U.S. patent application number 10/292984 was filed with the patent office on 2004-05-13 for stacked card connector having two rows of terminals extending out of a bottom surface of the connector at a side opposite to an insert port.
Invention is credited to Tsai, Chou Hsuan.
Application Number | 20040092159 10/292984 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32229563 |
Filed Date | 2004-05-13 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040092159 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Tsai, Chou Hsuan |
May 13, 2004 |
STACKED CARD CONNECTOR HAVING TWO ROWS OF TERMINALS EXTENDING OUT
OF A BOTTOM SURFACE OF THE CONNECTOR AT A SIDE OPPOSITE TO AN
INSERT PORT
Abstract
A stacked card connector includes a base, a first row of first
terminals, and a first row of second terminals. The base is formed
with a first slot receiving a first card and a second slot
receiving a second card. The contacts of the first terminals are
within the first slot to contact the first card. The extensions of
the first terminals connect the contacts to the pins respectively
and serve as elastic arms. The pins of the first terminals extend
out of a bottom surface of the base. The contacts of the terminals
are within the second slot to contact the second electric card. The
extensions of the second terminals connect the contacts to the pins
respectively. The pins of the second terminals extend out of the
bottom surface of the base from a side opposite to the insert port
of the second slot.
Inventors: |
Tsai, Chou Hsuan;
(Hsin-Chuang City, TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
PRO-TECHTOR INTERNATIONAL
20775 Norada Court
Saratoga
CA
95070-3018
US
|
Family ID: |
32229563 |
Appl. No.: |
10/292984 |
Filed: |
November 12, 2002 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
439/541.5 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06K 7/0034 20130101;
G06K 7/0021 20130101; H01R 12/721 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
439/541.5 |
International
Class: |
H01R 013/60; H01R
013/66 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A stacked card connector, comprising: a base formed with a first
slot for receiving a first electric card and a second slot for
receiving a second electric card, each of the first and second
slots having an insert port, and the second slot being positioned
above the first slot; a first row of spaced first terminals, each
of the first row of spaced first terminals having a contact, an
extension and a pin, the contacts being positioned within the first
slot so as to elastically contact the inserted first electric card,
the extensions connecting the contacts to the pins respectively and
serving as elastic arms, and the pins extending out of a bottom
surface of the base; and a first row of spaced second terminals,
each of the first row of spaced second terminals having a contact,
an extension and a pin, the contacts being positioned within the
second slot so as to elastically contact the inserted second
electric card, the extensions connecting the contacts to the pins
respectively and serving as elastic arms, the pins extending out of
the bottom surface of the base from a side opposite to the insert
port of the second slot.
2. The stacked card connector according to claim 1, further
comprising a second row of spaced second terminals, the extensions
of the second row of spaced second terminals and the extensions of
the first row of spaced second terminals being positioned at
different heights, and the contacts of the second row of spaced
second terminals being flush with the contacts of the first row of
spaced second terminals.
3. The stacked card connector according to claim 2, wherein the
base is formed with spaced terminal slots at a side opposite to the
insert port, each of the terminal slots has a shallower wide slot
and a deeper narrow slot, and the first and second rows of the
second terminals are positioned within the wide and narrow slots,
respectively.
4. The stacked card connector according to claim 1, further
comprising a second row of spaced second terminals, the extensions
of the second row of spaced second terminals being flush with the
extensions of the first row of spaced second terminals, and the
contacts of the second row of spaced second terminals being flush
with the contacts of the first row of spaced second terminals.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The invention relates to an electric connector, and in
particular to a stacked card connector connecting to an electric
card.
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional double-layerd and
stacked card connector is used for an electric card, such as a
telephone card or an ATM card, to be inserted into. The card
connector includes a lower base 10, an upper base 15, two rows of
spaced first terminals 25, two rows of spaced second terminals 30,
and a circuit board 20.
[0005] The lower base 10 is formed with a first slot 11 for
receiving an electric card, and the first slot 11 has an insert
port 12. The upper base 15 is stacked above the lower base 10 and
formed with a second slot 16 for receiving another electric card,
and the second slot 16 has an insert port 17.
