Electrical connectors – With circuit conductors and safety grounding provision – Grounding to connector container or housing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-04
2002-04-30
Paumen, Gary F. (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With circuit conductors and safety grounding provision
Grounding to connector container or housing
C439S541500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06379163
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical card connector, and particularly to a stacked electrical card connector having a conductive grounding element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrical card connectors are mounted on printed circuit boards for electrically connecting electronic cards received therein with electrical circuits of the printed circuit boards. The electrical card connectors usually have grounding elements which are electrically connected to grounding pads of the electronic cards received therein and to grounding circuits of the printed circuit boards, thereby providing a grounding connection for the electronic card and the card connector.
Stacked electrical card connectors have at least two electrical card connectors stacked one on top of the other. Grounding elements of a stacked electrical card connector are usually separatedly disposed, i.e., one card connector corresponds to one grounding element. Therefore, many elements may be needed for configuring a single stacked electrical card connector. This makes assembly more time-consuming and costly. Other stacked electrical card connectors include grounding elements which are integrally formed together in one piece. However, presently used integral grounding elements act to shield mounting tails of electrical contacts of the stacked electrical card connectors and thus when soldering of the mounting tails during a Surface Mounting Technology (SMT) process fails, repair of the faulty solder joints difficult, or even impossible.
Therefore, an improved stacked electrical card connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A major object of the present invention is to provide a stacked electrical card connector which is compact and which allows easy repair of faultily soldered mounting tails of electrical contacts thereof following an SMT process.
A stacked electrical card connector in accordance with the present invention comprises a first electrical card connector, a second electrical card connector, a conductive grounding element, a pair of card ejection elements and an upper and a lower shielding plates. The first and second electrical card connectors each have an insulative housing and a plurality of electrical contacts mounted in the insulative housings. The grounding element substantially encloses the first electrical card connector and comprises a first contacting portion, a second contacting portion and a transition portion connecting the first and second contacting portions together. The first contacting portion contacts one of the shielding plates and one of the electronic cards inserted into the stacked electrical card connector. The second contacting portion contacts another of the electronic cards inserted into the stacked electrical card connector. The transition portion defines an opening for mounting tails of the electrical contacts of the first electrical card connector to extend therethrough.
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:
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patent: 6071149 (2000-06-01), Hara
patent: 6129564 (2000-10-01), Kawamae et al.
patent: 6132243 (2000-10-01), Hirata et al.
patent: 6174197 (2001-01-01), Hirata et al.
patent: 6183273 (2001-02-01), Yu et al.
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