JP2002117924A - Connector - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector with low manufacturing cost with improved freedom of mounting inside a miniaturized electronic apparatus. SOLUTION: This connector 1 has a connector body part 10 having a through- hole 11 in its interior, a plate-like memory card held in the connector body part 10 allowing free insertion and drawing out, and a flexible printed board 40 detachably held in the connector body part 10. A connection terminal 60 is provided inside the through-hole 11, a protruding part electrically connected to a memory side terminal provided in an end part of the memory card is provided in one end part of the connection terminal 60, and mutually facing upper and lower terminal pieces 61 and 63 divided in up and down directions and electrically connecting to a conductor 43 provided on an end part of the flexible printed board 40 are provided in another end part of the connection terminal 60. The end part of the flexible printed board 40 provided with the conductor 43 is inserted between the upper terminal piece 61 and the lower terminal piece 63.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a connector,
More specifically, an electronic component having an electronic component side terminal at an end, a flexible printed board having a printed board side terminal at an end, and an electronic component inserted and mounted with a printed board. The present invention relates to a connector having a terminal and a connection member for electrically connecting a printed board side terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electronic devices have become smaller and lighter, and there are devices in which a small memory card is inserted into and removed from the device body. The information recorded on the memory card is processed by a personal computer or the like and used in various forms.

[0003] The memory card has a plurality of component side terminals provided at the end thereof, and is held so as to be able to be inserted and removed from one end side of a connector main body provided in the equipment main body. A connection terminal is provided in the connector main body, and when the memory card is inserted into the connector main body, the component side terminal comes into contact with one end of the connection terminal, and the memory card is electrically connected to the connection terminal. It is configured as follows. The other end of the connection terminal is electrically connected to a circuit formed on a hard board provided in the device main body via soldering. As a result, when the memory card is inserted into the connector main body, the memory card and the hard board are electrically connected via the connection terminals, and the memory card becomes usable.

[0004]

However, since the size of the compact and lightweight device main body is small, the installation place of the connector main body in the device main body is small, and the soldering work of the connection terminals in the assembling work of the electronic device. Is not easy. Further, since the substrate is a hard substrate, it cannot be bent, and the degree of freedom of wiring in the device body is low, which makes it difficult to reduce the weight of the electronic device.

Therefore, a method has been proposed in which a flexible printed board (for example, FPC) is used instead of a hard board, and a printed board side terminal provided on the flexible printed board is connected to a connection terminal. . The flexible printed board can be used for wiring in a small electronic device in a narrow place where a wiring cannot be formed on a hard substrate or in a complicated shape portion by utilizing a degree of freedom.

However, the contact surface between the connection terminal provided on the connector main body and the printed board side terminal generally has an upper contact type which is in contact with the upper side of the printed board side terminal, and a lower contact type. There are two types, a lower contact type that contacts the lower part of the printed board side terminal. As a result, it is necessary to selectively use the printed board side terminals of the flexible printed board upward or downward according to the direction of the contact surface of the connection terminal, which reduces the degree of freedom of mounting in the electronic device.

Further, the connector body having the existing connection terminals is manufactured on the assumption that it is mounted on a hard board.
When a flexible printed board is mounted on the connector main body, a manual soldering operation using a surface mount (STM) type is required, which raises a problem of increasing the manufacturing cost.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a connector that can be mounted in a miniaturized electronic device with a higher degree of freedom in mounting and that is inexpensive to manufacture.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a connector according to the present invention is an electronic component having a component-side terminal (for example, a memory-side terminal 31 in the embodiment) at an end portion (for example, a memory in the embodiment). Card 30), a connector main body capable of holding electronic components in a removable manner, and a flexible print detachably mountable to the connector main body and having a printed board side terminal (for example, conductor 43 in the embodiment) at an end. Board, provided in the connector body, the electronic component is inserted and held in the connector body, and the flexible printed board is mounted on the connector body, and is electrically connected to the component side terminal at one end, On the other end side, it has a connection terminal electrically connected to the printed board side terminal. The connection terminal has an upper terminal piece and a lower terminal piece opposing each other, which are vertically divided at the tip end thereof. When the printed board side terminal is inserted between the upper terminal piece and the lower terminal piece, the printed board becomes The side terminal is configured to be able to contact both the upper terminal piece and the lower terminal piece.

According to the connector having the above configuration, the printed board side terminal can be inserted between the upper terminal piece and the lower terminal piece and connected to the connection terminal with the printed board side terminal being directed upward or downward. Therefore, there is no need to select the direction of the flexible printed board, and the degree of freedom in mounting can be improved. Also, since the electronic component can be electrically connected to the connection terminal, the flexible printed board and the electronic component can be electrically connected via one connection terminal, and the manufacturing cost of the connector can be reduced. be able to.

In the connector having the above structure, the connector main body has a through hole, and an electronic component is inserted through one opening of the through hole, and the electronic component is inserted into the through hole on the distal end side of the inserted electronic component. A connection terminal may be provided, a printed board side terminal may be inserted through the other opening of the through hole, and the electronic component may be electrically connected to the flexible printed board via the connection terminal.

