The current situation and future development trend of smart card milling and implanting technology

The smart card milling and implanting machine is a production equipment used to complete the slot milling and chip packaging operations of smart cards. It can mill card slots on standard card bases and encapsulate chips inside, and is often used in the production of IC cards, SIM cards, etc. The future development trend will be high precision, miniaturization, flexibility and modularization, and will meet the requirements of The Times for intelligence and environmental protection.

The smart card milling and implanting machine is a production equipment used to complete the slot milling and chip packaging operations of smart cards. It can mill card slots on standard card bases and encapsulate chips inside, and is often used in the production of IC cards, SIM cards, etc. Generally, an AC220V, 50/60Hz power supply is used, with a power range of approximately 3.5KW to 6KW.

Typically, a supply of compressed air with a pressure of 0.6 to 0.8MPa is required, and the air consumption is approximately 100 to 110 liters per minute. Depending on different equipment models and process requirements, 2,500 to 3,000 smart cards can be produced per hour.

 

Main structure and function:

Milling slot group: Generally, there are multiple independently controlled milling slot stations, driven by multiple sets of servo motors, which drive high-speed spindles and alloy milling cutters to mill slots that meet the dimensions on the slot base along the set trajectory.

Material rack group: It can hold the chip hot melt tape and introduce it into the positions such as the adhesive paper mold, pre-soldering group, and chip punching group through the material guide wheel, completing the preparation of the chip module.

Pre-welding group: Heated by heating elements, under the coordinated regulation of temperature sensors and temperature controllers, the pot welding head initially welds the hot melt adhesive to the back adhesive of the module.

Hot welding + cold welding group: Driven by a cylinder, the hot/cold welding head can firmly weld the module and the card base. Its hot welding head has a floating characteristic and can adapt to the thickness difference of the card.

Detection group: It includes a module quality identification unit and an IC detection unit after packaging. The former can identify bad modules through reflective photoelectric eyes, while the latter can perform electrical function tests such as open and short circuits on packaged smart cards.

 

The current technical status of this type of equipment :

High-precision processing popularization: Currently, milling slot technology can achieve high-precision processing, with slot depth and width tolerances controlled within ±0.05mm, and surface roughness Ra≤1.6μm, to meet international standards such as ISO 7810. The rotational speed of its milling cutter can reach 20,000 to 60,000 revolutions per minute. The trajectory is controlled by the X/Y/Z axis servo system, and dynamic compensation can also be achieved through sensors to correct processing deviations.

The degree of integration and automation has been enhanced: Smart card milling and implanting equipment often integrates multiple processes such as slot milling, wire picking, welding, packaging, and inspection. In terms of automation, PLC control combined with visual inspection systems is often adopted, which can automatically complete processes such as material feeding, processing, and quality inspection, reducing human intervention.

Easy operation: It generally adopts color human-machine interfaces or industrial computers for control. Parameter setting and production monitoring are quite convenient. Usually, only 1-2 people are needed to complete the operation.

Strong adaptability: It can adapt to various packaging requirements such as one card with one core and one card with multiple cores. Some devices are pre-installed with milling programs for multiple standard modules, allowing for quick switching of production modes.

The process technology is constantly improving: The wire picking and packaging process is continuously optimized. Some new wire picking and packaging devices adopt single-wire wire picking mechanisms, which can improve the wire picking efficiency compared with the traditional double-wire wire picking, eliminate the wire pressing process, and are equipped with CCD detection mechanisms to monitor the wire picking quality in real time. Meanwhile, advanced packaging technologies such as 3D packaging and wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) have also gradually begun to be applied in smart card packaging.

 

Future development trend

Higher precision and miniaturization: As the size of smart card chips and antennas continues to shrink, milling and implanting will pursue higher precision. For instance, packaging precision may move towards sub-micron level to adapt to smaller packaging structures and meet the demands of high-performance and miniaturized smart card products.

Flexibility and modularization development: To meet the production demands of small batches and multiple varieties, smart card milling and implanting equipment will be more flexible and adopt a modular structure design, enabling the equipment to switch between the production of different specifications of smart cards through rapid mold changes, parameter adjustments, and other means.

Intelligent production upgrade: The equipment will integrate more Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence technologies. By collecting production data in real time and analyzing the correlation between process parameters and product quality, it will achieve intelligent optimization control, independently adjust parameters such as milling speed and welding energy, and further improve yield and production efficiency.

Green and environmentally friendly manufacturing: The improvement of environmental protection requirements will drive the transformation of packaging materials. Green materials such as biodegradable plastics and recyclable metals will be more widely used in the substrate and packaging processes of smart cards. At the same time, the energy consumption of equipment will continue to decrease, which is in line with the concept of green manufacturing.