Description

CHIP CARD WITH FLASH MEMORY FOR GIVING DIGITAL

CONTENTS

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a chip card for giving digital contents, and more particularly, to an integrated circuit (IC) chip card having a flash memory so as to grant digital contents storage domains on a wallet-like standard size substrate. Background Art

[2] Generally, there are various cards such as a cash card, a debit card, a prepaid card and a check card, and MS-typed cards are widely used, in which the data intrinsic to a card owner are recorded on a magnetic stripe (MS).

[3] However, as the MS-typed card involves a small volume of information storage, and above all, a structural weakness in security, the recent trend is that the MS-typed card is gradually replaced by an IC chip card.

[4] The IC chip card has a semiconductor chip mounting an IC memory and a central processing unit thereon, and makes communication with external interface terminals on the surface thereof through the electrical contacting or in a contactless manner. Compared with the MS card, the IC chip card involves a large volume of memory capacity, and various functions of security service such as coding and certification of contact objects, and data and information management, based on the CPU operation thereof.

Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[5] However, although the IC chip card involves a relatively large volume of memory capacity and excellent operation and high-level security management function characteristics when compared with the MS card, the IC chip card is liable to distort the IC chip standard according to the international standard, and to leak personal information so that it is limited in usage to the financial activity or at best to the application of a transportation card.

[6] Furthermore, as the standard IC chip of the IC chip card is programmed such that it can be read only through the card readers limited in security, and has at best an available storage capacity of 32KB, it is limited in mounting various applications thereon.

[7] Meanwhile, as an official certificate, a digital signature, a digital certificate, a code table, and a throwaway password should be stored at the everyone- accessible computer hardware or USB or taken separately, several problems may be made in security as

well as in business efficiency.

[8] Furthermore, even if it is possible to receive the financial activity details, the card payment details, the vehicle maintenance details, the coupon details and the revolving details as data via mobile communication terminals, they are mostly thrown away, and deleted after confirmation so as to manage the storage capacity. Even when stored, the required data are limited in selection and use with the card usage. The necessary information for the card usage, such as information about the total sum of monthly usage, the maxing out of limit sum, scheduled events per the respective cards and discount member stores is not promptly confirmed in situ, and the card usage is not made in a scheduled manner.

[9] In addition, when various application services are given from various IC chip card application service providers, the user should own separate cards to utilize such services, and this involves the problems of inconvenience in carriage, and waste in production cost. Technical Solution

[10] The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a chip card with a flash memory having advantages of using various applications through a universal reader without distorting the built-in international standard financial chip and without worrying over the leakage of personal information.

[11] Furthermore, the present invention has been made in an effort to provide an IC chip card having advantages of securing various application storage domains therein physically isolated from the international standard financial chip so as to make usage of digital contents of audio, video, and UCC-like moving pictures.

[12] The present invention has been still further made in an effort to provide a chip card with a flash memory having advantages of promptly selecting and using the card- related essentials in situ with the card usage.

[13] An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a chip card including two or more semiconductor chips facing each other on a standard- sized substrate while spaced apart from each other with a predetermined distance. At least one of the semiconductor chips includes a storage unit for storing digital contents of video, audio or moving pictures. When the semiconductor chip electrically contacts an exterior housing receiving the standard- sized substrate, the digital contents stored at the semiconductor chip is reproduced on a display panel of the exterior housing.

[14] The first semiconductor chip has a memory including a security storage domain capable of storing or reproducing information only when a predetermined key is input through a key input unit, a free storage domain capable of freely storing or reproducing information, and a format storage domain for recording format information as to the in-

terfacing thereof with the AMOLED display.

Advantageous Effects

[15] Accordingly, with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the applications of various IC chip cards may be stored using a card according to the international standard so as to make usage of various digital contents of music files, moving pictures, or UCC.

[16] Furthermore, with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the pay digital contents stored at the flash memory may be utilized by using the high level security function of a card according to the international standard, and the card usage may be managed by promptly picking up the card-related essential information as to the limit sum, the total sum of monthly usage, and the details of scheduled events, discount member stores, and discount coupons in situ.

[17] Furthermore, with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the personal information related to the card usage such as a code table and a throwaway password may be stored in security, and promptly used when needed without carrying different cards therefor separately. Brief Description of the Drawings

[18] FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3 are a surface view, a rear view, and a side view of a card where two IC chips are disposed on a standard-sized substrate according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[19] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of reproducing contents on an exterior housing by using a card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[20] FIG. 5 illustrates a plurality of storage domains in a card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[21] FIG. 6 illustrates an open platform used in a card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Mode for the Invention

[22] A chip card with a flash memory for giving digital contents according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be now described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like reference numerals designate like elements throughout the specification.

