US-20260127405-A1 - DUAL-INTERFACE SMARTCARD WITH LIGHTING ELEMENT

US20260127405A1US 20260127405 A1US20260127405 A1US 20260127405A1US-20260127405-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic carrier for antennas for a smartcard comprising an antenna substrate, a first wire antenna configured to provide energy to a lighting element for a smartcard, and a second wire antenna configured to provide energy to an electronic module for contactless data transfer for a smartcard, wherein the first antenna and the second antenna are formed on opposite sides of the antenna substrate. The present invention also refers to a lighting device for a smartcard comprising a lighting element configured for illuminating a portion of the smartcard and a single diode suitable for providing energy to the lighting element when connected to an energy harvesting antenna. Furthermore, the present invention refers to a pre-laminated structure for a smartcard and a smartcard comprising said electronic carrier and/or said lighting device.

Inventors

Carsten Nieland
Lars Klemm
Sven Doering

Assignees

LINXENS HOLDING

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20230914
Priority Date: 20221010

Claims (20)

1 . An electronic carrier for antennas for a smartcard comprising the following elements: An antenna substrate; A first wire antenna configured to provide energy to a lighting element for a smartcard; and A second wire antenna configured to provide energy to an electronic module for contactless data transfer for a smartcard; Wherein said first antenna and said second antenna are formed on opposite sides of said antenna substrate, and Wherein said first wire antenna does not provide energy to said electronic module and said second wire antenna does not provide energy to said lighting element.
2 . (canceled)
3 . The electronic carrier of claim 1 , wherein said first wire antenna is configured to provide energy only to said lighting element, and said second wire antenna is configured to provide energy only to said electronic module.
4 . The electronic carrier of claim 1 , wherein a perimeter of said first antenna is smaller than a perimeter of said second antenna.
5 . The electronic carrier of claim 1 , wherein a perimeter of said first antenna is larger than a perimeter of said second antenna.
6 . The electronic carrier of claim 5 , wherein said second wire antenna comprises at least two coil parts.
7 . The electronic carrier of claim 1 , wherein an area of said electronic carrier is ideally divided into a first part and a second part by an ideal line and wherein said first antenna surrounds said second antenna in said first part and said second antenna surrounds said first antenna in said second part, so that said first antenna cross-links said second antenna in correspondence of said ideal line.
8 . The electronic carrier of claim 7 , wherein said ideal line is a symmetry line, so that said first part and said second part are symmetric with each other.
9 . The electronic carrier of claim 7 , wherein said area is rectangular and is defined by a first side and a second side and said ideal line is parallel to one of said first side and said second side.
10 . The electronic carrier of claim 1 , wherein said antenna substrate comprises a single layer and said first and said second antenna are formed on opposite sides of said single layer.
11 . The electronic carrier of claim 1 , wherein said antenna substrate comprises a plurality of layers and said first antenna is formed on a first layer and said second antenna is formed on a second layer, so that, when said first layer is coupled to said second layer, said first antenna and said second antenna result on opposite sides of said antenna substrate.
12 . The electronic carrier of claim 1 , wherein said antenna substrate comprises a cutout portion for accommodating a lighting element for a smartcard configured to be powered up by said first antenna.
13 . A pre-laminated structure for a smartcard comprising: An electronic carrier which comprises: An antenna substrate, A first wire antenna configured to provide energy to a lighting element for a smartcard, and A second wire antenna configured to provide energy to an electronic module for contactless data transfer for a smartcard, wherein said first antenna and said second antenna are formed on opposite sides of said antenna substrate, and wherein said first wire antenna does not provide energy to said electronic module and said second wire antenna does not provide energy to said lighting element; and A lighting device for a smartcard which comprises: A lighting element configured for illuminating a portion of said smartcard; and A single diode suitable for providing energy to said lighting element when connected to an energy harvesting antenna wherein said first antenna of said electronic carrier is configured to provide energy to said lighting element of said lighting device.
14 . The pre-laminated structure according to claim 13 , wherein said lighting element is a Nth-Degree Nano LED stamp, a LED array, a LED light guiding element including at least one LED as light source, and/or an Organic LED (OLED).
15 . The pre-laminated structure according to claim 13 , further comprising a capacitor for providing energy to said lighting element in combination with said diode.
16 . The pre-laminated structure according to claim 13 , wherein said lighting device further comprises a printed circuit board (PCB) connected to said lighting element and said single diode, or said single diode and said capacitor are formed on said PCB and an area of said PCB is designed to accommodate only said diode and/or said capacitor.
17 . The pre-laminated structure according to claim 13 , wherein said lighting device further comprises a substrate for said lighting element and said single diode, or said single diode and said capacitor are formed on a portion of said substrate and are connected to said lighting element by means of a wire.
18 . The pre-laminated structure according to claim 17 , wherein said wire has a meander structure.
19 . The pre-laminated structure according to claim 13 , wherein said diode, or said single diode and said capacitor are formed on an electronic module for contactless data transfer of said smartcard, for instance an ISO module.
20 . A smartcard comprising the following elements: the pre-laminated structures which comprises: an electronic carrier which comprises: an antenna substrate, a first wire antenna configured to provide energy to a lighting element for a smartcard, and a second wire antenna configured to provide energy to an electronic module for contactless data transfer for a smartcard, wherein said first antenna and said second antenna are formed on opposite sides of said antenna substrate, and wherein said first wire antenna does not provide energy to said electronic module and said second wire antenna does not provide energy to said lighting element; and a lighting device for a smartcard which comprises: a lighting element configured for illuminating a portion of said smartcard; and a single diode suitable for providing energy to said lighting element when connected to an energy harvesting antenna wherein said first antenna of said electronic carrier is configured to provide energy to said lighting element of said lighting device; and one or more printed layers comprising printed information; one or more overlays superimposed on said one or more printed layers; and an ISO module for contactless transactions.

