The present invention relates to a receiver for electrical connection of a contact-type integrated-circuit card, also called an electronic memory card, chip card or smart card.
The invention relates more particularly to a receiver for a card of rectangular general shape of the type having, on its main face, conducting contact pads which are connected to the memory contained in the card and which must connect to a read and/or write device to use data contained in the card.
According to a known technique, the card is electrically connected by means of a component, generally called an electrical connector, which is essentially formed from an insulating body that carries elastically deformable contact blades, each of which has a convex curved end capable of establishing electrical contact with the corresponding pad on the smart card.
The quality of the electrical connection depends, of course, on correct positioning, and reliable retention in this correct position, of the conducting pads relative to the blades of the connector, that is to say of the card relative to the electronic equipment, or more particularly relative to a printed-circuit board of this equipment that carries the electrical connector.
The invention aims to provide a receiver which allows the card to be electrically connected whatever the orientation—face down or face up—of the main face of the card on which the conducting pads lie.
For this purpose, the receiver includes an upper crosspiece, parallel to a lower crosspiece, which carries a group of upper electrical contact blades, each of which has a curved contact end of downwardly oriented convexity in order to cooperate with an associated conducting pad on the main face of the card when said face is face up. In this way, the receiver has two connectors, namely a lower one and an upper one, the respective lower and upper contact blades of which allow electrical connection to the conducting pads on the card irrespective of the orientation of the latter.
According to other features of the invention:
the main face of the card includes two series, namely a front one and a rear one, of conducting pads that are transversely aligned and longitudinally offset so as to constitute a series of pairs of transversely offset conducting pads and each group of lower and upper contact blades includes two series of contact blades, namely a front one and a rear one, that are transversely aligned so as to constitute a series of pairs of transversely offset contact blades;
1. Limited Description of the Invention
Prior smart card receivers can connect to a smart card only when the card has been inserted in an orientation wherein the card main face faces downward. This assures that the contact pads on the card are engaged by contact blades lying at the bottom of the card-receiving cavity. Some prior card receivers for certain cards with polarized corners, assure this by using a barrier that prevents full card insertion unless the card is inserted so the barrier receives the polarizing corner of the card. Many people are not sure which card side should face downward during card insertion, and have to withdraw the card and reinsert it upside down before the card receiver can read/write the card.
In accordance with the present invention, the present smart card receiver allows the card to be fully inserted in its right-side-up orientation (with the pads facing downward) or its upside-down orientation (with the pads facing upward), and assures that the card contact pads will be engaged by contact blades in either orientation.
As mentioned above, the set of contact pads on the card main face 17 shown in
The slight addition E in offset is provided to assure that the contacting parts of the upper and lower contacts do not press directly against each other. The top of the card engaging parts such as 47F and 47R are curved about two horizontal axes of curvature, and if the upper and lower blade contacting parts directly engaged each other they might slide past one another while pressing sideways against each other and become damaged. Also, if the upper and lower contacts are all connected to active circuit conductors, unwanted connections might be made.
Where each card to be received has a polarizing corner, then instead of providing a single stop 90 that engages the front edge of the card (away from the polarizing corner wall 150 of
While terms such as “upper” and “lower” have been used to describe the invention as it is illustrated, the card receiver can be used in any orientation.
2. Detailed Description of the Invention
In the description that follows, identical, similar, or analogous elements will be denoted by the same reference numbers.
Without implying any limitation a vertical orientation, a longitudinal orientation and a transverse orientation will be with respect of the V, L, T coordinate system indicated in the figures and a front orientation and rear orientation will be with reference to the forward direction of insertion of the card into the receiver case.
The receiver case 10 shown in the figures essentially consists of a plastic molded part 12 which is in the form of a part of generally rectangular parallelepipedal shape.
The card C, partly illustrated in
One of the two parallel plane faces of the card C is called its main face 17 on which are provided, in a known manner, conducting pads. The conducting pads here consist of two series of four front conducting pads FCPi and four rear conducting pads RCPi. The conducting pads of each series are aligned by two in pairs of front and rear pads, such as, for example, the pads FCP2 and RCP2 which constitute a pair of pads.
In
The part 12 (
The other face 132 of the card C has no conducting connection pads.
The two lateral slideways 18 are joined together, in a known manner, by a lower crosspiece 20 (
The plate 20 here has a small width along the longitudinal axis L and is placed approximately halfway along the slideways 18.
