JP4788196B2 - Non-contact IC tag having IC chip destruction prevention structure - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a non-contact IC tag having an IC chip breaking prevention structure. Specifically, a strip-shaped structure for protecting the IC chip is inserted into the IC chip layer structure at intervals so as to form parallel grooves on both sides of the IC chip, and the IC chip is positioned in the groove. by relates noncontact IC tag IC chip to prevent an external force directly. Such a non-contact IC tag can be used as a normal IC tag. In particular, a non-contact IC tag that can be suitably used in an environment where the IC tag is susceptible to external force, such as transportation, logistics, product manufacturing process, construction site, etc. About .

Non-contact type IC tags record and hold information and can exchange information by communicating with external devices in a non-contact manner, so that they can be used as recognition media in transportation and logistics, or for various purposes such as product quality control and inventory management. It has come to be used frequently.
However, when a non-contact type IC tag is used as a physical distribution label, inevitable stress is often applied from the outside during physical distribution. In particular, when the IC chip part receives an impact, it is fatally damaged. Therefore, a structure for protecting the IC chip portion has been conventionally considered. However, there is a problem that a non-contact IC tag cannot be manufactured at a low cost because of a complicated structure.
In particular, a non-contact IC tag having a flat surface (planar surface) has been demanded in the past, and the problem of increasing the manufacturing load for realizing this is significant.

  As an inevitable structural problem of the non-contact IC tag, there is a problem that the thickness of the IC chip is much larger than that of the base film or the like. Although the IC chip is reduced in size and thinned, recent IC chips also have a planar size within 0.2 mm to 2 mm square and a thickness of 100 μm to 500 μm. Therefore, even if the IC chip is mounted with the antenna pattern formed on the base film surface and the surface protective member is covered and flattened, the IC chip portion becomes bulky when the IC tag labels are stacked.

This stacked state can be considered as a case where the IC chip is damaged. When non-contact IC tag labels are used, several to dozens are often stacked. To make it easier to use, it is normal to align the labels. Inevitably, the IC chip portions will inevitably overlap in the vertical direction. When a heavy object is placed on the label in the stacked state, any one of the IC chips that are in a vertical positional relationship receives an impact, and the IC chip that is a silicon crystal is destroyed. In this case, a defective label is suspected in an unused state. Another cause is that even when an IC tag attached to a hard adherend collides with another hard object, the protruding IC chip portion is susceptible to impact.
The cause of the failure of the IC chip is not only these causes, but it is considered that the thick IC chip 3 is easily damaged when it contacts or collides with a hard structural material such as metal.

For reference, an embodiment of an actual common contactless IC tag is illustrated in FIG.
In the non-contact IC tag 1, an antenna pattern 2 is formed on the surface of a base film 11, and IC chips 3 are mounted on both ends 2a and 2b of the antenna pattern 2 in the form of a coiled coil. In FIG. 6, the metal foil laminated on the transparent base film 11 is photo-etched to form the coiled antenna pattern 2 and is a view seen from the side to be attached to the adherend. One end of the antenna coil is connected to the conduction circuit 17 passing through the back surface of the base film by using a caulking tool or the like so as to communicate with both ends 2a and 2b of the antenna coil connected to the IC chip 3. The pads of the IC chip 3 are connected to both end portions 2a and 2b by a conductive adhesive or the like. Although not shown, a thickness adjustment pattern may be provided around the IC chip 3, but the metal foil for antenna has a thickness of about 20 μm to 35 μm and does not correspond to the thickness of the IC chip 3.

  Patent Documents 1 and 2 are documents related to a non-contact IC card belonging to the same technical field as the non-contact IC tag. In any case, it is an object to realize a uniform thickness of the entire IC card and smooth the surface. Non-contact IC tags have been flattened to achieve the same problem, but the selection of materials and the like is limited in non-contact IC tags that are desired to be low in price. Further, there has been a problem that even if the surface is as flat as possible, the above-mentioned damage to the IC chip cannot be completely prevented. Patent Document 3 relates to a method of manufacturing an IC tag label, but has a problem of realizing a flat (planar) IC tag label. Patent Document 4 is a content related to a prior application having the same meaning as the present application, but differs from the present application in that a protective member provided with a punched hole is inserted only in the peripheral portion of the IC chip.

