JP2008047339A - Surface-mounted connector - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a surface-mounted connector with downsizing of a board aimed at, in one whose electric characteristics are confirmed by being surface mounted on a board. <P>SOLUTION: The surface-mounted connector comprises one of the connector elements 1 mounted on the surface of the board 3, and the other connector element 2 connected in correspondence with the one connector element 1. A test pad 5 with which a measurement pin 40 for confirming the electric characteristics is contacted is provided at a conductive body of the one connector element 1. Further, the surface-mounted connector is provided with a positioning mechanism 6 for positioning the measurement pin 40 onto the test pad 5. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a surface mount connector, and in particular, includes one connector element mounted on the surface of a substrate and the other connector element connected correspondingly to the one connector element, and confirms its electrical characteristics. The present invention relates to a surface mount connector.

  A connector is generally constituted by one connector element and the other connector element connected correspondingly to the one connector element. In the surface mount connector, either one of the connector elements is attached to the substrate, and the lead is soldered to the conductive pattern. FIG. 10 shows one connector element 1 ′ attached to such a board 3 ′, and a lead 12 ′ extending from one connector element 1 ′ is soldered through a hole formed in the board 3 ′. And electrically connected to the circuit formed around the hole.

  By the way, in such a connector, electrical measurement is performed for product inspection such as confirmation of energization. In the case of the connector element 1 ′ shown in FIG. 10, when performing electrical measurement, the electrical measurement pin 40 ′ is brought into contact with the tip of the lead 12 ′ protruding from the back surface of the substrate 3 ′.

  In another conventional general surface mount connector, as shown in FIG. 11, the lead 12 "of one connector element 1" attached to the board 3 "is soldered to the circuit pattern on the surface of the board 3". Therefore, a test land 5 ″ that is electrically connected to the lead 12 ″ of one connector element 1 ″ is provided on the surface of the board 3 ″ on the side where the one connector element 1 ″ is mounted. When the measurement is performed, the electric measurement pin 40 ″ is bonded to the test land 5 ″ provided on the surface of the substrate 3 ″.

  Furthermore, Patent Document 1 is known as a conventional technique for checking the continuity of a connector. Patent Document 1 discloses a connector device characterized by having a pin provided inside a housing and a hole portion provided on the top surface of the housing so that an external terminal and the pin can come into contact with each other. . Patent Document 1 states that “one terminal of an external terminal (not shown) is brought into contact with the test land 3 on the printed circuit board 1. The other terminal of the external terminal is in contact with the hole 6 provided on the upper surface of the housing 5. Is inserted, and the other external terminal is brought into contact with the pin 8 corresponding to the test land 3 with which one external terminal is in contact, whereby the continuity of the pin 8 and the test land 3 can be confirmed. (Paragraph 0011) and “According to the present embodiment as described above, by providing the hole 6 for conduction confirmation on the upper surface of the housing 5, the pins 8 in the housing 5 and the printed circuit board 1 are It is possible to confirm conduction only at the contact portion with the test land 3 "(paragraph 0012). That is, in Patent Document 1, the continuity between the pins in the connector mounted on the printed board and the test land of the printed board is confirmed.

JP-A-5-144520

  Among the above conventional techniques, in the connector shown in FIG. 10, when one connector element 1 ′ is mounted on the surface of the substrate 3 ′, the lead 12 ′ does not protrude from the back surface of the substrate 3 ′. For this reason, it becomes impossible to join the electrical measuring pin 40 '.

  Further, in the conventional technique, when the test land 5 ″ is provided on the surface of the board 3 ″ as shown in FIG. 11, the test land 5 ″ is connected to the board 3 ″ and the lead of the connector element 1 ″. In order to occupy a large area in the surface of the substrate 3 ″, the substrate 3 ″ becomes larger and the substrate 3 ″ cannot be reduced in size. The above-mentioned patent document 1 also has a problem similar to that of the conventional technique shown in FIG.

  And in patent document 1, the hole provided in the housing | casing upper surface makes an external terminal and a pin contactable, ie, it is for exposing a pin from a housing | casing and making it contact with an external terminal. It wasn't too much. For this reason, positioning of the external terminal with respect to the pin is not easy, and there is a problem that it may not be possible to measure the electrical characteristics by accurately bringing the external terminal into contact with the predetermined pin.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and provides a surface-mount connector that can be miniaturized in a surface-mount connector that is mounted on a substrate and whose electrical characteristics are confirmed. Objective.
In addition, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and provides a surface mount connector capable of measuring electrical characteristics by easily and accurately bringing a measurement pin into contact with each test pad. With the goal.

