IC card connector supporting/fixing mechanism

Claim 1

An IC card connector supporting/holding mechanism for supporting and holding in an IC card a connector having a plurality of external connection terminals comprising: a connector comprising a connector body having a terminal surface from which a plurality of external connection terminals electrically connected to electronic parts mounted on a circuit substrate of an IC card are accessible from outside the IC card, opposed side surfaces transverse to the terminal surface, holding parts extending from and transverse to the side surfaces of said connector body, each of said holding parts having a width transverse to the side surfaces and a thickness transverse to the width, the width and thickness both being smaller than a width and thickness of said connector body, and each of said holding parts having a front surface on the terminal surface side, a side surface parallel to the side surfaces of said connector body, and a rear surface opposed to the front surface; a lower connector-supporting element having a shape complementary to a lower half of said connector body for receiving the lower half of said connector body and including two barriers, each barrier having a height of at least one-half the thickness of said holding parts for contacting the front surfaces of said holding parts and the side surfaces of the holding parts to support said connector without deviation parallel to a common axis of said holding parts, said barriers being unitary with a main frame of the IC card; a sub-frame for fixing said connector in place by clamping said connector body between said lower connector-supporting element and said sub-frame without deviation parallel and transverse to the common axis and having a shape complementary to an upper half of said connector body and said barriers for receiving said upper half of said connector body and said barriers; and fixing means for fixing said sub-frame to said lower connector-supporting element.