CN111142624A

CN111142624A - Expansion card

Info

Publication number: CN111142624A
Application number: CN201811308183.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李怡明; 栗宇平; 廖峻德; 林英玉; 周家旸
Original assignee: Giga Byte Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Technical Steel Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2018-11-05
Filing date: 2018-11-05
Publication date: 2020-05-12
Anticipated expiration: 2038-11-05
Also published as: CN111142624B

Abstract

An expansion card comprises a plate body, a connecting end and a chip. The plate body is provided with a plurality of through seams which are not connected with each other and a plurality of connecting sections which are positioned between the through seams, the through seams are arranged into a line to divide the plate body into a first area and a second area, and the connecting sections are connected with the first area and the second area. The connecting end is formed on the first region. The chip is arranged on the first area and is electrically connected to the connecting end. The expansion card is selectively operable with the first zone and the second zone, or alternatively, the expansion card is selectively operable to break the connecting segments along the line such that the second zone is completely separated from the first zone and is operable without the second zone.

Description

Expansion card

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an expansion card (expansion card), and more particularly, to an expansion card that can be changed in size according to the needs of consumers.

Background

With the progress of technology and the improvement of manufacturing technology, the smaller the electronic devices are, the different sizes of the motherboard are also developed. From ATX, Mini-ITX, Thin Mini-ITX to Nano-ITX, etc., consumers can make selections according to their needs to purchase the corresponding shell and equipment of the selected mainboard. However, due to the fact that expansion cards with different lengths are filled in the market, consumers are confused and even find that the expansion cards are not in the same size after purchasing the expansion cards, and the customers need to return the expansion cards.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention provides an expansion card which can be changed in size according to the needs of consumers.

The invention relates to an expansion card, which comprises a plate body, a connecting end (connector) and a chip. The plate body is provided with a plurality of through seams which are not connected with each other and a plurality of connecting sections which are positioned between the through seams, the through seams are arranged into a line to divide the plate body into a first area and a second area, and the connecting sections are connected with the first area and the second area. The connecting end is formed on the first region. The chip is arranged on the first area and is electrically connected to the connecting end. The expansion card is selectively operable with the first zone and the second zone, or alternatively, the expansion card is selectively operable to break the connecting segments along the line such that the second zone is completely separated from the first zone and is operable without the second zone.

In an embodiment of the invention, the plate body has a plurality of stamp holes formed on the connecting sections, the stamp holes and the through slits are arranged along a line, and the size of each stamp hole is smaller than that of each through slit.

In an embodiment of the invention, the extending direction of the line is parallel to the width direction of the board body, and a ratio of a total length of the connecting sections to the width of the board body is about 0.2-0.3.

In an embodiment of the invention, the extending direction of the line is parallel to the width direction of the plate body, a ratio of the length of each connecting section to the width of the plate body is about 0.03-0.07, and the number of the connecting sections is between 3 and 6.

In an embodiment of the invention, the expansion card further includes a first connector and a second connector, and the first connector is disposed in the first area and electrically connected to the chip. The second connector is arranged in the second area and is suitable for being electrically connected to the first connector through a transmission line.

In an embodiment of the invention, the expansion card further includes a plurality of heat dissipation pads formed on at least one of the first area and the second area.

In an embodiment of the invention, the expansion card further includes an m.2 connector and a first fixing structure. The M.2 connector is arranged in the first area and is electrically connected to the chip. The first fixing structure is configured in the first area and used for fixing a first M.2 expansion card which is detachably inserted in the M.2 connector.

In an embodiment of the invention, the expansion card further includes a second fixing structure, disposed in the second area, for fixing a second m.2 expansion card detachably inserted in the m.2 connector, wherein a length of the second m.2 expansion card is greater than a length of the first m.2 expansion card.

In an embodiment of the invention, the plate body has two recessed areas recessed in two opposite edges, the two recessed areas are located on two sides of the through seams and are arranged along a line together with the through seams.

In an embodiment of the invention, the board body has no conductive traces crossing the connecting segments.

Based on the above, the expansion card of the present invention weakens the structural strength of the plate body by providing the through-slits in a line on the plate body. When the user needs the expansion card with the general specification, the original expansion card (i.e. the expansion card with the first area and the second area) can be directly used. When the user needs the expansion card with smaller length, the user can completely separate the second area from the first area by only breaking the connecting sections to form the expansion card with another specification (without the second area). Thus, the expansion card of the invention can meet various requirements of users.

In order to make the aforementioned and other features and advantages of the invention more comprehensible, embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a schematic view of the expansion card of fig. 1 with the connection segment broken without the second zone.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to another embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to another embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to another embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of the back of fig. 5.

