The well known PCMCIA standards specify both physical and electrical characteristics for an interface between various peripheral functions and a host computer. The physical characteristics include dimensions that define a small package that has presented a significant challenge to practitioners in the field of designing housings for various peripheral functions, including electronic circuitry. Many approaches to PCMCIA compliant housings have been proposed. All such proposals suffer from one or more deficiencies.
Some proposals depend on mechanical fasteners, such as screws for the physical integrity of the package. These fastener arrangements can take an excessive amount of physical space plus are subject to misuse and are an inherent manufacturing problem given the relatively small size of the fasteners. Other housings depend on adhesive for integrity. This again may be a manufacturing and reliability or quality problem.
Another problem often encountered in a PCMCIA compliant housing or package stems from the prescribed centralized location for a connector that provides the electrical interface. Although this location of the connector lends itself to a housing or package design where a carrier such as a printed circuit board is centrally located within the available volume it creates problems when the carrier must be offset to one side of a housing, such as when vertical space for electronic components must be maximized. These circumstances may arise in the case of a type II PCMCIA compliant package.
Proposals to address this need have included a PCMCIA type connector together with a flexible circuit that is either soldered to the carrier or utilizes a further mating connector pair to accomplish the necessary offsetting of the carrier. Clearly a need exists for a PCMCIA housing that elements the deficiencies in the art while optimizing the manufacturability and volume available for internal components.