JPH10233267A - Connector for flexible circuit board - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a connector having many poles and small intervals while having high reliability and a small mounting area. SOLUTION: An insulation housing 2 has two openings 4, 6 and contact accepting grooves 12, 14 communicating therewith respectively. Contacts 20, 22 are disposed in the accepting grooves 12, 14 respectively. Different FPCs(flexible printed circuit) 220, 222 are inserted into the openings receptively and pressed against contact pieces 36, 46 of the contacts 20, 22 by sliders 50, 50 respectively whereby electrical contact is made. The slider 50 has a guide plate 50a serving as a guide at the time of insertion and an insert plate 50b into which a resin is molded integrally.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a connector for a flexible circuit board, and more particularly to a connector for a flexible circuit board for connecting a plurality of flexible circuit boards.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional connector for a flexible circuit board, there is known an electric connector disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-92085 as shown in FIG. This connector 200
Inserts a slider 208 from above into a housing 206 which stands up on a printed board 202 and accommodates the contacts 204, and connects the flexible circuit board 210 to the contacts 204.
To make electrical connection. The flexible circuit board 210 of the housing 206
Opening 213 for receiving the contact 204
Are arranged in a line in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 3-163771, a laterally opened housing is placed on a printed board, a flexible circuit board is inserted into the housing through the lateral opening, and a slider is used as in the prior art. There is disclosed a connector that performs electrical connection by pressing a flexible circuit board against a contact. In this conventional technique, one flexible circuit board is inserted into one opening.

[0004]

With an increase in the amount of signal transmission, there is a demand for a connector having multiple poles and a narrow arrangement of contacts. In the connector of the above-mentioned known type, it has become difficult to align the flexible circuit board (hereinafter, simply referred to as FPC) when connecting to the conductor pads with an increase in the number of contact rows. This is due to an increase in the cumulative dimensional error due to the multi-pole, or a displacement due to shrinkage or deformation of the housing material. For this reason, there was a problem that a problem that electrical connection was not made well was caused. Further, when a plurality of connectors are used, there is a problem that a mounting area becomes large and a cost becomes high.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a connector for an FPC which has a high connection reliability and a small mounting area on a printed board while having a multi-pole, narrow pitch. It is to provide.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an FPC connector according to the present invention has a plurality of openings oriented in arbitrary directions, and a different end of a flexible circuit board is provided in each of the openings. A receiving insulating housing; a row of contacts aligned with the openings; and a plurality of sliders inserted into the openings for pressing the ends against the contacts. And

The opening of the connector of the present invention is desirably provided at an angle, that is, at an angle.

Further, it is desirable that the slider has a shape that straddles the wall of the housing.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a flexible circuit board (FP) according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a connector C) (hereinafter simply referred to as a connector). FIG. 2 is a front view of the connector of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of the connector of FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, the insulating housing 2 of the connector 1 has two mating surfaces 8, 10 having openings 4, 6, respectively, on the right side, that is, on the front side in the figure. The fitting surfaces 8, 10 are vertically displaced and also displaced in the direction of inserting and removing the flexible circuit board, that is, the FPC. As a result, the outer shape of the housing 2 is substantially in the form of steps or steps. The housing 2 is formed with contact receiving grooves (hereinafter simply referred to as receiving grooves) 12 and 14 extending vertically so as to communicate with the openings 4 and 6. Receiving groove 12,
14 is not vertical but slightly inclined backward, and the receiving grooves 12 and 14 are separated by a partition 16.

Contacts 20, 22 stamped from a metal plate are received in the receiving grooves 12, 14, respectively. The contact 20 has a substantially rectangular main body 24, a tine portion 26 extending from the lower rear of the main body to the rear of the housing 2, and extends upward from the rear upper end of the main body 24 and is directed substantially forward in a U-shape into the opening 4. It has an exposed contact portion 28. The contact portion 28 is a support piece 34 that contacts the upper inner wall 32 of the receiving groove 12.
And an FPC 22 that extends forward and is inserted near the main body 24.
It has a contact piece 36 having a protrusion 36a that comes into contact with zero.
The front inner wall 12 of the receiving groove 12 is provided on the front edge 24a of the main body 24.
A barb (projection) 24b is formed which is pressed into and bites into a. The tine portion 26 is fixed to the printed board 224 by soldering. The main body 24 is inclined rearward with respect to the printed board 224 similarly to the receiving groove 12.

A front end of the upper end of the main body 24 forms a projecting portion 24c extending upward to the vicinity of the opening 4. In the drawing, a contact piece 36 ′ indicated by a chain line indicates a contact piece adjacent to the contact piece 36.
The contact pieces 36 and 36 'are alternately arranged in a so-called staggered (staggered) manner. Contact 22 is contact 2
Basically similar to FIG. 0, the difference is that the main body 40 has a small and elongated shape and the tine portion 42 extends from the lower front of the main body 40 to the outer front of the housing 2. is there. The contact 22 is locked to the housing 2 by a barb 40b provided on a protruding portion 40c at the upper front end of the main body 40. The support piece 44 and the contact piece 46 of the contact portion 42 have the same shape as that of the contact 20, and therefore the description is omitted.

