Smart Chip Card Structure

   A smart chip card is a plastic card with an embedded chip, the same size as a credit card. It embeds a microelectronic chip in a card base that conforms to the ISO7816 standard to form a smart card. The communication method between the IC card and the reader can be contact or non-contact.

(1) contact chip card structure

   The contact chip card is composed of electrode diaphragm, chip, and plastic substrate. The electrode film and the chip are packaged together to form a miniature module. Usually there are 6 or 8 metal contacts. The metal contacts on the surface of the card are physically connected to the card reader to achieve power supply and complete communication. The stability of the contact points must be ensured.

   Modules are usually square or oval, and contacts can be defined in different ways. The contact position complies with the requirements of ISO-7816-2. The picture above is the production flow chart of the micro module.

(2) Contactless chip card structure

   The contactless chip card consists of three parts: chip, antenna, and plastic substrate (front and back). Contactless chip cards are divided into contactless cards, two-chip two-in-one cards, and single-chip two-in-one cards.

• Contactless card: The storage IC or processor is connected to the antenna. The antenna and the module are encapsulated in a plastic substrate.
• Two-chip card: a contact IC chip is added to the non-contact card. There is no connection between the two chips.
• Single chip card: There is only one chip, and the micro processor has 2 interfaces at the same time. Both models share an operating system to manage transactions.