JP2000268136A - Adapter for small-sized memory card - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely prevent a small-sized memory card from jumping out with an inexpensive configuration. SOLUTION: In this adapter 1 provided with a circuit board 6 on which a memory IC is mounted and a frame 8 for housing the circuit board 6 and capable of housing and connecting the small-sized memory card 2, an elastic piece abutting on the side face of the small-sized memory card 2 is provided as a contact member 10. Thus, the danger of damages and losing by jumping-out is eliminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Intern), which is a small memory card used for a portable information terminal or a digital camera.
The present invention relates to an adapter for a small memory card for connecting and converting to a slot of a PC card or the like standardized by the National Association of Japan (JELDA) / JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industry Development Association).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, PC cards frequently used in personal computers and the like are PCMCIA / JEIDA.
Standardized by, for example, 85.6 m in length
An external shape of a PC card having a m, a width of 54.0 mm, and a thickness of 5.0 mm is defined.

[0003] By the way, devices such as portable information terminals, mobile phones, digital cameras and the like have been further downsized, and accordingly, smaller memory cards have been required. For example, a small memory card having a length of 45.0 mm, a width of 42.8 mm, and a thickness of 3.3 mm has been proposed. Further, at present, various small-sized stamp-sized memory cards have been proposed and commercialized with the aim of further reducing the size and weight. At the same time, attempts are being made to use a new small memory card in a conventional PC card slot which is often present in the market.

[0004] Therefore, from a small memory card to a conventional PC,
A small memory card adapter that can be connected to a card slot has been put to practical use.

[0005] Initially, this small memory card adapter was simply manually inserted and removed when inserting and removing the small memory card. Thereafter, in order to facilitate removal of the small memory card, a small memory card adapter having an eject mechanism has been proposed and commercialized.

Hereinafter, a structure of a conventional adapter for a small memory card having an eject mechanism will be described. The circuit board housed in the resin frame has a memory IC, a coil spring for grounding, a connector, and the like, and covers the resin frame with upper and lower metal panels. At this time,
The grounding coil spring is configured to contact the metal panel. The connector is electrically connected to the small memory card. An eject button for removing the small memory card is slidably attached to the rear end of the resin frame in the card insertion / removal direction. The arm that holds the small memory card by a bent piece that is connected at one end to the eject button and provided so as to be in contact with the connector part at the other end is rotatably fixed at the center of the arm by a resin frame.

[0007] The small memory card can be taken out by pushing the eject button in the card insertion direction with a finger, and the bent piece located beside the small memory card contacts the small memory card via an arm connected thereto.
The small memory card can be removed because it moves in the removal direction.

In addition, a small memory card may retain a remarkable static charge before being connected to a small memory card slot, and it is not possible to provide a ground circuit for discharging before a signal contact of the card is connected. Influential. A grounding device for a card is proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-28966.

[0009]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, when the eject button is pushed in to remove the small memory card, the force holding the small memory card when the small memory card comes off from the connector connection terminal is reduced. Because of this, the small memory card popped out vigorously and could fall off. In particular, a small memory card of about the size of a stamp is lighter in weight, so it is more likely that it will pop out more vigorously.For example, it may cause a malfunction by dropping it from a desk to the floor, or it may be lost due to its small size. There was also a risk of doing it.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and it is an object of the present invention to reliably prevent a small memory card from jumping out with an inexpensive configuration.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an adapter for a small memory card according to the present invention comprises
C is a small memory card adapter that includes a circuit board on which the C is mounted and a frame that houses the circuit board, and is capable of storing and connecting a small memory card. And biased in a direction to suppress ejection of the small memory card.

[0012] Thus, even when the small memory card is taken out, the small memory card does not jump out too much, and the possibility of dropping or loss can be eliminated. At this time, if the elastic piece has elasticity and is urged in a direction to suppress ejection of the small memory card, a proper frictional force can be given to the small memory card. Can be stopped at a position where it does not pop out after being discharged.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a small memory card adapter according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the small memory card adapter, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are perspective views of one embodiment of a grounding member. is there.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a small memory card adapter which is used by being inserted into a PC card slot of a personal computer or the like. It should be noted that the effects of the present invention are not only exerted when used in a personal computer, but are also effective in general adapters used when a small memory card is inserted into another device having a different slot size. Therefore, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the PC card adapter for a small memory card, and it goes without saying that the adapter 1 for a small memory card uses a small memory card through the adapter. A small memory card 2 is used by being inserted into a slot of the small memory card adapter 1 as shown in the figure. An eject button 3 allows the user to remove the small memory card 2 by pushing the card in the card insertion direction with his / her finger.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 8 denotes a resin frame used as a frame, and 6 denotes a circuit board. The circuit board 6 has the first connector 5 connected to the PC card slot on the front side and the second connector 11 on the rear side in the opposite direction as one assembly part. Reference numeral 10 denotes a contact member, and reference numeral 17 denotes a ground contact portion. After assembling parts such as the circuit board 6 in the resin frame 8, the pair of upper and lower metal panels 4 is fixed so as to cover the resin frame 8.

Next, each component will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

The resin frame 8 has a circuit board housing area for housing the circuit board 6, and has a slot for the small memory card 2 at the rear end. On both sides of the rear end, grounding contact portions 17 for discharging the grounding means of the main device are provided.
The terminal of the ground contact portion 17 is formed so as to contact the metal panel 4 when assembling and fixing.

