smartcard

[Neon]

I found a smartcard, and decided to open it to take pictures. It consists of a small microchip (top left) connected to a loop of copper wire, sandwiched between two thin plastic plates.

[Chiefish]

It doesnt look all that smart now
Cool thing to do tho by taking it apart and seeing how it actually works. I like it.

[max3]

Here is something i would recommend to do if you have a good microscope.
My bro has an old 1000x microscope - VERY NICE ! I LIKE!
So anyways, i took my SIM card apart and looked at the chip in microscope, also looked at various 486 chips with bottom plate removed, pretty much sneak peaked at crystal it self - very interesting!
believe it or not crystals themselves have writings on them! i wish i would be able to take a pictures but... oh well.

[Qwerty]

It's not a chip - it's just a plain and simple capacitor.

[Neon]

I thought that smart cards process and store data using a microchip?

Maybe the only way to find out is view with a microscope. Since I don't have a microscope, does anybody want this card to look?

[max3]

as far as i am aware smart cards do have IC chips - a simple processor with eeprom built in. You cant store much data in one or a few caps... perhaps a one or few binary digits

update: this picture could be the simple capacitor (2 contacts with insulation between) but it will depend or origin of it.

update: basically we see same as HERE but a variation of technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification

Found my book got a pic from it.
A typical architecture of contactless smart card