Smart card and semiconductor chip for use in a smart card

Abstract

The smart card has a card body and a plurality of contact areas exposed on a flat surface of the card body. The contact areas are fabricated from electrically conductive material and are electrically connected to contact terminals, which are assigned to an electronic circuit formed on the semiconductor substrate of a semiconductor chip. The contact areas are fabricated as a structured coating on a main surface of the semiconductor chip. The semiconductor chip, after fabrication with the contact areas is inserted and fixed in a receptacle opening in the card body of the smart card in such a way that the contact areas extend essentially flush with the outer face of the card body. In order to ensure sufficiently high mechanical flexibility, the thickness of the silicon substrate of the chip is preferably less than about 100 μm.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.