Integrated welding and testing in the manufacture of smart cards
OwnerPaul Amadeo, Timothy Normaninventors
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Abstract
In an embodiment, a weld head for use in bonding antennas to IC modules in a sheet of smart card modules includes an integrated test unit, e.g., a reader/writer (R/W) unit. The test unit tests the bonds between the antenna and the IC module in a selected card module by attempting to communicate with the IC module with low-wattage RF waves via the card module's antenna.
Claims33
A method comprising:
- selecting a card module in a sheet comprising a plurality of card modules, each card module including an integrated circuit (IC) module and an antenna;
- bonding the antenna to the IC module in the selected card module at one or more interconnect sites;
- and
- testing the bond at the one or more interconnect sites by communicating with the IC module via electromagnetic waves.
A method comprising:
- selecting a card module in a sheet comprising a plurality of card modules, each card module including an antenna and an integrated circuit (IC) module having a processor and a memory;
- bonding the antenna to the IC module in the selected card module at one or more interconnect sites;
- and
- programming the selected card module in the sheet via electromagnetic waves.
Apparatus comprising:
- a weld head including a tip adapted to be heated;
- and
- a smart card reader module connected to the weld head, said card reader including an antenna adapted to communicate with a smart card module via electromagnetic waves.
An sheet substrate comprising:
- a first plurality of smart card modules, each of a second plurality of said first plurality of smart card modules including
- an antenna including an antenna portion, and
- an integrated circuit (IC) module including
- an interconnect pad,
- a bond between the interconnect pad and the antenna portion, and
- a memory including information accessed via said antenna.
An article comprising a machine-readable medium which stores machine executable instructions, said instructions operative to cause a machine to:
- select a card module in a sheet comprising a plurality of card modules, each card module including an integrated circuit (IC) module and an antenna;
- bond the antenna to the IC module in the selected card module at one or more interconnect sites;
- and
- test the bond at the one or more interconnect sites by communicating with the IC module via electromagnetic waves.
An article comprising a machine-readable medium which stores machine executable instructions, said instructions operative to cause a machine to:
- select a card module in a sheet comprising a plurality of card modules, each card module including an antenna and an integrated circuit (IC) module having a processor and a memory;
- bond the antenna to the IC module in the selected card module at one or more interconnect sites;
- and
- program the selected card module in the sheet via electromagnetic waves.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.