Board to board connector

Details Board to board connector Board to board connector

2000-04-14

2001-09-25

Paumen, Gary F. (Department: 2833)

Electrical connectors

Preformed panel circuit arrangement, e.g., pcb, icm, dip,...

With provision to conduct electricity from panel circuit to...

Reexamination Certificate

active

06293805

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a board-to-board electrical connector, and particularly to a board-to-board connector having contacts which can be accurately located in position in a housing of the connector.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,842,875 and 5,879,169, and Taiwan patent application Nos. 81107106 and 83208692 disclose prior art board-to-board or card-to-board electrical connectors. A typical board-to-board electrical connector comprises an insulative housing defining a plurality of channels in opposite sides thereof and a corresponding number of conductive contacts received in the respective channels. Each contact has soldering portions and contacting portions for connecting one printed circuit board to another. In assembly, however, each contact is inserted into a respective channel from a side or bottom of the housing, which exposes the soldering portions of the contacts to being easily damaged, said damage adversely affecting conductive contact between the two printed circuit boards. Furthermore, there is no means in the prior art connector which can ensure the coplanarity of the solder tails of the contacts, therefore, the connector can not be reliably soldered to a printed circuit board by Surface Mounting Technology (SMT). Hence, an improved board-to-board electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide a board-to-board electrical connector having contacts which can be reliably located in position in a housing of the connector;
A second object of the present invention is to provide a board-to-board electrical connector which effectively ensures the coplanarity of soldering portions of the conductive contacts thereof for using SMT.
A board-to-board electrical connector of the present invention comprises an insulative housing defining an array of channels therethrough and a corresponding number of conductive contacts inserted into the corresponding channels from a top of the housing for protecting soldering portions of the contacts from being damaged and for assuring coplanarity of the soldering portions in assembly. Each channel is defined by two adjacent partitions of the housing and extends through the housing from the top surface to the bottom surface. A pair of latching projections is formed on both sides of each partition. Each contact is used to electrically connect one PC board to another and includes a hook abutting against an underside of two latching projections which project opposite one another in each channel, effectively controlling the height which each contact springs above the housing.
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: 4362353 (1982-12-01), Cobaugh et al.
patent: 4647124 (1987-03-01), Kandybowski
patent: 5842875 (1998-12-01), Yagi
patent: 5879169 (1999-03-01), Wu
patent: 5980323 (1999-11-01), Bricaud et al.
patent: 5984693 (1999-11-01), McHugh et al.
patent: 6019611 (2000-02-01), McHugh et al.
patent: 6027345 (1998-12-01), McHugh et al.

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