JP3363834B2 - Multi-pole connector and ultrasonic probe - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multipolar connector used, for example, for connection with an ultrasonic probe in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an ultrasonic probe connected to an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus has a sensor section composed of 150 to 300 sensors, and 150 to 3 electrically connected to each of these sensors.
It consists of a multi-core cable part consisting of 00 cores, and a plug side connector part that can be attached to and detached from the diagnostic device and can make electrical connection of the signal lines of individual cables all at once. It has a receptacle-side connector that can be electrically connected to the plug-side connector part of the ultrasonic probe.The plug-side connector and the receptacle-side connector do not require insertion force at the time of insertion. A connector which can be electrically connected by a later mechanical operation is often used.

Conventionally, this type of connector has been described in Japanese Utility Model 7-39.
Those described in JP-A No. 183 and JP-A-6-84554 are known.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view for explaining the structure of a conventional multipolar connector. In FIG. 4, the plug terminal 16
Are held by the movable insulator 4 so as to be aligned at regular intervals, and the rotation of the shaft 6 causes horizontal pressure to be applied to the cam 5, and together with the movable insulator 4, the plug terminal 16
Moves in the horizontal direction and mechanically contacts with the receptacle terminal 1 fixed to the receptacle housing 2 which is a mating partner to obtain electrical conduction.

In FIG. 4, (a) shows the inserted state of the connector, and (b) shows the electrically connected state after the shaft is rotated.

As described above, the multi-pole connector utilizing the cam structure by the rotation of the shaft has an advantage that the connector can be inserted with an extremely low insertion force in spite of the multi-pole connector of several hundred poles.

In addition, with the recent increase in the number of cores of cables, the diameter of cables has been reduced, and as a method for terminal treatment of cables, a plurality of cables are arranged at a constant pitch, and terminal treatment is performed collectively, and crimp terminals are used. A method of electrically connecting to a printed circuit board or the like without using the above has been widely used.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional multi-pole connector, the plug terminal 16 is manufactured by a method such as sheet metal pressing, and the contact end of the plug terminal 16 with the receptacle terminal 1 is in the tens of thousands. Although it is formed with a contact structure that can be electrically connected with high reliability even when it is detached and attached once, the other end of the plug terminal 16 is a printed circuit board.
It is formed for insertion soldering into the through hole of 21 or for wire wrapping, and when connecting to multiple printed circuit boards where the cable is terminated,
The printed circuit board 21 is soldered to the plug terminal 16, the connector terminal 18 is further soldered to the printed circuit board 21, and the printed circuit board (not shown) is soldered to the connector terminal 19 which is fitted with the connector terminal 18. needs to be configured has Tsu Oh.

With such a configuration, in the case of constructing an ultrasonic probe having, for example, 200 sensors, in addition to a 200-core multicore cable, 200 plug terminals 16, 200 receptacle terminals 1, 200 1 connector terminal 18 and 200 connector terminals 19 are required,
Since it is also necessary to provide the above, and the number of parts is very large, there is a problem that part cost and assembly cost are required.

Furthermore, it is necessary to form a conductor pattern for electrically connecting the plug terminal 16 and the connector terminal 18 on the printed circuit board 21, which causes electrical crosstalk and the like due to an increase in conductor paths. Therefore, it is also a cause of deterioration of the ultrasonic diagnostic image.

These become more remarkable as the number of sensors of the ultrasonic probe increases as the performance of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus increases.

The present invention solves such a conventional problem, and can be constructed with a small number of parts even in an ultrasonic probe in which the number of poles is increasing, the number of assembling steps is small, the electrical crosstalk is reduced, and It is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-pole connector capable of inexpensively constructing a high-performance ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, an anti-receptacle terminal contact end of a conventional plug terminal is inserted into a through hole provided in a printed circuit board by soldering or wire lapping. In place of the structure that was not able to make a reliable electrical connection, even at the anti-receptacle terminal contact end of the plug terminal, the electrical connection can be achieved with high reliability by inserting and removing it as a contactor with another mating connector. It is a thing.

Therefore, according to the present invention, since the plug terminals adopting the relay connector structure in which both ends can be electrically connected only by the mechanical contact are used, soldering or wire wrapping to the printed circuit board is used. Without
Even an ultrasonic probe having a large number of sensors can be configured with a small number of parts, and as a result, the number of assembling steps can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, since a printed circuit board is unnecessary, a short electrical It is possible to configure with paths, and electrical crosstalk can be reduced.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a receptacle terminal fixed to a receptacle housing, a plug terminal fixed to a movable movable insulator, and a movable movable movable insulator. consists of mechanism, one end of the plug pin movable in
Mechanical contact with the receptacle terminal is achieved by mechanical movement of the insulator, and it has a contact structure that enables electrical connection.The other end of the plug terminal has an arbitrary number of poles.
Selectable and individually contacted by mechanical mating with connector terminals
Multipole is obtained by a connector, print relay when a plurality of cables forms an electrical connection with the printed circuit board that is terminal processing to be characterized in that the electrical connection formed by a contact structure which can Since it is not necessary to use a board or a connector for relay, when electrically connecting a multi-core cable, it is possible to significantly reduce the number of parts constituting the connector. Since it is unnecessary, the electrical path length can be shortened, and the electrical crosstalk in the relay printed circuit board can be reduced.

