Developers

Home » Developers » SD Technology » Standard Size SD Card

SD Card

Compact and Powerful, Ideal for Small Products

The SD card measures a mere 24mm x 32mm x 2.1mm approximately the size of a postage stamp. The slim, compact design promotes easy handling, an important factor for a "bridge media" that can be moved between different products. Using decoder software, an SD compatible device can play music, video clips and more without a drive mechanism like those in CD and DVD players. This allows the equipment to be more compact and gives product designers new creative freedom. Reliability is also improved through the elimination of skipping on music and video files.

Simplified Version of Physical Layer Specification

  SD
Size SD Card
Area 768 mm2 (100)
Card Volume 1,613 mm3 (100)
Thickness 2.1 mm
Weight Approx. 2g
Number of pins 9 pins
Operating Voltage 2.7V - 3.6V
Write-protect Switch YES
Copyright protection CPRM
Compatibility -
Capacity Up to 2 GB

miniSD Card

Smaller Size Offering the Same Power, Reliability and Speed as the SD Card

The miniSD card was developed to meet continuing industry demands for smaller mobile phones. The miniSD is just 37 percent of the SD card's size, and it packs all of the storage power, speed and other benefits into a small card - including copyright protection. By inserting the miniSD card into the miniSD adapter, you can share a variety of digital data among standard SD card-enabled products.

  miniSD
Size SD card
Area 430 mm2 (56)
Card Volume 602 mm3 (37)
Thickness 1.4 mm
Weight Approx. 1g
Number of pins 11 pins
Operating Voltage 2.7V - 3.6V
Write-protect Switch NO
Copyright protection CPRM
Compatibility Yes (with adapter)
Capacity Up to 2 GB

microSD Card

Smallest Size Card Featuring the Power, Reliability and Speed of the SD Card

Like the miniSD card, the microSD card was specifically designed for the ever-changing and fast- growing mobile market. Approximately the size of a fingernail, it is even smaller than the miniSD card and about one-fourth the size of a standard SD card.

  microSD
Size SD Card
Area 165 mm2 (21)
Card Volume 165 mm3 (10)
Thickness 1.0 mm
Weight Approx. 0.5g
Number of pins 8 pins
Operating Voltage 2.7V - 3.6V
Write-protect Switch NO
Copyright protection CPRM
Compatibility Yes (with adapter)
Capacity Up to 2 GB

Wide Market Adoption

The microSD and microSDHC are the leading memory card standards adopted by mobile handset vendors because of its ultra-compact size and widely supported standard SD interface.

Mobile Handset Market Share by Memory Card

Although primarily used with mobile handsets, the microSD Card also is supported natively in a variety of hand-held GPS devices, portable audio players, video game consoles and expandable USB flash memory drives.

Compatibility and Interoperability

All microSD Cards are backward compatible with electronic devices that are SD enabled. By using an appropriate adapter, the microSD Card can easily and quickly be inserted into any device that supports a standard SD or miniSD Card.