JPH07161441A - Surface mounting type connector and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a surface mount connector of low height structure containing many contacts having a contact part coming in contact with a contact of a mating connector and a connecting part to be connected to a solder pad of a circuit board, and its manufacturing method. CONSTITUTION: A surface mount connector 30 has one or more contacts 40 arranged in a line having a solder connecting part 41 to be soldered to a solder pad 50 of a circuit board and a contact part 41 coming in contact with a contact of a mating connector. In the connector 30, the connecting parts 41 of the plural contacts 40 are inserted into a contact holding hole 61 of a housing 60, and held. The solder connecting part 41 of each connector 40 is aligned in the solder pad 50 and soldered, then the housing 60 is removed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a surface mount type connector which is surface mounted on a solder (conductive) pad adhered to the surface of a circuit board (printed circuit board) and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Surface mount technology (SMT) is mainly used for high performance,
Widely used to construct electronic circuits for high density and small electronic devices. In this SMT, active components such as transistors and ICs and passive components such as resistors, capacitors, and diodes that constitute an electronic circuit are coated on one or both solder pads of a circuit board or a substrate (hereinafter collectively referred to as a circuit board). Press on the applied cream solder. Next, heat rays such as infrared rays or laser beams are irradiated to melt the solder cream and solder (reflow solder connection).

The advantage of this SMT is that an electric circuit, which does not have an opening for inserting a terminal of an electronic component in the circuit board and is directly soldered to the surface, performs an intended function with high density on the surface of the circuit board. Can be formed. Since the circuit is formed on one surface of the circuit board, the circuit can be easily visually recognized and maintenance service is easy. Further, since long soldering leads are not required, it is possible to downsize electronic parts and easily increase the density of circuits and electronic equipment.

By the way, almost all of the recent electronic devices use one or more circuit boards. An electrical connector (hereinafter, simply referred to as a connector) is generally used for interconnection between the circuit boards and interconnection between the circuit board and other electronic components. In order to miniaturize electronic equipment, not only electronic parts but also electromechanical parts such as connectors are SMT.
There was a strong demand for miniaturization using. as a result,
Various SMT connectors have been proposed, developed, and widely used.

Generally, a connector comprises an insulating housing and one or more contacts (terminals or contacts) held in the housing. The housing is used to hold the contacts at predetermined intervals. A conventional example of such an SMT connector is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-3432. That is, the conventional SMT connector is as shown in FIG.
For example, two rows of contact receiving passages 14 are formed in the bottom wall 11 of the substantially box-shaped housing 10 having the opening 13 on the upper surface having the bottom wall 11 and the side wall 12. The contact 20 is press-fitted and fixed in the contact receiving passage 14. Each contact 20 extends along the bottom wall 11 outside the bottom wall 11 of the housing 10 and a substantially linear contact portion (contact portion) 21 that projects into the opening 13 of the housing 10 through the contact receiving passage 14. It is formed in a substantially L-shape having a solder connection portion (solder tail) 22 that emerges.

Such a conventional SMT connector is arranged on the circuit board 25. Solder pads 26 are formed on the surface of the circuit board 25 so as to correspond to the solder connection portions 22 of the contacts 20, and the solder connection portions 22 of the contacts 20 are reflowed to the solder pads 26 of the circuit board 25 by the SMT technique described above. Connect with solder. In addition, SM
In order to increase or reinforce the fixing strength between the T connector and the circuit board 25, a fixing tab 28 is press-fitted and fixed to the outer surface of the bottom wall 11 of the housing 10 and soldered to a fixing pad 29 of the circuit board 25. Good.