Description of reference numerals:

l1, L2, L3: length of

W: width of

10: transmission line

12: first M.2 expansion card

14: second M.2 expansion card

100. 100', 100a, 100b, 100 c: expansion card

110: plate body

112: through seam

114: connecting segment

120: first region

122: first connector

124: m.2 connector

126: first fixing structure

130: second region

132: second connector

134: electronic component

136: second fixing structure

140: connecting end

150: chip and method for manufacturing the same

160: depressed region

165: stamp hole

170: heat radiation pad

Detailed Description

At present, some expansion cards on the market have different length specifications, and consumers need to purchase the expansion cards with the corresponding specifications according to the size of the host board or the size of the shell, otherwise, the expansion cards cannot be installed. The following will provide an expansion card that allows the consumer to adjust the length of the card according to his or her needs.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to an embodiment of the invention. Referring to fig. 1, the expansion card 100 of the present embodiment includes a board body 110, a connection end 140, and a chip 150. The plate body 110 has a plurality of through-slits 112 that are not connected to each other and a plurality of connecting segments 114 located between the through-slits 112, the through-slits 112 are arranged in a line to divide the plate body 110 into a first region 120 and a second region 130, and the connecting segments 114 connect the first region 120 and the second region 130.

The connection terminal 140 is formed on the first region 120. The chip 150 is disposed on the first region 120 and electrically connected to the connecting terminal 140. In this embodiment, the connection terminal 140 is, for example, a connection terminal of a PCI-E interface, and the chip 150 is, for example, a processor or other electronic components. Of course, in other embodiments, the connection end 140 may also be a connection end of an AGP interface or a connection end of a CNR interface. The types of the connection terminals 140 and the chip 150 are not limited thereto.

In the present embodiment, the expansion card 100 is a PCI-E expansion card, for example, the total length L1 of the board body 110 conforms to the specification of the full length (full length) of the PCI-E, and the length L2 of the first region 120 conforms to the length specification of the MD2, for example. More specifically, the total length L1 of the board body 110 is, for example, 312 mm, and the length L2 of the first region 120 is, for example, between 150 mm and 170 mm (for example, 167.64 mm). Of course, in other embodiments, the total length L1 of the board body 110 may be between 180 mm and 312 mm, and the total length L1 of the board body 110 and the length L2 of the first region 120 are not limited thereto.

In this embodiment, the consumer can adjust the length according to his or her own needs. In detail, when a current motherboard (not shown) and a current chassis (not shown) of a consumer can configure an expansion card conforming to the full length specification of PCI-E, the expansion card 100 having the first area 120 and the second area 130 of the present embodiment can be directly inserted. Fig. 2 is a schematic view of the expansion card of fig. 1 with the connection segment broken without the second zone. Referring to fig. 2, if the current motherboard and chassis of the consumer needs to be configured with an expansion card with a smaller length, the consumer can break the connecting segments 114 along the lines of the through-slits 112 in fig. 1, so that the second region 130 is completely separated from the first region 120, and becomes the expansion card 100' with a smaller length. Therefore, the expansion card 100 of the present embodiment can provide two specifications for the consumer to choose.

It should be noted that, in the present embodiment, the main circuit structure of the expansion card 100 is disposed on the first area 120, and the second area 130 may be an area without the circuit structure. Therefore, after the second region 130 is separated from the first region 120, the first region 120 can still operate normally. Of course, in other embodiments, the second region 130 may have a circuit structure, and is not limited thereto.

In addition, in the embodiment, the extending direction of the through slits 112 is parallel to the width direction of the plate body 110, the number of the connecting sections 114 between the first region 120 and the second region 130 is between 3 and 6, the ratio of the length L3 of each connecting section 114 to the width W of the plate body 110 is between about 0.03 and 0.07, and the ratio of the total length of the connecting sections 114 to the width W of the plate body 110 is between about 0.2 and 0.3. For example, in the present embodiment, the width W of the plate body 110 is about 97 mm, the length L3 of each connecting segment 114 is about 5 mm, and the number of the connecting segments 114 is five.

