Flash Drive With Spring-Loaded Retractable Connector

• US 20090177835A1
• Filed: 01/29/2009
• Published: 07/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Super Talent Technology, Corporation
• Original Assignee: Super Talent Electronics, Inc.
• Inventors: Ni, Jim Chin-Nan, Nan, Nan, Ma, Abraham C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,869,219 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 11/5621 using charge storage in a floating gate
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/0408 comprising cells containing floating gate transistors G11C16/0483, G11C16/0491 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 16/10 Programming or data input circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2211/5641 Multilevel memory having cells with different number of storage levels

Abstract

A pen-type computer peripheral device includes an elongated housing containing a PCBA having a plug connector. The PCBA is secured to a positioning member that is actuated by way of a press-push button that is exposed through a slot defined in a wall of the housing. A spring-loaded mechanism includes a spring and a locking mechanism that locks the connector in a retracted position and a deployed position, and the spring biases the connector from the retracted position to the deployed position, or vice versa.

Claims

1. A portable computer peripheral apparatus comprising:

an elongated housing defining a first opening and a front end portion defining a second opening;

at least one electronic device mounted inside of the housing;

a plug connector movably connected to the housing and electronically connected to said at least one electronic device; and

a spring-loaded mechanism including an actuating button protruding through the first opening for manually moving the plug connector between a first position, in which the plug connector is positioned inside of the housing, and a second position in which the plug connector extends through the end opening such that both the plug connector is exposed outside of the housing,

wherein the spring-loaded mechanism includes a resilient member for biasing the plug connector between the first position and the second position.

2. The portable computer peripheral apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resilient member includes a first end connected to a front portion of the housing, and a second end coupled to the plug connector, whereby the resilient member biases the plug connector from the first position to the second position.

3. The portable computer peripheral apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resilient member includes a first end connected to a rear portion of the housing, and a second end coupled to the plug connector, whereby the resilient member biases the plug connector from the second position to the first position.

4. The portable computer peripheral apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resilient member of the spring-loaded mechanism comprises a linear spring.

5. The portable computer peripheral apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spring-loaded mechanism comprises an assembly including a positioning member and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), where the plug connector is fixed connected to a front end of the PCBA, the at least one electronic device is mounted on the PCBA, and the actuating button is integrally formed on or attached to the sliding rack.

6. The portable computer peripheral apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the positioning member comprises:

a base portion, and

first and second side walls fixedly connected to the base portion; and

wherein the resilient member comprises first and second linear springs disposed on opposing sides of the positioning member such that the first and second springs are parallel to and in contact with the first and second side walls, respectively.

7. The portable computer peripheral apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the positioning member further comprises first and second elongated side grooves extending along said first and second side walls, respectively, and

wherein the first and second linear springs disposed in the first and second side grooves, respectively.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the positioning member further comprises:

a flexible wall connected to the base portion such that the flexible wall is resiliently bendable relative to the base portion,

wherein the actuating button comprises a press-push button disposed on the flexible wall such that when the press-push button is pressed into the housing, the first and second slide rails press against a first inside surface of the housing such that the flexible wall bends into the housing.

9. The apparatus of claim 8,

wherein the positioning member further comprises a first locking structure disposed on the flexible wall,

wherein the housing further comprises a second locking structure and a third locking structure, and

wherein the positioning member is mounted in the housing such that the first locking structure engages the second locking structure when the plug connector is in the first position, and such that the first locking structure engages the third locking structure when the plug connector is in the second position.

10. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the housing comprises a top wall and an opposing bottom wall having a first width, and opposing side walls having a second width and forming a rectangular cross-section with said top and bottom walls, and wherein the press-push button protrudes through a slot defined in said top wall.

11. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the housing comprises a top wall and an opposing bottom wall having a first width, and opposing side walls having a second width and forming a rectangular cross-section with said top and bottom walls, and wherein the press-push button protrudes through a slot defined in one of said side walls.

12. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the housing comprises a top wall, an opposing bottom wall, and opposing side walls forming a rectangular cross-section, and wherein the press-push button protrudes through a rear opening disposed opposite to said front end opening.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one electronic device disposed in a Chip-On-Board (COB) package.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one electronic device disposed in a Slim Printed Circuit Board Assembly (Slim PCBA) package.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plug connector comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) plug.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one electronic device comprises

an input/output interface circuit, coupling to a processing unit, configured for receiving a logical sector address (LSA) along with a data transfer request from a host computing device, said processing unit is configured for extracting set, entry, page and sector numbers from the LSA with an indexing scheme;

wherein said processing unit further comprises a page buffer, an address correlation page usage memory (ACPUM), a partial logical-to-physical address and page usage information (PLTPPUI) tracking table, a wear leveling counter and bad block indicator (WL/BB) tracking table; and

a flash memory that includes a reserved area for a plurality of first physical blocks and a plurality of second physical blocks, the first physical blocks is referenced by a plurality of first special logical addresses while the second physical blocks by a plurality of second special logical addresses;

wherein the plurality of first physical blocks is configured for storing PLTPPUI and the plurality of second physical blocks for storing wear leveling and bad block indicator, ACPUM is configured to keep one set, corresponding to the set number, of PLTPPUI, the PLTPPUI tracking table is configured to hold correlation between the first special logical addresses and the first physical blocks and the WL/BB tracking table is configured to hold correlation between the second special logical addresses and the second physical blocks.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one electronic device comprises:

at least one MLC based flash memory chip and a flash memory controller mounted thereon,

wherein the flash memory controller is configured for managing memory address of the flash memory device with following operations;

receiving, in the MLC based flash memory device, a logical sector address (LSA) along with a data transfer request from a host computing device;

extracting set, entry, page and sector numbers from the LSA with an indexing scheme;

loading a set, corresponding to the set number, of partial logical-to-physical address and page usage information (PLTPPUI) into an address correlation page usage memory (ACPUM);

reading a physical block number of flash memory of the MLC based flash memory device, the physical block number corresponds to the entry number in the ACPUM; and

when the data transfer request is a read request, reading data from a physical page corresponding to the page number of the physical block number of the flash memory to a page buffer, and sending a request data sector from the page buffer in accordance with the sector number;

when the data transfer request is a write request, writing page buffer contents to the physical page corresponding to the page number of the physical block number of the flash memory if the page buffer contents have been modified, writing a received data sector to the page buffer in accordance with the sector number and setting corresponding one of a plurality of sector update flags reflecting data sector just written to the page buffer.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said plug connector includes an interface circuit of one of Universal Serial Bus (USB), Secure Digital (SD), Micro SD, Multi-Media Card (MMC), Compact Flash (CF), Memory Stick (MS), PCI-Express, a Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA), external SATA, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), fiber channel and optical connection.