JPH06208876A - Contact and socket using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a very small contact, of which fitting is facilitated, and a socket at a high density. CONSTITUTION:A contact 1 has a fitting leg 8 and a nearly U-shape part 16, of which one end is fixed to the fitting leg 8. One end and a free end of the nearly U-shape part 16 are respectively formed with projections 12, 30 opposite to each other. The free end has a contact 22 which contacts with a pad. An insulating housing 50 has multiple slits formed by partition walls 58 adjacent to each other and a fixed hole 54 communicated with the slit. The fitting leg 8 is inserted to the fixed hole 54 for holding, and the nearly U-shape part 16 is housed in the slit.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a contact, particularly a contact suitable for connecting an electronic device such as an IC chip carrier to a circuit board, and a socket using the contact.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various sockets have been proposed in order to electrically connect an IC chip carrier carrying an IC (integrated circuit) to a pad provided on a circuit board such as a printed circuit board (PCB). ing. For example, Shoukaisho 11-11399
Japanese Patent Publication 1 discloses an IC socket having a contactor 100 as shown in FIG. This contact is an elongated terminal 10
2 and two arms 104 and 106 that extend from the upper part of the terminal portion to the left and right and are opposed to each other while curving, and an electrode portion 108 provided at the free end of the arm 106.
The electrode portion 108 elastically always contacts the arm 104 to form an electrical short path. Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-37668 discloses a contactor having a shape similar to that of the contactor 100. Opposing arms of the contactor elastically always contact each other to increase the contact pressure. The mounting on the housing is performed by engaging the retaining ears on the upper part of the tabs supporting both arms with the cavity in the housing.

As described above, the contactor used in this type of socket has two arms electrically connected by a short path in order to shorten the electric path length so that signals can be transmitted at high speed. I am configuring. However, the contact for the IC chip carrier is extremely small, and it is difficult to increase the contact pressure between the arms. In addition, depending on the force applied to the arms, it may be difficult to always maintain an appropriate contact pressure because the arms that are in electrical contact are separated from each other. Further, when it is necessary to press-fit the contactor into the circuit board or the housing, it is necessary to hold and press the contactor itself, or to provide a shoulder in a direction orthogonal to the pressing direction and press the shoulder. Therefore, there is a problem that the assembling work is complicated and the size of the contactor is increased.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a contactor which maintains a high contact pressure at all times, electrically constitutes a short path, and is easy to assemble.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a socket having a simple structure in which the contact can be easily mounted.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object,
The contactor of the present invention comprises a mounting leg formed substantially parallel to each other and a substantially U-shaped portion having one end fixed to the mounting leg.
It is characterized in that the protrusions extending from the vicinity of both ends of the U-shaped portion to the other side and separated in the normal state and the contact portion in the vicinity of the other end of the U-shaped portion are substantially flat.

Further, the socket of the present invention is held by the insulating housing having a large number of slits formed at substantially constant intervals and the fixing holes formed so as to communicate with the respective slits, and the slits of the insulating housing. A plurality of substantially flat plate-shaped contacts, the contacts being substantially U-shaped and having a mounting leg formed substantially parallel to each other and one end fixed to the mounting leg and having a contact portion near the other end. Projections facing each other are formed near both ends of the substantially U-shaped portion, the attachment leg of the contactor is inserted and held in the fixing hole, and the substantially U-shaped portion has the slit. And is attached to the insulating housing.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a socket 2 incorporating the contactor 1 of the present invention. The contactor 1 is formed by punching out a metal plate such as beryllium copper and integrally formed into a substantially flat plate shape.
And a tine 6 projecting downwardly from the circuit board (not shown). The mounting leg 8 has a substantially rectangular base 4 and a tongue 9 extending laterally from the base 4.

