Card connector with frame-like tongue for protecting cantilevered contacts

An electrical connector assembly comprising:

• a card connector and an electronic card adapted to be received within the card connector;
• the card connector including:
• an insulative housing defining a receiving space and including at least a rear wall behind the receiving space in the front-to-back direction, a bottom wall forwardly extending from the rear wall and located under the receiving space, and at least one tongue forwardly extending from the rear wall in said front-to-back direction, said tongue including a plurality of partition bars extending along the front-to-back direction;
• a plurality of contacts retained to the rear wall and including a plurality of differential pairs and a plurality of grounding contacts alternately arrange with each other in a transverse direction perpendicular to the front-to-back direction, each of said contacts including a deflectable contact arm extending forwardly from the rear wall, and a leg exposed outside of rear wall, a contacting section formed at a front end of the contact arm and protruding in a vertical direction perpendicular to the front-to-back direction and the transverse direction;
• wherein
• the partition bars are located between the contacts, respectively;
• wherein
• the electronica card forms a mating slot receiving the tongue and the contact arms positioned in the tongue;
• wherein
• a metallic shell covers the insulative housing and includes a plurality of abutting legs surrounding the bottom wall.

An electrical card connector for use with an electronic card, comprising:

• an insulative housing defining a receiving space and including at least a rear wall behind the receiving space in the front-to-back direction, and at least one tongue forwardly extending from the rear wall in said front-to-back direction, said tongue including a plurality of partition bars extending along the front-to-back direction, and a transvers bar linked at front ends of the partition bars in a transvers direction perpendicular to the front-to-back direction;
• a plurality of contacts retained to the rear wall and including a plurality of differential pairs and a plurality of grounding contacts alternately arrange with each other in said transverse direction, each of said contacts including a deflectable contact arm extending forwardly from the rear wall, and a leg exposed outside of rear wall, a contacting section formed at a front region of the contact arm and protruding in a vertical direction perpendicular to the front-to-back direction and the transverse direction;
• wherein
• the partitions bars extending forwards from the rear wall and are respectively located between the neighboring contacts in the transverse direction for protection in the transverse direction;
• and
• the transverse bar is linked at front ends of the partition bars and remaining portions of the neighboring partition bars are spaced from each other without connection in the transverse direction for allowing up-and-down deflection of the contact arms, so that the transverse bar is located in front of the contact arms for insertion protection along the front-to-back direction;
• wherein
• a front end of the contacting section is free from the transverse bar in the front-to-back direction for allowing upward deflection of the corresponding contacting arm during mating with the electronic card.