is applied to the object.

9. The shield element according to claim 8, wherein said antenna is a coiled antenna with at least one turn extending along an outer region of said carrier.

10. The shield element according to claim 6, wherein said resonant frequency of said resonant oscillating circuit is less than 50 MHz.

11. The shield element according to claim 8, wherein said conductor track forms a coiled antenna that is closed per se in a starting state and is interruptible via an interrupter switch.

12. The shield element according to claim 11, wherein said interrupter switch is a push switch or as a temperature-dependent resistor having a positive temperature coefficient.

13. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein said at least one switch is an electronic switch.

14. The shield element according to claim 13, which further comprises a touch sensor connected to close or open said electronic switch upon detection of a touch.

15. The shield element according to claim 14, wherein the container is an envelope or a case.

16. The shield element according to claim 1, wherein:

said main body has a container for receiving the object;

or

the shield element is connected to a container, glued to a container, or integrated into a container.

17. The shield element according to claim 16, wherein said conductor track is arranged on the container such that, when the object is located in the container, wireless communication between the RFID or NFC transponder of the object is effectively suppressed by said conductor track of the shield element.

18. An assembly, comprising:

an object having a main body with an RFID or NFC transponder and a transmission antenna connected to said transponder; and

a shield element according to claim 1 mounted to said object and in particular is glued thereon or is integrated into the object.

19. The assembly according to claim 18, wherein:

said shield element contains a resonant oscillating circuit with a coiled antenna and at least one capacitor;

said oscillating circuit being tuned such that, when said shield element is applied to said object, a shared resonant frequency of said oscillating circuit and said RFID or NFC transponder including transmission antenna results, which differs by at least 1% from a system frequency of the RFID transponder; and

wherein the system frequency of the RFID transponder, and the transmission frequency of the external read device, is 13.56 MHz.