PC card adapter

Details PC card adapter PC card adapter

1998-05-29

2001-01-23

Donovan, Lincoln (Department: 2833)

Electrical connectors

With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in...

Coupling part for receiving edge of planar board moving...

C439S630000, C439S091000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06176724

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an adaptor for connecting a miniaturized electronic storage module, especially a miniature card with 60 surface contacts, to a personal computer (PC), a notebook, or similar data processing system with PCMCIA port, whereby a PCMCIA socket is provided at an end face of a card-shaped outer housing which is connected especially by soldering connections to electronic components of a circuit board, whereby at the opposite side contact fields, corresponding to the surface contacts of the miniature card and provided with conductive rubber strips or contact springs for electrical contacting of the miniature card, are arranged below a housing window with a frame for insertion and removal of the miniature card.
So-called miniature cards are miniaturized electronic storage modules for different applications. At present, especially the use for digital cameras as so-called flash cards is of interest where directly digital data of the camera are written onto the miniature card and stored therein. Other known applications are voice recording and voice reproduction systems. For further processing of the thus used miniature cards, adaptors are provided which are connectable to a data processing system and thus connect the miniature card mechanically and electrically to the data processing system. For this purpose, the adaptor has at its end face a PCMCIA socket. The data processing system must therefore be provided with a corresponding PCMCIA slot in order to provide for mechanical and electrical and electric contacting of the miniature cards via the adaptor. The adaptor comprises among other things a PCB, controller components, driver components, and storage components as well as contacting elements. It is then possible to transmit via the adaptor data, for example, from the notebook onto the miniature card or vice versa data written onto the miniature card in other applications data onto the PC platform.
The miniature card is inserted into a housing window provided in the plug-in card-shaped outer housing, below which a receiving frame is connected which allows insertion and removal of the miniature card. The miniature card is provided with 60 surface contacts which are positioned in an elongate depression at the underside of the miniature card in the form of a contact field. A corresponding contact field with a conductive rubber strip or contact springs for electrically contacting is positioned in the frame below the housing window and is connected with the printed circuit board of the adaptor so that via the surface contact connection the miniature card, when inserted, is connected to the printed circuit board of the adaptors and via the adaptor is thus connected to the PCMCIA socket at the end face which is inserted into a respective slot of a PC, notebook, or other data processing system with PCMCIA port for data exchange.
It is a disadvantage of such an adaptor that the high contact forces of greater than 60N which are applied upon insertion of a miniature card via that conductive rubber strip onto the outer housing, may result in deformation which, in turn, prevents the secure contacting of the conductive rubber strip at the contact pad of the contact field positioned therebelow. Compensation of the occurring forces by the thin bottom sheet metal of the outer housing is not ensured. In cases in which between the contact field of the adaptor and the outer housing a printed circuit board is arranged, the mechanical stability and stiffness in the contact area is not sufficient. Especially the operational safety of the adaptor is additionally impacted by manipulation because especially its use as an exchangeable medium results in stress from transport such as bending, torsional, and thermal loading. A simple mechanical reinforcement of the adaptor with increased wall thickness in the housing area is not possible because the dimensions with minimal tolerances as a standard, especially for the PCMCIA type II, are set so that only minimal constructive variations are possible.
The invention has the object to increase functional reliability while avoiding the aforementioned disadvantages, especially in the contacting area of the miniature card, so that the high occurring contact forces can be received without causing damage over the lifetime of the adaptor with minimal constructive expenditure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object is inventively solved in that in the transition area from the printed circuit board to the contact field a reinforcement means is provided below the contact field in order to counter act the forces resulting from insertion of the miniature card. The reinforcement means constructively provides the possibility for predetermined dimensions to maintain the contact area, which for each insertion of a miniature card is subjected to great deforming forces, reliably functional whereby the reinforcement preferably is in the form of an additional reinforcement plate of metal or plastic or metal/plastic laminate which is accommodated between the outer housing and the printed circuit board within the adaptor in the transition area. The stability of the contact area as well as of the adaptor in its entirety is thus considerably improved.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the frame, positioned below the housing window for the miniature card, is connected under fixation of the printed circuit board in the transition area to the reinforcement plate in the form of a reinforcement sheet metal so as to provide a separate module comprised of the printed circuit board with PCMCIA socket, connecting field, frame, and reinforcement sheet metal. By providing such a module, a pre-manufacturing and optimal storage without housing is possible whereby the modules are already functional and thus can be tested. The testing of their functionality can be performed in an intermediate mounting step so that losses are cut when a faulty module is detected.
In order to provide such a module, it is advantageous to provide the outer sides of the reinforcement sheet metal with upwardly extending clamping tabs which engage respective cutouts in the frame by a clamping or snapping action. This provides for a simple fastening of the reinforcement sheet metal, which may be a single-piece stamped part, to the frame for the miniature card with exact positioning at the location where the contacting forces are received. The reinforcement sheet metal can advantageously by concavely curved and thus provide an abutment below the contacting field. The concave embodiment thus causes the reinforcement sheet metal to act as a spring under pretension that is thus optimally suitable to receive the contacting forces which are transmitted upon insertion of the miniature card via the conductive rubber strip and the contact pads onto the circuit board, respectively, the contacting field.
For a safe electrical contacting a sufficient contacting force is required. It may be advantageous in this context to embody the frame comprised of plastic in the transition area such that it has an undercut so that the miniature card when inserted can be secured by its leading edge being engaged. The leading edge of the miniature card is thus pushed upon insertion practically under the projecting transverse strip of the frame which thus provides an upper abutment. The conductive rubber strip is deformed by the pressing forces whereby the contacting forces transmitted onto the contact field are received by the lower abutment in the form of a reinforcement sheet metal. An optimal contacting with regard to positioning, securing, as well as transmitted contact forces is thus ensured.
Often, instead of simple printed circuit boards, so-called multi-layer printed circuit boards are used in which one layer supports the leads. For such an embodiment of the circuit board, in an expedient further development of the invention it is suggested to have the layer supporting the leads project in one direction past the actual base member of the multi-layer circuit board to the contact field and to e

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