JP4610418B2 - Tray type card connector - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a card connector that can be attached to an electronic device such as a mobile phone, a telephone, a PDA (personal digital assistance), a portable audio, a camera, or an information terminal device. The present invention relates to a tray-type card connector that inserts into and takes out from the inside.

  In recent years, in electronic devices and information terminal devices such as mobile phones, telephones, PDAs (personal digital assistance), portable audio, cameras, etc., cards such as IC cards and memory cards in which IC components called IC chips are incorporated. The use of such a card connector for inserting a card such as an IC card or a memory card has been widely demanded.

  In this type of card connector, the card is prevented from popping out when the card connector is dropped, and the card is prevented from being inserted / removed in a tilted or twisted state (therefore, the card may be damaged). In addition, in order to hold the posture of the card correctly and to ensure contact between the external terminal of the card and the contact of the connector, for example, a tray type using a tray in which the card is received as shown in Patent Document 1 Card connectors have been proposed.

JP 2000-148927 A

In a conventional tray-type card connector, when a card is put in the tray, the operation is relatively easy. However, when a card is taken out from the tray, the card is taken out from above the tray, so that it is difficult to take out the card. This is particularly true when the card is thin or small. Further, when no card is inserted in the card connector, it is necessary to store the tray in the card connector. In this case, an ejector mechanism that assists in taking out the card in the card connector operates by accommodating the tray. The ejector mechanism includes an elastic member such as a spring that applies an urging force in the card removal (that is, tray drawer) direction. Therefore, when the ejector mechanism operates, the urging force by the elastic member is always accumulated, so that the card connector, more precisely, the card connector, even when no card is in the card connector, more precisely, the tray. This creates a stressed state on the connector body made of an insulating material. Such a state may change the structure of the card connector, or make it difficult to store and pull out the tray, and thus shorten the life of the card connector. In addition, since the elastic member constituting the ejector mechanism is always in a loaded state, the elastic force may be lost due to fatigue, and the ejector mechanism may not function.

In view of such problems, the object of the present invention is to make it easy to put a card in and out of the tray, and the ejector mechanism does not operate when the empty tray, that is, a tray containing no card is accommodated in the card connector. An object of the present invention is to provide a tray type card connector configured as described above.

  In order to achieve the above object, a tray-type card connector according to the present invention is a hollow space formed by a case body, a lower cover, and a tray for storing cards, which is formed by the case body and the lower cover. It comprises at least a tray that enters and exits and an ejection mechanism for ejecting a card, and one of the four sides surrounding the tray is open.

In the tray type card connector according to the present invention, the other side part and the rear part facing the one open side part of the four circumferences surrounding the tray are partially opened, and the other side part is opened. It is preferable that the side and rear open portions are continuous, and the ejector mechanism is configured to operate only when a card is accommodated in the tray.
Specifically, the ejector mechanism is preferably formed with a card abutting portion that abuts against the card when the card is accommodated in the tray.

  It is preferable to further include a tray pop-out preventing mechanism that prevents the tray from jumping out of the hollow space when the tray is stored in the hollow space.

  Further, it is preferable that a relief groove for escaping the contact is formed at the rear of the four circumferences surrounding the tray, and a guide groove is formed in the front-rear direction along the side wall of the case body. Of the four circumferences surrounding the tray, the rear part is preferably formed with a protrusion that fits into the guide groove.

  In the tray type card connector according to the present invention, a wall is not formed on one side of the tray and is open, so that the card can be easily accommodated in and removed from the tray.

In addition, a part of the tray is opened without forming a wall from the other side to the rear, and the ejector mechanism is configured to operate only when a card is present, so when there is no card in the tray. The ejector mechanism does not operate, the entire card connector is not overloaded, and the life is not shortened.

  Furthermore, by providing a tray pop-out prevention mechanism, it is possible to prevent the tray and hence the card from falling out or popping out.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a card connector according to the present invention, showing a state in which a tray is completely accommodated in the card connector, where (a) is a top view and (b) is a right side view. is there. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of the card connector shown in FIG. 1B, and shows a state in which the tray containing the cards is completely accommodated in the card connector. FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a card connector similar to that in FIG. 2 and shows a state in the middle of storage or withdrawal of a tray containing cards. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the card connector similar to FIG. 2 and shows a state in which a tray without a card is completely accommodated in the card connector. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the card connector immediately after the card is mounted on the tray or just before the card is taken out from the tray, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the card connector in the middle of mounting or removing the card from the tray. It is. FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the tray, where (a) is a left side view and (b) is a top view. FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the card connector shown in FIG.

