JP2002007972A - Card connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the occupied area of a connector to contribute to the miniaturization of various electronic apparatuses. SOLUTION: The types of inserted cards can be recognized by determining the combinations of on and off of a plurality of switches SW1 and SW2 arranged according to the outer shapes of the cards.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a card connector attached to an electronic device such as a portable telephone, a telephone, a PDA (personal digital assistance), a portable audio device, a camera, and the like. The present invention relates to a card connector capable of loading two kinds of different cards through a single slot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In electronic devices such as cellular phones, telephones, PDAs, cameras, etc., SIM (subscriber identity module) cards with built-in ICs such as memories,
Various functions are expanded by mounting an IC card such as an MC (multi media card), a smart media (trademark), or an SD (super density; secure digital) card.

In a connector structure for detachably mounting such an IC card, a plurality of contact terminals connected to various signal processing circuits and a power supply circuit of an electronic device to which the connector is mounted are provided in a connector housing. And these contact terminals are connected to the loaded I
The IC card is brought into contact with a plurality of contact pads formed on the front or back surface of the C card, and the IC card is electrically connected to the electronic device to which the connector is attached via these contacts.

[0004] Among the various cards, SmartMedia (trademark) is thinner than other cards, but has a larger plane size, and naturally has different contact pad positions from other cards.

[0005]

As described above, various types of IC cards of different external shapes and different contact pad positions exist in this type of IC card, and a card connector capable of loading a plurality of these cards is provided. Considering this, it is essential to provide a card type recognition switch for recognizing the type of the inserted card in order to properly operate each card.

In this case, a separate card type recognition switch is provided for each card, and the switch structure is set so that only the switch corresponding to the inserted card among the plurality of card type recognition switches is turned on. In addition, a slot for each card must be provided separately, and each of the above card type recognition switches must be arranged at a position where the switch is not turned on when another unrelated card is loaded. As a result, the connector is occupied. There is a problem that the area becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an area occupied by a card connector capable of accommodating two or more different cards having different external shapes and contact pad positions through a single slot. It is an object of the present invention to provide a card connector in which card type recognition switches for a plurality of cards can be provided so that the number of cards does not increase.

[0008]

According to one aspect of the present invention,
A card connector capable of accommodating at least two types of cards having different external shapes and contact pad arrangement positions through a single slot, wherein a plurality of switches that are turned on / off by a pressing force of a wall surface of each card are provided with each of said cards. Along with different locations depending on the outer shape of the
The type of the inserted card is recognized by determining the on / off combination of the plurality of switches.

According to the present invention, the type of the inserted card can be recognized by determining the on / off combination of a plurality of switches provided according to the outer shape of each card. Even if it is arranged to be turned on by a plurality of types of cards, the type of card and the presence or absence of card loading can be detected while other switches are on or off. Therefore, it is not necessary to arrange all the switches at different positions corresponding to the respective cards, and the occupied area of the connector can be reduced, which contributes to miniaturization of various electronic devices.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, three types of cards to which the card connectors of the following embodiments can be loaded will be described.

FIG. 1 shows an SD card as an example of a thick card 20.
This shows the appearance of the card viewed from the back.

The thick card 20 has an upper main body 21 having a thickness t, and a chamfer 22 at the right end of the upper main body 21 for preventing erroneous insertion. On the back side of the upper main body 21, a lower main body 23 slightly narrower than the upper main body 21 is formed. That is, this card 20
Has a two-stage structure in which a step 27 formed by the bottom surface of the upper body portion 21 and the bottom surface of the lower body portion 23 is formed along the card side end on both side ends. A plurality of recesses 24 are formed on the distal end side of the lower body 23, and these recesses 24 are formed.
A contact pad 25 is disposed on the bottom surface of the contact pad. Card 20
A write protect switch 26 is provided on the side surface of.

FIG. 2 shows SmartMedia (trademark) as an example of the thin card 30.

The thin card 30 has a card body 31 which is larger in plane size but thinner than the thick card 20. A contact area 32 in which a plurality of contact pads are arranged is arranged on the leading end side of the card 30. A chamfered portion 33 for preventing erroneous insertion is formed at one corner of the front end of the card 30. 34
Is a write protect pad. As described above, the thin card 30 is completely different from the thick card 20 in the outer shape, the planar size, the thickness, and the arrangement position of the contact pads.

