Card connector of reduced-height profile

Details Card connector of reduced-height profile Card connector of reduced-height profile

1999-01-19

2001-10-16

Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

With coupling separator

Nonconducting pusher

Reexamination Certificate

active

06302715

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card connector for memory cards, PC cards, compact flash cards or cards which may be used in notebook-sized personal computers or portable terminal devices.
2. Description of Related Art
As shown in
FIG. 7
, a conventional card connector comprises a rectangular casing
2
of synthetic resin for holding two cards at upper and lower stages, two rotary levers
3
pivoted with a pin
8
to the rear side of the casing
2
, two ejection levers
4
slidably attached to one side of the casing
2
with their rear ends loosely connected to one ends of the rotary levers
3
, and with their front ends press-fitted in first buttons
5
of synthetic resin, which are pivoted to second buttons
6
of synthetic resin to permit the second buttons
6
to turn 90 degrees relative to the first buttons
5
.
A card
1
is inserted in a selected compartment of the casing
2
. As the rotary lever
3
is pushed by the card
1
, the rotary lever
3
is made to turn about the pin
8
, so that the ejection lever
4
is moved in the direction opposite to the direction in which the card
1
is inserted.
The casing
2
of synthetic resin has metal springs attached to its inside for grounding purpose.
Referring to
FIG. 8
, the rotary lever
3
is pivoted to the rear end of the casing
2
by using a headed bolt
8
. Specifically the headed bolt
8
is press-fitted in a bore
2
b
made in the frame
2
a
, which is placed on the rear side of the casing
2
for holding a plurality of contacts
9
. A shield plate
7
is sandwiched between the rotary lever
3
and the frame
2
a
. Thus, the thickness “a” from the upper surface of the frame
2
a
to the upper surface of the head of the headed bolt
8
is about 1 millimeter, and the total thickness including the one millimeter-thick frame
2
a
is 2 or more millimeters.
The relatively large thickness is a significant hindrance to the down-sizing of the card connector. Also, disadvantageously the casing of synthetic resin requires the attaching of spring pieces for grounding purposes. This increases the number of parts to be assembled, and accordingly the assembling and manufacturing cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One object of the present invention is to provide a card connector of a reduced-height profile which is free of defects as described above.
To attain this object a card connector comprising a casing for accommodating a card, a rotary lever pivoted in the casing, and being responsive to insertion of the card for rotating in the casing, and an ejection lever slidably attached to one side of the casing, and being so operatively connected to the rotary lever that the inserting of the card in the casing may drive the ejection lever toward the front side of the casing through the agency of the turning rotary lever, and that the pushing of the ejection lever toward the rear side of the casing may eject the card out of the front side of the casing through the agency of the turning rotary lever, is improved according to the present invention in that the rotary lever is pivotally mounted to the ceiling of the casing by a tongue-like piece extending across the rotary lever from one lateral side of a window opening of the ceiling plate, which window opening is made by cutting a selected area of the ceiling plate, and is somewhat wider than the rotary lever, the tongue-like piece being depressed the thickness of the ceiling plate. The rotary lever may have a depression at its pivotal area, the amount of depression corresponding to the thickness of the casing plate.
The fulcrum of the rotary lever thus provided is two-plate thick, thereby permitting the card connector to be reduced significantly in height.
The casing may be of metal, and may have cantilever-like resilient projections integrally connected to the inside of the casing for pushing the card to reduce plays which otherwise, would appear between the casing and the card for rattling.
With this arrangement, the card is pushed against the ceiling of the casing, leaving a significant space between the card and the underlying printed circuit board to prevent the printed circuit board from being rubbed by the card when it is repeatedly inserted in the card connector.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be understood from the following description of a card connector according to one embodiment of the present invention, which is shown in accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5288247 (1994-02-01), Kaufman
patent: 5443395 (1995-08-01), Wang
patent: 5707245 (1998-01-01), Yamamoto et al.
patent: 5795190 (1998-08-01), Ono
patent: 6000958 (1999-12-01), Ishida et al.
patent: 6015309 (2000-01-01), Nakamura et al.
patent: 6071133 (2000-06-01), Ho et al.
patent: 6106313 (2000-08-01), Chen

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