  The card connector 1 generally includes a case main body 10, a lower cover 20, an ejector mechanism 30 incorporated in the case main body 10, a plurality of contacts 50, a tray 60, and a tray pop-out prevention mechanism 70.

  The case body 10 is molded using an insulating synthetic resin. The case body 10 includes a top plate 11, a left side plate 12 as a first side plate, a right side plate 13 and a rear side plate 14 as a wide second side plate, and the front (in FIG. That is, it forms a housing that is open in the + Y direction and in the downward direction (the right direction, ie, the + Z direction in FIG. 1B). The case body 10 is overlapped with a lower cover 20 to be described later to form a hollow and open front case (see FIG. 8). In the hollow space 80 of the casing formed by the case body 10 and the lower cover 20, a tray 60 described later is accommodated slidably in the front-rear direction (± Y direction) through the front opening of the casing. (See FIG. 8).

A plurality of contacts 50 to be described later are fixed to the inner wall of the top plate 11 (see FIG. 1A), and a plurality of openings 15 are formed in the top plate 11 corresponding to the contact portions 51 of the plurality of contacts 50. Is opened. By providing the opening 15, the contact portion 51 of the contact 50 can be sufficiently deformed. A guide groove 19 is formed on the inner wall of the top plate 11 in the front-rear direction (± Y direction in FIG. 1) along the inner wall of the left side plate 12 of the case body 10 (see FIG. 8). A stopper 65 of the tray 60 described later is fitted into the guide groove 19. Further, a recess 17 having a rectangular cross section elongated in the front-rear direction is formed behind the wide right side plate 13 of the case body 10 (see FIGS. 2 to 4). In the recess 17, an ejector mechanism 30 to be described later is disposed via a support protrusion 16 provided on the rear side wall 14 of the case body 10.

  Reference numerals 12a, 12b, 12c, 13a, 13b, 13c and 14a, 14b are engaging projections provided on the side plates 12, 13, 14 and are provided on side plates 22, 23, 24 of the lower cover 20 described later. The engagement holes 22a, 22b, 22c, 23a, 23b, 23c and 24a, 24b are engaged.

  The lower cover 20 is made of sheet metal and is pressed. It has a bottom plate 21, a left side plate 22, a right side plate 23, and a rear side plate 24, and constitutes a housing that is open at the front and the top. The lower cover 20 is overlaid so as to cover the case main body 10 from below, and as described above, the engagement holes 22 a to 24 b provided in the side walls 22, 23, 24 of the lower cover 20 are formed on the case main body 10. By engaging each of the engagement protrusions 12a to 14b, a hollow housing having an open front is formed. 25 and 26 are respectively left-handed from the left side plate 22 at a right angle (left direction in FIG. 1, ie, -X direction) and right-handed from the right side plate 23 (at right side in FIG. 1, ie, + X direction). ) Is a fixing member that is bent into the shape. The fixing members 25 and 26 are fixed to a board of a device to which the card connector 1 is mounted by, for example, soldering. In the present embodiment, the lower cover 20 is made of sheet metal, but may be made of a synthetic resin similar to the case body. In this case, it is preferable that the fixing members 24 and 25 are separate members from the lower cover 20 and are made of sheet metal.

  As shown in detail in FIGS. 2 to 4, the ejector mechanism 30 includes an eject member 31, a card contact portion 32, a spring support protrusion 33, and an elastic member 34. The eject member 31 is the height of the right side plate 13 of the case body 10, that is, the height in the vertical direction of the hollow space 80 of the casing formed by the case body 10 and the lower cover 20 (the length in the ± Z direction). Have a thickness approximately equal to The eject member 31 includes a short piece portion 31a extending in the left-right direction (± X direction in the drawing) in the elongated rectangular recess portion 17 and a front-rear direction (see FIG. 5) in the recess portion 17 so as to be orthogonal to the short piece portion 31a. And a long piece portion 31b extending in the ± Y direction), and has an inverted L-shape as shown in the figure.