A plurality of engaging protrusions 10 are formed on both side edges of the mounting leg 8. A protrusion 12 extending upward is formed on the base portion 4, and a tip of the protrusion 12 is formed in an arc shape. A substantially U-shaped bending portion (substantially U-shaped portion) 16 is formed from the base end 14 at the substantially same position as the protrusion 12 toward the mounting leg 8. The bending portion 16 has a bending portion 18 that is bent and a bending portion 20 at the folded end of the bending portion 16. The curved portion 20 imparts elasticity to the entire flexible portion 16. The bending portion 18 is formed so that the bending stress is distributed over the bending portion 18 in order to prevent the stress from being concentrated on the bending portion 20 when the bending portion 16 bends. A contact portion 22 is formed at the free end of the flexible portion 16 and extends upward to come into contact with a pad (not shown) of the IC chip carrier. The contact portion 22 is composed of an arm 24 extending upward and a contact region 26 provided at the tip of the arm 24. The contact area 26 is always in proper contact with the pad even in a state where the flexible portion 16 is bent by contact with the pad, that is, even when the contact portion 22 moves downward about the curved portion 20 as a center. Has an arcuate edge 28 that is slanted to contact the. Further, a projection 30 is formed at the free end so as to extend so as to face the projection 12. The protrusion 30 extends from the lower portion of the arm 24 toward the protrusion 12 while being curved in the opposite direction to the bending portion 16. What is important here is that when the tip 32 of the protrusion 30 comes into contact with the protrusion 12, as shown by the phantom line in the figure,
The side edge 25 on the side opposite to the bending portion 16, that is, the side edge on the left side in FIG. As a result, a stable and high contact pressure can always be obtained. If the projection 30 is configured so as to contact the right side of the projection 12, the following problems occur.
That is, the tip 32 of the protrusion 30 bends as the bending portion 16 bends.
Since it moves so as to rotate around, the contact pressure with the projection 12 decreases. Especially when the contact portion 22 is deformed by an external force, the influence is great. In some cases, the protrusions 12 and 30 may be separated from each other. The curved portion of the protrusion 30 also plays a role of supplementing the elasticity of the curved portion 20.

FIG. 2 shows a state where the contactor 1 is stamped from a metal plate. Reference numeral 42 in the figure denotes a carrier strip. The contact 1 is held by the attachment leg 8 and the carrier strip 42 being connected to each other. Then, the contactor 1 is obtained by cutting along the one-dot chain line in the figure. Further, although two tines 6 of the contactor 1 are formed, any one of them is removed and the remaining tines 6 are used. In this embodiment, it is preferable that the two types of contactors 1 having different tines 6 are arranged adjacent to each other and are alternately arranged so that the tines 6 are arranged in a staggered manner. Contact 1
After being stamped, it is processed and gold plated. The contact thickness is about 0.2 mm.

Next, the insulating housing 50 constituting the socket 2 will be described. In FIG. 1, an insulating housing 50 such as a liquid crystal polymer has a main body 52 to which the contact 1 is attached. The main body 52 has an opening 53 for receiving the mounting leg 8 of the contact 1.
A plurality of fixing holes 54 having the above are formed. The mounting leg 8 is pressed into the fixing hole 54 by pressing the end edge 5 and is held by the engaging projection 10.

3A, 3B, and 3C show a plan view, a front view, and an enlarged sectional view taken along the line AA of the insulating housing 50, respectively. The insulating housing 50 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape as a whole, and has flanges 56 attached to a circuit board (not shown) at both ends. A plurality of partition walls 58 are integrally formed on the main body portion 52 of the insulating housing 50 at predetermined intervals so as to be orthogonal to the axial direction of the insulating housing 50. The spacing is dimensioned to properly receive the contact 1 and forms a slit 60 for receiving the contact 1. The partition wall 58 covers the base portion 4 and the bending portion 16 of the contactor 1 so that adjacent contactors do not come into contact with each other (FIG. 1). When the contactor 1 is attached to the main body portion 52, the contact portion 22 projects upward from the upper edge 64 of the partition wall 58 and is capable of bending when coming into contact with the mating pad. The tine 6 projects from the lower edge 66 of the partition wall 58 toward the circuit board.

FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of a socket 2'using another embodiment of the contact of the present invention. The same parts as those shown in FIG. 1 will be described with the same reference numerals. The contact 1'used in this socket 2'is different from the contact 1 shown in FIG. 1 only in the shape of the projection 30 '. Protrusion 30 '
Has an extension portion 70 having a tip extended from the protrusion 30. The protrusion 30 ′ is curved and protrudes inward, and the protrusion 12 makes contact with the protrusion 12 as shown by a chain double-dashed line to make electrical contact. Next, the function of the extension portion 70 will be described.