The invention according to claim 2 is the multi-pole connector according to claim 1, wherein the contact structure on the connector terminal side of the plug terminal is a rod-shaped pin header structure. Another receptacle connector can be directly fitted to the contact end of the anti-receptacle terminal, and has the same effect as in claim 1.

The invention according to claim 3 is that the contact structure on the connector terminal side of the plug terminal is constituted by a receptacle structure capable of electrical connection by a spring structure capable of sandwiching a rod-shaped conductor. Of the multi-pole connector, and has the same operation as that of claim 1.

Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the multi-pole connector according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is used for connecting a multi-core cable and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. This is a sound wave probe and has the same operation as that of claim 1.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
3 to FIG. 3 will be described.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view for explaining the structure of the multipolar connector according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, (a) shows the insertion state of the connector,
(B) shows an electrical connection state after the shaft is rotated,
(C) shows the structure itself of the plug terminal 3.

In FIG. 1C, the receptacle contact point 3-a, which is one end of the plug terminal 3, is provided with a projection shape on a part thereof, and is projected by mechanical movement due to movement in the projection direction to another conductor section. It is processed into a shape capable of achieving electrical conduction by the contact of the parts, is finished with a surface roughness that can withstand the contact of thousands to tens of thousands of times, and is subjected to a surface treatment such as gold plating if necessary.

The connector contact portion 3-b, which is the opposite end of the plug terminal 3, is electrically connected by inserting the connector terminal 7 of the fitting connector from the end direction of the connector contact portion of the plug terminal 3, and mechanically connected. Is also held, finished with a surface roughness that can withstand hundreds to thousands of insertions and removals, and subjected to surface treatment such as gold plating if necessary.

The plug terminals 3 are made of a conductive metal material having a spring property, such as phosphor bronze or beryllium copper.
For example, it is formed by punching and molding a plate material.

The plurality of plug terminals 3 are held by the movable insulator 4 made of an electrically insulating material at regular intervals.

In the present embodiment, the plug terminals 3 fixed to the pair of movable insulators 4 are arranged in opposite directions, a shaft 6 is provided in the middle thereof, and an end portion of the shaft 6 is provided. A cam 5 is provided.

The receptacle housing 2 is made of a conductive metal material having a spring property, such as phosphor bronze or beryllium copper, is manufactured by the same means as the plug terminal 3, and is subjected to the same surface treatment. The receptacle terminals 1 are arranged and held at the same pitch as the plug terminals 3.

The operation of the multipolar connector configured as described above will be described.

When the plug portion is inserted into the receptacle portion, the cross section of the cam 5 in the axial direction of the shaft has such a width that no pressure is applied to the movable insulator 4, so that the plug terminal 3 and the receptacle terminal 1 do not come into contact with each other and are slightly inserted. Can be inserted by force.

By rotating the shaft 6 after inserting the plug portion into the receptacle portion, the cross-sectional width of the cam 5 in the axial direction of the shaft is increased, and a force for pushing the movable insulator 4 to both sides is generated.

Due to this force, the movable insulator 4 moves to both outer sides around the shaft 6, and the plug terminal 3 and the receptacle terminal 1 come into contact with each other, so that electrical conduction is obtained.

As an example of using these multipolar connectors, another connector to be fitted is provided on the side of the plug terminal 3 opposite to the receptacle terminal, and is inserted from the end of the plug terminal 3 opposite the receptacle terminal. , Electrical connection as well as mechanical retention.

With this configuration, the plug terminal has a relay connector function in which both ends thereof function as connectors, and on the receptacle connection side, it is a low insertion force collective connection type connector. On the receptacle side, it becomes a multi-pole connector in which a plurality of arbitrary pole numbers can be selected and which can be individually inserted and removed as a connector array.

In the illustrated example of this embodiment, only a pair of plug terminals and movable insulators are described, but the plug terminals can be arbitrarily arranged in the row direction and the column direction, and there are hundreds to thousands of plug terminals. It goes without saying that pole connectors can be constructed.

Needless to say, a plurality of connector housings holding the connector terminals can be arbitrarily arranged in the row direction and the column direction, and can be formed into an arbitrary connector block. .

Further, in the present embodiment, the movable insulator is arranged so as to oppose each other with the shaft as the center, but the cam is arranged at the end so that the movable insulator is moved in one direction. May be.

As is apparent from the above description, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the anti-receptacle terminal contact end of the plug terminal also functions as a connector, so that a separate relay printed circuit board or relay connector is used. No need to install
It is possible to significantly reduce the number of parts and the number of assembly steps.