Next, an embodiment of a card connector according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of the card connector 1, and FIG. 4 is a plan sectional view of an upper portion of the connector so that an inner upper wall (an inner wall surface of a housing upper plate) of the connector can be seen. FIG. 5 is a plan sectional view of the connector upper side so that the inner lower surface wall of the connector (the inner wall surface of the housing lower plate) can be seen. FIG. 6 shows a thick card 2
0 is loaded, FIG. 7 is a front view when the thin card 30 is loaded, FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view when the thick card 20 is loaded, and FIG. 9 is loaded with the thin card 30 FIG.

The card connector 1 is a portable telephone, a P
It is provided in an electronic device such as a DA, a portable audio device and a camera.

The card connector 1 has a connector housing 2 molded from an insulator such as a resin material. The connector housing 2 is formed by an upper plate 3, a lower plate 4, a side plate 5, a rear plate 6, and a front plate 7. As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of escape holes 40 are formed in the housing upper plate 3 to allow the distal end of the contact terminal for the card to escape upward during elastic deformation when the thick card 20 is loaded. I have.

The front plate 7 of the connector housing 2 has a single card slot (insertion slot) 8 for loading the two types of cards 20 and 30 shown above into the connector.
have.

The card slot 8 has a slot area 8 a for the thick card 20 and a slot area 8 b for the thin card 30. These slot areas 8a and 8b
Of these, the lower area of the slot area 8a is shared by two types of cards.

As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG.
A first card accommodating portion 9 for the thick card 20 is formed at the back of the housing subsequent to a. 5 and 9
As shown in the figure, at the back of the housing following the slot 8b,
A second card housing 19 for the thin card 30 is formed.

First, referring to FIGS. 4, 6 and 8,
The configuration of the loading section of the thick card 20 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of grooves 41 for positioning and press-fitting a plurality of contact terminals 50 formed of cantilevered contact spring pieces are formed on the inner wall surface of the housing upper plate 3. Have been.

Each contact terminal 50 has a terminal portion 50a to be soldered to a contact pad of a printed wiring board of an electronic device, a fixing portion 50b for fixing in the groove 41,
It has a contact spring piece 50c that is elastically displaced and comes into contact with the contact pad of the card 10 or 20, and a contact 50d that projects downward (see FIG. 8).

The housing side wall 42 formed in the side plate 5 adjacent to the first card accommodating portion 9 has two cantilevered contact spring pieces 55 arranged so that the positions of the front end contact portions are shifted. And 56 are provided. These two contact spring pieces 55 and 56 constitute one card type recognition switch SW1 for recognizing the type of the card based on the contact and separation thereof. Further, a fixing metal piece 58 used for fixing the connector housing 2 to the printed circuit board, and one contact spring piece 55 constituting the card type recognition switch SW1.
These constitute a write protection detection switch SW3 for detecting the position of the write protection button 26 of the thick card 20.

The first card accommodating portion 9 is provided with an abutting wall 43 for abutting the inserted thick card 20, and one corner of the abutting wall 43 has a chamfered portion 22 of the card 20. Corner wall 53 projected to hit
Are formed.

FIGS. 4 and 6 show the first card accommodating portion 9.
As shown in FIG.
4a and 44b are formed on both left and right sides. One side wall 44a extends from the card slot 2a to the corner wall 53, and the other side wall 44b extends from the card slot 2a to the butting wall 43.

Further, step portions 45a and 45b are formed at both upper corners of the first card accommodating portion 9, and as shown in FIG. 6, a thick card is formed by side walls of the step portions 45a and 45b. The side surface of the lower main body portion 20 is guided. Of course, the thick card 20 has the side walls 44a, 44
b, the dimensions of the steps 45a and 45b may be set so that the lower main body 23 of the thick card 20 is simply accommodated in the space between the steps 45a and 45b.
In this case, the upward movement of the thick card 20 is restricted by the upper plate 3.

The thick card 20 includes a contact pad 25
Is inserted into the connector with the formed surface facing up.

When the thick card 20 is inserted into the connector 1, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, both sides of the upper body 21 of the card 20 are guided by side walls 44a and 44b. Further, the lower main body 23 is accommodated in a space interposed between the steps 45a and 45b. That is, the card 20
It is also guided by the steps 45a and 45b. Card 20
The vertical movement of the upper plate 3, lower plate 4, step 45a,
45b.

Next, the configuration of the loading section of the thin card 30 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5, 7, and 9. FIG.

As shown in FIG. 5, on the inner wall surface of the housing lower plate 4, a plurality of contact terminals 60 for the thin card 30 which are constituted by cantilevered contact spring pieces are arranged in the same manner as described above. ing. Each contact terminal 60 is disposed such that the contact portion of the contact spring piece projects upward from the housing lower plate 4. As shown in FIG. 9, the housing lower plate 4 is also provided with a plurality of escape holes 57 for allowing the distal ends of the contact terminals 60 to escape downward when the thin card 30 is loaded.

On the inner wall surface of the housing lower plate 4, two contact terminals 65 for detecting the presence or absence of the write protect pad 34 of the thin card 30 are arranged.

Slot 8b formed in card front plate 7
In the second card accommodating portion 19 formed subsequently to this, an abutting wall 47 for abutting the inserted card 30 is formed.

As shown in FIG. 7, the second card accommodating portion 19 has side walls 48a, 4a for guiding insertion and removal of the thin card 30.
8b are formed on both left and right sides, and wall surfaces 49a and 49b for restricting upward movement of the card 30 are formed. The wall surface 49a and the side wall 48a are steps that follow the side wall 44a, and the wall surfaces 49b and 48b are steps that follow the side wall 44b.

Further, a pair of metal pieces 80 and 81 disposed vertically are provided on a wall surface 49a (see FIG. 7) constituting the thick portion of the housing upper plate 3. These metal pieces 8
Reference numerals 0 and 81 turn on (contact) when the thin card 30 is inserted, as will be described later. These two metal pieces 80 and 81 recognize the type of the card by the contact and separation thereof. One card type recognition switch SW2
Is composed. That is, the pair of contact spring pieces 55 described above
And a first card type recognition switch (hereinafter abbreviated as a first recognition switch) SW1 composed of the metal pieces 80 and 81 (hereinafter, abbreviated as a second recognition switch). The SW2 constitutes a card type recognition switch for detecting the type of the card.

The thin card 30 includes a contact pad 32
Is inserted into the connector with the formed surface facing down.

When the thin card 30 is inserted into the connector 1, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 9, both sides of the card 30 are guided by side walls 48a and 48b. In addition, the lower plate 4 and the wall surfaces 49a and 49b restrict the vertical movement of the card 30.

As described above, in this connector, the first card accommodating portion 9 for accommodating the thick card 20 and the second card accommodating portion 19 for accommodating the thin card 30.
Are formed in the connector housing so that some of them are shared by both cards, so that each card can be loaded into the connector 1 from a single card insertion slot 8.

Next, the card type recognition switch, which is a main part of the present invention, will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 10 shows a state in which the thick card 20 is loaded in the connector, and FIG. 11 shows a state of the first recognition switch SW1 before the thick card 20 is loaded in the connector. 12 shows the state of the first recognition switch SW1 when the thick card 20 is loaded in the connector, and FIG. 13 shows the state of the first recognition switch SW1 when the thin card 30 is loaded in the connector. It is.

As shown in FIG. 11, the first recognition switch S
One contact spring piece 55 of W1 has an end 55a soldered and fixed to a contact pad of a printed circuit board, a fixed part 55b fixed to the connector housing 2, a spring piece 55c extending along the side surface of the card, and the other. Contact spring piece 56
Contact portion 55d which comes into contact with and separates from the card 20, 3
Card contact portion 57e, fixed metal piece 5
8 is made of a metal piece having a second contact portion (tip portion) 55f that comes into contact with and separates from the base member 8, and is supported in a cantilever manner by fixing the fixing portion 56b.

The other contact spring piece 56 of the first recognition switch SW1 has an end 56a fixed to the contact pad of the printed board by soldering, a fixing part 56b fixed to the connector housing 2, and extends along the side of the card. And a metal piece having a contact portion 56d that comes into contact with and separates from the other contact spring piece 55, and a card contact portion 56e that contacts the side surface of each of the cards 20, 30.
When the fixing portion 56b is fixed, it is supported in a cantilever manner.

