U.S. patent application number 10/383145 was filed with the patent office on 2004-07-01 for mini memory card connector.
This patent application is currently assigned to I/O Interconnect, Inc.. Invention is credited to Chou, Pen-Yuan.
Application Number | 20040127081 10/383145 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 32295367 |
Filed Date | 2004-07-01 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040127081 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chou, Pen-Yuan |
July 1, 2004 |
MINI MEMORY CARD CONNECTOR
Abstract
A mini memory card connector is constructed to include an
insulating housing defining an insertion slot for receiving one of
a set of mini memory cards, front terminal grooves, middle terminal
grooves, and rear terminal slots, a set of first terminals
respectively mounted in the front terminal grooves for the contact
of a first mini memory card, a set of second terminals respectively
mounted in the middle terminal grooves for the contact of a second
mini memory card, and a set of third terminals respectively mounted
in the rear terminal slots for the contact of a third mini memory
card.
Inventors: |
Chou, Pen-Yuan;
(US) |
Correspondence
Address: |
John G. Chupa
Law Offices of John Chupa & Associates, P.C.
Suite 50
28535 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills
MI
48334
US
|
Assignee: |
I/O Interconnect, Inc.
|
Family ID: |
32295367 |
Appl. No.: |
10/383145 |
Filed: |
March 6, 2003 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
439/188 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06K 7/0043 20130101;
H01R 12/7094 20130101; H01R 12/721 20130101; H01R 12/716 20130101;
H01R 27/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
439/188 |
International
Class: |
H01R 029/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Dec 31, 2002 |
TW |
091221636 |
Claims
What the invention claimed is:
1. A mini memory card connector comprising a housing made from
electrically insulating material, said housing comprising a
horizontal bottom wall, two lateral sidewalls, a vertical back
wall, an insertion slot defined by said horizontal bottom wall,
said lateral sidewalls and said vertical back wall and adapted to a
mini memory card, a plurality of front terminal grooves formed in
said horizontal bottom wall at a front side, a plurality of middle
terminal grooves formed in said horizontal bottom wall at a rear
side, a plurality of rear terminal slots formed in said vertical
back wall, a set of first terminals respectively mounted in said
front terminal grooves for the contact of a first mini memory card,
a set of second terminals respectively mounted in said middle
terminal grooves for the contact of a second mini memory card, and
a set of third terminals respectively mounted in said rear terminal
slots for the contact of a third mini memory card, said first
terminals and said second terminals and said third terminals each
having a solder end respectively extended out of a bottom side of
said housing for mounting.
2. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein
said first terminals, said second terminals, and said third
terminals are respectively provided for the contact of a XD card, a
SD/MMC card, and a MS card.
3. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the number of said first terminals is 20 that is compatible to a XD
card; the number of said second terminals is 9 that is compatible
to a SD/MMC card; the number of said third terminals is 10 that is
compatible to a MS card.
4. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the solder ends of said first, second and third terminals are
adapted to be bonded to a printed circuit board by surface mounting
technique.
5. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein
said housing has an opening defined between said lateral sidewalls
in front of said vertical back wall.
6. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein
said housing has a top side covered with a metal shield and at
least one pair of retaining blocks respectively projecting from
said two opposite lateral sidewalls at an outer side, said metal
shield comprising at least one pair of retaining holes disposed in
two opposite downwardly extended side flanges thereof and
respectively forced into engagement with the retaining blocks of
said housing.
7. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein
the two opposite lateral sidewalls of said housing each have at
least one mounting hole in a bottom side and at least one mounting
plate respectively mounted in said at least one mounting hole for
bonding to a printed circuit board.
8. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 7, wherein
the side flanges of said metal shield each have an inwardly
protruded locating strip respectively inserted through a respective
through hole in the opposite lateral sidewalls of said housing and
connected to said at least one mounting plate for grounding.
9. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, further
comprising a sensor installed in one lateral sidewall of said
housing, said sensor having a detection terminal projecting into
said insertion slot and adapted to detect the insertion of a SD
card in said insertion slot.
10. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 9, further
comprising a write protection device installed in one lateral
sidewall of said housing opposite to said sensor, said write
protection device having a write protection terminal projecting
into said insertion slot and adapted to determine the write
protection status of a SD card being inserted into said insertion
slot.
11. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 1, further
comprising a deck coupled to said housing, said deck comprising a
horizontal partition wall, two vertical bottom sidewalls arranged
in parallel at a bottom side of said horizontal partition wall, a
vertical bottom back wall connected between said vertical bottom
sidewalls and defining with said vertical bottom sidewalls and said
vertical bottom back wall an auxiliary insertion slot for receiving
one of a set of big memory cards, said vertical bottom sidewalls
each have a plurality of retaining holes adapted to receive the
retaining blocks of said housing, said vertical bottom back wall
having a plurality of terminal slots and a plurality of fourth
terminals respectively mounted in the terminal slots for the
contact of respective contacts of a big memory card being inserted
into said auxiliary insertion slot, said fourth terminals each
having a solder end respectively extended out of said deck for
connecting to a printed circuit board through an electric
connecting device.
12. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 11, wherein
big memory cards include CF card and SM card.
13. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 11, wherein
said electric connecting device is selected from a set of
connecting devices including bus line and flex circuit board.
14. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 11, wherein
said vertical bottom sidewalls of said deck each have at least one
retaining hole, and said housing has at least one retaining block
respectively projecting from each of the two opposite lateral
sidewalls thereof and adapted to engage the at least one retaining
hole of said deck.
15. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 11, wherein
the solder ends of said fourth terminals are respectively connected
to respective contacts of an adapter circuit board.
16. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 15, wherein
said adapter circuit board has a signal connector for connection to
the printed circuit board of a read write apparatus through an
electric connecting means.
17. The mini memory card connector as claimed in claim 16, wherein
the electric connecting means for connecting said signal connector
to said printed circuit board is selected from a set of connecting
means including a bus line and a flex circuit board.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to a memory card connector
and, more particularly, to a mini memory card connector, which ha a
slot in the open side of the housing for receiving any of a variety
of mini memory cards such as XD card, MS card, SD card, or MMC
card.
[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0004] Flash memory brings convenience to information industries
for storage of data. For single, independent, or temporary data
storage, flash memory eliminates the necessity of installing a big
capacity of main memory. By means of the use of a single piece of
flash memory, the storage and file management of particular data
become easy.
[0005] Memory cards for use in consumer electronic products such as
digital cameras, digital video cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, etc.,
include MMC cards (Multi-Media Cards), SD cards (Secure Digital
Cards), SM cards (Smart Media Cards), CF cards (Compact Flash cards
Type I and Type), and XD cards developed by Olympus and Fuji. The
difference between a SD card and a MMC card is the number of pins.
These two cards use a same slot in a read write apparatus. The
storage capacity of an XD card can be expanded to several BGB,
meeting user's requirement for image processing. However, it is
regrettable that conventional read write apparatus cannot read an
XD card.
[0006] Commercially available read write apparatus commonly have
only one slot for the loading of a particular model of memory card,
or one of a few models of memory cards. For reading a different
model of memory card, the user may have to change the read write
apparatus. In order to eliminate this problem, read write apparatus
capable of reading different memory cards are developed. However,
these multipurpose read write apparatus have at least two slots in
the front open side for receiving different memory cards. These
dual-slot read write apparatus are commonly bulky. Further, these
dual-slot read write apparatus commonly have a complicated
structure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The present invention has been accomplished under the
circumstances in view. According to one aspect of the present
invention, the mini memory card connector has an insertion slot and
three sets of terminals respectively suspended in the insertion
slot at different locations for the connection of one of a set of
mini memory cards including XD card, SD/MMC card, and MS card.
[0008] According to another aspect of the present invention, a
metal shield is provided for fastening to the housing to prevent a
magnetic leakage and for contacting grounding mounting plates at
the bottom side of the housing.
[0009] According to still another aspect of the present invention,
the terminals each have a respective solder end extended out of the
bottom side of the housing for soldering to a printed circuit board
through surface mounting technique.
