Elastic Holder Stabilizing IC Probe Contact Position
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional developing cartridges with expandable holders for IC chips face instability issues, making it difficult to write, delete, or update information due to unstable electrical contact surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a storage medium assembly with a holder that compresses an elastic member to maintain a stable distance between its outer surfaces, allowing for precise contact with a probe for writing, deleting, or updating information on the IC chip.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a holder capable of expanding and contracting is used to press electrical contact surfaces against terminal parts, then the holder can accommodate dimensional variations, but the position of the electrical contact surfaces becomes unstable
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic member is pre-compressed to a prescribed distance before the electrical contact surfaces are brought into contact with the terminal parts. This preliminary compression stabilizes the position of the electrical contact surfaces in advance, eliminating position instability that would otherwise occur during the information writing operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The distance between the first outer surface and second outer surface of the holder is changed from a first distance to a prescribed distance (shorter than the first distance) by compressing the elastic member. This parameter change stabilizes the electrical contact surface position while maintaining the adaptability of the expandable holder structure.
2Ease of operation
If the distance between outer surfaces is reduced to enable probe contact, then information operations become possible, but the holder structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The elastic member automatically maintains the prescribed distance between the outer surfaces through its elastic force, eliminating the need for complex external positioning mechanisms. The holder structure serves itself by using the elastic member's inherent properties to maintain stable electrical contact surface positioning during information operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method stabilizes the position of electrical contact surfaces, enabling reliable information operations on the IC chip, even with large dimensional errors, and ensures consistency between the cartridge specifications and stored information.
Implementation Method 1
an elastic member capable of expanding and contracting positioned between the first outer surface and the second outer surface
Implementation Method 2
reducing the distance in the first direction between the first outer surface and the second outer surface to a prescribed distance shorter than the first distance by compressing the elastic member in the first direction; a step of maintaining the distance in the first direction between the first outer surface and the second outer surface at the prescribed distance
Data Source
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AI summary
It is an object to perform at least one of writing information to, deleting information from, and updating information in a storage medium in a state where a portion of an electrical contact surfaces in a first direction crossing the electrical contact surfaces is stabilized when a holder holding the electrical contact surfaces is capable of expanding and contracting in the first direction. A holder 52 includes: a first outer surface 52A; a second outer surface 52B; and a coil spring 52 as an elastic member. An electrical contact surface 511 of an IC chip 51 is held by the first outer surface. When an assembly is produced or reproduced, first the coil spring 523 is compressed in the first direction. Hence a distance in the first direction between the first outer surface 52A and the second outer surface 52B is reduced to a prescribed distance shorter than a first distance. Then, a probe 60 is brought into contact with the electrical contact surface 511 in a state where the distance in the first direction between the first outer surface 52A and the second outer surface 52B is maintained at the prescribed distance. In this way, at least one of writing information to, deleting information from, and updating information in the IC chip 51 is performed.