When the dimension relationship between the length of the connecting section 114 and the width of the board body 110 is between the above values, the connecting section 114 has sufficient structural strength such that the second region 130 can be stably fixed on the first region 120 when it is not needed to be removed, and when the second region 130 needs to be removed, the consumer can break the second region 130 by hand without using tools.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to another embodiment of the invention. Referring to fig. 3, the main difference between the expansion card 100a of the present embodiment and the expansion card 100 of the previous embodiment is that in the present embodiment, the plate body 110 further has a plurality of stamp holes 165 formed on the connecting sections 114, the stamp holes 165 and the through slits 112 are arranged along a line, and the size of each stamp hole 165 is smaller than that of each through slit 112. In the present embodiment, the diameter of the postage stamp aperture 165 is, for example, between 0.4 mm and 0.5 mm, although the size of the postage stamp aperture 165 is not so limited.

Since the expansion card 100a of this embodiment punches the stamp hole 165 on the connecting section 114, the strength of the connecting section 114 can be weakened slightly under the premise of being able to support the second region 130, and it is found that the expansion card 100 of this embodiment can be pulled off by the consumer using a force of 6.5 kg. Of course, the design of the present embodiment can still allow the second region 130 to be stably fixed on the first region 120 when the second region 130 does not need to be removed.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to another embodiment of the invention. Referring to fig. 4, a main difference between the expansion card 100b of the present embodiment and the expansion card 100a of the previous embodiment is that in the present embodiment, the expansion card 100b further includes a first connector 122 and a second connector 132, and the first connector 122 is disposed in the first region 120 and electrically connected to the chip 150. The second connector 132 is disposed in the second region 130 and connected to the electronic element 134 on the second region 130. The second connector 132 located at the second region 130 may be electrically connected to the first connector 122 located at the first region 120 through a transmission line 10.

That is, in the present embodiment, the second area 130 of the board body 110 is configured with a conductive trace (not shown), but the conductive trace does not directly extend from the first area 120 to the second area 130 across the connecting segment 114, and no conductive trace is located on the board body 110 across the connecting segment 114. In the present embodiment, the electrical connection between the first region 120 and the second region 130 of the board body 110 is realized through the first connector 122, the transmission line 10 and the second connector.

In the present embodiment, when the second region 130 of the expansion card 100 is to be separated from the first region 120, the connection segment 114 is broken after the transmission line 10 is removed. The design that the board body 110 has no conductive traces crossing the connecting segment 114 is because the material of the connecting segment 114 (the insulating layer material of the circuit board, such as glass fiber) is different from the material of the conductive traces (such as copper), if the first region 120 of the conductive trace crosses the connecting segment 114 and extends to the second region 130, after the connecting segment 114 is broken, the conductive trace will not be broken due to better ductility, and instead the conductive trace originally located in the first region 120 may be pulled out from the cross section during the breaking process, so that the expansion card 100 is damaged. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the expansion card 100 electrically connects the second region 130 to the first region 120 by external connection.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an expansion card according to another embodiment of the invention. Referring to fig. 5, the main difference between the expansion card 100c of the present embodiment and the expansion card 100a of the embodiment of fig. 3 is that, firstly, the edges of the upper and lower sides of the through slits 112 are flat compared to the expansion card 100a of the embodiment of fig. 3, in the present embodiment, the board body 110 has two recessed areas 160 recessed into the two opposite edges, the two recessed areas 160 are located at the edges of the upper and lower sides of the through slits 112, and are arranged along a line together with the through slits 112. In the embodiment, since the recessed area 160 is manufactured by a machine at the factory, the edge of the recessed area 160 is smooth, which makes the first area 120 smooth at the boundary between the cross section and the upper and lower edges after the second area 130 is separated from the first area 120, and has a good hand feeling.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the expansion card 100c further includes an m.2 connector 124 and at least one first fixing structure 126 corresponding to the m.2 connector 124. The m.2 connector 124 is disposed in the first region 120 and electrically connected to the chip 150. Since the m.2 expansion card has various sizes, a plurality of corresponding fixing structures are usually disposed at positions away from the m.2 connector to fix the m.2 expansion card, for example, the length of the m.2 expansion card is, for example, 30 mm, 42 mm, 60 mm, 80 mm, etc., and a corresponding fixing structure is disposed at positions away from the m.2 connector by 30 mm, 42 mm, 60 mm, 80 mm, etc., to fix the m.2 expansion card to the board 110.

In the present embodiment, at least one first fixing structure 126 is disposed in the first region 120 for fixing a first m.2 expansion card 12 (shown by a dotted line) detachably inserted into the m.2 connector 124. In addition, in the present embodiment, the expansion card 100 further includes a second fixing structure 136 disposed in the second region 130 for fixing a second m.2 expansion card 14 (shown by a dotted line) detachably inserted into the m.2 connector 124.