[0010] According to still another aspect of the present invention,
a deck is provided for fastening to the housing, having a set of
terminals for the contact of a CD or SM card.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 is an exploded front view of a mini memory card
connector according to the present invention.
[0012] FIG. 2 is an exploded back side view of the mini memory card
connector according to the present invention.
[0013] FIG. 3 is an elevational assembly view of the mini memory
card connector according to the present invention.
[0014] FIG. 4 is a perspective back side view of the mini memory
card connector according to the present invention.
[0015] FIG. 5 is an exploded view showing the relationship between
the mini memory card connector and a deck and adapter circuit board
according to the present invention.
[0016] FIG. 6 is an elevational assembly view of FIG. 5.
[0017] FIG. 7 is a schematic top view of the present invention
before the installation of the sensor and the write protection
device in the mini memory card connector.
[0018] FIG. 8 is similar to FIG. 7 but showing the sensor and the
write protection device installed in the mini memory card
connector.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0019] Referring to FIGS. 1.about.4, a mini memory card connector
is shown comprised of a housing 1, a first terminal set 2, a second
terminal set 3, and a set of third terminals 4.
[0020] The housing 1 is made of electrically insulating material,
having an insertion slot 12 horizontally inwardly extended from the
front side 11. The insertion slot 12 is a stepped slot made subject
to the sizes and shapes of different mini memory cards such as XD
card, SD card, MMC card, and MS card, having positioning means
(pegs, ribs, and/or notches) for positive positioning of a mini
memory card. The insertion slot 12 has a bottom wall 13 and two
lateral sidewalls 14. The bottom wall 13 has front terminal grooves
131 and middle terminal grooves 132, which receive the terminals 21
of the first terminal set 2 and the terminals 31 of the second
terminal set 3 respectively, keeping the respective contact ends 22
of the terminals 21 of the first terminal set 2 respectively and
axially aimed at the respective contact ends 32 of the terminals 31
of the second terminal set 3 and the respective solder ends 23 and
33 of the terminals 21 and 31 of the first terminal set 2 and the
second terminal set 3 respectively downwardly extended out of the
bottom wall 13. A vertical back wall 15 is transversely connected
between the two lateral sidewalls 14, having a plurality of
terminal slots 151, which receive the terminals 41 of the third
terminal set 4 respectively, enabling the front contact ends 42 of
the terminals 41 to be suspended in the opening 133 between the
bottom wall 13 and the vertical back wall 15 and the rear solder
ends 43 of the terminals 4 to be extended downwards to the outside
of the housing 1. Because the solder ends 23, 33 and 43 of the
terminals 21, 31 and 41 are suspended below the bottom side of the
housing 1, the mini memory card connector can easily and rapidly be
bonded to a printed circuit board by means of SMT (surface mounting
technique).
[0021] The first terminal set 2 includes, for example, 20 pieces of
terminals 21 that are respectively inserted into the front terminal
grooves 131 in the bottom wall 13 from the front side. The pin
signals of the first terminal set 2 correspond to an XD card. When
an XD card inserted into the insertion slot 12, the contacts of the
XD card are respectively forced into contact with the contact ends
22 of the terminals 21, enabling the read write apparatus to
read/write the XD card.
[0022] The second terminal set 3 includes, for example, 9 pieces of
terminals 31 that are put in the opening 133 and inserted into the
middle terminal grooves 132. When installed, the pin signals of the
second terminal set 3 correspond to a SD card or MMC card. When a
SD card or MMC card inserted into the insertion slot 12, the
contacts of the SD card or MMC card are respectively forced into
contact with the contact ends 32 of the terminals 31, enabling the
read write apparatus to read/write the SD card or MMC card.
[0023] The third terminal set 4 includes, for example, 10 pieces of
terminals 41 that are inserted into the terminal slots 151 in the
vertical back wall 15 from the rear side of the housing 1, keeping
the respective contacts 42 suspended in the opening 133. When
installed, the pin signals of the third terminal set 4 correspond
to a MS card. When a MS card inserted into the insertion slot 12,
the contacts of the MS card are respectively forced into contact
with the contact ends 42 of the terminals 41, enabling the read
write apparatus to read/write the MS card.