  Further, the eject member 31 is integrally formed with a card abutting portion 32 at a rear end portion of the long piece portion 31b so as to extend orthogonally to the long piece portion 31b. As shown in FIG. 8, the thickness of the card abutting portion 32 is substantially the same as the thickness of the inserted card 40 and is flush with the upper surface of the long piece portion 31a of the eject member 31. It is formed. With this configuration, the details will be described later, but it will be understood that the card contact portion 32 contacts only the card 40.

  The width of the eject member 31 (the size in the left-right direction) is substantially the same as the depth of the recess 17, and the length in the front-rear direction is approximately half the length of the inserted card in this embodiment. The length is not limited to this. However, if the length of the eject member 31 is too long, the sliding amount of the eject member 31, that is, the stroke is shortened. As a result, the eject amount of the tray 60 becomes small, which is not preferable. On the other hand, if it is too short, the stroke of the eject member 31 becomes large, and the eject of the tray 60 may lack smoothness.

Furthermore, between the supporting protrusions 16 protruding from the rear side wall 14 of the spring support projections 33 and the case body 10 formed integrally with the short piece portion 31a of the eject member 31, an elastic member such as a compression coil spring 34 Is arranged, and the eject member 31 is always urged forward (+ Y direction).

The ejector mechanism 30 is not limited to the present embodiment, and may be, for example, a push-push type ejector mechanism or may have other configurations. In short, the card abutting portion 32 of the eject mechanism 30 only needs to abut only on the card 40 accommodated in the tray 60.

  The plurality of contacts 50 are fixed to the inner wall of the top plate 11 of the case body 10 corresponding to the arrangement of the pads 41 which are external contacts of the card 40 to be inserted. In the present embodiment, four contacts 50 are arranged in the left-right direction and are arranged in two rows in the front-rear direction, for a total of eight contacts 50. The shape of each contact 50 is typically indicated by a one-dot chain line in FIG. Each contact 50 is fixed to a contact portion 51 that is elastically displaceable in contact with the pad 41 of the card 40 to be inserted and is displaceable in the vertical direction (± Z direction in FIG. 1), and the top plate 11 of the case body 10. And a terminal portion 53 connected to an external contact of a printed circuit of a device to which the card connector 1 is mounted by soldering or the like.

  As described above, the tray 60 is configured to be slidable in the front-rear direction in a hollow casing that is formed by the case body 10 and the lower cover 20 and has an open front. The detailed structure of the tray 60 is shown in FIG.

  The tray 60 has a bottom plate portion 61, a front wall portion 62, a rear wall portion 66, and a right side wall portion 63, and has a casing shape that is generally open upward so that the card 40 can be accommodated. However, the tray 60 has no left side wall in the drawing, the right side wall part 63 has no rear part, and the rear wall part 66 has no right side part. That is, the tray 60 is not surrounded by walls on all four sides to accommodate the cards 40.

In other words, the left portion of the tray 60 is open toward the left of the entire section between the front wall portion 62 and the rear wall portion 66 ( in the −X direction in FIG. 1A) . With such a configuration, the card 40 can be taken in and out from the left side of the tray. The rear portion of the right side wall 63 of the tray 60 is opened from the rear end of the tray 60 to the right (in the + X direction in FIG. 1A) by a length corresponding to the stroke of the eject member 31 . In addition, the rear wall 66 at the rear of the tray 60 is rearward by the length of the card contact portion 32 of the eject member 31 extending from the right end of the tray 60 ( in the −Y direction in FIG. 1A ). It is open towards. That is, the wall is not continuously formed in the rear part of the right side wall 63 and the right side part of the rear wall part 66. With such a configuration, when the card 40 is not in the tray 60, even if the tray 60 is stored in the hollow space 80, the card abutting portion 32 of the eject member 31 remains on the side wall portion 63 and the rear wall of the tray 60. Since it does not contact the portion 66, the ejector mechanism 30 is not operated.

  The front wall portion 62 of the tray 60 is provided with a grip portion 68 that helps the tray 60 be pulled out from the card connector 1 or stored in the card connector 1. The grip portion 68 prevents the tray 60 from entering the card connector 1. An inclined wall 67 that connects the front wall 62 and the inner wall of the side wall 63 is formed at the corner where the front wall 62 of the tray 60 and the right side wall 63 intersect. The inclined wall 67 is formed corresponding to the notch 42 formed in the card 40, and constitutes an erroneous insertion prevention mechanism for the card 40.

