Electrical connectors – Preformed panel circuit arrangement – e.g. – pcb – icm – dip,... – With provision to conduct electricity from panel circuit to...
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-24
2004-12-07
Paumen, Gary (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Preformed panel circuit arrangement, e.g., pcb, icm, dip,...
With provision to conduct electricity from panel circuit to...
C439S591000, C439S862000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06827586
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to receptacle connectors, and more particularly, to receptacle connectors that are used to make connections between an integrated circuit (“IC”) package having numerous contacts, such as a BGA or LGA contacts, and a printed circuit board having numerous contacts pads formed thereon.
FIG. 7
illustrates a known connector having numerous terminals
300
embedded in an insulative housing
301
. In use, the housing
301
is sandwiched between an IC package (not shown) and a printed circuit board
302
. Each terminal
300
of the connector typically includes a contact arm
304
that is applied against a selected contact pad
303
of the circuit board
302
, and a contact
305
integrally formed to the contact arm
304
for touching a selected counter contact, typically a spherical or land-shaped contact of the IC package. The connector housing
301
has retainers
306
formed therein which hold terminals
300
in the housing
301
in such a way that each contact
305
is resilient enough to yieldingly move, or sink, when applied to the counter contact.
The presence of these retainers
306
formed in or as part of the terminal housing
301
prevents reduction of the thickness of the connector housing. The known receptacle connector of
FIG. 7
is too thick for use in notebook computers, which have been getting smaller and thinner. Also disadvantageously, this known connector allows its contact arm ends to be stained with flux in soldering to conductor pads
303
. Also, soldering material is allowed to attach to its contact arm ends in the form of whiskers.
In the past, similar style connectors have been used to connect circuit boards together and they are also too thick for today's thin and sleek computers.
FIGS. 13 and 14
show an example of such a prior art connector, and in particular,
FIG. 13
shows one terminal
1000
of the connector. A plurality of such terminals
1000
are mounted or press-fitted to a housing
2000
(
FIG. 14
) in order to complete an electrical connector
3000
. Although only one terminal
1000
is shown in the figure, a plurality of such terminals
1000
are actually arranged side by side at the predetermined pitch. Referring to
FIG. 6
, the terminal
1000
includes a pair of contact members, or arms
1010
, a press-fit portion
1020
formed at the base of the contact members, and a fixing portion
1030
formed adjacent the press-fit portion for connection to a solder ball
1040
. The terminal
1000
is produced from a thin metal sheet by a stamping and forming process.
The terminal
1000
is received in a terminal receiving cavity (not shown) formed in the housing
2000
so that the press-fit portion
1020
may be press-fit against the inner wall of the terminal receiving cavity to hold the terminal
1000
in place. The solder ball
1040
is soldered to the fixing portion
1030
of the terminal
1000
and a portion of the solder ball
1040
opposite to the fixing portion
1030
externally projects from the housing
2000
.
In
FIG. 14
, the mating connector
4000
is shown to include a dielectric housing
6000
having a plurality of contact pins
5000
mounted therein, which pins
5000
correspond to pairs of contact members of the terminals
1000
in the connector
3000
with one-to-one relation. The connector
3000
and the mating connector
4000
form a connector assembly. In general, each of the connectors
3000
and
4000
is mounted to their respective printed circuit boards so that they may be connected to each other via the connectors
3000
and
4000
.
In addition to the terminal receiving cavity, as described above, another means for holding the terminal in the dielectric housing has been known in the art in which a terminal mounting channel is formed through the housing and a side edge of the terminal is latched to an opposite inner wall of the terminal mounting channel (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-144821, for example).
These prior art connectors have a problem in that mounting of their terminals requires a number of assembly steps and thus adds cost to manufacturing because each terminals has to be press-fit to the terminal-receiving cavity or channel. In view of the recent tendency in electronics toward multi-pole configuration and higher terminal densities and with the advent of such design that not less than 100 terminals are arranged side by side at higher density, there is a strong need to solve the problem as above.
Furthermore, the prior art such terminal-receiving cavities or mounting channels formed in the housing create other problems such as when soldering the connector to the circuit board, wicking of either solder or solder flux may be produced via a clearance between the terminal and its cavity or channel, which may cause contamination to the contact members mated with the terminals of the mating connector.
In view of the above an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having an improved configuration that reduces the manufacturing cost of the connector and eliminates the problem of solder or solder flux wicking.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a circuit board connector of reduced thickness which utilizes solder balls on each side of its connector housing as electrical contacts.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low-profile receptacle connector for BGA or LGA applications, the connector including a thin housing in the form of a socket, the socket having a plurality of cavities formed therein, a plurality of terminals disposed in the cavities, each of the terminals having a flat terminal body portion with at least two opposing edges, the terminal including a terminal retention arm extending in one direction from one of the two terminal body portion edges and a terminal retention stub extending in a second direction from the other of the two terminal body portion edges, the terminal flat body portion having shape that permits it to be held in place within a molding cavity such that molding material from which the connector housing is formed may flow around the terminal retention arm and stub to retain the terminal in place within the connector housing, thereby eliminating the need for forming terminal retainers in the connector housing associated with each connector housing cavity.
To attain such object an electrical connector for mounting to a printed circuit board, comprising a dielectric housing and a plurality of terminals arranged side by side at the predetermined pitch, is improved according to the present invention in that: each of the terminals includes a flat base portion, a pair of contact members formed from a first continuous folded-back portion that is folded back onto one side of the flat base portion, and a second folded back section bent transverse to the base portion, but extending on the opposite side of the base portion; the housing holds the terminals by performing an over-molding of the housing around the flat base portions of the terminals to form a generally flat plate-like housing; and the pair of contact members of the terminal extends toward one surface of the housing and the carrier coupling section extends toward the other surface of the housing.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the pair of contact members of each terminal is disposed in a recess formed in said one surface of the housing.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the other surface of the housing is provided with an opening leading to the terminal flat base portion, and the connector further includes solder balls soldered to the flat base portion via the openings and that externally project beyond the other surface of the housing.
According to further embodiment of the present invention, the terminal further includes a bent portion connecting between the flat base portion and the carrier coupling section, and a cut-out portion formed in the bent portion into which resin material that forms the housing,
Noda Atsuhito
Tetsuka Yoshihiro
Leon Edwin A.
Molex Incorporated
Paulius Thomas D.
Paumen Gary
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