According to the connector having the above structure, when the electronic component is inserted through one opening of the through hole and the printed board side terminal is inserted through the other opening of the through hole, the component side of the electronic component is removed. The terminal contacts one side of the connection terminal, the printed board side terminal contacts the other side of the connection terminal, and the electronic component is electrically connected to the flexible printed board via the connection terminal. As described above, by providing the connection terminal in the connector main body portion having the through hole and inserting and removing the electronic component in the through hole, the electronic component can be reliably connected to the connection terminal by being guided by the through hole, Facilitates insertion and extraction operations.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. This embodiment shows an embodiment of a connector which can hold a memory card so as to be freely inserted and removed and to which a flexible printed board can be connected.

As shown in FIG. 1, the connector 1 has a connector body 10 having a through-hole 11 having a rectangular cross section inside.
And a plate-shaped memory card 30 held in the connector body 11 so as to be able to be inserted and removed, and a flexible printed board 40 detachably held in the connector body 10. The connector body 10 and the flexible printed board 40 are provided in the small electronic device 3.

The flexible printed board 40 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), a conductor 43 is printed on a substrate 41 made of a flexible material, and an insulator 45 is formed on the conductor 43.
Are laminated. A deformation preventing member 4 that is hardly deformed is provided under the substrate 41 at the tip of the flexible printed board 40.
7 are adhered. Also, as shown in FIG.
Conductor 4 printed on the tip of flexible printed board 40
The insulator 15 is laminated on the rear end side of the flexible printed board 40 from the upper end of the rear end side of the conductor 3, and the front end of the conductor 43 is exposed upward.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the memory card 30 has a plurality of memory-side terminals 31 arranged side by side with a predetermined gap in the left-right direction (vertical direction on the paper of FIG. 3) at the tip end.
have. An engagement recess 33 having an arc-shaped tip is provided on the left side of the tip of the memory card 30.

As shown in FIG. 4B, the connector main body 10 is provided with a plurality of connection terminals 60 disposed at a leading end of the through hole 11 with a predetermined gap left and right. As shown in FIG. 5A, the connection terminal 60 is made of a metal material and extends linearly in a plate shape.
Twisted at a. Tip portion 60b of connection terminal 60
The upper terminal piece 61 opposing each other divided in the vertical direction
And the lower terminal strip 63 are provided. The upper terminal strip 61 and the lower terminal strip 6 are provided.
A gap 67 is formed between the three. The rear end portion 60c of the connection terminal 60 is provided with a protruding portion 65 protruding downward. The front end 60b of the connection terminal 60 in which the upper terminal piece 61 and the lower terminal piece 63 are disposed is disposed in a vertical plane substantially parallel to the vertical plane, while the rear end of the connection terminal 60 having the protrusion 65 is provided. 60c is disposed in a horizontal plane substantially parallel to the horizontal plane.

As shown in FIG. 5 (b), the connection terminal 60 is a plate-like sheet-like terminal (not shown) having a predetermined gap in the left-right direction (vertical direction in FIG. 5) by sheet metal forming. After being manufactured in a state of being juxtaposed, each of the front ends of the sheet-shaped terminals is twisted so that the surface of the front end portion 60b is orthogonal to the surface of the rear end portion 60c, and these are connected to the connector body 10 preformed. Fig. 3
Connector body 10 having connection terminal 60 shown in FIG.
To produce

As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, a slider 13 is provided on the left side (the lower side in FIG. 3) of the through hole 11 of the connector main body 10 in the front-rear direction of the connector main body 10. It is slidably provided. The slider 13 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a swing member 15 that can swing in the front-rear and width directions of the connector body 10 is provided inside the slider 13. An engagement projection 17 projecting toward the memory card 30 is provided at an intermediate portion of the swinging member 15, and a cam projection 19 projecting toward the bottom plate of the connector body 10 is provided at the tip of the swinging member 15. One end of a compression spring 20 is in contact with the tip of the slider 13. A cam groove 21 is provided on the bottom surface of the through hole 11 of the connector body 10. The cam groove 21 has an inverted Y-shape as shown in FIG.
When the tip of the engagement protrusion 19 shown in FIG. 3B slides along the cam groove 21, the engagement protrusion 17 shown in FIG. 3B moves toward or away from the memory card 30. It is configured as follows.

Next, the operation of the connector 1 of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIG. 6, when the flexible printed board 40 is mounted on the connector body 10, the flexible printed board 40 is placed between the upper terminal piece 61 and the lower terminal piece 63 in any state where the conductor 43 is directed upward or downward. insert. Flexible printed board 4 between upper terminal 61 and lower terminal 63
0, the upper terminal piece 61 and the lower terminal piece 63 are inserted.
Are elastically deformed and move in the direction in which they are separated (vertical direction) to allow the insertion of the end of the flexible printed board 40. When the flexible printed board 40 is inserted into a predetermined position of the gap 67, the upper terminal piece 61 And the lower terminal piece 63. And the flexible printed board 40
And the connection terminal 60 are electrically connected. As a result, the flexible printed board 40 can be connected to the connection terminal 60 without selecting the orientation of the flexible printed board 40, so that the degree of freedom of mounting in the electronic device 3 shown in FIG. 1 can be improved. Become.