[0006] Each first terminal 25 has a contact 26, an extension 27 and
a pin 28. The contacts 26 are in the shapes of convex arcs facing
upward, positioned within the first slot 11, and well aligned. The
pins 28 extend out of the bottom surface of the lower base 10 from
a first side near the insert port 12 and a second side opposite to
the insert port 12, respectively.
[0007] Each second terminal 30 has a contact 31, an extension 32
and a pin 33. The contacts 31 are in the shapes of convex arcs
facing upward, positioned within the second slot 16, and well
aligned. The pins 33 extend out of the bottom surface of the upper
base 15 from a first side near the insert port 17 and a second side
opposite to the insert port 17, respectively.
[0008] The circuit board 20 is positioned between the upper base 15
and the lower base 10 and formed with two rows of connection
terminals 21 at a side opposite to the insert port 12. The pins 33
of the two rows of second terminals are electrically connected to
the circuit board 20 and thus to the connection terminals 21 via
traces on the circuit board 20.
[0009] According to the above-mentioned structure, when the card
connector is mounted on a main board 23, the pins 28 of the two
rows of first terminals 25 and the two rows of connection terminals
21 on the circuit board 20 are electrically connected to the main
board 23. Thus, the two rows of second terminals 30 may be
electrically connected to the main board 23 via the connection
terminals 21.
[0010] In the conventional stacked card connector, a circuit board
20 is utilized to stack two bases, each of which having a single
slot, into a dual-slot connector. However, due to the addition of
the circuit board 20, the manufacturing processes are complicated
and the cost may be greatly increased. That is, the cost of a
circuit board has to be added. As to the complicated processes, the
two rows of connection terminals 21 have to be bonded to the
circuit board 20 in advacne. Then, the two rows of second terminals
30 have to be bonded to the circuit board 20. Finally, the upper
base 15, the circuit board 20, and the lower base 10 have to be
stacked.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] An object of the invention is to provide a stacked card
connector, in which the circuit board may be omitted and the
manufacturing processes may be simplified, thereby reducing the
manufacturing costs.
[0012] To achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention
provides a stacked card connector comprising: a base formed with a
first slot for receiving a first electric card and a second slot
for receiving a second electric card, each of the first and second
slots having an insert port, and the second slot being positioned
above the first slot; a first row of spaced first terminals, each
of the first row of spaced first terminals having a contact, an
extension and a pin, the contacts being positioned within the first
slot so as to elastically contact the inserted first electric card,
the extensions connecting the contacts to the pins respectively and
serving as elastic arms, and the pins extending out of a bottom
surface of the base; and a first row of spaced second terminals,
each of the first row of spaced second terminals having a contact,
an extension and a pin, the contacts being positioned within the
second slot so as to elastically contact the inserted second
electric card, the extensions connecting the contacts to the pins
respectively and serving as elastic arms, the pins extending out of
the bottom surface of the base from a side opposite to the insert
port of the second slot.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional
stacked card connector.
[0014] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a stacked card
connector according to a first embodiment of the invention.
[0015] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line 3-3 of
FIG. 2.
[0016] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation state
of the card connector according to the first embodiment of the
invention.
[0017] FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation state
of the card connector according to a second embodiment of the
invention.
[0018] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a card connector
according to a third embodiment of the invention.
[0019] FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a card connector
according to a fourth embodiment of the invention.
[0020] FIG. 8 is a top view showing the arrangement of the second
terminals according to the fourth embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0021] Referring to FIG. 2, a stacked card connector according to a
first embodiment of the invention includes a base 40, two rows of
first terminals 50 and two rows of second terminals 60 and 60'.