Description

This application claims priority to International Application No. PCT/IB2023/000559, filed Sep. 14, 2023, which claims priority to International Application No. PCT/IB2023/0026, filed Jan. 27, 2023, which claims priority to European Patent Application No. 22 306 520.2, filed Oct. 10, 2022, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. The present invention refers to an electronic carrier and a pre-laminated structure for a smartcard containing a lighting element powered by a High-Frequency (HF) antenna. The present invention also refers to a lighting device comprising a lighting element to be incorporated into a smartcard. OLEDs and other lighting devices in pre-laminated structure and smartcards usually require external rectifier components to be able to receive harvesting energy from a HF antenna, for example an antenna with a resonance frequency of approximately 13.56 MHz. These solutions are generally based on the use of PCBs comprising the one or more antennas and the rectifier components, wherein the electronic components are typically produced by means of etching techniques. When the pre-laminated structure and the smartcards with LED or OLED components are used in Dual Interface (DI) cards, there are two possible configurations for the harvesting HF antenna. In the first configuration, a single antenna is provided in the pre-laminated structure and/or in the smartcard and said single antenna is used both for realizing the required data transfer for the contactless payment and for harvesting energy to the LED or OLED in the same contactless reader field. In the second configuration, two antennas are provided in the pre-laminated structure and/or in the smartcard, i.e. an EMV antenna for contactless payments and an energy harvesting antenna (EH) for powering up the LED or OLED in the contactless reader field. In both configurations, it is necessary that the dynamic data transfer for the contactless payment is not affected by the energy harvesting antenna consuming energy from the same ready field at the same time. In fact, if the two powering processes interfered with each other, the EMVco payment would be interrupted and the payment transaction would fail. It is hence clear that a very specific and complex system for the payment antenna and the harvesting antenna needs to be designed. Both the single and the double antenna configurations present many disadvantages. The single antenna configuration implies the realization of a very complex system, which must manage the modulation of the HF antenna to realize the dynamic data transfer for the contactless payment and, at the same time, it must provide enough energy to let the LED or OLED light up. In fact, no external batteries should be used to provide additional power to the LED or OLED. The double antenna configuration requires less electronic complexity with respect to the single antenna configuration, but it requires at least four diodes and one capacitor to realize a full rectifier, in order to connect the energy harvesting antenna and the LED or OLED. Therefore, production costs remain high. Moreover, since each micro-controller for contactless payments requires its own specific payment antenna and since the payment antennas may be made in different sizes, it is clear that a high variety of PCBs has to be made. These PCBs generally require large dimensions and do not comply with the dimensional standards for DI cards. Another challenge is represented by the need to integrate the PCBs with the connected LEDs or OLEDs into a multi-layered pre-laminated structure and then into a card body. In view of all the challenges depicted above, i.e. the high number of required electronic components, the large size of the PCBs and the difficulties for PCB integration, DI cards with LEDs or OLEDs are generally very expensive and cannot be produced on a high scale, so as to match the market demands. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic carrier for the antennas and a pre-laminated structure to be integrated into a DI smartcard that overcome one or more of the disadvantages illustrated above. Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide a lighting device comprising a lighting element to be integrated into a smart card, wherein the number of electronic components for the energy harvesting is reduced to the minimum. Accordingly, the size of the PCB may be reduced, so that it carries a single electronic component for the energy harvesting. According to alternative solutions, no PCB for carrying the electronic components for the energy harvesting may be needed. The electronic carrier, the pre-laminated structure and the lighting device according to the present invention are as set-up in the appended claims. According to an aspect of the present invention, an electronic carrier for antennas for a smartcard is provided, which comprises the following elements: An antenna substrate;A