Next, a case where the memory card 30 is connected to the connector body 10 will be described. As shown in FIG. 3A, the memory card 30 is inserted into the through hole 11 with the memory terminal 31 facing the rear end of the connector body 10. When the memory card 30 is inserted into the through hole 11, the left side wall of the memory card 30 slides on the side wall of the slider 13, and the slider 13 moves to the distal end side of the connector main body 10 as the memory card 30 moves. Then, the memory-side terminal 31 contacts the rear end portion 60c of the connection terminal 60.
More specifically, the memory-side terminal 31 comes into contact with the protrusion 65 shown in FIG. At the same time, FIG.
The cam projection 19 of the slider 13 moves along the cam groove 21 and is locked at a predetermined position, and the engagement recess 33 is locked by the engagement projection 17. Therefore, the memory card 30 is held by the connector body 10 in a state where the memory-side terminals 31 and the connection terminals 60 are in contact with each other, and the connection terminals 60 and the memory card 30 are electrically connected. As a result, the memory card 30 and the flexible printed board 40 shown in FIG. 6 are electrically connected via the connection terminals 60.

As described above, the flexible printed board 40
And the memory card 30 are electrically connected via the connection terminals 60, so that soldering work is not required as compared with the conventional technique of soldering the connection terminals to the hard substrate, and the manufacturing cost of the connector 1 is reduced. be able to.

In the above-described embodiment, the connection terminals 6
Although the example in which the flexible printed board 40 is connected to the other end of the connection terminal 60 is shown, the invention is not limited to this, and an FFC (flexible flat cable) can be connected to the other end of the connection terminal 60. Even in this case, the FFC can be connected to the connection terminal 60 without selecting the direction of the terminal of the FFC, and the degree of freedom in mounting in the electronic device 3 can be improved.

[0024]

According to the connector of the present invention, the connection terminal has an upper terminal piece and a lower terminal piece opposing each other, which are vertically divided at the tip end thereof, and is printed between the upper terminal piece and the lower terminal piece. By inserting the board-side terminals, it is not necessary to select the direction of the printed board-side terminals provided on the flexible printed board, either up or down, so that the degree of freedom in mounting can be improved. Also, since the electronic component can be electrically connected to the rear end of the connection terminal, the flexible printed board and the electronic component can be electrically connected via one connection terminal, and the connection terminal can be hardened. Compared with the conventional technique of welding and connecting to a substrate, a welding operation is not required, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a connector according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B show a flexible printed board according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein FIG. 2A is a plan view of the flexible printed board, and FIG. 2B is an AA arrow of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the part corresponding to.

3A and 3B show a connector main body and a memory card according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3A is a plan view showing a state where the memory card is inserted, and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of the slider. It is.

4A and 4B show a connector main body according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4A is a side view of the connector main body;
FIG. 2B is a plan view of the connector main body.

5A and 5B show a connection terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5A is a side view of the connection terminal, and FIG. 5B is a plan view of the connection terminal.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the connection terminal according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Connector 10 Connector main body part 11 Through-hole 30 Memory card 31 Memory side terminal 40 Flexible printed board 43 Conductor 60 Connection terminal 61 Upper terminal piece 63 Lower terminal piece

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yasushi Nakajima 1-20-2 Minamihashimoto, Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture Co., Ltd. Inside Marunix Parts Business Unit (72) Inventor Koichi Kikuchi 1-20-2 Minamihashimoto, Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture shares F-term in Marnics Parts Business Division (reference) 5B058 CA13 5E023 AA04 AA21 BB09 BB19 BB23 CC04 CC23 DD19 EE12 EE19 EE20 FF07 GG10 HH05 HH18 HH20

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic component having a component side terminal at an end, a connector main body capable of holding the electronic component in a detachable manner, a detachable mountable on the connector main body, and a printed board side at an end. A flexible printed board having terminals, provided on the connector body, the electronic component being inserted into and held by the connector body, and the flexible printed board being mounted on the connector body, at one end side A connection terminal electrically connected to the component side terminal, and a connection terminal electrically connected to the printed board side terminal at the other end side, wherein the connection terminals oppose each other and are vertically divided at a tip end thereof; Having an upper terminal piece and a lower terminal piece, the printed board side terminal is inserted between the upper terminal piece and the lower terminal piece,
A connector wherein the printed board side terminal is configured to be able to contact both the upper terminal piece and the lower terminal piece. 2. The connector body has a through-hole, the electronic component is inserted through one opening of the through-hole, and the connector is inserted into the through-hole on the tip end side of the inserted electronic component. A connection terminal is provided, the printed board side terminal is inserted through the other opening of the through hole, and the electronic component is electrically connected to the flexible printed board via the connection terminal. The connector according to claim 1, wherein: