Engineering plastics for active card and the study of service lifetime

Abstract

Smart cards are plastic cards containing a chip for identification. They provide enhanced security features in various applications. There are several types of commercial plastic used for smart card body such as PC -STD (polycarbonate), PVC (polyvinylchoride) and new multilayer materials such as PC -Teslin and PC -DD I. The drawback of these plastic is the degradation of their properties. The service lifetime of plastic relates to the mechanical properties, appearance of the surface and other properties. The commodity plastic card (PVC and PC) and new develop multilayer card material (PC -Teslin and PC -DD I) were tested to define the duration of the cards. Various conditions and accelerated aging w ere applied to the plastic cards according to ISO /IEC 24789-1 and 10373-1 standards. The changes in the properties of the plastic card have been analyzed by functionality (data storage devices must be checked after testing) tensile tests, scanning electron microscopy, gloss measurement, and colorimetric spectrophotometer. In term of visual inspection, each material had changing in AE (color difference) and a decrease in gloss retention. In term of mechanical properties, modulus of each material decreased. After to cycles, the lifetime of each plastic card was predicted. Both of PC -STD and PVC were found to have a lifetime 10 years in norm al condition, however, PVC has more scratch than PC -STD. In term of severe condition, only PC -STD was found to have a lifetime for 3 years, while PC -DD I and PC -Teslin were passed the lifetime of 1 year