JP-A-7-266767 JP-A-8-194801 JP 2003-67708 A Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-051036

In the method of uniforming the thickness conventionally employed in the IC card, it is difficult to reduce the manufacturing cost, and there is a problem in material selection. Further, the non-contact IC tag of Patent Document 4 has been found to have a problem that a slight difficulty occurs in the actual manufacturing process.
Therefore, in the present invention, unlike the conventional IC card, unlike the direction in which the entire thickness is made uniform, the structure is inserted on both sides of the IC chip portion to form a breakage prevention structure, and the manufacturing is further facilitated. As a result, the present invention has been completed.

The first aspect of the present invention for solving the problems is the IC chip is mounted by forming the antenna pattern on the base film surface, a non-contact IC tag having a surface protective member covering them, the surface protective Between the member and the base film , two strip-shaped structures having a thickness of 1/10 to 1/2 of the IC chip are arranged on both sides of the IC chip so as to form parallel strip-shaped grooves. And a non-contact IC tag having an IC chip destruction prevention structure, wherein the IC chip is positioned in the belt-like groove.

In the non-contact IC tag having the IC chip breaking prevention structure, strip-like structure is a paper or plastic film, also can be so, or strip-shaped structures, a magnetic resistance material sheet, way May be.

In the non-contact IC tag having the IC chip destruction preventing structure of the present invention, since the strip-shaped structure is inserted so as to form a groove parallel to both sides of the IC chip, the IC chip is located in the groove. Therefore, even if the normal IC tag is handled, the IC chip is hardly damaged like the conventional IC tag .

  The present invention relates to a non-contact IC tag having a structure for preventing damage to an IC chip (hereinafter also simply referred to as “non-contact IC tag”) and a method for manufacturing the non-contact IC tag. To do. 1 is a schematic plan view showing an example of a non-contact IC tag of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view thereof, FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing a non-contact IC tag, and FIG. 4 is a non-contact IC. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining another method for manufacturing a tag, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a processing method for a non-contact IC tag.

As shown in FIG. 1, the non-contact IC tag 1 of the present invention has an antenna pattern 2 formed on the surface of a base film 11 and has IC chips 3 attached to both ends 2a and 2b thereof.
On both sides of the IC chip 3, strip-shaped structures 10a and 10b having a uniform thickness are inserted, and parallel strip-shaped grooves 9 are formed by the structures 10a and 10b. Since the structures 10a and 10b have a thickness corresponding to the thickness of the IC chip 3 or a thickness that can reduce the protrusion of the IC chip 3, the structure bodies 10a and 10b serve as a protective wall against the IC chip. This reduces the impact caused by an external force when it comes into contact with the IC chip 3 of another non-contact IC tag or collides with another hard object.

  The width L of the groove 9 is required to accommodate at least the IC chip 3 and is related to the planar size of the IC chip 3, but in the case of an IC chip having a side of less than 1.0 mm, usually 1.0 mm to 5. A width of about 0 mm is sufficient. This is because, if the width is too wide, the structure does not serve as a protective wall against a pointed object and does not produce an impact mitigating effect.

The cross-sectional structure of the non-contact IC tag 1 of the present invention is such that the strip-shaped structures 10a and 10b are bonded to the surface of the antenna pattern 2 of the base film 11 as shown in FIG. The surface protection member 4 is coated on the surface. The surface protection member 4 is bonded via an adhesive layer 5 and is usually configured to cover and protect the entire contactless IC tag 1.
The surface of the base film 11 on the adherend side has an adhesive layer 7. The pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 7 is applied to the base film 11 of the non-contact IC tag 1 in advance by applying the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 7 to a release paper 8 having a release surface generally called a separator paper. In many cases.
The non-contact IC tag 1 is not limited to a label body, but may be a card-like one in which a base film 11 and a display body that replaces the surface protection member 4 are inherently bonded. Since this thing is not what is stuck and used, it does not have the adhesive layer 7, either. Although such a thing is also called a Rami card, the present invention can be applied to any form of IC tag.

