Card connector assembly facilitating heat dissipation of inserted card

A card connector assembly includes a card connector (100) and a memory card (5) received in the card connector. The card connector includes an insulative housing (2), a number of contacts (3) retained in the insulative housing, a slider (41) assembled on the insulative housing and movable relative to the insulative housing, a spring (42) urging the slider along a card ejection direction; and a metal shell (7) covering the insulative housing for defining a card receiving space. The metal shell includes a spring leaf (711, 712) extending into the card receiving space. The memory card forms a metal plate (52) on a top surface thereof and a number of metal traces (51) on a bottom surface thereof. The metal plate is located above the metal traces along a vertical direction and the spring leaf contacts with the metal plate.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application relates to a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/158,505, filed on Jun. 13, 2011, entitled “CARD CONNECTOR WITH REAR LATCH” and relates to a U.S. Pat. No. 8,142,229, filed on Jul. 12, 2011, entitled “CARD CONNECTOR WITH CAM FEATURE FOR FACILITATING INSERTION OF A CARD”, which are assigned to the same assignee as this application.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to a card connector assembly, and more particularly to a card connector assembly which facilitates heat dissipation of an inserted card.

2. Description of Related Arts

A micro SD card is widely used in an electronic device today. However, data transmission speed of the micro SD card only achieves 104 MB/s, which can not meet increasing requirement of customers. Presently, JEDEC (Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council) association is establishing a new UFS (Universal Flash Storage) card standard aiming at developing a memory card called a UFS card whose data transmission speed achieves 3 GB/s, which is much higher than 104 MB/s of the micro SD card. As the UFS card has so high data transmission speed, quantity of heat is quickly accumulated on a top surface of the UFS card, especially focused at an area which is above a lot of metal traces thereof.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,167,643 issued to Yoshida et al. on May 1, 2012, discloses a card connector which is assembled on a printed circuit board for receiving an IC card. The IC card comprises a plurality of contacting pads and an area having the contacting pads is usually a heart-focused area. The printed circuit board comprises a plurality of contact points at a front edge thereof The card connector comprises a plurality of contacts for connecting with the contacting pads of the IC card and the contact points of the printed circuit board. A heat dissipating pad is formed at a middle part of the printed circuit board. The heat dissipating pad is arranged below the IC card when the IC card is received in the card connector.

Hence, a new card connector assembly facilitating heat-sink of a memory card is desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a card connector assembly facilitating heat-sink of a memory card.

To achieve the above object, a card connector assembly includes a card connector and a memory card received in the card connector. The card connector includes an insulative housing, a number of contacts retained in the insulative housing, a slider assembled on the insulative housing and movable relative to the insulative housing, a spring urging the slider along a card ejection direction; and a metal shell covering the insulative housing for defining a card receiving space. The metal shell includes a spring leaf extending into the card receiving space. The memory card forms a metal plate on a top surface thereof and a number of metal traces on a bottom surface thereof. The metal plate is located above the metal traces along a vertical direction and the spring leaf contacts with the metal plate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring toFIGS. 1-8, a card connector assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises an electrical card connector100and a memory card5received in the electrical card connector100. The memory card5is being established by JEDEC (Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council) association. The memory card5is proposed to have a data transmission speed high to 3 GB/s. The electrical card connector100comprises an insulative housing2, a plurality of contacts3received in the insulative housing2, a slider41assembled on the insulative housing2and movable relative to the insulative housing2along a card insertion/ejection direction, a spring42urging the slider41along the card ejection direction, and a metal shell7covering the insulative housing2for defining a card receiving space (not labeled).

Referring toFIGS. 3,4,7, and8, the insulative housing2comprises a front retaining portion21, a middle supporting portion22, and a rear securing portion23positioned along the card insertion/ejection direction. The contacts3have a plurality of soldering portions31extending out of the insulative housing2, a plurality of connecting portions32retained in the retaining portion21, and a plurality of contacting portions33extending rearward upwardly towards the supporting portion22. The slider41is assembled on the supporting portion22and is movable forward on the insulative housing2such that the contacting portions32are raised up by the slider41for connecting with the memory card5. The insulative housing2forms a rear latch231at a lateral side of the securing portion23. The rear latch231comprises a flexible arm2311integral with the insulative housing2, a card lock2312inwardly formed at the free end of the flexible arm2311, and an operating portion2313formed at the free end of the flexible arm2311which is opposite to the card lock2312. The flexible arm2311abuts against the card receiving space and is deflectable away from the card receiving space when the card lock2312or the operating portion2313is pushed for giving away to the memory card5. The card lock2312protrudes towards the card receiving space and is capable of being secured with the memory card5.

Referring toFIGS. 3,4,7, and8, the slider41is assembled on the supporting portion22and is movable on the insulative housing2. The slider41defines a plurality of recesses411extending along the card insertion/ejection direction for receiving the contacting portions33of the contacts3. The slider41forms a cam4111in each recess411. The contacting portions33are raised upwardly into the card receiving space by the cams4111for connecting with the memory card5. The slider41comprises a confronting portion412at a front, left side thereof The memory card5confronts with the confronting portion412for pushing the slider41to move along the card insertion direction and the confronting portion412reversely pushes the memory card5to move along the card ejection direction. During the movement of the slider41along the card insertion direction, the spring42is compressed to have elasticity. The elasticity of the spring42is released and therefore, the spring42urges the slider41to move along the card ejection direction.

Referring toFIGS. 5 and 6, showing a process that the memory card5is inserted into the card receiving space. The memory card5begins to be inserted into the card receiving space, the front edge of the memory card5pushes the card lock2312outwardly and the flexible arm2311is deflected away from the card receiving space for giving away for the memory card5. When the memory card5is initially inserted asFIG. 5, the memory card5confronts the confronting portion412of the slider41and begins to drive the slider41to move along the card insertion direction. The spring42becomes compressed and has elasticity. When the memory card5is fully inserted asFIG. 6, the flexible arm2311returns back to its original position and the card lock2312is secured with the rear edge of the memory card5. The contacting portions33of the contacts3are raised upwardly for connecting with the memory card5. When the memory card5is ejected, a user pushed the operating portion2313outwardly by a finger and the flexible arm2311is deflected outwardly. The elasticity of the spring42is released for ejecting the memory card5.

Referring toFIGS. 1,2,7and8, the metal shell7comprises a base portion71and a pair of vertical walls72bending vertically from two edges of the base portion71. The base portion71defines an aperture73at the middle thereof The metal shell7forms a spring leaf74in the aperture73. The spring leaf74extends towards the card receiving space for connecting with the memory card5. The spring leaf74comprises at least one longitudinal arm741connecting to the base portion71and a transverse arm742perpendicular to the at least one longitudinal arm741. The at least one longitudinal arm741are inclined such that the transverse arm742is located lower than the base portion71when the memory card is not inserted. The at least one longitudinal arm741are flexible. Therefore, the transverse arm742is raised up by the memory card5when the memory card5is fully inserted in the card receiving space. The memory card5comprises a plurality of metal traces51on a bottom surface which faces the insulative housing2and a metal plate52attached on a top surface which faces the metal shell7. The metal traces51are connected with the contacting portions33of the contacts3for signal transmission. The metal plate52is located above the metal traces51along a vertical direction which is perpendicular to the card insertion/ejection direction. Because metal is better than plastic in heat conduction, when the spring leaf74of the metal shell7contacts with the metal plate52of the memory card5, heat-sink is quickly drawn from the memory card5in case that heat of the memory card5is focused at an area above the metal traces51of the memory card5.