1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a memory card adapter, and particularly to an adapter for coupling a mini-sized memory card to a regular-sized memory card.
2. Description of Related Art
Flash memory cards developed in the recent years are light, thin and small, and with the features of high storage capacity, vibration durability, repeated memorizing for many times etc. they are widely applied in the field of information application and many portable digital products. For example, nearly all the popular products including personal digital assistants (PDA), digital cameras (DSC), digital walkmans (MP3 Players), mobile phone etc. in the markets use the flash memory cards as storage media. There is no uniform standard or specification presently in the art of flash memory cards in the whole world presently. Related products that are well known include at least: CF cards (Compact Flash cards), SM cards (Smart Media cards), MMC cards (MultiMedia cards), MS cards (Memory Stick cards) and SD cards (Secure Digital cards) etc. And more, following progressing of the science and technology, memory cards tend to be developed continuously in pursuance of the requirement of the markets. For example, the mini SD cards and micro SD cards (also called Transflash cards, T-flash cards) provided by some manufacturers recently have the same specifications as those of the SD cards, except that the size thereof is largely reduced as compared with the SD cards (the size of an SD card is: 32×24×2.1 mm, while the size of a mini SD card is 21.5×20×1.6 mm and the size of a micro SD card is 11×15×1.0 mm). This results that, although there are many support products for the SD card or mini SD card specification, the products can not support the newly developed “micro SD cards” due to inconsistence of specification of size. To resolve this problem, an adapter for accommodating a micro SD card therein and electrically and mechanically connecting with an electronic device through a regular sized receiving slot, such as a mini SD card receiving slot, is needed.
An simulated mini SD memory card converter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,033,223 B1 (hereinafter the '223 patent) is a kind of adapter to convert a micro SD card as a simulated mini SD card. This adapter is configured as a mini SD card in size, including a lower over, an upper cover, a plurality of conductive terminal and a conductive member received between the upper cover and the lower cover. Front terminals of the conductive terminals electrically connect with a front end of the conductive member, while rear terminals of the conductive terminal electrically connect with a micro SD card received in the adapter. When this adapter inserted into a mini SD card receiving slot of an electronic device, terminal plates of the conductive member electrically connects with the electronic device so that the micro SD card can be compatible by the electronic device with a mini SD card receiving slot through the adapter.
A connecting strip and a base strip bridge the conductive terminals to retain the conductive terminals in a fixed arrangement. And the conductive terminals are combined with the lower cover via a pre-confined injection molding process. After the process of combining the conductive terminals with the lower cover, the connecting strip and the base strip must be punched away. To let the waste the connecting strips drop away the lower cover, the lower cover should provide some through holes corresponding to the connecting strips. Besides, the main strip is disposed outside the lower cover to make it drop from the conductive terminal and the lower cover conveniently. The rear terminals of the conductive terminal module are disposed near a rear opening of lower cover. The front end of the conductive member is disposed near the front opening of the adapter and provided a plurality of holes electrically connecting with the front terminals. Obviously, the process to assembly the conductive terminal module and the conductive member with the lower cover and to punch away the base strip and the connecting strip are considerable complex, largely inducing the production efficiency.
Furthermore, in the '223 patent disclosure, the upper cover of the adapter is integrally molded from an insulating material, such as a resin material. When the micro SD card inserted into the receiving slot between the upper cover and the lower cover, the upper surface of the micro SD card interfere with an inner surface of the upper cover. It is inconvenient for a customer to insert/detach the micro card into/from the adapter. And with frequently inserting and drawing out of the micro SD card, warpage or deformation of the insulating upper cover easily occurs because of a lower intensity thereof.
Hence, how to improve the problems in prior art is the major discussion of the present invention.