To position the case 10 on a printed-circuit board PCB as illustrated in
The shoulder 26 thus determines the height at which the upper crosspiece 20, and especially the horizontal lower face 34 of the latter, lies above the upper face 28 of the board PCB.
In its central part 21, the crosspiece 20 carries a lower connector 36, of known general design, for electrical connection to the card when the latter is inserted into the case 10 with its main face facing vertically downward, that is to say in the position illustrated in
The connector 36 is, for example, of the type described and shown in document WO-A-00/68867.
It essentially consists of an insulating body 38 (
For positioning the connector 36 on the crosspiece 20, 21 and for fixing it thereto, the insulating body 38 has here two vertical lower fingers 44 housed in corresponding holes 46 in the part 21 of the lower crosspiece 20.
The insulating body 38 of the lower connector 36 has here, in a known manner, a group of eight lower contact blades.
To ensure electrical connection with the pairs (FCPi, RCPi) of aligned conducting pads on the card, the lower contact blades consist of a series of four lower front blades LFBi, which are aligned transversely, and of a series of four lower rear blades LRBi, which are also aligned transversely and offset longitudinally relative to the front blades LFBi.
Thus, the connector 36 has four pairs of aligned lower contact blades (LFBi, LRBi).
Each lower front LFBi or rear LRBi contact blade has a curved free contact end 47R, 47F whose convexity is oriented, in a known manner, vertically upward, and projects vertically upward beyond the upper horizontal plane face 41 of the insulating body 38 of the connector 36.
Each lower front contact blade has a tail, or connection portion 48F and likewise each rear blade has a tail, or connection portion 48R.
The tail portions 48F, 48R extend vertically downward and here are made in the form of the “pricking” type.
Each pricking portion 48F, 48R is designed to be housed in a corresponding hole in the printed-circuit board PCB.
For this purpose, as may be seen in
Without departing from the scope of the invention, and by way of a variant (not shown), the insulating body of the lower connector may be made as one piece with the lower crosspiece, the corresponding part of which then carries directly the lower contact blades that are fitted by longitudinal insertion, or else by overmolding of the crosspiece around intermediate portions of the lower contact blades.
The slideways 18 (
Beyond the rear transverse edge 54 of the upper plate 50, the slideways 18 are extended longitudinally rearward and each of them carries a shoe 56 for guiding and supporting the card C while it is being inserted into the case 10.
Each shoe 56 (
As may be seen especially in
The lower crosspiece 20 also includes, on each side of the connector 36, inclined ramps 68 which are also intended to cooperate with the front transverse edge 16 of the card C.
Together the lower crosspiece 20 and the upper plate 50 define between them a slot for the insertion and guiding of the card, the thickness or height of which corresponds approximately to the distance separating the coplanar surfaces 58, 52 of the crosspiece 50, this distance being slightly greater than the thickness of the card C so as to allow insertion of only a single card at the time.
According to the teachings of the invention, the receiver case 10 includes an upper connector portion which is carried by a rearward upper crosspiece 70 of transverse orientation, which itself also joins the two longitudinal slideways 18 with which it is produced here by being molded as a single piece.
The upper crosspiece 70 is in the general form of a rectangular plate and lies horizontally in the upper part of the case 10, approximately in the same plane in the rear upper guiding plate 50.
In top view, and as may be seen especially in
The upper crosspiece 70 is bounded longitudinally by a rear transverse edge 72 and by a front transverse edge 74.
It is bounded vertically by a lower horizontal face 76, which is coplanar with the lower face 52 of the front upper plate 50, and by a horizontal upper face 78, which is also approximately coplanar with the upper horizontal face 51 of the plate 50.
Thus, in the inserted position of the card C, the plane face of the latter, facing upward, cooperates with the lower face 76 of the upper crosspiece 70 which also lies opposite two parallel lower tabs 80 (which extend transversely inward from the slideways 18), each tab having an upper facet 82 that defines, with the facing portion of the face 76, the front longitudinal part of the slot for guiding the card C and for keeping it in position.
Again, in order to facilitate full insertion of the card, the upper crosspiece 70 has rear ramps 84 while the tabs 80 have ramps 86.
The extreme position of insertion of the card C in the case 10 is defined by its front transverse edge 16 coming into longitudinal abutment against a front vertical transverse edge 90 or stop on the rear of the upper partition 70.
