Abstract: A connector with a slot for receiving a smart card with contact pads, includes contacts that are held away from the card slot until the card becomes fully inserted, using a mechanism with a minimum number of easily formed parts. The mechanism includes a rocker (142) with a control part (144) that is pivotally mounted about a rocker axis (Y—Y) and that has a rear end forming a tab (186) that projects into the rear end of the card slot, to be deflected downwardly by the card reaching its fully inserted position. The control part also has a front end (174) that is coupled to the contacts to depress them until the card is fully inserted, whereupon the contacts are released to move up. The rocker, which is formed from a single piece of sheet metal, includes a pair of laterally-spaced fastening plates (150) that are fixed to the housing, and a pair of deflectable portions (148, 154) that can be resiliently deformed to permit the control part to pivot.

Abstract: An electrical connector system includes plate-shaped bases (50) that lie on a circuit board (38) and that have contacts (52) with contact tails (58) soldered to traces on the circuit board. A housing (300) that lies on the circuit board around the bases, is coupled to each of the bases to accurately locate the housing with respect to the bases, the housing having a plurality of guides (164) for receiving smart cards that can engage contacting parts of the contacts on the bases. The housing includes a frame (90) that is fixed with respect to the circuit board and bases, and a cover (92) having a rear end pivotally mounted about a lateral axis X-X on the frame and forming the guides for holding the smart cards, so the smart cards can pivot down against the contacts on the bases. The cover can be locked down by a latch (94) formed of a piece of sheet metal that slides on the cover and that has downwardly-extending tabs (228) that fit under slots on a front beam of the frame.

Abstract: A switch assembly (30, FIG. 3) for detecting full insertion of a smart card, is of small thickness and can be mass produced with high precision. The switch assembly includes a molded support (100) forming an upwardly-opening support cavity (114), outer and central contacts (38, 40) mounted on the support and having dome-engaging parts (148, 150) lying in the support cavity, and a tripping dome (36) lying in the support cavity with a center portion lying over the dome-engaging part of the central contact. A cover (32) receives the support in a downward-opening cover cavity (65), and holds an actuating device (42) that can depress the tripping dome to close the switch. The actuating device is of sheet metal, with a heel (67) that is fixed in the rear end of the cover cavity, with a second part (82) substantially engaged with the center portion of the tripping dome, and with a front end forming an actuating lever (88) that extends through an opening (52) in the cover to be depressed by a smart card.

Abstract: A smart card connector includes a base (36) that holds contacts (38) and a cover (76) with a rear end pivotally connected to the base and a front end that receives a card into a cavity or card receiver (31). The base is narrow, and laterally opposite sides of the cover move down on opposite sides of the base when the cover is lowered. The cover is a one-piece molded plastic part with a rear plate (116) that lies over the rear of the card, and with the front of the cavity being open. A locking bar (140) has a plate lying over the front of the cavity, the locking bar being slideable forwardly to lock the cover in the closed position.

Abstract: A switch (12, in FIG. 1) for mounting on a circuit board (P), has a minimum number of parts and a very small height. The switch includes an insulative support (29) for lying on the circuit board and a switch element (33) with a pedal (58) extending above the upper face (18) of the support to be downwardly deflected by a card as the card reaches its fully installed position. The switch element is formed of electrically conductive sheet metal material, with a connect tab (43) for permanently engaging a first switch trace (25) on the circuit board, and with a contacting part (44) for lying over a second trace (26) on the circuit board. When the pedal is depressed, it also depresses the contacting part (44) to press it against the second trace to thereby close the switch.

Abstract: A thin electrical connector for connecting to contact pads of a smart card, includes contacts (44) and a support plate (42) that holds the contacts on a circuit board (16), where the contacts and plate are thin. Each contact has a contact blade (60) that projects at an upward incline through and above a slot (52) in the support plate, and each contact has a rear portion (61) for mounting. The rear portion includes a mount part (66) joined to the blade and a pair of retainers (80) on laterally opposite sides of the mount portion. The retainers have ears (104,118) lying out of the plane of the mount part The support plate has a downwardly-opening recess (70) for receiving the mount part, and has upwardly-opening recesses (98, 120) for receiving the ears, to thereby fix the contact to the support plate.

Abstract: A connector is provided for use with a microcircuit card that has contact pads on its lower face, which assures that connector contact blades fully engage the card pads when full insertion of the card is detected. The connector includes a body with a contact body portion that holds the card-engaging contacts and a switch body portion that holds a switch with an actuator. The body portions are integral and have coplanar upper faces which assures precision relative positioning of the card-engaging blades and the actuator that detects full insertion of the card. The switch body portion is preferably offset from the contact body portion, which facilitates routing of circuit board conductors when the connector is mounted on a circuit board, especially where the connector has surface mount terminals. The switch actuator has a fixed rear end and two forward arms, one for depression by a card and the other for depressing and releasing a snap dome.

Abstract: A PC card (30) of standard PCMCIA outside dimensions can connect a Micro Sim card C to a host connector 16 that lies at the rear end of a host passageway 12. The PC card has a housing 10 that includes shell halves (32, 34) with horizontal upper and lower parallel plane main walls (44, 46) which, between them, form a cavity (48) holding a circuit board (36). A small card connector (64) for receiving the Micro Sim card lies on the upper face (37) of the circuit board (36). The upper PC card shell half (32) has a slot (80) for insertion or extraction of the Micro Sim card (C) from the small card connector.