  In order to solve the above problems, a surface mount connector according to the present invention includes one connector element mounted on the surface of a substrate and the other connector element connected corresponding to the one connector element. A surface mount connector, wherein the one connector element is provided with a test pad to which a measurement pin for checking electrical characteristics is contacted.

  According to the present invention, it is not necessary to provide a test pad on a board by providing a test pad with which a measurement pin for checking electrical characteristics is in contact with one connector element mounted on the surface of the board. Therefore, the size of the substrate can be reduced. Further, by having a positioning mechanism for positioning the measurement pin with respect to the test pad, electrical measurement can be performed easily and reliably.

(Aspect of the Invention)
In the following, the invention that is claimed to be claimable in the present application (hereinafter referred to as “claimable invention”. The claimable invention is at least the “present invention” to the invention described in the claims. Some aspects of the present invention, including subordinate concept inventions of the present invention, superordinate concepts of the present invention, or inventions of different concepts) will be illustrated and described. As with the claims, each aspect is divided into sections, each section is numbered, and is described in a form that cites the numbers of other sections as necessary. This is for the purpose of facilitating the understanding of the claimable invention, and is not intended to limit the combinations of the constituent elements constituting the claimable invention to those described in the following sections. In other words, the claimable invention should be construed in consideration of the description accompanying each section, the description of the embodiments, etc., and as long as the interpretation is followed, another aspect is added to the form of each section. In addition, an aspect in which constituent elements are deleted from the aspect of each item can be an aspect of the claimable invention.

In each of the following items, item (1) corresponds to claim 1 and item (3) corresponds to claim 2.
(1) A surface mount connector comprising one connector element mounted on the surface of a substrate and the other connector element connected correspondingly to the one connector element,
A surface mount connector, wherein a test pad to be contacted with a measurement pin for confirming electrical characteristics is provided on the one connector element.
(2) The test pad is formed to have a larger width than the lead in the connector. In this case, the test pads can be arranged in a staggered manner.
(3) The surface mount connector according to (1), further comprising a positioning mechanism for positioning the measurement pin with respect to the test pad.
(4) The positioning mechanism can position the holding portion that holds the measurement pin with respect to the housing of one connector element according to the arrangement of the test pads.
(5) The positioning mechanism can guide the measurement pin held by the holding unit to the test pad according to the arrangement of the test pad.
(6) A device for confirming the electrical characteristics of a connector comprising measurement pins that are respectively brought into contact with a plurality of test pads provided on a connector mounted on a board, the test pad provided on the connector And a holding part for holding the measuring pin correspondingly and positioning the measuring pin with respect to the test pad of the connector.

Various embodiments of the surface mount connector of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. In the drawings, the same reference numerals are given to similar or corresponding parts.
The present invention is generally a connector comprising one connector element 1 mounted on the surface of a substrate 3 and the other connector element 2 connected correspondingly to the one connector element 1. A test pad 5 with which a measurement pin 40 for checking characteristics is brought into contact is provided on the conductor 10 of the one connector element 1.
Further, the connector of the present invention is characterized by having a positioning mechanism 6 for positioning the measuring pin 40 with respect to the test pad 5.