[23] As those skilled in the art would realize, the described embodiments may be modified in various different ways, all without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.

[24] Furthermore, in case it is judged that the detailed description of the well-known function or structures relevant to the embodiments may needlessly obscure the gist of

the present invention, such a description will be omitted.

[25] FIG. 1, FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are a surface view, a rear view, and a side view of a card where two IC chips are disposed on a standard-sized substrate according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the process of reproducing contents on an exterior housing using a card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 illustrates a plurality of storage domains in a card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 illustrates an open platform used in a card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

[26] Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3, a card 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is molded or mechanically made with a standard size of 85.6X54.0mm corresponding to the size of a wallet and a thickness of about 0.8mm by using an insulating substrate 10 bearing a bending characteristic of about 1.5mm or less.

[27] In this way, the card 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention has a predetermined size according to the international standard, and the substrate 10 of the card 1 is provided with two or more semiconductor chips 20 and 22.

[28] At least one of the semiconductor chips has a size of about 12.5X18mm according to the international standard, and the other stores various applications or data, and has a flash memory capable of writing and deleting digital contents of a predetermined format.

[29] As at least one of the semiconductor chips 22 is a flash memory, power is not needed to maintain information therein, and to record and reproduce data.

[30] As shown in FIG. 3, grooves are formed at the substrate 10 in the thickness direction thereof, and the two or more semiconductor chips 20 and 22 are disposed within the grooves such that they are physically spaced apart from each other with a distance of about 40mm and completely isolated from each other. In this structure, the chips are completely insulated from each other and, as at least one of the chips 20 is programmed to be read only with a specific reader, the chips 20 and 22 do not interfere with each other while operated separately.

[31] A bar code 36 and an MS stripe 40 are provided on the rear surface of the substrate

10 at the two or more semiconductor chips 20 and 22 such that they may be used during the period of transition to the IC chip card.

[32] The semiconductor chips 20 and 22 are placed on the front surface such that the credit card information stored at the bar code 36 and the MS stripe 40 is not electro- magnetically affected thereby. That is, the semiconductor chips 20 and 22 are disposed about 24mm distant from the bottom of the substrate 10 upwards.

[33] Accordingly, at least one of the chips 22 preferably has an area greater than that of

the other chip 20 by 1 to 1.3 times.

[34] Furthermore, at least one of the semiconductor chips 20 and 22 is covered by the substrate 10 by the degree of 0.15mm at the bottom thereof. Therefore, the chips are little affected by the external electromagnetic force, and constantly maintained even when the card is bent.

[35] As shown in FIG. 4, when the above- structured card 1 is inserted into an exterior housing 100 with a slim outline corresponding to the size of the card 1, at least one of the chips 20 electrically contacts a connector 101 of the exterior housing 100 so that digital contents of video, audio, moving pictures or UCC can be recorded and reproduced through a display panel 103 of the exterior housing 100.

[36] The card 1 may be input into the exterior housing 100 or output therefrom via an entrance 102 of the exterior housing 100. The entrance 102 may be made in the form of a slot, or a door capable of opening or shutting the exterior housing 100.

[37] The connector 101 is formed on a surface of the exterior housing 100 in the inserting direction of the card 1 while placed at the location of arrival of the card 1 such that it does not interfere with at least one of the chips 20, being the first chip of the card 1.

[38] Referring to FIG. 4, when at least one of the chips being the second chip 22 of the card 1 is connected to the connector 101 of the exterior housing 100 and a command is input through a key input unit 110, depending upon the command, a control unit 120 stores applications (or data) and contents at the storage domains of the second IC chip 22, or reproducing the stored through a reproduction unit 130 to thereby output the digital contents of video, audio, moving pictures or UCC through an output unit 150.

[39] Meanwhile, the exterior housing 100 may further have a communication module 160 so as to make short-distance communication with the first chip 20 of the card 1 or a contents provider server 200 in a contactless manner.

[40] The short-distance communication may provide an infrared data communication interface, a bluetooth communication interface, a Wi-Fi communication interface, a wireless LAN communication interface, and an RF communication interface.

[41] That is, the first chip 20 may interface the second chip 22 via the exterior housing

100.

[42] As shown in FIG. 5, the second chip 22 is provided with a flash memory 50, and the flash memory 50 has a format information domain 51, a security storage domain 52, and a free storage domain 53. The format information domain 51 records format information for allowing the exterior housing 100 to recognize the applications, data and contents. The security storage domain 52 stores reproducible encryption data only when the identity of a particular person like a certificate, a digital signature, a code table, a password, a card-related essential information as to the limit sum, scheduled events and coupons and a pay digital data is established or the limitation conditions are

satisfied. The free storage region 53 may store and reproduce data through a common computer or a universal portable terminal such as PMP and MP3.

