Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Patent
1998-12-23
2000-10-17
Sircus, Brian
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
439108, 439 74, H01R 2400, H01R 3300
Patent
active
06132258&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to electrical connectors, specifically to electrical connectors that are mounted on printed circuit boards.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electrical connectors consisting of two halves mounted on nearly parallel printed circuit boards to be connected together, are known in the art. Following the general trend toward the reduction of electrical devices in size, such connectors intended for the mounting on printed circuit boards are also becoming smaller resulting in the necessity to increase strength of the mechanical connection of such connectors to boards. For this purpose, the board mounted connectors are secured to the boards by solder mounts set in side walls of the housing, for example, and surface mounted to the board surface such as in connectors according to Japanese Patent Disclosure Hei 7 (1995)-240246. Another method of securing the solder mounts to the connector consists in the embedding of grounding contacts in side walls of the housing such as in connectors according to Japanese Patent Disclosure Hei 7 (1995)-94241.
In order to enhance the freedom of designers of such small-size connectors intended for the mounting on board surface, it is desirable to provide an electrical connection between the solder mount of the plug connector and that of the receptacle connector for the purposes of grounding. That is, it is desirable to provide a possibility to ground connectors through solder mounts of either plug or receptacle connectors.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,405 for a matable connector pair to have housings with board mounts having contact sections disposed in cavities for grounding continuity, where one contact of a mating pair has a tab and the other has a spring arm contact section within its cavity to mate with the tab, with the mating tab adjacent a housing sidewall and the spring arm deflectable within its housing by the mating tab.
The purpose of this invention is to offer a board surface mounted connector allowing for the implementation of grounding either from the plug connector side or from the receptacle connector side by providing electrical connection between both solder mounts without compromising the small size of the connector.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The electrical connector according to this invention consists of two matching halves with the board mounts of a first half of the connector having contact tabs and the board mounts of the second half having spring arm contact sections that produce a contact with the contact tabs of the first half when the connector halves are joined together, and in one aspect it is characterized by the spring arm contact sections being arranged in such a manner that they can deflect inside through-cavities made in the vertical direction inside the housings of the matching half each of connector.
It is desirable to form support surfaces in open spaces provided for the spring arm contact sections.
It is also desirable to provide the spring arm contact sections with a guiding surface that would initiate deflection thereof to the contacting position upon mating of the complementary connectors.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 1 to 3 are plan, front and side views of the receptacle assembly of an embodiment of the electrical connector according to this invention.
FIG. 4 is a cross section of said receptacle assembly through lines 4--4 in FIG. 2.
FIGS. 5 to 7 are plan, front and side views of the plug assembly of an embodiment of the electrical connector according to this invention.
FIG. 8 is a cross section of said plug assembly through lines 8--8 in FIG. 6.
FIGS. 9 and 10 are partial oblique views of the receptacle and plug assemblies, respectively.
FIG. 11 is an oblique view of the solder mount having a spring arm contact section intended for the receptacle assembly.
FIG. 12 is an oblique view of the solder mount having a contact tab intended for the plug as
REFERENCES:
patent: 5183405 (1993-02-01), Elicker et al.
patent: 5356300 (1994-10-01), Costello et al.
patent: 5688130 (1997-11-01), Huang
patent: 5746622 (1998-05-01), Consoli et al.
patent: 5842874 (1998-12-01), Yagi et al.
patent: 5915975 (1999-06-01), McGrath
patent: 5971800 (1999-10-01), Azuma et al.
patent: 6024582 (2000-02-01), Wu
patent: 6048221 (2000-04-01), McCleerey et al.
International Search Report in priority PCT/US97/13416, three pages Apr. 1998.
Aronoff Michael
Sircus Brian
The Whitaker Corporation
Zarroli Michael C.
LandOfFree
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