Electrical connectors – With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in... – Coupling part for receiving edge of planar board moving...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-18
2001-08-21
Bradley, Paula (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in...
Coupling part for receiving edge of planar board moving...
C439S359000, C439S092000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06276951
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a card edge connector used for connecting an auxiliary card, such as a single-in-line memory (SIMM) module or a dual-in-line memory (DIMM) module, to a master board, such as a mother circuit board, and especially relates to a latching device for a card edge connector by which an auxiliary card can be obliquely inserted into a slot of the connector with its edge and than be rotated to a position parallel to the master board as well as be latched such that contacts located on the edge of the auxiliary card can electrically contact the terminals provided in the slot.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the popularization of the notebook computer and the progress in manufacturing techniques, the shape or profile of memory is becoming smaller, for example, from a DIP profile to a CSP profile. Moreover, for the sake of convenience, it has become more popular to use a SIMM or DIMM card on which a plurality of memory chips are mounted, and a card edge connector for the installation of that card, to expand the capacity of memory. Many types of card edge connectors have been proposed in recent years. The proposed card edge generally comprises a receptacle housing and two latching arms located at and extended from opposing sides of the housing. There are many kinds of designs for the structure of the latching arm to overcome such problems as strength of the latching arms, convenience of operation, stability of latching, and space being occupied.
For example, it is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,302 a latching device provided with a first arm and a second arm in which the second arm includes a latching unit and a latching release unit. The first arm will be biased towards the second arm for fixing the latching device in a receptacle compartment of a connector when the latching device is inserted into the receptacle compartment. Moreover, a socket having a latching member is disclosed in R.O.C. Patent Application No. 84,100,813, in which a tongue is provided on and protruded from a bottom of a movable part of a latching arm, and a recess for receiving the tongue is provided on a fixed part thereof, such that a vertical motion of the movable part is avoided and motion in an inserting direction of an auxiliary board is limited. Such a patent is contemplated to overcome a drawback that a latching arm is difficult to latch up exactly to an auxiliary board when a SIMM card acting as the auxiliary board is inserted therein. Furthermore, an electrical connector for printed circuit board comprising a body portion and a latching member is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,640 (as well as Japanese Patent Application No. Hei-7-636). The latching member is provided with a round portion to match with the side edge of a circuit card and a pair of retaining arms extending above the round portion to engage another surface of the circuit card. In R.O.C. U.S. Patent Publication No. 313,334, a design utilizing two L-shape locating members to prevent a connector from dropping out a circuit board when it is turned around in a solder furnace is disclosed. The two locating members are respectively provided on a supporting wall and an insulating housing so that the connector can be rigidly mounted on the circuit board, and thereby can be kept in a position to be welded when it is transferred through a solder furnace, and will not slip off a mother board on which it is installed due to an operation on a module card to be inserted into the connector.
However, there are still many problems in such many proposed latching arms. For example, a latching arm tends to crack in unsuitable operation in the light of its tiny structure for the purpose of space saving or it is otherwise occupied spatially. Moreover, in terms of the latching accuracy, since the terminals mounted in the slot of the connector is very weak and thus could be damaged if the module card being inserted in the slot is over rotated. Even though the above mentioned R.O.C. Patent Application No. 84,100,813 has been directed towards and has attempted to solve such a problem, its structure is too complicated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above problems, an object of this invention is to provide overall improvements for a latching device for a card edge connector which occupies small space, can accurately latch a card, is less liable to crack, and is easily manufactured.
Another object of this invention is to provide a latching device for an obliquely-inserted card edge connector which utilizes metallic material so as to reduce difficulty in manufacturing while sustaining its latching performance and strength.
A further object of this invention is to provide a latching device for an obliquely-inserted card edge connector which is stronger and can be made by metallic material integrally without too much difficulty.
To achieve the above objects, the latching device for a card edge connector according to this invention comprises a movable part and a fixed part, the movable part comprising an elongated flat plate having a fixed end and a flexible free end, and a latching member located near to the flexible free end for detachably latching the auxiliary card to be inserted and rotated to its installation position; the fixed part comprising an elongated flat plate, an inserting portion extending from the flat plate for inserting into a mounting hole of the receptacle body, and an inserting/rotating stop extending from the flat plate for limiting depth with respect to the auxiliary card being inserted and angle with the respect to the auxiliary card being rotated.
By means of the above structure, an auxiliary card can be latched by a most compact and stronger latching device for a card edge connector.
In accordance with the other concept of this invention, the fixed part further comprises a grounding pad for grounding the fixed part to and securing the fixed part on a master board. Moreover, the fixed part further comprises an abutting member for abutting against a lower surface of the inserted auxiliary card when it is in its installation position. Furthermore, the fixed part further comprises a flexing stop for limiting the angle with respect to the movable part being flexed.
By means of the abutting member, the angle with respect to the auxiliary card being rotated will be well limited. By means of the grounding pad, the card edge connector will be secured more firmly. By means of the flexing stop, the flexed angle with respect to the movable part being flexed will be limited and thus the movable part would be less liable to crack.
In one preferred embodiment of this invention, the movable part and the fixed part are made of metallic material integrally, the inserting portion of the fixed part is configured in a U-shaped section, and the upper end edge of the U-shaped section is provided with a biting tooth for firmly engaging the inserting portion with the receptacle body. Moreover, the movable portion is further provided with a releasing member near to its free end to be pushed to conveniently release the latching action of the movable part. Furthermore, the movable portion further comprises a curved portion consisted of a non-shifted portion, a stepping portion, and a shifted portion. Provision of the stepping portion improves the resilience of the movable portion.
In the other preferred embodiment of this invention, the movable part is made of plastic material and is formed integrally with the receptacle body, while the fixed part is made of metallic material. The working procedure of the metallic portion of the latching device in this case will be simplified. Moreover, the movable part is formed with two thickness via a step to increase its resilience and strength.
These and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following more detailed description of the preferred embodiment of this invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5484302 (1996-01-01), Yamada et al.
patent: 5588850 (1996-12-01)
Chen Li-Sen
Hsu Chien-Yu
Huang Chung-hsin
Lin Ching-Huei
Yang Hung-Kuang
Bradley Paula
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Kenyon & Kenyon
Leon Edwin A.
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