Smart Card Environmental Sensor with Porous Protective Layer
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Consumer-grade environmental detection sensors are not portable and cannot effectively detect hazardous conditions in all settings, lacking integration into compact form factors like smart cards.
Innovation Solution
A smart card with integrated environmental detection sensors, such as smoke, radon gas, and carbon monoxide detectors, featuring a substrate with protective layers that expose sensors to the environment, powered by internal circuitry, and capable of generating alerts via a processor when predetermined conditions are met.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If consumer-grade environmental detection sensors are used, then detection capability is provided, but portability and compactness are lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines environmental detection sensors with smart card technology, merging two separate systems into a single integrated device. The sensor module is embedded within the smart card substrate, allowing the detection function to be carried in a compact, portable form factor that fits in pockets or wallets, thus resolving the contradiction between detection capability and portability.
Solution Approach 2:
The environmental detection sensor is nested within the smart card structure, with the sensor module integrated into the substrate and protected by protective layers. This nested arrangement allows the sensor to be housed within the compact smart card form factor, maintaining both detection capability and portability.
2Strength
If sensors are protected from environment, then device durability is improved, but sensor detection accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The protective layer is designed with porous structures that allow environmental molecules to diffuse through while still providing physical protection. The porous nature of the protective layer enables gas molecules to reach the sensor surface, maintaining detection accuracy, while the layer itself provides mechanical protection and durability.
Solution Approach 2:
The protective layer acts as an intermediary between the environment and the sensor. It allows selective interaction where environmental molecules can reach the sensor through pores while the layer itself provides protection, thus mediating between the need for protection and the need for detection accuracy.
3Volume of moving object
If smart card size is reduced for portability, then compactness is improved, but sensor exposure to environment deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The protective layer's porous structure allows environmental molecules to penetrate through despite the reduced size and compact packaging. The pores provide pathways for gas molecules to reach the sensor, ensuring that the sensor remains exposed to the environment sufficiently for accurate detection while the overall device maintains compact dimensions.
Data Source
AI summary
In some embodiments, a smart card may include a substrate with a first side and a second side. A first protective layer covers the first side and a second protective layer covers the second side of the substrate. Circuitry held in the substrate includes electronic interconnects for interconnecting circuitry elements. The circuitry elements include a processor, power circuitry for powering the circuitry elements, and an environmental detection sensor for respectively detecting a predetermined environmental parameter. The processor is configured to receive an output from the environmental detection sensor, to determine from the output that the environmental detection sensor detected an environmental alert trigger condition, and to generate an alert that is representative of the environmental alert trigger condition. The protective layers include pores in a region proximate to the environmental detection sensor for exposing the environmental detection sensor to an environment around the smart card.