Audio jack

Details Audio jack Audio jack

2000-09-19

2001-05-01

Nguyen, Khiem (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

Having circuit interrupting provision effected by mating or...

C439S668000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06224409

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an audio jack, and particularly to an audio jack used in a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) to connect with a complementary plug connector for transmitting signals.
2. The Related Art
With the rapid development of electrical devices such as PDAS, mobile phones and notebooks, audio jacks mounted on printed circuit boards in these electrical devices are increasingly used for transmitting signals to complementary plug connectors. Referring to
FIG. 7
, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,872 discloses a conventional audio jack comprising an insulative housing
5
, a first terminal
6
received in a first groove
102
of the housing
5
, a second terminal
7
received in a second groove
104
of the housing
5
and a third terminal
8
received in a third groove
106
of the housing
5
. The first terminal
6
has a frame portion
64
, a contact arm
65
extending upwardly from one side (not labeled) of the frame portion
64
for connecting with a contact of a plug connector (not shown), and a mounting tail
66
extending downwardly from the same side of the frame portion
64
for mounting to a printed circuit board (not shown). The second terminal
7
has the same construction as the first terminal
6
. The third terminal
8
has a main body
82
, a pair of opposite mounting legs
87
at both ends of the main body
82
for mounting to the printed circuit board and a pair of resilient curved contact tongues
88
extending from the main body
82
in a forward direction from between the mounting legs
87
. A clamping space
89
is defined between the resilient contact tongues
88
for receiving and clamping the contact of the plug connector. However, because the resilient contact tongues
88
of the third terminal
8
are too short to allow a large amount of deformation, they are not capable of providing enough clamping force to clamp the contact of the plug connector when the plug connector mates with the jack. In addition, in actual use, after repeated insertions of the contact of the plug connector into the audio jack, the resilient contact tongues
88
may be plastically deformed, losing their original shape and adversely affecting proper connection with the plug connector. Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A main object of the present invention is to provide an audio jack which comprises a resilient terminal having a resilient arm with sufficient flexibility to prevent plastic deformation thereof.
An audio jack of the present invention comprises an insulative housing defining a plug insertion hole for receiving a contact of a plug connector and a plurality of fixing terminals and resilient terminals received in corresponding receiving grooves in both sides of the housing. Each resilient terminal comprises a main body, a connecting portion perpendicularly extending from the main body, a resilient arm slantwise extending from the connecting portion round and away from the main body, and a contact portion at a free end of the resilient arm extending toward the main body for connecting with the fixing terminal. Before the plug connector is inserted into the plug insertion hole of the audio jack, the contact portion of the resilient terminal abuts against the fixing terminal. When the plug connector is inserted into the plug insertion hole of the audio jack, the contact of the plug connector pushes the contact portion of the resilient terminal away from the fixing terminal thereby establishing signal transmission. The resilient arm of the resilient terminal has sufficient length to provide it with enough resiliency to ensure that the contact portion is restore to its original position when the plug connector is removed.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4364625 (1982-12-01), Baker et al.
patent: 4367907 (1983-01-01), Buck
patent: 5022872 (1991-06-01), Shichida
patent: 5919052 (1999-07-01), Ho
patent: 6050854 (2000-04-01), Fang et al.
patent: 6056602 (2000-05-01), Wu

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