Abstract: A card manufacturing technique and the resulting card are provided. The card has a ground and/or power layer extending to the edges of a circuit board for electrostatic discharge protection but also has gaps at the edge of the ground and/or power layer to avoid short circuiting with conductive segments of another layer deformed when the card is trimmed during manufacture.

Abstract: A holder for one or more electronic circuit cards, such as very small non-volatile memory cards, allows one or more such cards to be easily inserted and removed by hand. The holder, with a card inserted, may conveniently be carried on the person such as by attachment to a key ring or chain.

Abstract: A very small computer memory card is densely packed with a large number of flash EEPROM integrated circuit chips. A computer memory system provides for the ability to removably connect one or more of such cards with a common controller circuit that interfaces between the memory cards and a standard computer system bus. Alternately, each card can be provided with the necessary controller circuitry and thus is connectable directly to the computer system bus. An electronic system is described for a memory system and its controller within a single memory card. In a preferred physical arrangement, the cards utilize a main circuit board with a plurality of sub-boards attached thereto on both sides, each sub-board carrying several integrated circuit chips.

Abstract: A small package is provided for a flash EEPROM memory. The small package uses terminals which are part of a bottom conductive layer of a circuit board. In this manner, the final package can be quite thin. The circuit board can be connected to the integrated circuits and passive devices and can be encapsulated in plastic or glued to a plastic cover. In this manner, a thin and relatively inexpensive package can be formed. Additionally, the circuit board can have testing connections which can be removed before forming the final package.

Abstract: A peripheral card having a Personal Computer (“PC”) card form factor and removably coupled externally to a host system is further partitioned into a mother card portion and a daughter card portion. The daughter card is removably coupled to the mother card. In the preferred embodiment, a low cost flash “floppy” is accomplished with the daughter card containing only flash EEPROM chips and being controlled by a memory controller residing on the mother card. Other aspects of the invention includes a comprehensive controller on the mother card able to control a predefined set of peripherals on daughter cards connectable to the mother card; relocation of some host resident hardware to the mother card to allow for a minimal host system; a mother card that can accommodate multiple daughter cards; daughter cards that also operates directly with hosts having embedded controllers; daughter cards carrying encoded data and information for decoding it.

Abstract: A small package is provided for a flash EEPROM memory. The small package uses terminals which are part of a bottom conductive layer of a circuit board. In this manner, the final package can be quite thin. The circuit board can be connected to the integrated circuits and passive devices and can be encapsulated in plastic or glued to a plastic cover. In this manner, a thin and relatively inexpensive package can be formed. Additionally, the circuit board can have testing connections which can be removed before forming the final package.

Abstract: A peripheral card having a Personal Computer (“PC”) card form factor and removably coupled externally to a host system is further partitioned into a mother card portion and a daughter card portion. The daughter card is removably coupled to the mother card. In the preferred embodiment, a low cost flash “floppy” is accomplished with the daughter card containing only flash EEPROM chips and being controlled by a memory controller residing on the mother card. Other aspects of the invention includes a comprehensive controller on the mother card able to control a predefined set of peripherals on daughter cards connectable to the mother card; relocation of some host resident hardware to the mother card to allow for a minimal host system; a mother card that can accommodate multiple daughter cards; daughter cards that also operates directly with hosts having embedded controllers; daughter cards carrying encoded data and information for decoding it; and daughter cards with security features.

Abstract: A very small computer memory card is densely packed with a large number of flash EEPROM integrated circuit chips. A computer memory system provides for the ability to removably connect one or more of such cards with a common controller circuit that interfaces between the memory cards and a standard computer system bus. Alternately, each card can be provided with the necessary controller circuitry and thus is connectable directly to the computer system bus. An electronic system is described for a memory system and its controller within a single memory card. In a preferred physical arrangement, the cards utilize a main circuitry board with a plurality of sub-boards attached thereto on both sides, each sub-board carrying several integrated circuit chips.