The cross-sectional shape of the connector contact portion 3-b of the plug terminal 3 shown in FIG. 1 (c) is formed into a circular shape or a rectangular shape, and is finished with a surface roughness that can withstand a few hundred to a few thousand contacts. Further, it is also possible to have a pin header structure that has been subjected to a surface treatment such as gold plating, if necessary, so that the connector terminal 7 of the mating connector is mechanically inserted between the connector contact portions 3-b. It is inserted under pressure so that electrical conduction as well as mechanical retention is achieved. Even in this case, the same action and effect as described above are produced.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view for explaining the structure of the multipolar connector according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 2, (a) shows an electrical connection state after the shaft is rotated, and (b) shows the structure itself of the plug terminal 9.

In FIG. 2B, the receptacle contact portion 9-a, which is one end of the plug terminal 9, is formed such that a part thereof is formed into at least a bifurcated shape, and the inside of the bifurcated portion is formed into a rod shape. The connector terminal 10 thus formed is inserted into one end of the plug terminal 9 so as to be electrically connected and mechanically held, thereby forming a receptacle structure. Even in this case, the same action and effect as described above are produced.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a structural sectional view of a connector portion of an ultrasonic probe using a multi-pole connector according to the third embodiment of the present invention, which is described in the above-mentioned first embodiment. Using the multi-pole connector, the individual electric wires 13 of the multi-core cable electrically connected to the sensor part (not shown) of the ultrasonic probe are electrically connected to the printed circuit board 12 individually. It is fixed by soldering 14.

At one end of the printed circuit board 12, connector terminals 7 arranged and held by a connector housing 8 are arranged.
Are provided by soldering 15.

The printed circuit board 12 to which the electric wire 13 and the connector terminal 7 are soldered is inserted from the rear end portion 3-b of the plug terminal 3 to be electrically connected and mechanically held.

At this time, it is possible to arbitrarily provide a plurality of electric wires and connector terminals on the printed circuit board 12.
A plurality of columns may be collectively provided as needed.

In the ultrasonic probe using the multipole connector as described above, it is necessary to use a relay printed circuit board or a relay connector when the multicore cable is configured to be connected to the connector. Since it is not present, the number of parts can be significantly reduced, and the number of assembling steps can be reduced.

Furthermore, since a relay printed circuit board is not required, the electrical path length can be shortened, electrical crosstalk can be reduced, and a high-performance ultrasonic probe can be manufactured at a low cost. Can be provided to.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention, one end of the plug terminal has a contact structure capable of electrical connection by mechanical contact with the receptacle terminal, and the other end is mechanically contacted with the connector terminal. It is configured with a contact structure that can be electrically connected, and since both ends use plug terminals that adopt a relay connector-like structure that can achieve electrical connection only by mechanical contact, soldering to a printed circuit board or An ultrasonic probe having many sensors can be configured with a small number of parts without using wire wrapping, and as a result, the number of assembly steps can be significantly reduced, and a printed circuit board is unnecessary. Therefore, it is possible to form a short electrical path, and it is possible to reduce electrical crosstalk.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 (a) is a cross-sectional view for explaining the structure of the multipolar connector according to the first embodiment of the present invention when it is inserted,
(B) A sectional view showing an electrically connected state of the multi-pole connector according to the first embodiment of the present invention, (c) A front view showing the structure of the plug terminal of the multi-pole connector according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Figure,

2A is a cross-sectional view showing an electrically connected state of the multi-pole connector according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2B is a plug terminal of the multi-pole connector according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Front view showing the structure,

FIG. 3 is a structural sectional view of a connector portion of an ultrasonic probe using a multipolar connector according to a third embodiment of the present invention,

4A is a cross-sectional view for explaining a structure of a conventional multipolar connector when it is inserted, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view showing an electrically connected state of the multipolar connector in the conventional multipolar connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Receptacle terminal 2,9 Receptacle housing 3, 9, 16 plug terminals 4 Movable insulator 5 cams 6 shafts 7, 10, 18, 19 Connector terminals 8, 11, 17, 20 Connector housing 12, 21 printed circuit board 13 electric wire 14, 15, 22, 23 Soldering

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] And 1. A receptacle terminal fixed to the receptacle housing, the plug terminal which is fixed on a movable movable insulator is composed of the movable insulator movably movable mechanism, one end of the plug pin the
Mechanical contact with the receptacle terminal is achieved by mechanical movement of the movable insulator, and a contact structure capable of electrical connection is provided, and the other end of the plug terminal has an arbitrary structure.
Selectable number of poles for individual mechanical fitting with connector terminals
Multipolar connector, wherein this <br/> and configured with more contact with electrical connection possible contact structure. 2. The multi-pole connector according to claim 1, wherein the contact structure on the connector terminal side of the plug terminal is a rod-shaped pin header structure. 3. The contact structure on the connector terminal side of the plug terminal is constituted by a receptacle structure capable of electrical connection by a spring structure capable of sandwiching a rod-shaped conductor.
The described multi-pole connector. 4. An ultrasonic probe using the multipolar connector according to claim 1 for connecting a multicore cable and an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus.