1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a card connector designed for the connection between an electronic apparatus, such as digital cameras, mobile telephones, or the like, and an electronic card, more particularly, to a card connector with a detecting means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical card connector is generally provided with a housing having a card receiving mouth for permitting free insertion or removal of an electronic card, a plurality of contacts arranged in the housing for electrically contacting with pads provided on the electronic card, and a detecting means for detecting the insertion of the electronic card.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,049 discloses a card connector includes a housing, a plurality of contacts and a detect apparatus for detecting whether a card is inserted or not. The detect apparatus includes a first switch element and a second switch element. When a card is inserted into the housing, the first switch element is depressed by a lead edge of the card to engage with the second switch element, thereby closing a switch circuit. The switch elements are arranged in two levels of the housing in the direction of the thickness of the housing, which indeed increases the thickness of the housing as well as the entire card connector. Furthermore, the first and second switch element should be fixed into corresponding slots during manufacturing, and it is difficult to stamp out the switch elements and the contacts by a common stamping mold, which are both inefficient and do not benefit to coplanarity of solder tails of the switch elements and the contacts.
Hence, an improved detect means of a card connector is desired to overcome the above problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a card connector which has a detect means that makes the connector more compact and more efficient in manufacturing.
In order to attain the objective above, an electrical connector according to the present invention provides a housing adapted for receiving an electronic card, a plurality of contacts configured to electrically contact with the electricall pads of the electronic card, and a detect means for detecting whether the electronic card is inserted or not. The housing defines a receiving space and a plurality of passageways extending parallel in the direction of insertion of the electronic card. The plurality of contacts are received in corresponding passageways and partially exposed to the receiving space. The detect means comprises a first switch contact and a second switch contact. The first switch contact and the second switch contact are disposed in outmost two passageways. The first switch contact comprises a first body portion and a biased portion extending inclinedly and upwardly from the first body portion. The second switch contact comprises a second body portion and a tail portion curved backwardly and extending from the second body portion. The tail portion comprises an extension portion. The extension portion extends laterally to be positioned under the biased portion of the first switch contact and spaced from the biased portion a distance. When the electronic card is inserted into a proper depth of the receiving space, the biased portion is depressed to engage with the extension portion.
The second switch contact has a backwardly-curved tail portion, so the two switch contacts have a different length. Furthermore, They are arranged parallel with each other and the contacts. Hence, the switch contacts and contacts are able to be obtained through a stamping process by only a common stamping mold on a common sheet metal and then, molded integrally with the housing together. In this manner, the present invention provides a more compact card connector and is more efficient in manufacturing than the prior arts do.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The features of this invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention, together with its objects and the advantages thereof, may be best understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals identify like elements in the figures and in which:
The embodiments of the present invention will now be described with the reference to
As illustrated in
The electronic card 7, such as MMC(Multi-Media Card), as shown in
Referring to
A number of passageways 111 are substantially arranged on a common plane/level of the bottom wall 11, each of which communicates with one or more slots 110 which arranged in three rows on the bottom wall 11. These slots 110 allow for resilient flexing of corresponding portions of contacts 3 and switch contacts 4, 5. As shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The contacts 3, due to different length of implanted portion 32, are divided into a plurality of long contacts 3a comparatively longest, short contacts 3c comparatively shortest and middle contacts 3b. In assembly, the contact portion 34 of long contacts 3a are disposed upon corresponding back slots 110a˜110f, while contact portions 34 of short contacts 3c and the middle contacts 3b are disposed upon corresponding the front slots 110i˜110l and middle slots 110g˜110h, respectively. As result, the contact portions 34 are arranged in different rows L1, L2, L3, which accords with the electrical pads 73. The contact portions 34 of middle contacts 3b contact with corresponding electrical pads 73 in the first place. In this way, the electronic card 7 is connected to the given device to be read through electrical pads 73, contacts 3 and the printed circuit board.
Referring to
The first switch contact 4, with a similar structure to the short contacts 3c, has a biased portion 43 provided on distal end thereof with a contact portion 44, and an implanted portion 42 interconnecting the biased portion 43 and the solder tail 41, commonly arranged in a longitudinal direction. In this embodiment, the contact portion 44 will not electrically connect with any electrical pad 73. In assembly, the first switch contact 4 is received in the housing 1, with its implanted portion 42 embedded in the outermost passageway 111 that communicating with the front slot 110m and its biased portion 43 extending into the receiving space 10 so as to be deflected at the front end portion of the electronic card 7 in the direction of thickness of the housing 1.
The second switch contact 5 includes a longitudinal main body 53, a solder tail 51 extending from the main body 53 for surface mounting on the printed circuit board, and a raised portion 54 curved backwardly and extending from the main body 53. The raised portion 54 provides on its distal end with an extension piece 541 that extends laterally to be opposite the first switch contact 4 at a distance. In addition, the extension portion 541 has a projection portion 5410, as shown in
In assembly, as shown in
The adjacent switch contact 4, 5 are different in length and the extension portion 541 does not overlap over any portion of the first switch contact 4 on a sheet metal. Furthermore, the terminal portions 31 and solder tails 41, 51 are coplanar and extend in a common direction. Hence, the two switch contact 4, 5 along with all of the contacts 3 are able to be stamped out from the common sheet metal by a common stamping mold at a time. After the stamping process, a contact strip consisting of the contacts 3 and switch contacts 4, 5 and a carrier (not shown) which communicates with the terminal portions 31 and solder tails 41, 51, is molded integrally with housing 1 during a insert-molding process. In this manner, the contacts 3 and switch contacts 4, 5 are parallel arranged on a common plane of the bottom wall 11 of the housing 1, which not only reduces height of the card connector 100, but also is easy in manufacturing and reduces cost especially in mass production. Apart from that, excellent coplanarity of terminal portions 31 and solder tails 41, 51 is obtained, for the contacts 3 and switch contacts 4, 5 are stamped out and insert-molded together.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous, characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set fourth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosed is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of number, shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2004200798155 | Sep 2004 | CN | national |