IC chip carrier pads and arcuate edges 28
, And the arm 24 is pressed, the arm 24 may bend in the direction perpendicular to the paper surface in the figure. This flexing may cause the arcuate edge 28 to be misaligned with the pad and out of electrical contact in the previous embodiment. Further, when the deflection is large, the arcuate edge portion 28 may come into contact with the adjacent pad. The extension 70 is a protrusion that slides in the slit 60.
The length of 30 'is lengthened to suppress the bending of the arm 24. That is, even if the arm 24 bends, the extension 70 is
And the displacement of the arm 24 is suppressed. Further, the contact between the bulging portion 72 and the protrusion 12 is further ensured. Extension 70
Is provided so as to be displaced outward from the curved portion of the projection 30 'and the bulging portion 72, so that the sliding area in the slit 60 becomes large and the arm 24 is held more stably. By thus providing the extension portion 72, a connector with a narrower pitch can be obtained. The extension 72 may be made longer than that shown in the embodiment if necessary.

The number of the insulating housings 50 can be increased or decreased depending on the arrangement of the pads of the IC chip carrier. That is, when the pads are arranged in two rows on both sides of the IC chip carrier, two housings 50 are used facing each other. Also, if the pads are in one row, and 4 on the entire circumference of the IC chip carrier.
When they are arranged in a row, it is possible to use one piece and four pieces, respectively.

Two bosses 62 are formed on the lower surface of the housing 50 for positioning during mounting on a circuit board.

The preferred embodiments of the contactor of the present invention and the socket using the same have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist thereof. For example, those skilled in the art can easily understand that the shapes of the bent portion and the bent portion of the contact can be appropriately changed depending on the application and the size of the electrical connector.

[0019]

The important feature of the contact of the present invention is that the mounting leg and one end are fixed to the mounting leg, a short path is formed between the one end and the other end, and the contact leg is substantially parallel to the mounting leg. Since it has a character-shaped portion and is substantially flat, the following effects are obtained.

That is, by pressing the mounting leg from one side, the contactor can be easily press-fitted and mounted in the insulating housing. Since it is not necessary to separately provide a shoulder for pressing, the contactor can be downsized. Further, since the mounting leg and the substantially U-shaped portion are formed substantially parallel to each other, the substantially U-shaped portion can be stably supported even when the substantially U-shaped portion is bent, and high electrical contact reliability is achieved. Is obtained.

In the socket of the present invention, the mounting legs of the contacts are inserted and held in the fixing holes in an insulating housing having a large number of slits formed at substantially constant intervals and fixing holes formed in communication with the respective slits. Since the substantially U-shaped portion is arranged in the slit, the following effects are obtained.

A high-density socket can be formed with a simple structure. It is easy to assemble and can be manufactured at low cost. Further, an appropriate number of sockets can be arranged and connected according to the arrangement of the mating pads, which has a wide range of applications.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a socket of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a part of a strip formed by punching out the contact of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a plan view of the socket housing of the present invention.

FIG. 3 (B) is a front view of the housing of FIG. 3 (A).

FIG. 3 (C) is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of the housing of FIG. 3 (B).

FIG. 4 is a front view of a conventional contactor.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 1, of a socket using another embodiment of the contactor of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1'Contact 2, 2'Socket 8 Mounting leg 12 Protrusion 16 Bending part (substantially U-shaped part) 22 Contact part 30, 30 '' Protrusion 50 Insulation housing 54 Fixing hole 60 Slit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A mounting leg which is formed substantially parallel to each other and a substantially U-shaped portion whose one end is fixed to the mounting leg, and which extends in the normal state from the vicinity of both ends of the U-shaped portion. A contact having a substantially flat plate shape in which a contact portion is formed near the other end of the protrusion and the U-shaped portion. 2. An insulating housing having a large number of slits formed at substantially constant intervals and fixing holes formed so as to communicate with the respective slits, and a large number of substantially flat plates held by the slits of the insulating housing. The contactor has a mounting leg formed substantially parallel to each other and a substantially U-shaped portion having one end fixed to the mounting leg and a contact portion near the other end, Protrusions facing each other are formed in the vicinity of both ends of the substantially U-shaped portion, the attachment leg of the contactor is inserted and held in the fixing hole, and the substantially U-shaped portion is accommodated in the slit to provide insulation. A socket characterized by being attached to a housing.