  A plurality of (four in this embodiment) relief grooves 64 are formed in the rear wall portion 66 of the tray 60 so as to escape in the front-rear direction. The relief groove 64 is provided so that the contact portion 51 of the contact 50 attached to the case body 10 does not hit the rear wall portion 66. A stopper 65 is further provided on the rear wall portion 66 of the tray 60. The stopper 65 is a left end portion of the rear wall portion 66 and is formed to project upward from the rear wall portion 66 at the rear end portion. The stopper 65 is fitted in a guide groove 19 formed in the case main body 10 to guide the sliding operation of the tray 60 in the card connector 1, that is, the drawing and storing operations. This prevents the connector 1 from coming off.

  The tray pop-out prevention mechanism 70 is for preventing the card 40 inserted in the card connector 1 from popping out due to vibration or impact, and is provided at the front end of the wide right side plate 13 of the case body 10. It has been. The tray pop-out prevention mechanism 70 has already been proposed by the present applicant as a card pop-out prevention mechanism (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-87480), and only a brief description will be given here.

  The tray pop-out prevention mechanism 70 generally includes a support base 71, a guide rail 72, a tray pressing lid 73, and a holding member 74.

  The support base 71 is formed integrally with the case body 10, and a guide rail 72 that guides the movement of the tray pressing cover 73 in the left-right direction (± X direction in FIG. 1A) is formed. Further, a holding member 74 that restricts the movement of the tray pressing lid 73 is supported.

  When the tray 60 is stored in the hollow space 80 of the casing formed by the case main body 10 and the lower cover 20, the tray holding lid 73 falls out of the hollow space 80 or jumps out. To prevent that.

  The tray pressing cover 73 is formed with a concave rail groove (not shown) straddling the guide rail 72 formed on the support base 71 and is guided by the guide rail 72 so as to be movable in the left-right direction. The tray pressing lid 73 is always leftward (in the −X direction in FIG. 1A) by a compression coil spring 75 as an elastic member provided between the tray pressing lid 73 and the support base 71. It is energized. As shown in FIG. 2, the concave rail groove formed in the tray holding lid 73 is configured such that the tray 60 is accommodated in the hollow space 80 and the tray holding lid 73 is maximally leftward (−X direction). When moving, the corner where the front wall 62 of the tray 60 intersects the right side wall 63 can enter. Therefore, the movement of the tray 60 is restrained by the tray pressing lid 73, so that the tray 60 and thus the card 40 can be prevented from falling out or popping out.

  The tray pressing lid 73 is further formed with a guide groove 76 having a predetermined length extending in the left-right direction. The free end of the holding member 74 whose one end is supported by the support base 71 slides in the guide groove 76. When the free end of the holding member 74 slides from one side to the other in the guide groove 76 having a predetermined length, the amount of movement of the tray pressing lid 73 in the left-right direction is restricted.

  Next, the operation of attaching or removing the card 40 to / from the card connector 1 having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, the removal operation of the card 40 will be described.
FIG. 2 shows a state where the card 40 is attached to the card connector 1. As shown in FIG. 2, at this time, the tray holding lid 73 of the tray popping mechanism 70 is pressed with a fingertip or the like against the elastic member 75 in this state, In FIG. 2, it is moved rightward (+ X direction). When the tray pressing lid 73 is moved to the maximum in the right direction until it is regulated by the holding member 74, the tray 60 is released from the restraint of the tray pressing lid 73. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2, the tray 60 is urged by the elastic member 34 of the eject mechanism 30 via the card 40 in the tray pulling direction (+ Y direction in FIG. 2). The tray 60 is discharged from the hollow space 80 of the card connector 1 by the urging force of the member 34 as shown in FIG. In the state shown in FIG. 3, the card 40 has not been removed from the tray 60 yet.

  Subsequently, from the state of FIG. 3, the grip portion 68 of the tray 60 is pinched with a finger, and the stopper 65 of the tray 60 comes into contact with the front end (+ Y direction in FIG. 2) of the guide groove 19 of the case body 10. Until the tray 60 is further pulled out from the hollow space 80 of the card connector 1. 5 and 8 show a state in which the stopper 65 of the tray 60 is in contact with the front end of the guide groove 19 and cannot be pulled out from the hollow space 80 any more. At this time, since the left side portion of the tray 60 is opened in FIG. 7, the card 40 can be taken out from the tray 60 through the left side opened portion (see FIG. 6). The card 40 is removed from the card connector 1 as described above.