For the structures 10a and 10b, paper or plastic film can be used as an example.
Adhesive is applied to the antenna pattern surface side of the structures 10 a and 10 b, and is adhered to the antenna pattern 2 surface by the adhesive layer 6. The thickness of the structural bodies 10a and 10b is perfect as a function for preventing destruction if the thickness is equivalent to that of the IC chip 3, but even if the thickness is not equivalent to that of the IC chip 3, it is 1/10 to 1/1 Even when it has a thickness of about 2, a sufficient effect can be obtained. Even when the structures 10a and 10b do not have the same thickness as the IC chip, the protective member 4 and the base film 11 are interposed between the IC chips and the IC chips directly collide with each other. It is because the impact which is carried out can be relieved.
Therefore, if the thickness of the IC chip is 500 μm, a remarkable IC chip destruction preventing effect can be obtained if it has a thickness of about 50 μm to 250 μm, preferably about 100 μm to 250 μm. However, with the thickness of the current IC chip 3, a significant IC chip destruction preventing effect cannot be obtained with the thickness of the structures 10a and 10b of less than 50 μm.

In addition to paper and plastic film, a magnetic material sheet can be used for the strip-shaped structures 10a and 10b. The magnetic material sheet refers to a high magnetic permeability sheet-like magnetic material.
Usually, ferrite is used, but there are a) one composed of ferrite alone, b) one composed of a composite material of ferrite and plastic, c) one composed of a composite material of ferrite and metal, plastic.
As the ferrite, ferrite powder or flakes are used. As the plastic, a thermoplastic plastic with good processability can be used, or a thermosetting plastic with good heat resistance can be used. As the metal powder, carbonyl iron powder, atomized powder such as iron-permalloy, reduced iron powder, and the like are used. In addition to molding using plastic, a sintered body or compact of metal powder and ferrite powder may be used. Amorphous magnetic sheets are also known as new materials. The thickness of the magnetic material sheet can also be the same as that of the above paper or plastic film.

When a non-contact IC tag is mounted close to a conductive member such as an object made of a metal material or a metal container, an eddy current is generated in the metal behind the object by an alternating magnetic field generated by an electromagnetic wave for IC tag transmission / reception. Will occur. This eddy current generates a magnetic flux that repels the transmission / reception magnetic flux, which attenuates the transmission / reception magnetic flux, making transmission and reception often difficult.
When a magnetic material sheet is used for the strip-shaped structures 10a and 10b, the magnetic flux enters the metal as the transmission / reception magnetic flux passes through the magnetic material sheet, thereby suppressing the generation of eddy currents. The magnetic material sheet is used for such an effect.

Next, the manufacturing method of the non-contact IC tag of this invention is demonstrated.
The non-contact IC tag 1 can be manufactured by a modified process of the conventional non-contact IC tag manufacturing method. That is, after attaching the IC chip 3 to the antenna pattern 2 of the base film 11 and before laminating the surface protection member 4, a step of aligning and inserting the structures 10a and 10b is necessary. Such a process is sufficiently possible even with an existing automated line. Since the process of forming the antenna pattern 2 on the base film 11 is well known in the manufacturing process of the non-contact IC tag, the process of inserting the strip-shaped structures 10a and 10b, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described. To do.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing a non-contact IC tag according to the present invention.
The structural paper 10R with adhesive is supplied to the dispensing unit 20 of the IC tag processing machine from the upper right. From the lower left, an IC chip 3 is already attached to the antenna pattern 2, and a continuous body 11R of the base film 11 cut into one row on which IC tag circuits are formed is supplied at a constant speed. The structure paper 10R with adhesive is cut into a strip-like structure 10 having a predetermined length by a cutting blade 23 of a rotary cutter 21 that rotates in synchronization with the dispensing unit 20. The cutting length is shorter than the pitch of the non-contact IC tag by an amount corresponding to the width L of the groove 9. At this time, the surface of the strip structure 10 on the side not in contact with the drum 22a of the dispensing unit 20 is the surface of the adhesive layer 6 (see FIG. 2).
The drum 22a of the dispensing unit 20 immediately adsorbs the strip-shaped structure 10 cut by the vacuum suction mechanism, and rotates and conveys the state while maintaining the state.

