Electrical connector

Details Electrical connector Electrical connector

2001-08-09

2002-06-04

Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

Metallic connector or contact having movable or resilient...

Spring actuated or resilient securing part

Reexamination Certificate

active

06398598

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an electrical connector which connects a printed circuit board to another printed circuit board, a flexible printed circuit, a liquid crystal display, etc.
A conventional electrical connector will be described referring to
FIGS. 1
,
2
, and
3
. The conventional electrical connector is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (JP-A) No. 102758 of 1999.
A main body
31
of the connector is a generally rectangular parallelepiped-shaped insulator which is molded of resin. The main body
31
has a plurality of grooves
33
formed therein parallel to one another. Thus, each of the grooves is defined by a bottom wall
32
, an upper wall
35
confronting the bottom wall
32
, and opposite side walls. The upper wall
35
is provided with a plurality of openings
34
. The bottom wall
32
is provided with an accommodating space
36
connecting with the groove
33
. The side walls are provided with press-fit grooves
37
along the both sides of the groove
33
, respectively.
Each of a plurality of contacts
41
are inserted into each of the grooves
33
, respectively. Each of the contacts
41
is made of elastic copper alloy to a long plate-shape. Each contact
41
has a base portion
42
and a contact portion
43
narrower than the base portion
42
, both of which are connected to each other through a U-shape bent portion
41
a
. The contact portion
43
can elastically displaced around the bent portion
41
a
. The contact portion
43
is provided with a projecting portion
43
a
which is formed by bending the contact portion
43
in the vicinity of a free end of the contact portion
43
into an inverted V-shape. The base portion
42
has a rectangular accommodating hole
42
a
under the contact portion
43
. When the contact portion
43
is downward displaced about the bent portion
41
a
, it passes through the accommodating hole
42
a
and is received in the accommodating space
36
. Two triangular press-fit projections
42
b
are formed at both sides of the crosswise direction of the base portion
42
, respectively, and are fitted into the press-fit grooves
37
, respectively. The base portion
42
is provided with a terminal portion
44
at an end opposite to the bent portion
41
a.
FIG. 1
shows the state that the connector is mounted on the surface of a first printed circuit board
51
. The main body
31
is supported on the first printed circuit board
51
and the terminal potion of each of the contacts
41
is connected and fixed to a circuit pattern (not shown) on the first printed circuit board
51
. The projecting portion
43
a
of the contact
41
protrudes by the height h from the upper surface of the confronting wall
35
of the main body
31
.
Now, a second printed circuit board
52
to be connected to the first printed circuit board
51
through the connector is disposed at the distance d away from the surface of the first printed circuit board
51
, and is in contact with the projecting portion
43
a
of the contact
41
. Then, the second printed circuit board
52
is pushed down to the first printed circuit board
51
, the contact portion
43
of the contact
41
deforms elastically from the position shown by the solid line to the position shown by the two dots-chain line in FIG.
1
. The second printed circuit board
52
stops at the position when the lower surface thereof has run against the upper surface of the upper wall
35
. At this time, a circuit pattern (not shown) of the second printed circuit board
52
connects with the circuit pattern (not shown) of the first printed circuit board
51
by way of a route from the projecting portion
43
a
of the contact
41
, through the contact portion
43
, the base portion
42
, and the terminal portion
44
.
In the conventional connector, a stroke of the projection portion
43
moved by the second printed circuit board
52
pushed down is sufficiently large because of the provision of the accommodating hole
42
a
and accommodating space
36
. At that time, the contact portion
43
is lowered through the accommodating hole
42
a
below the base portion
42
as shown by the imaginary line and a curvature of the bent portion
41
is therefore increased so that the bent portion
41
a
may unfortunately be plastically deformed. In order to avoid the undesired plastic deformation of the bent portion
41
a
, it is desired to increase the width of the bent portion
41
a
. However, the width of the bent portion
41
a
is limited as described below. In assembling the conventional electrical connector, the press-fit projections
42
b
are formed so as to guide the contact
41
press-fitted into the main body
31
of the connector, in cooperation with the press-fit grooves
37
formed in the main body
31
. Therefore, the width of the bent portion
41
a
of the contact
41
cannot be formed with a size greater than an interval between the opposite side walls of the grooves
33
where the press-fit grooves
37
are formed.
Further, since the base portion
42
is provided with the accommodating hole
42
a
through which the contact portion
43
passes, widths of the base portion
42
and the groove
33
cannot be made so small so that the connector is impossible to be made with a small size as desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an electrical connector having a plurality of contacts with a compact size wherein the contacts are stably held, and have excellent elasticity with a desired stroke of contact region of the contact portion.
This invention is applicable to an electrical connector having at least one contact held in at least one contact accommodating groove formed in an insulator, the contact accommodating groove defined by a bottom wall, opposite sidewalls, and an end wall and being open upward and at the opposite end, the contact comprising a base portion press-fitted in the contact accommodating groove, a contact portion projecting from the contact accommodating groove upward, and a U-shape spring portion connecting the base portion and the contact portion.
In the electrical connector according to this invention:
the contact accommodating groove comprises a relatively large width section adjacent to the end wall and a relatively small width section adjacent to the open end;
the opposite side walls at the relatively small width section being formed with press-fit grooves adjacent to the bottom wall;
the base portion of the contact being formed with lateral projections laterally projecting from the opposite sides of the base portion, the lateral projections being press-fit in the press-fit grooves respectively; and
the base portion of the contact has a slender part which extends between the U-shape spring portion and the lateral projections and which is smaller in width than the width of the relatively small width section of the contact accommodating groove.
The U-shape spring portion of the contact preferably has a width less than but approximately equal to the width of the relatively large width section of the contact accommodating groove.
The contact portion of the contact preferably has a width smaller than the U-shape spring portion, and the contact portion is slantingly and upward bent at a bent portion apart from the U-shape spring portion and is folded to form a U-shaped folded portion projecting slantingly and upward.
According to another embodiment, the electrical connector has a plurality of the contacts which are accommodated in a plurality of contact accommodating grooves, respectively.
In an embodiment, the plurality of contact accommodating grooves are arranged at both sides of a central partitioning wall and in parallel with each other in each of the sides.
The end wall of each of the plurality of contact accommodating grooves is preferably defined by the partitioning wall.
The partitioning wall preferably has a top end with small flange portions oppositely therefrom to the contact accommodating grooves at both sides of the partitioning wall, the top end and the flange portion forming a fl

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