In such a first recognition switch SW1, when the card is not loaded, the card contact portion 56e of one contact spring piece 56 is in a free state as shown in FIG. Contact part 5 of piece 56
6d and the first contact portion 55d of the contact spring piece 55 are in a non-contact state, and the first recognition switch SW1 is off.

When the thick card 20 is loaded, the card contact portion 56e of one contact spring piece 56 of the first recognition switch SW1 contacts the side surface of the thick card 20 as shown in FIGS. Touched and pressed. Therefore, the contact portion 56d of the contact spring piece 56 is
And the contact portion 56d of the contact spring piece 56 comes into contact with the first contact portion 55d of the contact spring piece 55,
The first recognition switch SW1 is turned on.

When the thick card 20 is loaded, the contact spring piece 55 is displaced in the card contact / separation direction in accordance with the slide position of the write protect button 26, so that the tip end 55f of the contact spring piece 55 also has the write protect button. In accordance with the slide position of 26, it comes into contact with and separates from the fixed metal piece 58. Therefore, by electrically detecting the contact / separation, the slide position of the write protect button 26 can be detected.

When the thin card 30 is loaded, as shown in FIG. 13, the card contact portion 56e of one of the contact spring pieces 56 of the first recognition switch SW1 contacts the side surface of the thin card 30 and is pressed. Therefore, the first recognition switch SW1 is
As in the case of the thick card 20, it is turned on.

FIG. 14 shows the detailed configuration of the second recognition switch SW2. FIG. 15 shows the state of the second recognition switch SW2 before the thin card 30 is loaded.
Reference numeral 6 denotes a state of the second recognition switch SW2 when the thin card 30 is loaded.

Two metal pieces 8 of the second recognition switch SW2
0 and 81 are juxtaposed vertically, and one metal piece 80
An end portion 80a soldered and fixed to a contact pad of a printed circuit board, a frame fixing portion 80b fixed to the upper plate 3 of the connector housing 2, and a spring extending in a cantilever shape from one end of the frame fixing portion 80b. It has a piece 80c and a contact 80d at the tip thereof.

The other metal piece 81 includes an end portion 81a, a frame fixing portion 81b, a spring piece portion 81c extending in a cantilever form from one end of the frame fixing portion 81b, a contact portion 81d contacting the metal piece 80, A card contact portion 8 which is bent so as to protrude downward at the tip and contacts the upper surface of the thin card 20.
1e.

In the second recognition switch SW2, when the card is not loaded, the card contact portion 81e of one contact spring piece 81 is in a free state as shown in FIG. Contact part 8 of piece 81
1d and the contact portion 80d of the contact spring piece 80 are in a non-contact state, and the second recognition switch SW2 is off.

When the thick card 20 is loaded, FIG.
As shown at 0, the thick card 20 does not enter the position of the second recognition switch SW2 (in this embodiment, the second recognition switch SW2 is not related to the thick card 20 also in the card width direction. Position), the second recognition switch SW2 remains off.

When the thin card 30 is loaded, the card contact portion 81e of one contact spring piece 81 of the second recognition switch SW2 comes into contact with the upper surface of the thin card 30, as shown in FIGS. Since it is pressed, the contact spring piece 81
Is displaced upward, so that the contact portion 81d of the contact spring piece 81 comes into contact with the contact portion 80d of the contact spring piece 80, whereby the second recognition switch SW2 is turned on.

FIG. 17 shows the state changes of the two card type recognition switches SW1 and SW2 described above.

As described above, in this embodiment, the plurality of switches SW1 and SW2 are arranged at different positions according to the outer shape of each card, and the plurality of switches S
The type of the inserted card is recognized by determining the combination of ON and OFF of W1 and SW2. Therefore, even if one of the switches SW1 is arranged to be turned on by both cards, the type of the card and the presence or absence of the card can be detected while the other switch SW2 is on or off. Therefore, it is not necessary to arrange all the switches in different positions corresponding to the respective cards, and the occupied area of the connector can be reduced, which contributes to miniaturization of various electronic devices.

In the above embodiment, the thin card 30 is brought into contact with the contact terminals formed on the upper plate 3 side,
The card connector 1 may be configured by inverting each configuration so that the thick card 20 is brought into contact with the contact terminals formed on the lower plate 4 side.

Further, in the above embodiment, a card connector structure may be configured so as to be able to cope with other types of cards.

