1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for cooling an IC card inserted in a slot of an IC card mountable device such as a portable personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a portable computer such as a notebook personal computer, it is necessary to meet both a requirement of high functionality and multiple functionality and another requirement of size reduction and weight reduction, these requirements being contrary to each other. To meet these requirements, an IC card conforming with the standard by PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) or the like is removably inserted into a slot of an IC card mountable device such as a portable personal computer. Such an IC card is dedicated to each of various additional functions (e.g., extension memory, communication modem, hard disk unit), and it is fully inserted into the slot of the IC card mountable device for use by an user as required. The IC card is formed by covering a printed wiring board on which electronic components such as an LSI are mounted, with resin by resin molding to form a cardlike configuration, or by accommodating the printed wiring board in a flat boxlike metal housing.
In recent years, high integration in such an IC card has been developed to cause an increase in heating value. Further, it has also been considered to mount a CPU having a high heating value in the IC card. However, no specific measures for cooling the IC card have conventionally been made, so that there is a problem that the IC card may malfunction or fail because of a temperature rise by its heating. Accordingly, it is difficult to expect higher integration in the IC card, and electronic components having high heating values, such as an CPU, cannot be mounted in the IC card. Further, in addition to the heat from the IC card itself, the heat from any heating parts mounted in the IC card mountable device other than the IC card sometimes has an influence upon the temperature rise of the IC card, causing a similar problem.