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The Module (or contact) is merely the link between the chip (on the card) and the card reader (on the phone). Many people mistakenly take the module for the chip. The chip is very small, about 1 square millimeter, and therefor it needs a contact (the module) to allow itself to be read by the card reader. The most common chip suppliers are Texsas Instruments, Siemens, Motorola, Philips and SGS Thomson. The information stored on the chip consists in most cases of; total numbers of units, units used, serial number and manufacturer. In the early days of module manufacturing Gold were commonly used as material, due to its brilliant leading abilities. However, as we all know, gold is an expensive material, so rather hastily other materials with similar abilities were developed and utilized.

As the chip and the module are´nt produced by the same manufacturers, the are delivered seperately to the location where they and the card are put together. The chips are delivered on large plates, abot 10.000 on each. They are then automatically removed one by one from the plate and pasted on to the middel of the modules down side. The complete module are then pasted on to the plastic card in a drilled hole. This is an expensive process, and require great quantities of units produced to be worth while. After this process every single card is tested, and in some cases a batch number or a serial number in inc-printed, laser-printed or carved onto the card. Some of the earlier modules suffered by oxidation and thereby mis-colouration (depending on wich material used), wich can be a disturibing factor for the collector. This, however, has no effect on the function of the chip or module.

Module Abbrieviations, The manufacturers