In detail, in the present embodiment, the expansion card 100 includes four m.2 connectors 124, and for two m.2 connectors 124 located at the bottom of fig. 5, a first fixing structure 126 located at the first region 120 and corresponding to three m.2 expansion card lengths and a second fixing structure 136 located at the second region 130 and corresponding to one m.2 expansion card length are disposed beside each m.2 connector 124. The first fixing structure 126 and the second fixing structure 136 are, for example, studs with screw holes, but the kinds of the first fixing structure 126 and the second fixing structure 136 are not limited thereto.

As can be seen in fig. 5, if the first m.2 expansion card 12 is an m.2 expansion card with a length of 30 mm, the first m.2 expansion card 12 can be fixed by the first fixing structure 126 closest to the m.2 connector 124 after being inserted into the m.2 connector 124. If the second m.2 expansion card 14 is an m.2 expansion card with a length of 80 mm, the second m.2 expansion card 14 can be fixed by the second fixing structure 136 located at the second region 130 after being inserted into the m.2 connector 124. In other words, the second section 130 can be removed if the m.2 expansion card selected by the customer does not need to be fixed by the second fixing structure 136 located in the second section 130.

Fig. 6 is a schematic view of the back of fig. 5. Referring to fig. 6, the expansion card 100c further includes a plurality of heat dissipation pads 170 formed on at least one of the first region 120 and the second region 130. In the present embodiment, the heat dissipation pads 170 of the expansion card 100 are formed on the first region 120 and the second region 130, and the material of the heat dissipation pads 170 is metal, such as solder, which can bring the heat emitted by the expansion card 100 to the back side. Since the heat dissipation pad 170 is exposed to the back of the expansion card 100, the heat can be easily carried away by a fan (not shown) on a motherboard (not shown). Of course, the position of the heat dissipation pad 170 is not limited thereto.

In summary, the expansion card of the present invention can provide two size options, wherein the expansion card is divided into a first area and a second area, the connection terminal and the main conductive trace are disposed on the first area, and the second area can be disposed with a fixing structure, a heat dissipation pad, an auxiliary conductive trace or other structures. The through seams are arranged in a line on the plate body to weaken the structural strength between the first region and the second region. When the user needs the expansion card with the general specification, the original expansion card (i.e. the expansion card with the first area and the second area) can be directly used. When the user needs the expansion card with smaller length, the user can completely separate the second area from the first area by only breaking the connecting sections to form the expansion card with another specification (without the second area). Thus, the expansion card of the invention can meet various requirements of users.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the above embodiments, it should be understood that various changes and modifications can be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. An expansion card comprising:

the plate body is provided with a plurality of through seams which are not connected with each other and a plurality of connecting sections which are positioned among the through seams, the through seams are arranged in a line to divide the plate body into a first area and a second area, and the connecting sections are connected with the first area and the second area;

a connection end formed on the first area; and

the expansion card can selectively operate in a mode of having the first area and the second area, or the expansion card can selectively break the plurality of connecting sections along the line, so that the second area is completely separated from the first area and operates in a mode of not having the second area.

2. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein the plate body has a plurality of stamp holes formed on the connecting sections, the plurality of stamp holes and the plurality of through slits being arranged along the line, and each stamp hole having a size smaller than each through slit.

3. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein the extension direction of the wire is parallel to the width direction of the board body, and the ratio of the total length of the connecting sections to the width of the board body is about 0.2-0.3.

4. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein the extension direction of the wire is parallel to the width direction of the board body, the ratio of the length of each connecting section to the width of the board body is about 0.03-0.07, and the number of the connecting sections is between 3 and 6.

5. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein the expansion card further comprises:

a first connector disposed in the first region and electrically connected to the chip; and

and the second connector is arranged in the second area and is suitable for being electrically connected to the first connector through a transmission line.

6. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein the expansion card further comprises:

a plurality of heat dissipation pads formed on at least one of the first region and the second region.

7. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein the expansion card further comprises:

an M.2 connector disposed in the first region and electrically connected to the chip; and

the first fixing structure is configured in the first area and used for fixing a first M.2 expansion card which is detachably inserted in the M.2 connector.

8. The expansion card of claim 7, wherein the expansion card further comprises:

and the second fixing structure is arranged in the second area and used for fixing a second M.2 expansion card which is detachably inserted in the M.2 connector, wherein the length of the second M.2 expansion card is greater than that of the first M.2 expansion card.

9. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein the board body has two recessed areas recessed at two opposite edges, the two recessed areas being located at two sides of the through-slits and being arranged along the line together with the through-slits.

10. The expansion card of claim 1, wherein no conductive traces on the board body traverse the plurality of connecting segments.