Registers – Records – Conductive
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-18
2003-12-23
Lee, Michael G. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Records
Conductive
C235S441000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06666382
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to plug-in removable cards intended to be temporarily inserted into a micro-computer (or personal computer or PC) or into information processing devices in general.
These cards are generally known under the name PCMCIA cards and are produced in accordance with the PCMCIA Standard defined by the association of the same name (“Personal Computer Memory Card International Association” 1030 B East Duane Avenue, Sunnyvale, Calif.). They comprise several chips with integrated circuits and a 68 pin female connector that can be plugged into a corresponding male connector on the micro-computer. These cards are mainly bulk memory cards which could in the future replace diskettes and other magnetic type means of bulk storage. They have equivalent storage capacities and offer much more rapid access than magnetic memories. They can also be used as an extension to the random access memory of the micro-computer.
It has already been proposed, in the patent application FR No. 92 00323 filed by the applicant and published under the number U.S. Pat. No. 2,686,171, that PCMCIA cards be modified to convert them into readers of chip cards with flush contacts such as credit cards or access cards of a format now very common among the general public. Hence a micro-computer fitted with a PCMCIA reception slot can receive a chip card with flush contacts even if it is not fitted with a slot for reading such chip cards. The chip card is coupled to the PCMCIA and electrically connected to it; the two cards are introduced into the micro-computer and the exchanges between the chip card and the micro-computer only occur through the intermediary use of the plug-in connector of the PCMCIA card and the corresponding connector of the micro-computer.
This allows for example
the computer or any other information processing system to communicate with the chip card with flush contacts even if it is not fitted with a reader of cards with flush contacts,
the access to the computer to be protected by a security chip card
the access to the PCMCIA card to be protected by a security chip card
access to be permitted to a network protected by authentication that uses a chip card.
An improved system for the PCMCIA forming a chip card reader that has just been described, has also been proposed in the patent application FR No. 95 06723 filed by the applicant. For this, the smart card comprises two plates, approximately the same length and integral one to the other in the part situated to the side of the plug-in connector forming an insertion slot for the chip card from the opposite side.
The second plate allows the provision of a firm hold of the flush contacts of the chip card against a contact connector placed on the first plate of its reader. The width of the removable card is approximately the same as that of the chip card. The slot defined by the two plates is not demarcated laterally since its side edges are open in such a way that the removable card remains in conformity with the overall dimensions of a card corresponding to the PCMCIA Standard.
In these two patent applications, the basic principle for the lateral positioning of the chip card, is in the utilisation of the side edges of the slot of the micro-computer, which allow guidance of both the removable card forming the reader and the chip card. In effect, to the extent that the theoretical dimensions of the PCMCIA card are identical to those of the chip card, it is possible to rely on the width of the housing made in the micro-computer to guide the chip card and to ensure its correct positioning on the removable card.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However the applicant is aware that using the side edges of the slot in the micro-computer to guide the chip card so as to ensure its correct positioning generates another quite unexpected problem. In effect, it has become apparent today that numerous micro-computers or other information processing systems do not keep to the dimensions imposed by the PCMCIA Standard and that the actual tolerances on the width of the slot are very variable from one product to another or from one category of products (personal computer, digital television decoder, etc . . . ) to another. The utilisation of the side edges of the slot of the micro-computer to position the chip card in a precise manner onto the removable card forming the chip card reader is therefore no longer possible. The chip card being inadequately guided, even a small off-set of the chip card in relation to the PCMCIA card is enough to cause a malfunction or a breaking off of the reading operation.
A first solution that can be envisaged for positioning the chip card in a precise manner on its reader consists of creating lateral braces along the plug-in removable chip in such a way as to produce runners on which the chip card would slide.
This solution is not appropriate however. In effect, since the width of a PCMCIA card is similar to that of a chip card, produced in the usual format for chip cards in accordance with the Standard ISO 7816-1 and ISO 7816-2 and since the lateral braces have a thickness that is sufficient to reduce in a significant way the width of the removable plug-in card, it becomes impossible to run the chip card in without modifying the width of the removable card. If the width of the removable plug-in card is modified, its dimensions will no longer correspond to the requirements of the PCMCIA Standard.
Consequently, the problem which is posed consists of looking for a means that permits the chip card to be guided and positioned in a precise way on the PCMCIA card without modifying the dimensions of the latter.
This invention permits resolution of this problem. In effect, it provides a removable plug-in card for a micro-computer that includes an external plug-in connector and a flush contacts connector capable of creating an electrical connection with the flush contacts of a chip card in order to form a chip card reader, characterised in that it includes, a guidance system the shape of which combines with that of the chip card so as to ensure the correct positioning of the latter in relation to the internal connector.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3777120 (1973-12-01), Menger et al.
patent: 5336877 (1994-08-01), Raab et al.
patent: 5375037 (1994-12-01), Le Roux
patent: 5674080 (1997-10-01), Takemura
patent: 5850103 (1998-12-01), Takemura
patent: 6394827 (2002-05-01), Nogami
Lisimaque Gilles
Monnot Jerome
Lee Michael G.
Nguyen Kimberly
Plottel Roland
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