Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-28
2001-03-06
Nguyen, Khiem (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196879
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a surface-mountable modular electrical connector assembly constructed to consistently provide co-planar terminals adapted to engage a substrate to which the connector assembly is mounted and more specifically, to modular jacks receivable of mating plugs and having a housing so constructed to consistently provide co-planar terminals.
As used herein, “surface-mountable” means that the connector assemblies are mountable onto a planar surface of a substrate, such as a printed circuit board, and include terminals adapted to engage solder portions on the planar surface of the substrate.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Modular jack connectors or connector assemblies are well known in the telecommunications industry and have been adapted for mounting to printed circuit boards. These connector assemblies are typically used for electrical connection between two electrical communication devices. There are basically two ways to mount a connector assembly to a printed circuit board, namely surface mounting in which terminals engage soldering portions on a planar surface of the substrate and through-hole mounting in which the terminals pass through apertures in the printed circuit board. For some connector assemblies, the terminals are formed from the same electrically-conductive member as the contacts and such an electrical member is referred to herein as a contact/terminal member. In this case, the terminal portion of each contact/terminal member would engage a respective soldering portion on the planar surface of the substrate.
One recurring problem with surface-mountable connector assemblies has been to achieve co-planarity of the terminals or the terminal portions of all of the contact/terminal members in the connector assembly. The terminals or terminal portions are designed to engage solder regions of a planar substrate onto which the connector assembly is mounted. It is important that each of the terminals or terminal portions engages the respective solder region in order to ensure proper electrical connection between the same and the substrate because if the terminals or terminal portions are situated in different planes, problems may arise during the soldering to the printed circuit board resulting in improper or inadequate electrical connection.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide new and improved surface-mountable modular connector assemblies including contact/terminal members which attain substantial co-planarity of the terminal portions of contact/terminal members to thereby reduce or eliminate problems arising from mounting of the connector assemblies to a substrate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and improved construction of jacks for modular connector assemblies including contact/terminal members which can be manufactured in less time than current manufacturing processes and in fewer steps in view of the elimination of secondary forming operations for the contact/terminal members.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to achieve at least one of the objects mentioned above and others, one preferred embodiment of a connector assembly for surface mounting on a substrate such as a printed circuit board comprises a jack including a housing defining a plug-receiving receptacle and contact/terminal members having a contact portion situated in the receptacle, a terminal portion extending from the housing and adapted to be surface mounted to the substrate, and an intermediate portion between the contact portion and the terminal portion. The housing is a two-part housing constructed to entrap the intermediate portions between the parts of the housing such that the intermediate portions of the contact/terminals members are fixed in position and retained in the housing and terminal portions of the contact/terminals members extend rearward from the housing in a common plane.
More particularly, in one exemplifying embodiment, the housing comprises an outer housing part and an inner housing part arranged in connection with the outer housing part whereby channels are arranged in the inner housing part and constructed to angle the intermediate portions of the contact/terminal members obliquely with respect to a bottom surface of the inner housing part. The inner housing part includes two sets of channels, those arranged at an oblique angle to the bottom surface, which are situated in a rear portion of the inner housing part, and additional channels situated in a front portion of the inner housing part which is insertable into the outer housing part to thereby sandwich the contact/terminal members between the front portion of the inner housing part and a lower wall of the outer housing part. The additional channels in the front portion align with the channels in the rear portion. As such, the intermediate portions each include a first portion received in the additional channels and thus substantially parallel to and spaced from a lower surface of the housing and a second portion adjacent the terminal portion and which is received in the oblique channels extending at an angle relative to the first portion and the bottom surface of the housing. An oblique angle is thus formed between the first and second portions of the intermediate portions. The lower wall of the outer housing part includes a rear edge including grooves in alignment with the channels of the inner housing part and through which the intermediate portions of contact/terminal members extend at the beginning of their inclination.
By means of the construction of the inner and outer housing parts and channels therein, two points of entrapment between the contact/terminal members and the housing are formed, one resulting from the construction of the inner housing part and the other resulting from the construction of the outer housing part. One is the point of contact at the rear of the channel in the rear portion of the inner housing part between the upper surface of the intermediate portion and an adjacent interior surface of the channel and the other is the point of contact between a portion of the lower surface of the intermediate portion and the upper surface of the lower wall of the outer housing part adjacent the grooves thereof. The construction of the outer and inner housing parts to provide the points of entrapment upon assembly with contact/terminal members results in the terminal portion of the contact/terminal members extending from the housing with an angle relative to the bottom surface of the jack, and thus to the substrate on which the connector assembly would be mounted, which is substantially the same for all of the terminal portions. Thus, the terminal portions of the contact/terminal members would be co-planar and thereby facilitate problem-free mounting to the substrate.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4629266 (1986-12-01), Viselli
patent: 4850902 (1989-07-01), Reed
patent: 5244412 (1993-09-01), Hatch et al.
patent: 5310360 (1994-05-01), Peterson
patent: 5766043 (1998-06-01), Talend
patent: 6012953 (2000-01-01), Francis
Fleming Jeffrey
Hess John Matthew
Imschweiler Derek
Hyeon Hae Moon
Nguyen Khiem
Steinberg & Raskin, P.C.
Stewart Connector Systems, Inc.
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