When the drum 22a of the dispensing unit 20 transports the strip-shaped structure 10 to a position where it comes into contact with the base film continuum 11R, the strip-shaped structure 10 becomes the base by the pressing force between the drum 22a and the drum 22b. It is stuck on the continuous body 11R side of the film.
At this time, at the rotational speed (circumferential speed) of the drums 22a and 22b of the dispensing unit and the transport speed of the base film continuum 11R, the transport speed of the base film continuum 11R is increased by the width of the groove 9. Has been. That is, the width L of the groove 9 is variable by adjusting the conveyance speed of the continuous body 11R. After sticking the strip-shaped structure 10 to the base film 11, the process of laminating the surface protection member 4 is performed.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a processing method of a non-contact IC tag.
Said manufacturing method presupposes sticking the strip-shaped structure 10 with respect to the continuous body 11R of a base film in the state of FIG. 5 (A). After the base film continuous body 11R is cut into the non-contact IC tags 1 having individual pitches (FIG. 5B), the strip-shaped structure 10 has two strip-shaped structures of the structure 10a and the structure 10b. Will be divided into bodies.
Thereafter, the surface protective member 4 is further laminated on the surface of the strip-shaped structure 10 and then cut into individual non-contact IC tags or separation lines 12 such as perforation lines between adjacent non-contact IC tags 1 are provided. A continuous body of non-contact IC tags. Also in the case of cutting, the part of the separation line 12 becomes the cutting line 12.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining another manufacturing method of the non-contact IC tag of the present invention.
In the case of FIG. 4, the strip structure 10 is attached to the base film continuum 11 </ b> R by the label applicator 25. In this case, a label (strip-shaped structure 10) punched into a predetermined size and held on the release film 24 is supplied and attached to the base film continuous body 11R. In this case, pressure-sensitive adhesive processing is performed on the surface of the release film 24 of the label (strip-shaped structure 10). The label (strip-shaped structure 10) is attached by the label applicator 25, and the label (strip-shaped structure 10) peeled off from the release film 24 at the peeling edge 26 of the label applicator 25 is pressure-bonded by rollers 27 and 28. And it sticks to the continuous body 11R of a base film. At this time, the label is attached in synchronization with the mark provided on the base film continuum 11R. In this case, it is necessary to prepare a label transfer material provided with labels (strip-shaped structures 10) at predetermined intervals in advance. The release film 24 is removed and wound at the release edge 26 at the same time as the label is attached.

Even if the method is not as described above, the continuous structure sheet is cut into strip-like structures 10a and 10b having different widths with respect to the base film continuous body 11R in which the IC tag circuits are connected on the long side. It is also possible to perform a manufacturing method of laminating and sticking to both sides of the IC chip 3 of the continuous body 11R. In this case, the dispensing unit 20 is not used and a planar line processing apparatus can be used. This is a suitable method for manufacturing a mass.
After sticking the strip-shaped structures 10a and 10b, the surface protection member 4 is laminated, and then cut into individual non-contact IC tags, or a continuous body of non-contact IC tags provided with separation lines 12 such as perforations. The same can be done.

<Embodiments related to other materials>
(1) Base film A wide variety of plastic films can be used, and the following single films or composite films thereof can be used.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), PET-G (terephthalic acid-cyclohexanedimethanol-ethylene glycol copolymer), polyvinyl chloride, vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer, polycarbonate, polyamide, polyimide, cellulose diacetate, cellulose triacetate, Polystyrene, ABS, polyacrylate, polypropylene, polyethylene, polyurethane, and the like.

(2) Strip-shaped structure As the material of the strip-shaped structure, high-quality paper, coated paper, craft paper, glassine paper, synthetic paper, latex or melamine resin-impregnated paper base material can be used. As a plastic film, the simple substance or composite_body | complex of the plastic film for base films mentioned above can be used. Moreover, a magnetic material sheet may be used as described above.

(3) Surface protection member A wide variety of plastic films and paper substrates can be used. The simple substance or composite_body | complex of the above-mentioned paper base material or the plastic film for base films can be used.

(4) Adhesive, pressure-sensitive adhesive In the present specification, the term adhesive refers to various types such as a solvent type, a polymerization type, an ultraviolet curable type, an emulsion type, and a heat-melt type, and so-called pressure-sensitive adhesive types. Shall be included. In either case, the purpose can be achieved by bonding the two materials.
Further, in the present specification, the term “adhesive” refers to an adhesive that keeps an intermediate tack state indefinitely without a significant increase in viscosity.
Adhesive and adhesive resin compositions include natural rubber, nitrile rubber, epoxy resin, vinyl acetate emulsion, polyester, acrylic, acrylate copolymer, polyvinyl alcohol, phenolic resin, Various materials such as can be used.

As the base film 11 of the non-contact IC tag, a base film 11 (continuous film having a width of 54 mm) obtained by dry laminating a 25 μm thick aluminum foil on a transparent biaxially stretched polyester film having a thickness of 38 μm is used. After applying a photosensitive resist, a photomask having an antenna pattern was exposed and exposed.
After exposure and development, photoetching was performed to complete an inlet base film having the antenna pattern 2 as shown in FIG. One antenna pattern 2 has an outer shape of approximately 45 mm × 76 mm.

