Active solid-state devices (e.g. – transistors – solid-state diode – Housing or package – Smart card package
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-25
2003-11-04
Williams, Alexander O. (Department: 2826)
Active solid-state devices (e.g., transistors, solid-state diode
Housing or package
Smart card package
C257S396000, C257S390000, C257S391000, C257S209000, C257S415000, C257S680000, C257S315000, C257S773000, C235S488000, C235S492000, C235S380000, C235S382000, C365S052000, C365S051000, C365S063000, C365S185110, C365S185330
Reexamination Certificate
active
06642611
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage apparatus, in particular, to a backward compatible storage apparatus suitable for transferring and exchanging digital information between various portable electronic apparatuses. In addition, the present invention relates to a card type storage apparatus, in particular, to a card type storage apparatus suitable for transferring and exchanging digital information between various portable electronic apparatuses.
Moreover, the present invention relates to various portable wireless terminals such as a personal computer, a portable information terminal, a portable telephone unit, and a PHS (Personal Handyphone System) unit and various electronic apparatuses such as a digital camera and a voice recorder.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various types of information such as characters, still pictures, moving pictures, music, and voice are handled as digital data. Various types of storage mediums such as a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, a hard disk, and a magneto-optical disc have been used to record such types of digital data.
For example, a floppy disk is a most-widely used storage medium. However, since the medium should be rotatably-driven, a motor and a rotating mechanism are essentially required for a floppy disk drive. Thus, the floppy disk could not be a medium suitable for an electronic apparatus that is small and light.
In addition, portable wireless terminals such as portable telephone units and PHS units have become common and their size and weight have been reduced. However, such wireless terminals do not have detachable storage apparatuses. Thus, when a wireless terminal such as a portable telephone unit or a PHS unit is replaced with a new model, the directory and various settings of the old unit may not be used for the new unit. Thus, the contents of the directory and settings of the old unit should be manually input to the new unit.
A digital camera with a floppy disk drive that records photographed pictures on a floppy disk has been proposed. With such a digital camera, since photographed pictures are recorded on a floppy disk, the pictures can be used with a PC (Personal Computer) or the like. However, the size and weight of the digital camera depend on those of the floppy disk. Thus, since the digital camera becomes large and heavy, it is not suitable as a portable apparatus.
The storage apparatuses that such portable electronic apparatuses have do not satisfy both requirements of compatibility with other electronic apparatuses of prior generations and small/light structure necessary for portable apparatuses.
Thus, a storage apparatus that satisfies both requirements of compatibility with other electronic apparatuses of prior generations and small/light structure is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made from the above-described point of view. An object of the present invention is to provide a storage apparatus that is small, thin, and light.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage apparatus that has compatibility with other electronic apparatuses of prior generations and that has small, thin, and light structure.
To solve such problems, the storage apparatus, the card type storage apparatus, and the electronic apparatus according to the present invention have the following structures.
The present invention is a storage apparatus, comprising a wiring substrate having a first surface and a second surface, a flat type external connection terminal disposed on the first surface of the wiring substrate, a semiconductor device disposed on the second surface of the wiring substrate and having a connection terminal connected to the flat type external connection terminal, and a molding resin for coating the semiconductor device on the second surface of the wiring substrate.
The present invention is a storage apparatus, comprising a wiring substrate having a first surface and a second surface, a flat type external connection terminal disposed on the first surface of the wiring substrate, a semiconductor device disposed on the second surface of the wiring substrate and having a connection terminal connected to the flat type external connection terminal, molding resin for coating the semiconductor device on the second surface of the wiring substrate, a card type supporting frame having a concave portion or a hole portion formed on at least one surface of the card type supporting frame, the concave portion or the hole portion fitting the wiring substrate, the semiconductor device, and the molding resin in such a manner that the flat type external connection terminal is exposed to the first surface of the wiring substrate, and adhesive resin filled in a supporting space formed among the flat type external connection terminal, the wiring substrate, the molding resin, and the card type supporting frame so as to integrally adhere the flat type external connection terminal, the wiring substrate, the semiconductor device, the molding resin, and the card type supporting frame.
A molding resin free portion is formed at an edge portion of the flat type external connection terminal. A concave portion or a hole portion of the card type supporting frame can be a shouldered concave portion or a shouldered hole portion having a first portion and a second portion, the first portion being fitted to the molding resin free portion of the flat type external connection terminal, the second portion being fitted to the molding resin portion of the flat type external connection terminal.
The area of the card type molding resin portion of the storage apparatus or the area of the card type supporting frame is the half or less of the area of the flat type external connection terminal.
The molding resin is preferably disposed on the second surface of the wiring substrate in such a manner that the molding resin is unsymmetrically disposed in one symmetrical direction on the second surface of the wiring substrate. In the following description, “molding resin unsymmetrically disposed in one symmetrical direction” represents for example a rectangular substrate that is symmetrical with respect to a first line in parallel with the longer side of the substrate and passing through the center of the substrate and that is not symmetrical with respect to a second line perpendicular to the first line. The molding resin may have a mark, for example arrow, that represents a direction parallel to the symmetrical direction. Thus, since the storage apparatus is unsymmetrically shaped, the storage apparatus can be securely and easily attached to the host side unit. The mark is preferably a linear pattern. When a concave pattern is formed on the surface, the area becomes thin. Thus, the strength of the storage apparatus deteriorates. On the other hand, when a convex pattern is formed, since the thickness of the storage apparatus becomes large, the requirement for small and thin structure cannot be satisfied.
In addition, with the molding resin having one or plural notches the storage apparatus is unsymmetrically shaped and voltage display function or discrimination function and the like is provided. When the molding resin have notch, one symmetrical direction is not realized.
The semiconductor device may be a serial access type semiconductor. The semiconductor device may be a flash memory. The semiconductor device may be a NAND type EEPROM or an AND type EEPROM.
The serial access type semiconductor device sequentially inputs and outputs read data, write data, and commands through common I/O pins. The serial access type semiconductor device does not have an address terminal.
Thus, regardless of the integration degree of the semiconductor device, the structure of the flat type external connection terminal (for example, the number of pins) can be standardized.
The flat type external connection terminal may be composed of a conductor layer disposed on the first surface of the wiring substrate and having a slit for separating the first surface into a plurality of ar
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Williams Alexander O.
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