Electrical connectors – Coupling part having handle or means to move contact...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-17
2002-08-06
Bradley, P. Austin (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Coupling part having handle or means to move contact...
C439S259000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06428337
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a socket for electrical parts for detachably accommodating an electrical part such as a semiconductor device (called as “IC package” hereinafter).
More particularly, the present invention relates to a socket for electrical parts, which is improved for accommodating an electrical part having a center portion and a peripheral portion with bottom surfaces thereof, and having terminals mounted on the bottom surfaces, respectively.
PRIOR ART OF THE INVENTION
As a conventional “socket for electrical parts” of this kind, there is provided an IC socket for detachably accommodating an IC package as “electrical part”.
The IC package includes, for example, a PGA (Pin Grid Array) type of IC package which has a rectangular-shaped package body and a large number of pin terminals mounted on a bottom surface of the package body so as to direct toward a lower side thereof.
On the other hand, the IC socket is provided with a socket body for accommodating the IC package and contact pins which are contacted to the pin terminals and separated therefrom. Moreover, the IC socket is provided with a slide plate arranged to the socket body for elastically deforming the contact pins to displace them and an operation member arranged to the socket body to be vertically movable thereto and adapted to slide the slide plate.
When accommodating the IC package, the operation member of the IC package is moved downward and the slide plate located at an original position is slid according to the downward movement of the operation member to elastically deform the contact pins so that the contact pins move away from an insertion area of the IC package.
With the contact pins being moved away from the insertion area, the IC package is mounted on the socket body to be accommodated therein and, after that, the operation member is moved upward so that the slide plate returns to the original position, thereby releasing the elastically deformation force. The release of the elastically deformation force causes the contact pins to return original positions by these elastic forces so that the contact pins contact to the terminals of the IC package so as to be electrically connected thereto.
Now, as the IC package, there is provided a composite package having the above mentioned PGA connection portion and a LGA (Land Grid Array) connection portion which are integrated with each other. The LGA connection portion has a land (metalized portion) on which predetermined terminals, such as plate terminals, are provided for connecting the IC package to a printed circuit board.
In the composite IC package, in cases where, for example, the PGA connection portion is provided on the center side of the IC package and the LGA connection portion is provided on the peripheral side thereof, it is necessary to previously provide, on the IC socket for accommodating the composite IC package, contact pins adapted to contact to the terminals of the PGA connection portion and contact pins adapted to contact to the terminals of the LGA connection portion and to secure each stability of contacting the respective contact pins to the respective terminals of the PGA and LGA connection portions.
However, according to the IC socket for accommodating the composite IC package, when the IC package is made large-sized, the IC package is easy to be warped so that, in cases where the IC package is mounted on the socket body of the IC socket, there is a possibility that the peripheral portion of the IC package rises away from the mounted surface of the socket body.
Therefore, in cases where the IC package has the configuration in that the peripheral side terminals are provided on the bottom surface of the peripheral portion thereof, there is a possibility of bringing about a gap between the peripheral side terminals and the contact pins of the IC socket, to cause a bad-contact therebetween.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a socket for an electrical part, which is capable of, even if the IC package is caused to be warped, ensuring a stability of contacting a contact pin of the socket to a terminal of the electrical part, thereby preventing the contact pin and the terminal from being instably contacted.
In order to achieve such object, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a socket for an electrical part having a center portion, a peripheral portion, a first terminal mounted on the center portion and a second terminal mounted on the peripheral portion, the socket comprising:
a socket body for accommodating the electrical part;
a first contact pin arranged to the socket body and adapted to contact the first terminal of the electrical part;
a second contact pin arranged to the socket body and adapted to contact the second terminal of the electrical part; and
pressing member for pressing an upper surface of the peripheral portion towards a bottom surface side thereof.
According to the aspect of the invention, because the pressing member is comprised for pressing the upper surface of the peripheral portion of the electrical part towards the bottom surface side thereof, even if the electrical part is warped, it is possible to surely contact a contact portion of the second contact pin to the second terminal of the electrical part at a predetermined contact pressure, thereby securing the stability of contacting the second contact pin to the second terminal of the electrical part.
In an preferred embodiment of the present invention, the pressing means comprises: an operation member arranged to the socket body to be vertically movable; a slide member obliquely arranged to the socket body from an oblique upper side with respect to a surface portion of the socket body to a vicinity of the surface portion thereof, the electrical part being mounted on the surface portion to be accommodated in the socket body; a press member provided to be slidable along the slide member for pressing the upper surface of the peripheral portion; and a movement unit operatively connected to the operation member and the press member so as to move the press member obliquely upward along the slide portion when the operation member is moved downward, the movement unit being adapted to move the press member obliquely downward along the slide portion when the operation member is moved upward so as to press by the press member the upper surface of the peripheral portion of the electrical part.
According to the preferred embodiment of this aspect, as compared with a rotation-type pressing means, it is possible to ensure a pressing force to the electrical part by the press member, which is sufficient to press thereto, thereby making compact a configuration of the pressing means.
That is, assuming that the rotation-type pressing means is configured to rotate a rotation arm having at its one end portion with a press member so as to press the electrical part by the press member, when rotating the rotation arm, if the electrical part is subjected to some kind of force directed upward therefrom, because the rotation arm is easy to be rotated due to the some kind of force, it is hard to efficiently secure a sufficient pressing force.
Then, it is considerable to enlarge the urging force of a spring which urges the rotation arm, but new problems occur such that the unit becomes larger in size when we intend to secure larger operating force of the rotation arm. In addition, because of using the rotation arm having a predetermined length, it is necessary to provide a rotating space of the rotation arm, thereby causing the whole size of the electrical part to be large-sized.
On the contrary, in the preferred embodiment of this aspect, because the pressing member for pressing the electrical part is not configured to provide the rotation-type unit but to provide the slide-type unit for sliding the press member along the slide member, some kind of force directed upward from the IC package is borne to the obliquely arranged slide member of the slide-type unit so that it is
Hachuda Osamu
Ohashi Masahito
Ohshima Hisao
Bradley P. Austin
Enplas Corporation
Gilman Alexander
Staas & Halsey , LLP
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