Such a card is known from the prior EP 163880 (GAO Ges.), in which the weakening is arranged on the outside of the perimeter of the cavity in which the integrated circuit is arranged and within the overall thickness of the card. This solution is particularly suitable in the case of cards having three layers which are laminated together.
So-called "vignettes" are also known from the French Patent Application FR-A-2 617 668, filed Mar. 7, 1987. Retention and use of these cards imply mechanical stresses applied to the support of the card, which is flexible or semi-flexible, which stresses are retransmitted to the vignette and to the circuit which it carries.
The reliability of the integrated circuit cards of all types bears a direct relation to their capacity to resist the repeated application of such stresses without an adverse effect on its electrical properties (connections, wholeness of the circuit).
Therefore, mechanical resistance tests have been defined according to which an integrated circuit card should nominally be capable of withstanding one (or even several) thousand(s) of standardized longitudinal or transverse bending operations without deterioration. During such bending operations, and especially during bending operations caused by the application of forces parallel to a longitudinal direction of the card, the circuit is subjected to high stresses.