  On the other hand, in order to attach the card 40 to the card connector 1, it may be performed in the order of FIG. 6, FIG. 5, FIG. 3, and FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the card 40 is inserted into the tray 60 fully drawn forward from the left open portion, and the card 40 is completely stored in the tray 60 from the state of FIG. 5. The tray 60 is pushed into the hollow space 80 for storage. When the card 40 exists in the tray 60, the card 40 comes into contact with the card contact portion 32 of the ejector mechanism 30. When the tray 60 is further pushed in until the tray 60 is completely stored in the hollow space 80 against the biasing force of the elastic member 34 of the eject mechanism 30, the tray pressing lid 73 is moved to the left by the biasing force of the elastic member 75 (see FIG. 2, the tray 60 is prevented from being discharged from the hollow space 80.

Further, when the tray 60 is accommodated in the hollow space 80 without inserting the card 40, the card abutting portion 32 of the ejector mechanism 30 has no card 40, as shown in FIG. There is no displacement against it. Therefore, the tray 60 is easily accommodated in the hollow space 80 without applying a special force to the tray 60. At this time, when the tray 60 is completely accommodated in the hollow space 80, the tray holding lid 73 is moved in the left direction (−X direction in FIG. 2) by the urging force of the elastic member 75, and the tray 60 is in the hollow space. It is prevented from falling off or jumping out from 80. As can be understood from the above, when the card 40 is not present, even if the tray 60 is stored in the hollow space 80, either the elastic member 34 of the ejector mechanism 30 or the elastic member 75 of the tray pop-out preventing mechanism 70 is used. Also, no load is imposed, and deformation of the card connector 1 due to the load applied to the elastic member when the card connector 1 is not used is prevented.

It is the schematic of the card connector which concerns on this invention, Comprising: The state in which the tray is completely accommodated in this card connector is shown, (a) is a top view, (b) is a right view. It is AA schematic sectional drawing of the card connector shown by FIG.1 (b), and the state in which the tray in which a card | curd is contained is completely accommodated in the card connector is shown. It is a schematic sectional drawing of the card connector similar to FIG. 2, and shows the state in the middle of accommodation or drawing-out of the tray in which the card | curd is inserted. It is sectional drawing of the card connector similar to FIG. 2, and shows the state in which the tray in which the card | curd is not contained is completely accommodated in the card connector. It is a perspective view of a card connector immediately after mounting a card in a tray or just before taking out a card from a tray. It is a perspective view of the card connector in the middle of attachment to the tray of a card, or taking out from a tray. It is this schematic of a tray, (a) is a left view, (b) is a top view. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the card connector shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Card connector 10 Case main body 20 Lower cover 30 Eject mechanism 40 Card 50 Contact 60 Tray 61 Bottom plate part 62 Front wall part 63 Side wall part 66 Rear wall part 70 Tray protrusion prevention mechanism 80 Hollow space

Claims (7)

A case main body, a lower cover, a contact provided on the case main body, and a tray for storing a card, wherein the tray enters and leaves the hollow space formed by the case main body and the lower cover, and the card is discharged. In a tray type card connector comprising at least an ejection mechanism for
Of the periphery surrounding the tray, one side is open,
A tray-type card connector characterized by that. Of the periphery surrounding the tray, the other side part and the rear part facing the opened one side part are partially opened, and the other side part and the rear opened part are continuous. ,
2. The tray-type card connector according to claim 1, wherein the ejector mechanism is configured to operate only when a card is accommodated in the tray.   3. The tray type card connector according to claim 2, wherein the ejector mechanism is formed with a card abutting portion that abuts against the card when the card is accommodated in the tray.   The tray pop-out preventing mechanism for preventing the tray from jumping out of the hollow space when the tray is accommodated in the hollow space is further provided. Tray type card connector.   The tray-type card connector according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an escape groove for allowing the contact to escape is formed in a rear portion of the periphery surrounding the tray.   The top plate of the case main body is formed with a guide groove in the front-rear direction along the side wall of the case main body, and a protrusion that fits into the guide groove is formed in the rear portion surrounding the tray. 4. A tray-type card connector according to claim 1, wherein the tray-type card connector is formed. The front wall portion of the tray is provided with a grip portion that facilitates taking in and out of the hollow space of the tray,
The tray-type card connector according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the grip portion is formed to prevent the tray from entering the hollow space.

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