  1 to 3 show a first embodiment of a surface mount connector according to the present invention. The surface mount connector includes a male connector 1 having a pin 11 therein and a male connector inside as a connector element thereof. It is comprised by a pair with the female connector 2 which has the terminal 21 in which the pin 11 of the side connector 1 is inserted. In this embodiment, one connector element mounted on the surface of the substrate 3 will be described as a male connector 1, and the other connector element to be connected to the male connector 1 will be described as a female connector 2. The substrate 3 is printed and wired to form a circuit with a predetermined pattern, and the circuit terminals are exposed in the vicinity of the male connector 1 on one side of the substrate 3 for mounting. The female connector 2 is formed so as to correspond to the opening 15 so that the whole can be inserted into an opening 15 (described later) of the male connector 1. When the female connector 2 is inserted into the opening 15 of the male connector 1, the male connector 2 is male. A terminal 21 that receives and electrically connects each pin 11 (described later) of the side connector 1 is provided inside. Each terminal 21 is connected to a conducting wire such as a flat cable extending from behind the female connector 2 (left side in FIGS. 1 to 3). On the upper surface of the female connector 2, a protrusion 25 a is formed in parallel with the direction of insertion into the opening 15 of the male connector 1.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a soldering land 16 for fixing to the board 3 is provided on the bottom surface of the male connector 1. An opening 15 for inserting the female connector 2 is formed on the front surface (left side in FIGS. 1 to 3) of the housing (main body) of the male connector 1. On the top surface of the opening 15, a groove 15 a corresponding to the protrusion 25 a formed on the upper surface of the female connector 2 is formed in parallel to the direction in which the female connector 2 is inserted. A step portion 17 is formed behind the housing of the male connector 1 (on the right side in FIGS. 1 to 3). A plurality of conductors 10 are embedded in the housing. One end of each conductor 10 protrudes into the opening 15 and constitutes a pin 11 that enters the terminal 21 of the female connector 2 when the female connector 2 is inserted into the opening 15. The other end of each conductor 10 extends from the rear of the male connector 1 and constitutes a lead 12 that is joined to a terminal of a circuit pattern formed on the substrate 3. A portion between each pin 10 and the lead 12 of each conductor 10 is exposed on the upper surface of the stepped portion 17 at the rear of the housing, and includes a test pad 5 formed to partially widen the width.

  In this embodiment, the pins 11 are arranged in a line in the opening, and are formed by alternately shifting the positions so that the test pads 5 of the conductors 10 adjacent to each other are arranged in a staggered manner. Yes. Furthermore, the conductors 10 are formed such that the backs of the test pads 5 are linearly formed so that the adjacent leads 12 alternately extend from the housing at different heights (see FIG. 2). And 10B (see FIG. 3) bent downward.

  In the surface mount connector configured as described above, an electrical characteristic confirmation device is used when confirming the electrical characteristics. 2 and 3, the electrical characteristic confirmation device includes a measurement pin 40 that is in contact with the test pad 5 of the male connector 1, and each measurement pin 40 that is connected to the test pad 5 of the male connector 1. And a holding portion 41 that holds the corresponding portions. In the case of this embodiment, the holding portion 41 is formed so that each measurement pin 40 comes into contact with the test pad 5 by sliding contact with the vertical end surface 17 a of the step portion 17 of the housing of the male connector 1. . That is, in this embodiment, the end surface 17 a of the step portion 17 of the housing of the male connector 1 cooperates with one side surface of the holding portion 41 to position the measurement pin 40 with respect to the test pad 5. The measurement pin 40 constitutes one electrode such as a tester as an electrical characteristic confirmation device. The measurement pin 40 is brought into contact with the test pad 5, and the other electrode of the tester is connected to the lead 12, the circuit of the substrate 3 soldered to the lead 12, or the female connector 2 connected to the male connector 1. The electrical characteristics of the male connector 1 mounted on the board 3 are measured by applying a current and measuring the current value or voltage value in a state where the conductor 20 is in contact with a predetermined measurement target, for example. Can be confirmed.

