Electrical connectors – With coupling separator – Nonconducting pusher
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-22
2003-11-18
Bradley, P. Austin (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With coupling separator
Nonconducting pusher
C439S310000, C439S333000, C439S345000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06648660
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on Patent Application No. 2001-085758 filed Mar. 23, 2001 in Japan, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector mounted on electronic devices, such as cellular phones, telephones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), portable audio devices and cameras, and more specifically to a card connector which keeps a retainer fitting for a compression coil spring from being dislocated and thereby prevents the compression coil spring forming a card eject mechanism from coming out of the card connector even when a molded base plate of the connector is deformed as the card connector is performed a reflow-soldering to a printed circuit board of the electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electronic devices such as cellular phones, telephones, PDAs and cameras, a variety of functions are added by inserting an IC card with a built-in CPU or memory IC, such as a SIM (subscriber identity module) card, an MMC (multimedia card), an SD (secure digital) card, a Memory Stick (tradename) and a Smart Media (tradename).
Many of the card connectors mounted on such electronic devices have an eject mechanism for removing an inserted card from the connector.
A conventional card connector will be explained by referring to
FIGS. 5A and 5B
.
FIG. 5A
is a schematic plan view of the card connector with its cover removed.
FIG. 5B
is a cross section taken along the line VB—VB of FIG.
5
A.
The card connector
100
comprises a base plate
102
and a cover
103
. At least the base plate
102
is formed from an insulating material of synthetic resin. The base plate
102
is provided with a plurality of contact terminals
107
to be brought into electrical contact with a plurality of electrode pads
112
arranged on a back surface of an IC card
111
. The contact terminals
107
each have a spring portion
108
for contact with the associated electrode pad
112
of the IC card
111
and a terminal portion
109
soldered to an associated contact pad of the printed circuit board of the electronic device.
The card connector
100
has a push-push type card eject mechanism
101
along one side of the base plate
102
. The card eject mechanism
101
includes an eject member
104
having a card engagement portion
110
, a compression coil spring
105
for pushing the eject member
104
against a stopper
113
provided on the base plate
102
when the IC card
111
is not loaded, a heart cam
114
formed on the base plate
102
, lever guide grooves
115
formed along and on both sides of the heart cam
114
to guide one end of a cam lever
106
, and the cam lever
106
having its one end slide along the lever guide groove
115
and the other end secured to the eject member
104
.
The card eject mechanism
101
is held between the stopper
113
of the base plate
102
at one end and a retainer fitting
116
press-fitted into a rear plate
117
of the base plate
102
at the other end.
In this card eject mechanism
101
, when the IC card
111
is inserted into the card connector
100
, the eject member
104
is pushed by the IC card
111
through the card engagement portion
110
toward a rear side of the card connector
100
against the force of the compression coil spring
105
. At this time, one end of the cam lever
106
slides in one of the lever guide grooves
115
along the heart cam
114
and becomes locked by a recessed locking portion of the heart cam
114
. As a result, the IC card is held immovable in the card connector
100
, with the electrode pads
112
of the IC card
111
in contact with the contact terminals
107
of the card connector
100
, thus electrically connecting the IC card
111
to the card connector
100
.
When the card is to be ejected, a user slightly pushes the inserted IC card
111
toward the rear. This unlocks the cam lever
106
from the locking portion of the heart cam
114
. As the result, the compression coil spring
105
forces the free end portion of the cam lever
106
to move through the other lever guide groove
115
along the heart cam
114
toward the front of the card connector. Thus the eject member
104
moves toward the front of the card connector
100
, pushing the IC card
111
toward the front with the card engagement portion
110
and ejecting it from the card connector
100
. (For details of the card eject mechanism, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2000-251024 and 251025.)
In the card connector
100
of the construction described above, the terminal portions
109
of the contact terminals
107
are soldered to the contact pads of the printed circuit board of an electronic device. In recent years, this solder connection is realized by a reflow soldering because of the ease with which it can be processed.
The reflow soldering is done at an elevated temperature to melt the solder. Conventional card connectors are allowed a sufficient thickness so that the base plate, though made from resin, has adequate strength to withstand high-temperature processing. In recent years, however, there are growing demands for reduced size, thickness and weight of the card connectors. And the construction of the base plate forming the card connector is being stretched to its limit in terms of shape and size.
Under these circumstances, in a construction of the card connector in which the card eject mechanism pushed by the compression coil spring is held by the retainer fitting press-fitted in the resin base plate and by the stopper formed on the resin base plate, as in the conventional card connectors, since the card connector is subjected to high temperatures when the reflow soldering is performed, the resin base plate is softened with heat and thus the force of the compression coil spring may affect the retainer fitting, and the compression coil spring may fly out of the card connector.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problem and provide a card connector which can prevent the retainer fitting from flying out even when a molded base plate (a resin base plate including the stopper) is softened during reflow soldering and which can be reduced in size, height and weight.
To achieve the above objective, the card connector of the present invention comprises a shell body and a molded base plate, wherein the molded base plate includes at least a card eject mechanism having a compression coil spring and adapted to insert and eject a card and a retainer fitting press-fitted in the base plate to hold the card eject mechanism pushed by the compression coil spring and wherein the shell body is formed with at least one engagement hole that engages at least one hook portion of the retainer fitting.
In the card connector of this invention, the retainer fitting includes a horizontal member and a vertical member vertically rising from the horizontal member. The horizontal member and/or the vertical member have at least a pair of press-fit projections and one hook portion.
Further, the retainer fitting includes a spring receiving portion for positioning the compression coil spring.
The above and other objects, effects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
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patent: 5033972 (1991-07-01), Komatsu et al.
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patent: 5145389 (1992-09-01), Okubo
patent: 5179505 (1993-01-01), Matsuo
patent: 5197894 (1993-03-01), Koike
patent: 5286207 (1994-02-01), McHugh
patent: 5492480 (1996-02-01), Fusselman et al.
patent: 5492481 (1996-02-01), Lewis
patent: 5533906 (1996-07-01), Abe
patent: 5597316 (1997-01-01), David et al.
patent: 5640307 (1997-06-01), Bleier et al.
patent: 5648651 (1997-07-01), Inoue
patent: 5655918 (1997-08-01), Soh
patent: 5674080 (1997-10-01), Takemura
patent: 5695351 (1997-12-01), Kimura et al.
patent:
Abe Kiyoshi
Sato Shigeru
Bradley P. Austin
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP
Leon Edwin A.
Yamaichi Electronics Co. Ltd.
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