In the slot for the small memory card 2, a guide rail for guiding the small memory card 2 for easy and reliable insertion and removal is provided on the side rod portion, and a hole 21 is formed in the side wall of the guide rail. I have. Also, the contact member storage area 2 in which the contact member 10 is stored adjacent to the side rod
0 is formed. An eject button 3 for taking out the small memory card 2 is provided on the other side of the side rod, and the eject button 3 is also slidably disposed in the card insertion / removal direction. An arm 12 for transmitting the operation force of the eject button 3 is disposed above the connection terminal portion of the slot for the small memory card 2 and is rotatably fixed at the center of the arm 12. One end of the arm 12 is connected to the rear end of the eject button 3. Is linked to At the other end, a bent piece 9 is formed which is bent so as to abut on the side of the connector portion of the small memory card 2.

Next, the contact member 10 is contacted with contact means 13 and 14.
And the elastic piece 15 are integrally formed. The circuit board contact means 13 of the contact means is connected to the ground conductor pattern on the circuit board 6 by soldering. The metal panel contact means 14 is in contact with the metal panel 4. An elastic piece 15 which is elastic and is a projection preventing means urged in a direction for suppressing ejection of the small memory card 2.
Project from a hole 21 provided in the side wall of the guard rail and come into contact with the side surface of the small memory card 2.

FIG. 3 shows a contact member 10 having two contact means. In the figure, the circuit board contact means 13 is connected to the ground conductor pattern on the circuit board 6 by soldering, and the metal panel contact means 14 is formed so as to be in contact with the upper surface (metal panel 4) of the small memory card and has elasticity. Each has a configuration in which it is bent in the shape of a "H". FIG. 4 shows a configuration in which the ground contact portion 17 of the small memory card adapter 1 is formed integrally with the contact member 10.

The metal panel contact means 14 of the contact member 10 may be configured to be bent into a "Y" shape so as to be in contact with the upper and lower metal panels 4.

In the above-described configuration, when the small memory card 2 is inserted, the small memory card 2 is connected to the connection terminal along the guide rail for guiding, but contacts the contact member 10 before connecting to the signal line. The electrostatic charge charged in the small memory card 2 is in the order of the contact member 10 to the metal panel 4 to the grounding contact portion 17 to the PC main unit, or the contact member 10 to the circuit board ground conductor pattern to the PC main unit. The discharge is performed in this order.

Next, when the small memory card 2 is to be taken out, the eject button 3 is pushed in with the finger in the card insertion direction, and the arm 12 rotates about the central portion as a fulcrum, and the bent piece 9 provided at one end of the arm 12 is turned. The small memory card 2 is pushed out in the removal direction. At this time, the contact member 1
The elastic piece 15 formed at 0 has elasticity, and even if the small memory card 2 is completely detached from the connection terminal and tries to pop out, the small memory card 2 is biased and supported in a manner of sandwiching the small memory card 2. The momentum discharged to the outside of the slot is attenuated by the frictional force between the elastic piece 15 and the small memory card 2,
It won't fall out.

Since the contact member 10 is formed integrally with the metal panel contact means 14 which is in contact with the conductor pattern of the circuit board, the conventionally used grounding coil spring need not be used. As shown in the figure, by integrally forming with the ground contact portion 17, the number of components can be further reduced, and the small memory card adapter 1 having high reliability against the discharge of the electrostatic charge can be provided.

The same small memory card adapter can be used in a combination of various standard memory cards and slots other than the combination of the memory card slot and the small memory card 2 in the present embodiment. In addition, it is needless to say that replacement with commonly used technologies and mechanisms is included in the scope of the right of the present invention, and a small-sized memory card corresponding to a small-sized memory card, which can easily be expected to be further reduced in size from a stamp size in the future. It goes without saying that the effects of the present invention become more remarkable as the size of the small memory card is reduced, as the memory card adapter is also included in the right scope. In addition, the contact member of the present invention can be provided not only by the small memory card adapter 1 of the type in which the small memory card 2 is ejected by pressing the eject button 3 shown in the present embodiment, but also by pressing the eject button 2, for example. It is needless to say that the small-sized memory card adapter configured to discharge the small-sized memory card 2 by the restoring force of the spring urged by the detachment of the tangling piece 9 can be used by suitably changing the design.

[0027]

According to the present invention constructed as described above, it is possible to prevent the small memory card from being excessively popped out and dropped when ejected. There is.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view showing a state in which a small memory card is attached to a small memory card adapter according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a small memory card adapter.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating an embodiment of a contact member.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the contact member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Small memory card adapter 2 Small memory card 3 Eject button 4 Metal panel 5 First connector 6 Circuit board 8 Resin frame 9 Folding piece 10 Contact member 11 Second connector 12 Arm 13 Circuit board contact means 14 Metal panel contact means 15 Elastic piece (protrusion prevention means) 17 Contact part for grounding

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A small memory card adapter, comprising: a circuit board on which a memory IC is mounted; and a frame for housing the circuit board, the small memory card adapter being capable of housing and connecting a small memory card. The elastic piece has elasticity and is urged in a direction to suppress ejection of the small memory card.