[43] The security storage region 52 has a financial activity information unit 52a, a security document unit 52b, a card information unit 52c, and a contents unit 52d. The financial activity information unit 52a encrypts or decrypts data through an encryption and decryption module 140 in accordance with the information input by the button selection of the key input unit 110 when the card 1 is inserted into the exterior housing 100 and the second chip 22 of the card 1 electrically contacts the connector 101 of the exterior housing 100, and is controlled in reproduction or deletion by way of the reproduction unit 120. The security document unit 52b stores a card number, an official certificate, a digital certificate, a password, and a code table. The card information unit 52c stores the card usage details and the overdue details per data, place and sums. The contents unit 52d gives coupon, revolving and pay contents information.

[44] The second chip 22 is further provided with a data location information unit 54 to recognize the data location in advance. Therefore, the second chip 22 may more speedily process data through the control unit 120 in accordance with the selection of the input unit 110, and reproduce signals through the reproduction unit 130 so as to output them through the output unit 150.

[45] The output unit 150 may be formed with an LCD panel or an AMOLED panel capable of making illumination even with no backlight.

[46] The first chip 20 of the financial card 1 may execute the applications or data mounted on the integrated circuit chip (ICC) by making communication with the terminals of the member stores using a communication protocol such as an application protocol data unit (APDU) defined according to the smart card standard like ISO/IEC 7816 and/ or ISO/IEC 14443.

[47] After the card issuance, the second chip 22 of the card 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be structured to include an open platform of a Java card, a multi- application operating system (MULTOS), a smart card for windows (SCFW), or a smart TEC OS for making services of loading and deletion of various applications or data.

[48] Furthermore, the first chip 20 may further include credit card information, debit card information, financial network information, electronic money information, and certificate information.

[49] Furthermore, the second chip 22 of the card 1 may include an interface capable of making data transactions with the interface device (IFD) of the member stores in addition to the exterior housing 100, such as an infrared data communication interface, a bluetooth communication interface, a Wi-Fi communication interface, a wireless LAN communication interface, and an RF communication interface.

[50] With an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, when the second chip 22 electrically contacts the exterior housing 100 via the connector 101, credit card information (such as credit card number information and chip serial number information) is given to the server 200 so that when the server 200 provides applications or data pursuant to the request of the client, payment may be made by using the card.

[51] Accordingly, with the card 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the two IC chips are operated in a coupled manner so that pay applications or data may be used without introducing a separate point charge or a separate payment system.

[52] Furthermore, in case the valued password is input through the key input unit 110 of the exterior housing 100 and the data of the security storage domain 52 is selected through the key input unit 110, the card usage may be managed by promptly reading the card-related essentials in situ.

[53] The first chip 20 includes one or more credit card transaction storage information dedicated files (DF) containing one or more credit card transaction- related information elementary files (EF), and the security storage domain 20 of the second chip 22 stores the data selected and processed from the data stored at the storage information dedicated file, thereby reducing the storage.

[54] FIG. 6 illustrates an open platform of a card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. It is illustrated in the drawing that the structural features of the respective open smart card platforms of Java cards, MULTOS and SCFW are generalized, and hence, the specific structures and the names of constituents of the respective practical open smart card platforms may be differentiated more or less.

[55] Roughly, the open card platform is structured such that a card operating system of

COS is mounted on a silicon chip-based hardware, and overlaid with a virtual machine and a card management program, which is in turn overlaid with a smart card application (SCApp).

[56] As described previously, the IC chip mounted on the open platform is formed with a central processing unit, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM) and an electrically erasable and programmable read only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. In some cases, it includes an elliptic curve crypto system (ECC) and/or RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman), and a coprocessor for encryption or decryption operation such as 3DES and SEED encrypted or decrypted in transaction with the VAN. The hardware of the card platform is provided with a chip on board (COB, a board with eight contact points) for making communication with smart terminals through CAD, and/or a radio frequency (RF) antenna.

[57] With this structure, the exterior housing 100 may extract the credit card transaction data to be used from the integrated circuit chip (ICC) of the first chip 20, and execute

the digital contents stored at the second chip 22.

[58] While this invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. For instance, in relation to the present exemplary embodiment, description is made to the credit card transaction details, but various exemplary embodiments may be presented of other information data such as medical prescription information, parking information, cooperative buying information, and goods endorsement information.

[59] Furthermore, with the card according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, official certificates and other digital certificates are stored safely by using a security module, and it may be always carried with without requiring any separate storage media so as to efficiently conduct the business when needed.