Abstract: An electrical connector (10, FIG. 5) is provided for connecting to a smart card C. The connector includes a two-piece molded plastic frame (11) having a horizontal planar top face (76), and also includes a plurality of resilient sheet metal electrical contacts (16). Each contact has a curved card-engaging part (30), a fixed part (46) that is fixed to the frame, and a central part (38) for connecting the card-engaging part to the fixed part. The central part has a first branch (44) forming a U-shaped fold of about 150.degree., a second branch (42) extending at an upward-rearward (U,R) incline from the fold to the card-engaging part, and a lower branch (40) that extends rearwardly from the fold to the fixed part. The branches (40,42,44) of the central part are each downwardly deflectable to enable easy deflection of the card-engaging part in a contact of small longitudinal (M) length.

Abstract: A connector is described, of the type that has an insulator (16) with passages (22) that hold contacts (24), in which the contacts can be installed by pressing them into the passages, wherein the passages and contacts are formed to more securely hold the contacts in place. Each passage has a narrowed passage section (36) with front and rear ends, and each contact has a forward part (48) with a contact shoulder (52) that abuts a shoulder (42) at the front of the passage section. Mid and rear flanges (54, 46) lie behind the contact front part and in interference fit with the narrowed passage section, with the rear flange having a smaller outside diameter than the mid flange. The rear end of the passage has a short tapered part (64) that is engaged by the rear flange. The mid flange has anti-rotation notches (58), with cylindrical peripheral parts (70) lying between the notches.

Abstract: A card connector has a dielectric support (12) and card-engaging contacts (14), wherein the contacts can be easily mounted on the support and are stably held in position thereon. Each strip-shaped contact has a contacting front end portion (44) that projects above the top face of the support, a central portion (42) that extends longitudinally rearward from the front portion and which is securely mounted on the support, and a rear end (46) for connecting to a circuit board. The central portion has a rear part with a strip-shaped middle section (124) extending in a longitudinal direction, and first and second feet (52, 58) lying on laterally opposite sides of the middle section. The support has a longitudinally extending groove (28) that receives the contact central portion, and has foot-holding slots (32, 34) on laterally opposite sides of the groove.

Abstract: An electrical connector 12 is provided for receiving and contacting pads on a smart card C, the connector including a molded dielectric support 14 that forms a card-holding recess 22, and a cover 52 that holds down the card against contacting ends 40 of contacts mounted on the support. When the card is fully inserted into the recess, with a rear edge 32 of the card abutting a recess rear wall 30, the front edge 50 of the fully inserted card projects forward of the recess front end 24, to provide a forwardly-projecting card portion that can be readily gripped to pull out the card. The cover 52 has depending sides 61 with lower ends 63 that project towards each other, so the cover can be slid in place around the support. The forward end 56 of the cover can lie rearward of the recess rear end.

Abstract: A connector is provided for use with a microcircuit card that has contact pads on its lower face, which assures that connector contact blades fully engage the card pads when full insertion of the card is detected. The connector includes a body with a contact body portion that holds the card-engaging contacts and a switch body portion that holds a switch with an actuator. The body portions are integral and have coplanar upper faces which assures precision relative positioning of the card-engaging blades and the actuator that detects full insertion of the card. The switch body portion is preferably offset from the contact body portion, which facilitates routing of circuit board conductors when the connector is mounted on a circuit board, especially where the connector has surface mount terminals. The switch actuator has a fixed rear end and two forward arms, one for depression by a card and the other for depressing and releasing a snap dome.

Abstract: The invention provides a receiver for a smart card (C) that has contact pads (P), including a printed circuit board (10), an electrical connector (14) mounted on the circuit board and holding contacts (18) for engaging the contact pads on the card, and a molded plastic cover (30) mounted on the circuit board and lying around the connector. The cover forms a card-receiving slot (38) for receiving a card in a fully-installed card position (A), including upper and lower slot walls (32, 44) that extend laterally (Q) across the entire width of the slot only at the front of the slot, with short runners (56, 58) extending along the opposite sides of the card along most of the slot length. The lower slot wall has a rear edge (46) that lies over a depressed front end of the body to closely position the cover with respect to the connector.

Abstract: An electrical connector (16) is provided for mounting on a circuit board (10) to connect contact pads (100) of the card to conductive traces (102) on the circuit board. The connector includes a body (20) that carries sheet metal strip contacts (26, 26') that project above an upper face (36) of the body. The contact tails (44) are resiliently deflectable, and each has a trace-engaging part (68) that projects beneath the lower bearing face (66) of the body and which can be deflected up into a cavity at the bottom of the body when engaging the circuit board.

Abstract: A single card receiver assembly is easily mounted on and connected to a circuit board, in a compact arrangement. The circuit board is formed with apertures (200, 202, 88) that respectively receive a connector (34) with card-engaging contact blades (36), a full insertion detector (114), and a latch mechanism (70). The circuit board lower face (30) has traces (230, 232) for engaging vertically compressed connector contact tails (33), to provide surface mount connection of the connector tails to circuit board traces.

Abstract: A case is provided for receiving an electronic card (C), which includes a one-piece molded housing (10) that forms a pair of slideways (12, 14) that guide opposite side portions of the card and that includes upper and lower crosspieces (46, 20) that connect the slideways and that are vertically spaced. A separate electrical connector (60) is provided which includes a connector frame (61) and a plurality of electrical contacts (77) mounted on the frame, with each contact having an upwardly-projecting contact blade (63). The connector is mounted on the lower crosspiece of the housing, with the contact blades projecting through card-receiving slots (64) of the housing. The card receiver can have a butterfly shape, with each crosspiece having a middle section (36) of small length, and each crosspiece can be formed with large apertures (24, 28A, 28B), which reduce weight and cost.