Electrical connector supported on printed circuit board

Details Electrical connector supported on printed circuit board Electrical connector supported on printed circuit board

2002-05-09

2004-07-27

Prasad, Chandrika (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

Electromagnetic or electrostatic shield

Shielding individually surrounding or interposed between...

C439S079000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06767251

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector ensuring a reliable connection between terminals thereof and a printed circuit board (PCB).
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Portable electrical or electronic appliances normally use electrical connectors to transmit signals. The electrical connectors often have metal shields enclosing the housings thereof for preventing electromagnetic interference. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,697,799, 5,692,912, 5,356,300 and 5,125,853 show such electrical connectors. These electrical connectors either have a large dimension or have a complicated manufacturing process. Connector Specifier published in March 2000 has an article named “Docking Connectors Simplify Drive Designs” on Pages 16 and 17, which introduces some related electrical connectors. Such information is submitted herewith by Information Disclosure Statement.
Referring to
FIGS. 6 and 7
, U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,556, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, discloses a related electrical connector
7
. The electrical connector
7
has a metal shield
71
, an insulative housing
72
and a plurality of terminals
73
fixed in the housing
72
. The metal shield
71
has a top wall
710
, two side walls
712
with a pair of fastening portions
718
extending respectively therefrom and a bottom wall
715
. A pair of latches
714
extends from the top wall
710
with a pair of grooves
716
defined respectively therein. A pair of plates
711
extends from the side walls
712
respectively with a pair of mating holes
713
defined respectively therein. The housing
72
has an upper wall
720
, two side walls
725
with a pair of channels
728
defined respectively therein and a lower wall
723
with a pair of posts
721
extending therefrom. A pair of depressions
722
is defined in the upper wall
720
for receiving the latches
714
of the shield
71
. A pair of blocks
724
is formed by the housing
72
respectively in the depressions
722
for engaging with the grooves
716
. The fastening portions
718
respectively extend through the channels
728
and are bent outwardly to engage with protrusions
719
formed on a rear face of the housing
72
. When the electrical connector
7
is assembled to a printed circuit board (PCB)
8
, the pair of posts
721
engages into corresponding holes (not shown) of the PCB
8
, so that a bottom surface of the lower wall
723
of the housing
72
is mounted to the PCB
8
.
However, a bottom surface of the bottom wall
715
of the shield
71
is not coplanar with the bottom surface of the lower wall
723
of the housing
72
, so that a gap is formed between the bottom surface of the bottom wall
715
and the PCB
8
, whereby a front end of the electrical connector
7
is not supported on the PCB
8
when the electrical connector
7
is assembled thereto. Accordingly, the electrical connector
7
tends to incline forwardly, causing tail portion of the terminals
73
which are to be surface mounted to the printed circuit board
8
to not entirely abut against corresponding solder pads (not shown) on the printed circuit board. A gap is formed between the tail portions
732
and the corresponding solder pads, resulting in an inferior soldering or even a possible void soldering of the tail portions
732
. Thus, a reliable connection between the terminals
73
and the PCB
8
can not be established. In addition, since the electrical connector
7
is not stably supported on the PCB
8
, a mating of the connector with a complementary connector (not shown) may adversely affect the soldering joint between the terminals
73
and the PCB
8
. Furthermore, the fastening portions
718
of the shield
71
which are bent away from the housing
72
occupy more space.
Hence, an improved electrical connector with an improved connection between the terminals and the PCB and occupying less space is needed to solve the above problems.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide an electrical connector reliably supported on a printed circuit board (PCB) to ensure a reliable connection between terminals thereof and the PCB.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an electrical connector occupying less space.
The electrical connector in accordance with the present invention includes an insulative housing, a plurality of terminals and a metal shield. The housing has a body portion having a front wall, a rear wall, a top wall and two side walls, and a mating portion projecting forwardly from the front wall. The two side walls respectively have a pair of gaps defined therethrough. The rear wall defines a pair of notches in communication with the gaps. The mating portion defines a plurality of passageways for receiving contacting sections of the terminals. The top wall of the housing has a pair of depressions and a pair of blocks formed on bottoms of the respective depressions. The shield has an upper wall, a lower wall and two side walls. The lower wall of the shield has a pair of downwardly protruding portions formed thereon. The top wall has a pair of latches each defining a slot for engaging with corresponding block of the housing. The side walls of the shield respectively form a pair of bending portions projecting through corresponding gaps of the housing and bending inwardly into corresponding notches. A plate extends outwardly from each bending portion with a mounting hole defined therein.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5125853 (1992-06-01), Hashiguchi
patent: 5356300 (1994-10-01), Costello et al.
patent: 5692912 (1997-12-01), Nelson et al.
patent: 5697799 (1997-12-01), Consoli et al.
patent: 6168468 (2001-01-01), Zhu et al.
patent: 6224420 (2001-05-01), Nishio et al.
patent: 6241556 (2001-06-01), Chih
Jeff Hpodhca, Docking Connector Simplity Drive Designs, Connector Specitier, Mar. 2000, pp. 16-17.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Electrical connector supported on printed circuit board does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Electrical connector supported on printed circuit board, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Electrical connector supported on printed circuit board will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3229373