The openings 4 and 6 have FPCs 220 and 222, respectively.
And sliders 50, 50 for connecting these to the contacts 20, 22 are inserted. Since the sliders 50 have the same structure, only the slider 50 inserted into the opening 4 will be described. The slider 50 is formed by bending a metal plate, and is a member having a substantially U-shaped cross section and extending in a direction orthogonal to the paper surface. One of the U-shaped metal pieces, that is, the upper part is a guide plate 50a located on the upper surface 54a of the upper wall 54 of the housing 2, and the other is an insertion plate 50b slightly longer than the guide plate 50a. A resin is integrally insert-molded into the insertion plate 50b to form an insertion portion 56. The resin on both sides of the insertion plate 50b is integrally formed through a hole or a notch (not shown) of the insertion plate 50b. Thereby, the insertion portion 56 is reinforced. The FPC 220 is inserted into the opening 4, and then the insertion portion 56 of the slider 50 is inserted into the opening 4. The insertion portion 56 is inserted between the support piece 34 and the contact piece 36 and presses the FPC 220 against the contact piece 36. Since the insertion portion 56 is inserted between the support piece 34 and the contact piece 36, it does not receive a force from only one side. Therefore, a well-balanced and reliable electrical connection is made between the contact piece 36 and the conductive pad (not shown) of the FPC 220 in combination with the reinforced insertion portion 56. At this time, the guide plate 50a is
4 to guide the slider 50 when it is moved along the upper surface 54a. In this embodiment, openings 4, 6 are approximately 5 °.
Although it is upward, this is to facilitate the insertion of the FPCs 220 and 222.

Referring to FIG. 2, the slider 50 is elongated horizontally, and fixed portions 60 are provided at both ends. This fixing part 6
Numeral 0 is integrally provided via a connecting portion 62 extending from a substantially central portion of the slider 50 in the vertical direction. The front end of the fixing part 60 is perpendicular to the connecting part 62 and the fixing groove 64 of the housing 2 is formed.
The engagement piece 66 extends into the inside. The engagement piece 66 is provided with a notch or hole 60 a that engages with the projection 68 provided on the inner wall of the fixing groove 64.

The plan view of FIG. 3 clearly shows the planar shape of the guide plate 50a of the slider 50. Slider 5
Numeral 0 clearly shows a state in which the fixing portion 60 is engaged and fixed to the convex portion 68 in a completely inserted state. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the FPCs 220 and 222 have been removed.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a sectional view of another embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a plan view of FIG. Hereinafter, the same parts as those in FIG. 1 will be described with the same reference numerals, and similar parts will be described with dashes. In the connector 100, the rear opening 104 faces vertically upward with respect to the printed board 224, and the front opening 106 faces horizontally parallel to the printed board 224. The receiving groove 104 is formed perpendicular to the printed board 224 in the housing 102. Therefore, the contact 22 ′ is also formed vertically so as to match the receiving groove 104. Since the same slider as that shown in FIG. 1 is used as the slider 50 inserted into the opening 106, the description is omitted. The structure of the front contact 22 'and its connection structure to the FPC 222 are the same as in FIG.

Hereinafter, the rear contact 108 and a method of connecting the rear contact 108 will be described. The contact 108 has a tine 126 at the rear end of the horizontally long main body 110,
A mounting leg 127 extending upward is formed substantially at the center of the zero.
Further, a contact portion 128 is formed forward. Contact part 128
Extend substantially straight upward to extend forward and then return to form a contact piece 136. Adjacent contact pieces 136 'are shown in dashed lines as in the previous case. A barb 127a is formed in the mounting leg 127, and the mounting groove 129 of the housing 102 is formed.
Pressed into and fixed. The slider 150 has the opening 104
And the rear wall 155, and is slightly thicker than the slider 50. In the insertion plate 150b,
As in the previous embodiment, an insulating resin is integrally molded to form the insertion portion 156. The insertion part 156 is inserted between the inner wall 132 and the contact piece 136 of the contact part 128 to press the FPC 220 against the contact piece 136 to make an electrical connection. At this time, the front end of the FPC 220 is bent downward and inserted toward the printed board 224 and inserted.

Next, referring to the plan view of FIG.
50 has a fixed part 160 connected by a connecting part 162 similarly to the slider 50. The engagement is unevenly engaged with the housing 102 in the same manner as in the case of the slider 50, and the description is omitted. In FIG. 5, the FPCs 220, 222
Has been removed.

As described above, in the two embodiments, the contacts are arranged in one housing in two rows, so that the mounting area on the printed circuit board can be reduced as compared with the case where the two housings are separately arranged. Further, the number of parts and the production mold can be reduced, which is advantageous in terms of cost. Even if there are multiple poles, the cumulative error can be reduced by dividing the length of the contact array into two, and a highly reliable electrical connection can be made.

Although the present invention has been described in detail, it goes without saying that various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. Any of the above two embodiments may be used depending on the application. Also, the insertion angle of the FPC can be designed at an arbitrary angle such as 45 ° or 60 ° as needed. Further, it is possible to arrange contacts in three or more rows and connect FPCs to each of the contacts. Further, various mutually different directions such as the direction of the opening may be considered.

[0022]

The connector for a flexible circuit board according to the present invention has an opening for receiving a different flexible circuit board oriented in an arbitrary direction, and a plurality of contacts are aligned with the opening by using a slider. Since the circuit boards are connected to each other, the following effects are obtained.

That is, an FPC connector having high reliability of electrical connection and a small mounting area on a printed board can be obtained despite having a multi-pole, narrow pitch.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a connector for a flexible circuit board according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the connector of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the connector of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a connector according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the connector of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a known connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 100 Flexible circuit board connector 2, 102 Insulated housing 4, 6, 104, 106 Opening 20, 22, 22 ', 108 Contact 50, 150 Slider 220, 222 Flexible circuit board

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An insulating housing having a plurality of openings oriented in arbitrary directions, each receiving an end of a different flexible circuit board in each of the openings, and a row of a plurality of contacts aligned with each of the openings. And a plurality of sliders inserted into the openings for pressing the ends to the contacts. A connector for a flexible circuit board.