Smartcard and method for the production of a smartcard
AssigneeSmartrac IP B.V.
InventorsManfred Rietzler, Philippe Castano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a smartcard, particularly an electronic prepayment card, identification card or similar, with at least one transponder unit, and to a method for producing such a smartcard, wherein the transponder unit has at least one chip and at least one antenna connected to the chip, wherein the antenna is made from a conductor that is arranged on an antenna substrate, wherein the extension of the antenna is limited to a patch of the antenna substrate and the antenna has a plurality of conducting lead with at least two windings separated from each other, which windings are arranged so that their axes are at least partly parallel to an axis of symmetry of the smartcard.
Claims8
A smartcard comprising:
- at least one transponder unit, the transponder unit having at least one chip and at least one antenna connected to the chip,
- the transponder unit including a card surface having an edge area that surrounds the card surface to form a patch area, the patch area enclosing an embossing surface and a chip surface both within the patch area, the embossing surface and the chip surface arranged within the patch area so as to form within the patch area an antenna area including a plurality of communicating patch zones, the plurality of communicating patch zones including at least a first communicating patch zone and a second communicating patch zone, the antenna area and each of the plurality of communicating patch zones formed inside the patch area but outside of the embossing surface and outside of the chip surface so as to form the antenna area,
- wherein the antenna is arranged on the card surface and within the antenna area, wherein the antenna is made from at least one conductor formed to include a plurality of conducting leads, each of the plurality of conducting leads including at least two windings separated from each other by a winding separation distance on the surface,
- wherein a first one of the plurality of conducting leads is arranged to be at least partially formed within the first communicating patch zone of the plurality of communicating patch zones, and to have a first winding separation distance between the at least two windings of the first one of the plurality of conducting leads,
- wherein a second one of the plurality of conducting leads is arranged to be at least partially formed within the second communicating patch zone of the plurality of communicating patch zones, and to have a second winding separation distance between the at least two windings of the second one of the plurality of conductive leads,
- and
- wherein the first winding separation distance differs from the second winding separation distance such that a resulting resonance frequency of the transponder unit corresponds to a predetermined frequency, the predetermined frequency operable to be emitted by a reader unit and received by the smartcard, and wherein power matching takes place between the antenna and the chip.
A method for producing a smartcard with a transponder unit that includes at least one chip and at least one antenna, comprising:
- forming an antenna by arranging a conductor on an antenna substrate of the smartcard so that a resulting resonance frequency of the transponder unit is at least in part determined depending on a capacitance and an impedance of the chip and matches a frequency operable to be emitted by a reader unit, the reader unit operable to communicate with the smartcard, and an antenna impedance of the antenna matches an impedance of the at least one chip,
- coupling the antenna to the at least one chip,
- wherein forming the antenna includes forming the conductor so as to include a plurality of conductive leads, each of the plurality of conductive leads including at least two windings separated by a winding separation distance,
- wherein a first one of the plurality of conducting leads is arranged to be at least partially formed within a first communicating patch zone on the antenna substrate and to have a first winding separation distance between the at least two windings of the first one of the plurality conducting leads, and
- wherein a second one of the plurality of conducting leads is arranged to be at least partially formed within a second communicating patch zone on the antenna substrate and to have a second winding separation distance between the at least two windings of the second one of the plurality of conducting leads so that the second winding separation distance is different from the first winding separation distance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.