In the above embodiment, the thick card 20
Although an SD card is taken as an example and a smart media is taken as an example of the thin card 30, the present invention may be applied to any other type of card.

[0060]

As explained above, according to the present invention,
Since the type of inserted card can be recognized by determining the on / off combination of multiple switches arranged according to the outer shape of each card, all switches are placed in different positions corresponding to each card. It is not necessary to arrange, and the occupied area of the connector can be reduced,
Contributes to miniaturization of various electronic devices.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a thick card.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a thin card.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of an embodiment of the card connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing an upper plate side of a housing in the embodiment of the card connector according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a housing lower plate side in the embodiment of the card connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing the card connector according to the embodiment of the present invention in a state where a thick card is inserted;

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a state in which a thin card is inserted in the embodiment of the card connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing the card connector according to the embodiment of the present invention in a state where a thick card is inserted.

FIG. 9 is a transverse sectional view showing a state in which a thin card is inserted in the embodiment of the card connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing the card connector according to the embodiment of the present invention in a state where a thick card is inserted.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view showing a state of a card type recognition switch SW1 before a thick card is inserted.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view showing a state of a card type recognition switch SW1 after a thick card is inserted.

FIG. 13 is a sectional view showing a state in which a thin card is inserted in the embodiment of the card connector according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is an enlarged perspective view of a card type recognition switch SW1.

FIG. 15 is a sectional view showing a state of a card type recognition switch SW2 before a thin card is inserted.

FIG. 16 is a sectional view showing a state of a card type recognition switch SW2 after a thin card is inserted.

FIG. 17 is a table showing the state changes of the card type recognition switches SW1 and SW2.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Card connector 2 Connector housing 3 Upper plate 4 Lower plate 5 Side plate 6 Rear plate 7 Front plate 8 Card slot 9 1st card accommodation part 19 2nd card accommodation part 20 Thick card 21 Upper body part 22 Chamfer part 23 Lower side Body portion 24 Concave portion 25 Contact pad 26 Write protect button 30 Thin card 31 Card body 32 Contact area 33 Chamfer portion 34 Write protect pad 40 Escape hole 41 Groove 42 Housing side wall portion 43 Butt wall 44a Side wall 44b Side wall 45a Step 45b Step 47 abutment wall 48a side wall 48b side wall 49a wall surface 49b wall surface 50 contact terminal 53 corner wall 55 contact spring piece 56 contact spring piece 57 escape hole 58 fixed metal piece 60 contact terminal 80 metal piece 81 metal piece SW1 card type recognition Pitch SW2 card type recognition switch

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H01R 12/18 H01R 23/68 301J (72) Inventor Toshiyuki Ito 3-28 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo No. 7 Yamaichi Denki Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Minoru Ohara 2-9 Suehirocho, Ome-shi, Tokyo 2F005 HA30 HB02 HB03 MA27 MB03 NA19 5B058 CA02 CA13 KA13 5E021 FA05 FA11 FB02 FB14 FC31 FC38 FC40 HA07 JA04 KA05 KA09 MA19 5E023 AA04 AA16 AA21 AA29 BB01 BB19 BB22 CC23 CC26 DD17 DD18 EE10 EE29 FF01 GG15 HH01 HH17 HH30

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A card connector capable of accommodating at least two types of cards having different external shapes and arrangement positions of contact pads through a single slot, wherein the plurality of cards are turned on and off by a pressing force of a wall surface of each card. A card connector, wherein switches are arranged at different positions according to the outer shape of each of the cards, and the type of the inserted card is recognized by judging on / off combinations of the plurality of switches. . 2. The switch according to claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of switches is shared with a write protect switch that detects an on / off state of a write protect button formed on a predetermined card. Card connector. 3. A first card accommodating portion defined by a pair of first side walls for guiding both sides of one of the two types of cards and accommodating the one card, A part of the second card accommodating portion defined by a pair of second side walls for guiding both side surfaces of the other card and accommodating the other card is shared by the two types of cards. A first contact terminal, which is formed in a connector housing so as to be in contact with a contact pad of the one card, is disposed on one side of an upper plate or a lower plate of the connector housing, and a contact of the other card is provided. The card connector according to claim 1, wherein a second contact terminal that contacts the pad is disposed on the other side.