  When the soldering lands 16 of the male connector 1 are soldered to the board 3 and each lead 12 is joined to the circuit terminal of the board 3 to check the electric characteristics, the holding part 41 of the electric characteristic checking apparatus is used. Is held in sliding contact with the end surface 17a of the stepped portion 17 of the housing of the male connector 1, and each measurement pin 40 is brought into contact with the test pad 5 exposed on the upper surface of the stepped portion 17 of the male connector 1. . Since the test pad 5 is provided not on the board 3 as in the prior art but on the housing of the male connector 1, it is not necessary to provide the test pad 5 ′ (see FIG. 11) on the board 3. The substrate 3 can be downsized. In addition, since each measurement pin 40 is accurately brought into contact with the test pad 5 by slidingly contacting one side surface of the holding portion 41 and the end surface 17a of the step portion 17 of the male connector 1, each conductor is surely provided. Ten electrical characteristics can be confirmed. When the confirmation of the electrical characteristics is completed, the holding part 41 of the electrical characteristic confirmation apparatus can be easily separated from the end surface 17a of the stepped portion 17 of the casing of the male connector 1.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, parts that are the same as or correspond to those in the above-described first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, description thereof is omitted, and only different parts are described.
A wall portion 60 constituting the positioning mechanism 6 is formed on the outer peripheral edge of the step portion 17 of the male connector 1 in this embodiment. When checking the electrical characteristics, the holding part 41 of the electrical characteristic checking apparatus is inserted and held in a part formed so as to be surrounded by the end surface 17a of the stepped part 17 of the housing of the male connector 1 and the wall part 60. To do. Thereby, it is possible to keep the measuring pin 40 in contact with the test pad 5 without having to keep maintaining the holding portion 41 in sliding contact with the end surface 17a of the stepped portion 17 as in the first embodiment. it can.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, parts that are the same as or correspond to those in the first and second embodiments described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, description thereof is omitted, and only different parts are described. .
The casing of the male connector 1 in this embodiment is not formed with the step portion 17 as in the above-described embodiment, and is positioned at a position corresponding to the test pad 5 provided on the conductor 10. 6 is formed so as to open on the upper surface. Further, the measuring pin 40 of the electrical characteristic confirmation device has a length that is equal to or greater than the depth of the hole 61. When confirming the electrical characteristics, the measuring pin 40 of the electrical characteristics confirmation device is inserted into the hole 61 and the tip thereof is brought into contact with the test pad 5. As a result, the measurement pin 40 is guided and held in the hole 61 and continues to reliably contact the test pad 5 with its own weight, and the measurement pins 40 adjacent to each other do not contact each other.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this embodiment, the same or corresponding parts as those in the first to third embodiments described above are denoted by the same reference numerals, the description thereof is omitted, and only different parts are described. .
In the surface mount connector in this embodiment, the terminal 21 of the female connector 2 and the pin 11 of the male connector 1 are provided in two stages. Further, the conductor 10 of the male connector 1 branches an intermediate portion between one end constituting the pin 11 and the other end constituting the lead 12, and the test pad 5 is constituted at the tip thereof. Also in this embodiment, a wall 60 is formed on the outer peripheral edge of the step 17 of the male connector 1 as in the second embodiment described above, or a male as in the third embodiment. You may form so that the hole 61 may be opened in the upper surface of the side connector 1. FIG.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, For example, it can apply also when mounting the female connector 2 on the board | substrate 3. FIG. In this case, the terminal opposite to the terminal 21 of the conductor 20 of the female connector 2 constitutes a lead connected to the circuit of the substrate 3, and the test pad 5 is provided between the terminal 21 and the lead. Provided. And the step part which exposes the test pad 5 like the step part 17 of the male side connector in 1st Embodiment is formed in the housing | casing of the female side connector 2, and the male in 2nd Embodiment is formed. A wall portion is formed on the outer peripheral edge of the step portion like the wall portion 60 of the side connector, or a hole is opened in the upper surface of the female side connector 2 like the hole 61 of the male side connector in the third embodiment. You may form so.

It is the top view which showed a part as a cross section in order to demonstrate 1st Embodiment of the surface mount connector of this invention. It is sectional drawing of the male side connector of the surface mount connector shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing of the part different from FIG. 2 of the male side connector of the surface mount connector shown in FIG. It is the top view which showed a part as a cross section in order to demonstrate 2nd Embodiment of the male side connector of the surface mount connector of this invention. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 4. It is the top view shown in order to demonstrate 3rd Embodiment of the male side connector of the surface mount connector of this invention. It is sectional drawing of FIG. It is the perspective view shown in order to demonstrate 4th Embodiment of the surface mount connector of this invention. It is sectional drawing of FIG. It is explanatory drawing shown in order to demonstrate the state which confirms the conventional general connector and its electrical property. It is explanatory drawing shown in order to demonstrate the board | substrate with which the conventional general connector and the test land were provided.

Explanation of symbols

1: male connector (one connector element), 2 female connector (the other connector element), 3: substrate, 5: test pad, 6: positioning mechanism, 11: pin, 12: lead, 15: opening, 17 : Step part, 21: Terminal, 40: Measuring pin, 41: Holding part

Claims (2)

A surface mount connector comprising one connector element mounted on the surface of a substrate and the other connector element connected corresponding to the one connector element,
A surface mount connector, wherein a test pad to be contacted with a measurement pin for confirming electrical characteristics is provided on the one connector element. The surface mount connector according to claim 1, further comprising a positioning mechanism that positions the measurement pin with respect to the test pad.