[0007]

[Problems to be Solved by the Present Invention]
For MT connector, each contact 20 is a housing
It is press-fitted and fixed in a contact receiving passage 14 formed in the bottom wall 11 of the device 10. Therefore, the part of the mating connector (not shown) used for contact with the terminal is the part that projects into the opening 13 of the housing 10. In the case shown, approximately half of the vertical part of the contact 20 is the housing 10. It is buried inside. Therefore, the effective contact length used for fitting and use with the mating connector is limited. In other words, the height of the SMT connector is unreasonably high. In a situation where almost all electronic components have a low-profile structure, there is a problem that the connector prevents the electronic device, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), from having a low-profile structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an SMT connector capable of properly soldering (surface mounting) a large number of contacts to solder pads of a circuit board and having a low profile structure.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object,
According to the SMT connector of the present invention, a large number of contacts are detachably attached to the openings of the housing and are SMT-connected to the solder pads of the circuit board. By removing (or removing) the housing from the contact after soldering, the housing is not required when the mating connector is used, and thus an SMT connector having an extremely low-profile structure can be obtained.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The SMT connector and the manufacturing method thereof according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings showing preferred embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view for explaining an SMT connector 30 of the present invention and a manufacturing method thereof. In the particular embodiment of the figure, the substantially L-shaped contacts 40 are arranged in two rows. Each contact 40 is soldered to a solder pad 50 of a circuit board (not shown) and is substantially perpendicular to the soldered connection portion 41, and the solder pad 50 of the circuit board.
And a contact portion (contact post) 42 standing upright in the vertical direction. Contact part 42 of two rows of contacts 40
Are arranged back-to-back with respect to each other and the soldered connections 41 extend outwards from each other.

The contact 40 and the solder pad 50 are, for example, approximately
It is densely arranged with a 1.27 mm pitch. In order to properly solder-connect these many contacts 40 to the solder pads 50 of the circuit board at predetermined intervals, the contact portions 42 of the contacts 40 are previously inserted and held in the contact holding holes 61 of the housing 60. Notches (or recesses) 63 are formed on the bottom surfaces of both side walls 62 of the housing 60 so as to receive the soldered connection portions 41 of the inserted contacts 40. Also, the housing 60
The ridges 64 are formed on the upper ends of both sides of the ridge.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a pair of contacts 40 inserted and held in the contact holding holes 61 of the housing 60 of FIG. As can be seen from the figure, a pair of contacts
The post-shaped contact portion 42 of the 40 is inserted into the contact holding hole 61 of the housing 60, and the soldered connection portion of the contact 40 is inserted into the notch 63 formed outside the contact holding hole 61.
41 are received to allow adjacent contacts 40 to be properly aligned with one another and soldered to solder pads 50.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a manufacturing process of the contact 40 which constitutes the SMT connector 30 of the present invention. contact
40 is, for example, stamped brass with a thickness of 0.40 mm
It is formed by That is, a pair of contacts 40
a and 40b are punched back to back at an interval (for example, 1.27 mm) equal to the row interval of the contact holding holes 61 of the housing 60. The contact pairs 40a and 40b are formed by connecting to the carrier 45 at the bridge portion 48 at the tip of the arm 47 having a width of about 0.5 mm corresponding to the positions of the pilot holes 46 formed at regular intervals (for example, 6.0 mm). . Slots (or slits) 49 are formed on both sides of the bridge portion 48. Such a large number of contact pairs 40a, 40b are preferably wound with a carrier 45 after being plated with gold or the like, for example on a large reel (not shown).

Next, a method of manufacturing the SMT connector 30 of the present invention will be described step by step. First, a housing 60 having two rows of contact holding holes 61 shown in FIG. 1 is formed by molding a suitable plastic material, and a large number of contact pairs 40a, 40b shown in FIG. 3 are punched out from a metal plate such as brass. And perform necessary surface plating treatment to form. After that, the contact pair 40a supplied from the reel
, 40b (see FIG. 3) are driven into the contact holding holes 61 of the housing 60 of FIG. At this time, the contact pair 40a,
Note that the spacing of 40b matches the row spacing of the contact retaining holes 61 of the housing 60, so that the back-to-back contacts 40a, 40b of the carrier strip 45 can be pressed into the contact retaining holes 61 of the housing 60 at once. . Further, since the slot 49 is formed in the bridge portion 48 of the contact pair 40a, 40b, when the soldered connection portion 41 is pressed and press-fitted, the bridge portion of the contact pair 40a, 40b is pressed.
48 is disconnected. The driving of the contact pair 40a, 40b into the contact holding hole 61 of the housing 60 is repeated according to the number of contacts 40 required.

When a predetermined number of contacts 40 are driven into the contact holding holes 61 of the housing 60, a large number of contacts 40 held in the housing 60 are obtained as shown in FIG. The housing 60 having the contact 40 is arranged on the solder pad 50 of the circuit board, and the connecting portion of the contact 40 is formed as described above.
Solder connection between 41 and solder pad 50. The slot 49 not only facilitates separation of the contacts 40a, 40b,
Since the soldering surface is plated, the wettability of the solder is improved. When this soldering work is completed, as shown in FIG. 5, the finger 70 is applied to the rib 65 of the housing 60 or the housing 60 is removed from the contact 40 by using a robot arm. The angle α between the bottom surface of the rib 65 and the side wall 62 is selected to be about 91 °.

As described above, the SMT connector of the present invention and its S
The method of manufacturing the MT connector has been described based on the preferred embodiment. However, it should be understood that the present invention should not be limited to such a specific embodiment, and various modifications and changes can be made depending on the application. For example, the contacts of the SMT connector of the present invention may be arranged in one row instead of two rows, or a plurality of rows of contacts may be arranged in a staggered shape for higher density mounting. Furthermore, the contacts are not necessarily limited to substantially L-shaped post contacts, but are of a low insertion force type having substantially C-shaped contacts as disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 4,984,996 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-193473. It may be for a so-called SIMM (single in-line memory module) card edge connector.
Positioning posts to the circuit board and / or elastic holding legs (for example, see Japanese Utility Model No. 2-34774, No. 3-3776 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 29196) are provided at both ends of the housing, and contacts are soldered. You may make it hold and fix to a circuit board when soldering to a pad. Since such an elastic holding leg is elastically fixed to the opening of the circuit board, it can be removed with a finger or a simple tool after the soldering work.

[0019]

According to the SMT connector of the present invention, a large number of contacts can be inserted and held in the contact holding holes of the housing only when soldering to enable correct soldering work to the solder pads of the circuit board. Since the housing is pulled out after soldering, not only does the overall length of the contact be shortened to achieve a low-profile structure, but it is also possible to effectively avoid problems such as flux sticking to the contact part of the contact's mating connector during soldering work. It is possible.

Further, according to the method of manufacturing the SMT connector of the present invention, one pair of contacts continuously formed on the carrier strip can be simultaneously driven and held one by one in the contact holding holes of the housing, and the soldering surface can be formed. Pre-plated so soldering workability is good,
After soldering work or when mating with the mating connector, the housing can be removed and used, so SM with the desired number of contacts
The T connector has various remarkable effects in practical use that it can be manufactured easily and inexpensively.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a preferred embodiment of an SMT connector of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a state in which a contact pair is inserted and held in the housing of FIG.

3A and 3B are views for explaining a manufacturing process of contacts used in the SMT connector of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state where the contact shown in FIG. 1 is assembled in a housing.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a step of removing the housing after soldering the contacts to the solder pads of the circuit board.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional SMT connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 30 SMT connector 40 Contact 41 Solder connection part 42 Contact part 50 Solder pad 60 Housing 61 Contact holding hole

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Ricky Tan Singapore 2056 Industrial Park 2 Ammokio No. 26 Amp Manufacturing Singapore Paul Pte Ltd Limited (72) Inventor Peter Dejon Singapore 2056 Industrial Park 2 Ammokio No. 26 Amp Manufacturing Singapore Pty E Limited (72) Inventor Jackson Leon Singapore 2056 Industrial Park 2 Ammokio No. 26 Amp Manufacturing Singapore Piti Elim Limited

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of contacts each having a solder connection portion to be soldered to a solder pad of a circuit board and a contact portion fitted with a corresponding contact of a mating connector; and a plurality of contact holding holes, A surface mount connector, comprising: a detachable housing that holds a contact in a predetermined position until the contact is soldered to the solder pad. 2. A housing having at least one row of a plurality of contact holding holes is provided, and a plurality of contacts each having a solder connection portion to a solder pad of a circuit board and a contact portion are provided in the housing. Releasably hold, soldering the solder connection portion of each contact to the corresponding solder pad, after the contact is soldered to the solder pad,
A method of manufacturing a surface mount connector, comprising: removing the housing from the contact.