Booster antenna configurations and methods
A booster antenna (BA) for a smart card comprises a card antenna (CA) component extending around a periphery of a card body (CB), a coupler coil (CC) component at a location for an antenna module (AM), and an extension antenna (EA) component contributing to the inductance of the booster antenna (BA). At least one of the components may have a pitch which is different than one or more of the other components. A method of wire embedding is also disclosed, by controlling a force and ultrasonic power applied by an embedding tool at different positions on the card body (CB).
1. Booster antenna (BA) comprising the following components:
a card antenna (CA) component;
a coupler coil (CC) component; and
an extension antenna (EA) component;
characterized in that:
at least one of the components has a pitch which is different than one or more of the other components.
2. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the card antenna (CA) component has an outer winding (OW) and an inner winding (IW).
3. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the pitch of the outer and inner windings are substantially the same as one another.
4. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the pitch of the outer and inner windings are different than one another.
5. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
at least one of the components comprises an outer winding (OW, ow) and an inner winding (IW, iw).
6. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the card antenna component has a pitch of approximately 200 μm.
7. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the coupler coil (CC) component has a pitch of approximately 150 μm.
8. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the booster antenna comprises wire having a diameter; and
the pitch of at least one of the components is approximately 2× (twice) the diameter of the wire, resulting in a spacing between adjacent turns of components on the order of 1 wire diameter.
9. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the coupler coil (CC) and extension antenna (EA) components are combined with one another, as a coil, wherein the turns increase in pitch as the combined CC/EA booster antenna component extends across an area of a card body (CB) of a smart card (SC).
10. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the pitch of the extension antenna (EA) component varies as it extends across an area of a card body (CB) of a smart card (SC).
11. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the pitch of the extension antenna (EA) component is different than the pitch of the coupler coil (CC) component.
12. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
at least one of the extension antenna (EA) and coupler coil (CC) components have pitches different than that of the card antenna (CA) component.
13. A smart card (SC) incorporating the booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 .
14. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the extension antenna (EA) component lowers the resonance frequency of the booster antenna BA to a desired resonance.
15. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the pitch of individual turns of the extension antenna (EA) are adjusted to match the booster antenna (BA) resonance frequency.
16. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , wherein:
the extension antenna (EA) concentrates the electromagnetic field when in close coupling proximity to an external contactless reader.
17. The booster antenna (BA) of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one additional extension antenna (EA) component.