Electrical connectors – Electromagnetic or electrostatic shield – Shielding individually surrounding or interposed between...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-17
2004-06-22
Nguyen, Truc (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Electromagnetic or electrostatic shield
Shielding individually surrounding or interposed between...
C439S062000, C439S079000, C439S660000, C439S055000, C439S541500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06752662
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printed circuit board mounted electrical connector including a metal housing which forms, at an outer end thereof, a connecting opening for receiving a mating connector. The metal housing includes a pair of right and left side walls and at least one horizontal wall interconnecting the side walls. The side walls and the horizontal wall together enclose a terminal which can be connected directly to the mating connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
With continued reduction of the thickness of electronic apparatuses, it has been increasingly desired to mount a greater variety and number of component devices on the surface of a printed circuit board. In some cases, even such component as a connector jack for connection to a power source or an external instrument is mounted directly on the printed circuit board. However, unlike other devices such as circuit elements surface-mounted on the board, such thickness reduction is difficult for a connector jack or plug. This difficulty results in hampering the desired thickness reduction of the entire printed circuit board or the electronic apparatus as a whole.
In order to solve the above problem, according to e.g. a printed circuit board mounted connector disclosed by the Japanese utility model application laid open under No. Hei. 1-161583, the printed circuit board is provided with a board segment forming a terminal land for connection to an external instrument. Further, a resin housing which is configured to be detachably attachable is attached to the circuit board in such a manner as to enclose the board segment. In use, a terminal of a jack or a plug as a mating connector is contacted with the terminal land for establishing required electrical connection. With this connector construction, the terminal of the mating connector and the terminal land of the board segment are directly connected to each other as described above. Hence, it is possible to omit such additional components as a contact for relaying the electrical connection between the terminal and the terminal land or a retaining element for retaining the connection and to omit manufacture, assembly or soldering associated with and required by such additional components. Hence, it is relatively easy to achieve reduction in cost and size of the connector.
Notwithstanding the above, the conventional connector construction suffers a problem as follows. Namely, in this connector construction, in order to prevent inadvertent detachment of the housing from the circuit board, the housing includes at a deep inner portion thereof, a projection engageable into an associated hole defined in the circuit board. This projection may be subjected to a concentrated stress during insertion or removal of the connector to or from the mating connector, often resulting in fracture of the projection. In order to avoid this, it is necessary to provide adequate reinforcement in the periphery of the projection. Such reinforcement, however, will again hinder the desired thickness reduction of the printed circuit board mounted connector.
The prior art has proposed another printed circuit board mounted connector disclosed by Japanese patent application laid open under No. Hei. 10-270107. This connector includes a body as a housing which can be attached to a cutout defined at a base end of the printed circuit board. The body includes a retained portion to be retained to a jack or a plug of the mating connector, and a binding portion for vertically binding the circuit board for retaining the board in the thickness direction thereof. The body further includes an engaging element engageable with a locking cutout portion formed within a cutout of the printed circuit board. In use of this surface mounted connector, the binding portion acts to support the thickness-wise center of the housing (body) to the printed circuit board, so that the projecting height of the connector relative to the circuit board is divided into one portion projecting upward from the front side of the board and the other portion projecting downward from the back side of the same.
However, this printed circuit board mounted connector also suffers the same problem as the first type mentioned above. Namely, in order to effectively withstand the force which may be applied in any direction in association with insertion or removal of the mating connector jack or plug, reinforcement is needed, particularly for the engaging element. In any case, the constructions of the retaining portions of these conventional connectors do not contribute to desired thickness reduction of the printed circuit board amounted electrical connector.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Hence, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a printed circuit board mounted electrical connector which can effectively withstand a force which may be applied thereto in any direction in association with insertion or removal of the jack or plug of the mating connector and which also can contribute to the thickness reduction of the connector.
For fulfilling the above-noted object, according to the present invention, a printed circuit board mounted electrical connector comprises a metal housing which forms, at an outer end thereof, a connecting opening for receiving a mating connector. The metal housing includes a pair of right and left side walls and at least one horizontal wall interconnecting the side walls. The side walls and the horizontal wall together enclose a terminal which is formed at a portion of the circuit board and which can be connected directly to the mating connector. The connector further comprises a fixing piece extending from each of the side walls, the fixing piece having an attaching face configured to be placed on and solder-fixed to a solder attaching land formed in the circuit board.
With this construction, the housing defining the connecting opening into or from which the jack or plug of the mating connector is inserted or removed is formed of metal and this metal housing integrally forms the fixing pieces described above. Therefore, even if the connector is formed thin, the connector can still provide sufficient strength for withstanding a force applied thereto in association with insertion or removal of the mating connector. Especially, as the fixing pieces provided to the metal housing are placed and solder-fixed to the solder attaching land of the circuit board, the housing can be fixed in position in a secure manner. Moreover, such fixing by means of soldering requires relatively short height, thus not hindering desired thickness reduction of the connector.
According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, said terminal to be connected to the mating connector is provided in the form of a terminal land formed on a board segment extending from the circuit board. This construction provides an advantage of allowing the terminal to be formed integrally with the circuit board.
According to another preferred embodiment, each said side wall includes at least one binding portion for binding the front and back sides of the circuit board. With this construction, as the binding portions for vertically binding the circuit board are formed in the metal housing having high strength, formed preferably integrally therewith, the binding portions, even when formed thin, can still provide sufficient strength. Further, if a pair of such binding portions are provided respectively at the proximal end and the distal end of the housing, this arrangement will further strengthen the attachment of the housing to the circuit board. Advantageously, an entrance area of a board inserting slot of the binding portion may be provided with an increased width for guiding or facilitating its insertion into the circuit board. In this case, if the width of the remaining portion of the board inserting slot is adapted to correspond to the thickness of the circuit board, the binding portion may be firmly retained without looseness.
According to a still further embodiment of the invention, the h
Hosiden Corporation
Nguyen Truc
Webb Ziesenheim & Logsdon Orkin & Hanson, P.C.
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