[0022] The base 40 is composed of a bottom board 41, a middle board
42, and a top board 43, and is formed with a first slot 44 and a
second slot 45 for receiveing electric cards 35. Each of the first
and second slots 44 and 45 has an insert port 46. The second slot
45 is positioned above the first slot 44. Referring to FIGS. 2 and
3, the middle board 42 is formed with spaced terminal slots 47 at a
side opposite to the insert port 46, and the terminal slot 47 has a
shallower wide slot 48 and a deeper narrow slot 49.
[0023] Each first terminal 50 has a contact 51, an extension 52 and
a pin 53. The contacts 51 of the two rows of first terminals 50 are
in the shapes of convex arcs facing upward, positioned within the
first slot 44, and well aligned. Therefore, the contacts 51 may
elastically contact the inserted electric card 35. The extensions
52 for connecting the contacts 51 to the pins 53 serve as elastic
arms. The pins 53 of the two rows of first terminals 50 extend out
of the bottom board 41 from a first side near the insert port 46
and a second side opposite to the insert port 46, respectively.
[0024] Each of the second terminals 60 and 60' has a contact 61, an
extension 62 and a pin 63. The contacts 61 of the two rows of
second terminals 60 and 60' are in the shapes of convex arcs facing
upward, positioned within the second slot 45, and well aligned.
Therefore, the contacts 61 may elastically contact the inserted
electric card 35. The extensions 62 for connceting the contacts 61
to the pins 63 serve as elastic arms. The pins 63 extend out of the
bottom board 41 from a side opposite to the insert port 46. The
extensions 62 of the second terminals 60 are higher than those of
the second terminals 60' while the pins 63 of the second terminals
60' are in front of those of the second terminals 60. Consequently,
the two rows of second terminals 60 and 60' may be positioned
within the wide slot 48 and the narrow slot 49 of the base 40,
respectively.
[0025] Referring to FIG. 4, when the card connector of the
invention is electrically connected to the main board 23, the pins
53 of the first terminals 50 and the pins 63 of the second
terminals 60 and 60' may be directly inserted into the main board
23. After the electric card 35 is inserted, the main board may
receive electrical signals from the electric card 35.
[0026] Designing the second terminals 60 and 60' extending out of
the bottom board 41 from a side opposite to the insert port 46, the
card connector of the invention may be directly electrically
connected to the main board 23. Therefore, no additional circuit
board has to be provided for signal transmission, thereby
facilitating the manufacturing processes and greatly reducing the
manufacturing costs accordingly.
[0027] As shown in FIG. 5, a card connector according to the second
embodiment of the invention is almost the same as that in the first
embodiment. The difference between the second and first embodiments
resides in that the contacts 61 of the second terminals 60 and 60'
within the second slot 45 are in the shapes of convex arcs facing
downward. Consequently, two cards 35 have to be oppositely inserted
into the first slot 44 and the second slot 45 for electrical
connection. The second terminals 60 and 60' located at different
heights are mounted within the terminal slots 47 of the top board
43, respectively.
[0028] Referring to FIG. 6, a card connector according to the third
embodiment of the invention includes a base composed of a lower
base 72 and an upper base 70 stacked above the lower base 72. The
upper and lower bases 70 and 72 are formed with a second slot 45
and first slot 44, respectively. The second terminals 60 and 60'
positioned at different heights are mounted within the terminal
slots 47 of the upper base 70, respectively.
[0029] Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, a card connector according to
the fourth embodiment of the invention includes a base composed of
a lower base 72 and an upper base 70 stacked above the lower base
72, which is the same as that of the third embodiment. The
difference between the fourth and third embodiments resides in that
the extensions 62 of the second terminals 60 and 60' are flush with
each other, and the contacts 61 of the two rows of second terminals
60 and 60' are well aligned and flush with each other. According to
such a design, it is not necessary for the terminal slots 47 of the
upper base 70 to be designed as wide slots and narror slots with
different depths. However, the extensions 62 of the second
terminals 60' have to form bends 65 so that the contacts 61 of the
second terminals 60 and 60' may be aligned or flush with each
other.
[0030] While the invention has been described by way of examples
and in terms of preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that
the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the
contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications. Therefore,
the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest
interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications.
* * * * *