Electrical connectors – With circuit conductors and safety grounding provision – Grounding of coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-27
2001-11-20
Vu, Hien (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With circuit conductors and safety grounding provision
Grounding of coupling part
C439S607070, C439S573000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06319026
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having an improved grounding structure for a shielding shell thereof.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the electronics industry, an electrical connector is usually mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) for electrically connecting an external device to a PCB. The electrical connector, regardless of whether it is a plug or a receptacle connector, has a dielectric housing receiving a plurality of contacts therein. The electrical connector often has a shielding shell, which must be grounded to properly shield the contacts therein and to dissipate electrostatic charges accumulated on the shielding shell to ground.
Referring to FIG. 1, U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,244 discloses a conventional electrical connector comprising a shell 1′, a housing 2′, a board lock member 3′ and terminals 4′. The housing 2′ has a base 21′ and a mating portion 20′ at the front of the base 21′. A plurality of terminal receiving passages 22′ are defined through the mating portion 20′ and base 21′ for receiving the electrical terminals 4′. The shell 1′ is assembled to the housing 2′ in a direction indicated by an arrow A and a shroud 10′ of the shell 1′ surrounds the mating portion 20′. At the same time, a pair of ground straps 11′ projecting rearwardly from a bottom edge of the shell 1′ engages a bottom of the base 21′. A board lock member 3′ is mounted to a lateral flange of the housing 2′ in a direction indicated by an arrow B to a position at which a locking tab 31′ fits into a corresponding recess 23′ in the flange. The ground strap 11′ is then engaged with board lock member 3′, whereby electrostatic charges accumulated on the shell 1′ can be transmitted to ground on a printed circuit board to which locking legs 30′ of the board lock members 3′ are connected.
However, for this conventional connector, the shell 1′ and the ground strap 11′ are integrally stamped, which results in a lot of wasted material during the manufacturing process. In addition, when the connector requires a high profile, two towers are formed on lateral sides of the housing to increase the height of the connector. For such high profile connectors, the ground straps must downwardly extend a long distance relative to the shroud, which further increases the amount of wasted material during manufacturing of the shell. Furthermore, when the ground straps extend a relatively long distance from the shroud, they become very flexible and thus become difficult to correctly assemble to the housing.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a high profile electrical connector having a shielding shell which can be effectively connected to ground in an economical way.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises a dielectric housing, a terminal module, a shielding shell, a pair of board locks and a pair of rivets. The dielectric housing has a base and a mating projection. The terminal module attaches to the base such that the base and the mating projection receive a plurality of terminals therein. Two towers downwardly extend from two lateral sides of the housing. The shielding shell encloses the mating projection of the housing. One board lock mounts in each of the towers of the housing and is adapted to mount the connector on a printed circuit board and to connect with a grounding trace of the printed circuit board. Each board lock integrally forms a resilient finger engaging against the shielding shell to electrically connect the board lock with the shielding shell.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5344342 (1994-09-01), Briones
patent: 5727970 (1998-03-01), Koguchi et al.
patent: 5921811 (1999-07-01), Hsu
patent: 6077115 (2000-06-01), Yang et al.
Chen Qiang
Shi Guang Xing
Wang Sui Ya
Chung Wei Te
Hon Hai - Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.
Vu Hien
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