The central part of the insulating body of the upper crosspiece 70 constitutes the insulating body of an upper electrical connector 92 which is therefore produced here as a single part with the upper crosspiece 70 by molding.
As a variant, not shown, the upper connector, like the lower connector 36, may be made in the form of an attached component fixed to the upper crosspiece 70.
The upper connector 92, like the lower connector 36, has a group of upper contact blades that are also eight in number, in the form of four pairs of two longitudinally aligned blades.
For this purpose, the connector 92 has a series of four upper front blades UFBi, aligned transversely, and a series of four upper rear blades URBi, which are also aligned transversely.
Thus, those upper front blades whose curved free ends are designed to come into contact with the front conducting pads FCPi of the card are called UFBi, while those rear upper blades whose curved free ends are designed to come into contact with rear conducting pads RCPi on the card C are called URBi.
As may especially be seen in
Each upper contact blade here is in the form of an elastically deformable beam and comprises, longitudinally toward the front beyond its curved rear longitudinal contact end 94R, 94F, an intermediate horizontal fitting portion 96R, 96F and, finally, a front longitudinal end portion of vertical orientation 98F, 98R for electrical connection of each contact blade in a conducting hole associated with the board PCB.
In the embodiment shown in the figures, each upper contact blade is fitted into the insulating body of the upper crosspiece 70 using the longitudinal insertion technique, well known in the field, each fitting portion 96R, 96F being here fitted longitudinally from the rear forward, that is to say from the top down when considering, for example,
As may be seen especially in
For this purpose, the portion 96R of the rear upper blade for being fitted by insertion has a greater length than the fitting portion 96F of the upper front blade, thereby making it possible, on the one hand, for the curved free contact end 94R of the rear upper blade to be offset longitudinally rearward relative to that 94F of the upper front blade and, on the other hand, for the vertical connection portion 98R of the rear upper blade to be offset vertically rearward relative to the front vertical connection portion 98F of the upper front blade.
As may be seen in
As is illustrated schematically in phantom lines in the upper part of
To allow the connection portions 98F and 98R to be bent at right angles after the longitudinal insertion operation, the upper crosspiece 72 has, in the corresponding region, a series of four slots or notches 110 which extend vertically and longitudinally and emerge toward the front in the rear transverse face 74.
As may be seen in
Finally, the case 10 includes here, in a known manner, a connector 100 for detecting the end of travel of insertion of the card C, which is here of the normally closed (NC) type and which is a switch having two blades, namely a rear blade 102R and a front blade 102F, each blade having a vertical connection portion of the pricking type 104R, 104F, these being housed in two aligned conducting holes 106R and 106F in the board PCB.
According to the invention, irrespective of the orientation of the main face 17 of the card C, that is to say whether it is face down or face up, the lower contact blades are elastically deformed and bear against a facing portion of that face of the card which faces down, and the upper contact blades are elastically deformed and bear elastically against the facing portion of that face of the card which faces up.
Depending on the orientation of the main face, either face down or face up, it is the group of lower contact blades, or contact blades belonging to the group of upper contact blades, that are in electrical contact with conducting pads on the card for connection to the electronic memory of the latter.
The alternative embodiment illustrated in
Near its lower end, each partition 112 divides into a fork 114 so as to define, transversely on each side, portions 116 that project transversely with, between two opposed projections 116 of one and the same partition 112, a housing 118 in the form of an upside-down V allowing elastic deformation in the transverse direction.
In the lower part, the transverse width of each slot or notch 110 is therefore reduced by two projecting portions 116 and is thus slightly smaller than the transverse width of a connection portion 98R, which is a portion in the form of a blade or strip, as may be seen in
Thus, during the 90° -bending operation, the lower part of each connection portion 98R, 98F is inserted between the opposed vertical faces 115 of two portions 116 between which it is inserted, by elastic deformation, in order to obtain a pinching or gripping effect on the lateral edges of the portion 98R, 98F so as to keep the latter in the bent position, that is to say in the desired vertical orientation.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0215698 | Dec 2002 | FR | national |
This is a continuation-in-part of PCT application PCT/EP 2003/050952 filed 5 Dec. 2003 which named the US and which claimed priority from French application 0215698 filed 12 Dec. 2002.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/EP03/50952 | Dec 2003 | US |
Child | 11146529 | Jun 2005 | US |