An IC chip 3 having a planar size of 1.0 mm square and a thickness of 310 μm and having spike-like bumps was attached to both ends 2a and 2b of the inlet base film 11 by applying heat pressure in a face-down state. .
Next, as a film for the structure 10, a PET film having a thickness of 150 μm and a width of 54 mm is used, and a polyester hot melt adhesive is applied to the PET film using a dispensing unit 20 of an IC tag processing machine. Then, while cutting to a length of 82 mm, a process of attaching to the base film continuum 11R on which the non-contact IC tag circuit was formed was performed (see FIG. 3). The structure 10 was stuck on both sides of the IC chip 3 so as to form parallel grooves 9 having a width L (see FIG. 1) of 4 mm.

  Further, a surface protective member (coated paper) 4 having a thickness of 40 μm was laminated on the structure 10 via a polyester-based hot melt adhesive sheet and hot-pressed. Next, the back surface of the base film 11 was subjected to pressure-sensitive adhesive processing in which a release paper 8 was laminated via a 32 μm pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 7 to complete a continuous body of the non-contact IC tag 1. Finally, as shown in FIG. 5, the separation line 12 is provided in the form of a perforation line to form a continuous body of the non-contact IC tag 1. One non-contact IC tag label 1 was 54 mm wide × 86 mm long.

Until the formation of the antenna pattern 2, the same material as in Example 1 was used, and the inlet base film was completed by the same process. One antenna pattern 2 has an outer shape of approximately 45 mm × 76 mm.
Next, as the structure 10, a magnetic material sheet (manufactured by TDK Corporation, “(trade name) IRL02”) having a thickness of 50 μm was used to perform an adhesive label process to obtain a label transfer material. One label-like magnetic material sheet was 54 mm wide and 82 mm long.

The label transfer material of the magnetic material sheet is aligned with the base film continuous body 11R on which the non-contact IC tag is formed as shown in FIG. Were attached so as to form parallel grooves 9 having a width L (see FIG. 1) of 4 mm.
A surface protective member (coated paper) 4 having a thickness of 40 μm is adhered onto the structure 10 via a vinyl acetate emulsion adhesive, and then, on the back surface of the base film 11 via a 32 μm pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 7. The adhesive processing which laminates the release paper 8 was performed. Finally, as shown in FIG. 5B, cutting was performed from the cutting line 12 to complete the non-contact IC tag 1 having a width of 54 mm and a length of 86 mm.

The non-contact IC tag 1 of Example 1 and Example 2 and the conventional non-contact IC tag were subjected to various usage tests under the same conditions, but the problems caused by destruction of the IC chip were significantly reduced. Admitted to do.
In addition, it was confirmed that the non-contact IC tag 1 of Example 2 did not cause communication obstruction even when it was attached to a metal container or the like.

It is a schematic plan view which shows the example of the non-contact IC tag of this invention. FIG. It is a figure explaining the manufacturing method of a non-contact IC tag. It is a figure explaining other manufacturing methods of a non-contact IC tag. It is a figure explaining the processing method of a non-contact IC tag. It is a figure which shows embodiment of a general non-contact IC tag.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Non-contact IC tag which has IC chip destruction prevention structure, non-contact IC tag 2 Antenna pattern 3 IC chip 4 Surface protection member 5,6 Adhesive layer 7 Adhesive layer 8 Release paper 9 Groove 10, 10a, 10b Strip-shaped Structure, strip-shaped structure 11 Base film 12 Cut line, cut line

Claims (3)

A non-contact IC tag having a surface protection member for covering an IC chip with an antenna pattern formed on a base film surface,
Between the surface protection member and the base film, an interval is provided so that two strip-shaped structures having a thickness of 1/10 to 1/2 of the IC chip form parallel strip-like grooves on both sides of the IC chip. A non-contact IC tag having an IC chip destruction preventing structure, wherein the IC chip is positioned in the belt-like groove.   2. The non-contact IC tag having an IC chip destruction preventing structure according to claim 1, wherein the strip-shaped structure is paper or a plastic film.   2. The non-contact IC tag having an IC chip destruction preventing structure according to claim 1, wherein the strip-shaped structure is a magnetic material sheet.

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