[0024] In order to let the housing 1 be positively be bonded to a
printed circuit board, each vertical lateral sidewall 14 is made
having at least one mounting hole 141, which receives a respective
mounting plate 142 that has a plurality of bottom mounting legs
142a for fastening to the printed circuit board by soldering or
screws.
[0025] Further, in order to enhance the EMI protective power, a
metal shield 5 is covered over the top side of the housing 1. The
two vertical lateral sidewalls 14 of the housing 1 each have at
least one pair of retaining blocks 143 protruding from the
respective outer side. The metal shield 5 has retaining holes 52 in
each of the two opposite side flanges 51. When the metal shield 5
covered on the housing 1, the retaining holes 52 are respectively
forced into engagement with the retaining blocks 143. Further, the
side flanges 51 each have an inwardly protruded locating strip 53
that is inserted through a through hole 144 above one mounting hole
141 and connected to one mounting plate 142, forming a grounding
loop that protects the mini memory card connector against static
electricity.
[0026] FIGS. 5 and 6 show the installation of a deck 6 in the
housing 1. The deck 6 has a horizontal partition wall 61, two
vertical bottom sidewalls 62 arranged in parallel at the bottom
side of the horizontal partition wall 61, a vertical bottom back
wall 64 connected between the vertical bottom sidewalls 62 and
defining with the vertical bottom sidewalls 62 and the vertical
bottom back wall 64 an auxiliary insertion slot 64. The vertical
bottom sidewalls 62 each have a plurality of retaining holes 621
adapted to receive the retaining blocks 143 of the housing 1. The
vertical bottom back wall 64 has terminal slots 641 adapted to
receive terminals 71 of a fourth terminal set 7, for enabling the
contact ends 72 of the terminals 71 to be respectively positioned
in respective terminal grooves 611 in the horizontal partition wall
61 and the solder ends 73 of the terminals 71 to be connected to
the printed circuit board of the read write apparatus through
electric connecting means, for example, a bus line or flex circuit
board. Alternatively, the solder ends 73 of the terminals 71 can be
disposed in contact with or soldered to contacts 741 of an adapter
circuit board 74, which has a signal connector 742 for connection
to the printed circuit board of the read write apparatus through a
bus line or flex circuit board. The deck 6 has at least one pair of
retaining blocks 631 adapted to engage the retaining holes 52 of
the shield 5. The fourth terminal set 7 is compatible to CF card as
well as SM card.
[0027] Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8 and FIGS. 1.about.4 again, in
order to provide detection and write protection functions, a sensor
8 and a write protection device 9 are respectively installed in the
two opposite vertical lateral sidewalls 14. As illustrated in FIG.
8, when a SD card inserted into the mini memory card connector, one
sidewall of the SD card touches the arched detection portion 811 of
the probe 81 of the sensor 8, thereby causing the detection portion
811 to deform and to contact a recognition terminal 82 of the
sensor 8, and therefore a signal is produced, indicating the
insertion of a SD card into the housing 1. If the write protection
switch of the SD card has been switched to the write protection
position before insertion of the SD card into the housing 1, one
sidewall of the SD card will touch the arched detection portion 911
of the write protection terminal 91 of the write protection device
9, thereby causing the detection portion 911 to deform and to
contact a recognition terminal 92 of the write protection device 9,
and therefore a signal is produced, indicating the write protection
status of the SD card.
[0028] As indicated above, the housing needs only one insertion
slot to receive one of a set of different mini memory cards such as
XD card, MS card, SD card, and MMC card. Further, a metal shield is
provided to protect prevent leakage of electromagnetic waves and to
connect static electricity to the ground. The arrangement of the
sensor and the write protection device detects the insertion of a
SD card and its write protection status. A deck may be attached to
the housing of the mini memory card connector, enabling the mini
memory card connector to receive a big memory card, for example, a
CD card or SM card.
[0029] A prototype of mini memory card connector has been
constructed with the features of FIGS. 1.about.8. The mini memory
card connector functions smoothly to provide all of the features
discussed earlier.
[0030] Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been
described in detail for purposes of illustration, various
modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from
the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention
is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.
* * * * *