Patent Application
20080302875
The present invention relates to a contactless IC card system, and more particularly, to a contactless IC card system for use with a communication terminal, e.g., a mobile phone.
Magnetic prepaid cards, widely available in the market, are highly convenient for users in that they can be used anonymously for an indefinite term by unspecified number of persons. However, the magnetic prepaid cards are always accompanied by a risk of unauthorized rewriting of data such as amount information and have a security weakness. Thus, in recent years, for the purpose of increasing security, such a magnetic card is replaced by an IC card. Accordingly, various IC cards are introduced to meet extensive consumer demands in hope of bringing a quicker, more convenient and secured consuming environment for consumers. The IC cards have a size approximately equal to that of a business card, which is easy to carry and it also includes a microchip for storing several tens of bytes to several tens of kilobytes of data. The IC cards have the functions of storing data and even executing application programs, and thus the IC cards are extensively used in many areas including identification cards, credit cards, electronic wallet, membership cards, access card, digital authentication cards, health care cards and telephone cards, etc. In general, an IC card is much more secured than a traditional magnetic card.
In recent years, contactless IC card and mobile phone become indispensable in our daily life. Therefore, finding a way of integrating the contactless IC card and the mobile phone to achieve the all-in-one function and effectively control consumer information, enhance data transmission rate and locate lost phones demands immediate attentions. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,973,327, it discloses an IC chip with IC card functions, a contactless IC card antenna, and an antenna connection circuit for connecting the IC chip and the contactless IC card antenna are provided on a mount board, and are combined to form a communication module. As shown in
In general, an integrated card system with contactless IC module should include an antenna for transmitting data. The antenna is usually folded and covers a battery of a mobile phone. However, the form of antenna should be in accordance with that of the contactless card, such as VISA® card. When VISA WAVE® transaction is used in a transportation system, there should be an antenna validated by VISA®. Each form of contactless card merely validates some specific forms of antennas. Those antennas won't be suitable to dispose into any mobile phone, and more particularly, to a mobile phone in small size. It is inconvenient and will cost a lot to provide mobile phones in suitable size for contactless system.
Although some contactless IC cards for a mobile phone are technically feasible, in practice they are very inconvenient to implement. Meanwhile, the prior art fails to introduce a contactless system to a communication terminal easily. Therefore, it needs to provide a contactless IC card system for use with a communication terminal, which introduces a pad set disposed outside of the communication terminal for facilitating to build a contactless IC card system into the communication terminal, and can rectify those drawbacks of the prior art and solve the above problems.
This paragraph extracts and compiles some features of the present invention; other features will be disclosed in the follow-up paragraph. It is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, and this paragraph also is considered to refer.
Accordingly, the prior art is limited by the above problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a contactless IC card system for use with a communication terminal, which introduces a pad set disposed on outside of the communication terminal for facilitating to setup a contactless IC card system into the communication terminal, and can rectify those drawbacks of the prior art and solve the above problems.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, an contactless IC card system for use with a portable communication apparatus having a casing, includes a contactless IC card disposed in the portable communication apparatus; a pad set disposed on the casing of the portable communication apparatus; a connecting circuit for connecting the contactless IC card to the pad set; and an antenna disposed on the casing of the portable communication apparatus, having a contact terminal set covering the pad set for coupling to the contactless IC card and transmitting data wirelessly.
Certainly, the portable communication apparatus can be one of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant.
Preferably, the contactless IC card system further includes a hologram disposed on the antenna.
Preferably, the antenna is a flexible antenna.
Preferably, the flexible antenna is looped or wound on a flexible board.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a portable communication apparatus for a contactless transmission, includes a main device having a casing and a socket disposed therein for holding a contactless IC card; a pad set disposed on the casing of the main device; a connecting circuit for electrically connecting the socket to the pad set; and an antenna disposed on the casing, having a contact terminal set covering the pad set for coupling to the contactless IC card via the connecting circuit and transmitting data wirelessly while the contactless IC card is inserted into the socket.
Certainly, the portable communication apparatus can be one of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant.
Preferably, the contactless IC card system further includes a hologram disposed on the antenna.
Preferably, the antenna is looped or wound on a flexible board.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:
The present invention will now be described more specifically with reference to the following embodiment. It is to be noted that the following description of preferred embodiment of this invention is presented herein for purpose of illustration and description only; it is not intended to be exhaustive or to be limited to the precise form disclosed.
Accordingly, the prior art is limited by the above problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide a contactless IC card system for use with a communication terminal, which is capable of facilitating to build a contactless IC card system into the communication terminal.
Please refer to
Accordingly, the present invention introduces a pad set to connect with the inner contactless IC card and provides connecting ends to an external antenna. If the portable communication apparatus includes a pad set and a connecting circuit, it is easy and convenient to build a contactless transmission system in the portable communication apparatus. Meanwhile, the contactless IC card could provide some identification data to perform the electronic transaction function via the antenna. In this manner, a service provider may determine the communication parameters of the contactless IC card 60. It should be noted that the antenna 80 is different from the antenna of the portable communication apparatus 70. It is a low power transmission antenna for contactless or Near Field Communication (NFC). Contactless transaction provides advantages over contact-type cards, such as faster transaction speed and ease of use.
The transfer or reading of data for contactless transaction via the contactless IC card 60 is achieved by sending RF signals through the antenna 80 via the pad set 601 and the connecting circuit 602. The user simply brings the contactless IC card 60 with the function of contactless transaction close to a card reader within a range; the reader is enabled to read the identification data contained in the contactless IC card 60 via the antenna 80. As well known in the art, when a contactless transaction is used in a transportation system, the IC mounted in the contactless IC card 60 contains the user's account information or billing information. During the operation, the user may access or update the user's account. The contactless IC card 60 may be formed of a plastic material.
Please refer to
In practice, the portable communication apparatus 70 could be a mobile phone or a personal digital assistant, certainly. The contactless IC card system further includes a hologram 908 disposed on the antenna 906. The hologram 908 forms a thin covering slice to cover the entire antenna 906 for decorating and preventing counterfeiting. Certainly, the antenna 906 is looped or wound on a flexible board.
For identifying whether the user is a legal user, a hologram (as mentioned above), user's picture, signature panel, credit card number, or issuer's logo may also be provided over the surface of the antenna.
Furthermore, the antenna 906 can be manufactured separately. In other words, the antenna 906 may not need to be manufactured along with the manufacturing of the portable communication apparatus 70, whereas the antenna 906 can be provided according to the contactless IC card 903 which may have different frequencies. Different antennas can be attached to the contactless IC card 903 of the portable communication apparatus 70 by connecting the contact terminal set 907 disposed on the antenna to the pad set 904 disposed on the contactless IC card 903 via the connecting circuit 905. By this way, the production cost of a portable communication apparatus with a contactless IC card system may certainly be lowered.
Meanwhile, the substrate material for the contactless IC card may be made from a plastic material similar to those used in credit cards. In one example, the material, the shape and dimension of the contactless IC card are adapted to the standard SIM card applied in a mobile phone.
In conclusion, the present invention provides a contactless IC card system for use with a communication terminal, which introduces a pad set disposed outside of the communication terminal for facilitating to build a contactless IC card system into the communication terminal conveniently regardless of the size of external antenna.
While the invention has been described in terms of what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosed embodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, which are to be accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structures.
