OREANDA-NEWS. Alps Electric has developed the "SCGH1B Series" microSIM Card Connector (PCB Cut-off Type), ideal for products including tablets and smartphones. Mass production is already underway.

Mobile devices like tablets and smartphones bring comfort and convenience to our lives and are constantly being made smaller and thinner to improve portability. Efforts to reduce the size of SIM cards used inside them are progressing, too.

Connectors forming the link between SIM cards and mobile devices also require downsizing to help enhance portability through thinner devices and to make room for a larger number of components needed to increase functionality.

Alps Electric has responded to these market needs by developing and commencing mass production of the SCGH1B Series microSIM Card Connector (PCB Cut-off Type). The SCGH1B Series is the industry's thinnest with a product height when installed of 0.75mm above the PCB, realized through a continuation of thickness reductions achieved with earlier models and use of a PCB cut-off format, whereby the connector is mounted into a cut-out in the board.

The product's structure was optimized through application of original simulation technology acquired by Alps Electric to date. Enclosing the top and bottom of the connector within a metal frame realizes both the thinnest installed height for a PCB cut-off type and a structure resilient to scooping. Precision processing and thin film insert molding technologies were used to ensure high quality in mass production.

For sensing card insertion, the connector contains a detector switch with a sliding contact structure resilient to foreign matter, achieving high reliability.