KR19990006366A - Improved connector for printed circuit boards with single-sided straddles - Google Patents

Abstract

Single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connectors utilize multiple gripper arm assemblies located along the connector housing to effectively lock the connector mechanically to the circuit board. The gripper arm assembly includes upper and lower gripper arms, respectively, defining a printed circuit board receiving space therebetween. The gripper arm assembly effectively locks the printed circuit board to the connector without the use of screws and through holes. The connector overcomes the inclination problem of the connector and the shortcomings of manufacturing capability and simplicity in assembling the printed circuit board and the connector.

Description

Improved connector for printed circuit boards with single-sided straddles

The present invention is part of a serial application of US application Ser. No. 08 / 735,852, filed October 23, 1996.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly, to an electrical connector connected to one edge portion of a single-sided printed circuit board.

In general, there are various kinds of electrical connector assemblies that are properly integrated into the edge of the printed circuit board. Most of these edge connectors include coupling slots into which edges protruding from the edge of the printed circuit board are fitted. The connectors also include fastening means, for example bolts or screws, for securing the connector housing to the printed circuit board.

In most of the electrical edge connectors having elongated slots for accommodating the end or edge of the substrate, a plurality of terminals are mounted along the slots inside the housing, the spring contacts of which are arranged on both sides or one side of the printed circuit board. It is biased to a contact pad provided on the face. Connectors of this type generally suffer from the drawback of connector tilting, which is caused by bending of contacts or breakage of electrical paths.

In order to overcome this problem, many connectors fasten the substrate in the connector slot, thus counteracting the movement orthogonal to the plane of the substrate. Such fastening involves the use of screws across a hole formed in a printed circuit board. Such through-hole fastening means is not suitable for certain manufacturing and assembly processes such as oven / IR reflow soldering.

On the other hand, fastening the connector firmly to the printed circuit board causes other kinds of problems. Such problems include that the spring contacts of the terminals lose their elasticity, thus losing the effective bias coupling with the pads on the printed circuit board. Moreover, a problem arises in which gold is generated by pressure around the fastening means for filling the connector to the substrate. Gold generated by this pressure may generate an open circuit if the gold crosses the printed board.

To avoid this problem with edge connectors, a typical header design is usually a surface mount connector or a right angle connector. Surface-mount connectors usually use hooks to ensure fastening of connectors to printed circuit boards. This design suffers from the problems associated with coplanarity control of lead leads, as well as the problem of slanting connectors similar to those mentioned above for edge connectors. These problems make connector manufacture difficult and result in poor weld formation during the automatic soldering process of attaching leads for adhesion to lead pads of printed circuit boards.

On the other hand, the right angle connector suffers from the inclination as well as the twist of the lead lead used to hold the connector straight. In order to avoid the problems of twisting and tilting, these connectors generally use screws and through-holes on the printed circuit board to fasten the connector to the substrate. Therefore, this right angle connector suffers not only from the above mentioned difficulty of fabrication and assembly, but also from the gold caused by the pressure described above.

In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a substrate having an improved design of replacing the surface-mounted and right angle printed circuit board connectors.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved single-sided straddle mount connector for mounting on a printed circuit board.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector with improved grip on a printed circuit board.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector with improved Z-height control without compromising connector stiffness.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector with improved solder bond formation by preliminarily attaching lead on a printed circuit board to ensure excellent bond contact.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector that can correct and harmonize the distortion of the thin printed circuit board generated during the soldering process.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector having a plurality of grippers or female assemblies, provided with effective means for correcting the distortion of the printed circuit board.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector with a gripper arm assembly on the connector for effective grip, in which the inclination of the connector relative to each printed circuit board is eliminated. It is.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector with improved coplanarity control of lead leads, as the manufacturing process is easy and simplified as the tolerance increases.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a plastic single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector that provides enhanced plastic stiffness using an I-beam and C-channel design for gripper arm assembly.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a plastic single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board edge connector with improved injection of plastic material into the thin portion of the connector during injection molding.

1 is a top perspective view of a single-sided straddle mounted connector formed in accordance with the present invention coupled to an edge of a printed circuit board;

2 is a detailed enlarged view of the connector and the printed circuit board shown in FIG.

3 is a rear view of the connector header assembly formed in accordance with the present invention;

4 is a top plan view of a connector formed in accordance with the present invention;

5 is a cross-sectional view of a connector formed in accordance with the present invention showing the connector insertion direction into the printed circuit board rim;

6A is a front view of a connector formed in accordance with the present invention in which the coplanar tolerances of the connector lead lead and the printed circuit board seating surface are shown;

6B is a partially enlarged perspective view of a connector lead tail formed according to the present invention, which is inserted into and electrically contacted with a lead pad of a printed circuit board;

7 is a front view showing a printed circuit board distortion correction provided by a connector gripper arm assembly and a connector formed according to the present invention;

8 is a side view of a connector and a gripper arm assembly to which a printed circuit board is coupled;

9 is a perspective view of a connector gripper arm assembly formed in an I-beam shape with a coupling portion of a printed circuit board;

10 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the gripper arm assembly formed in the I-beam shape shown in FIG.

11 is a horizontal cross-sectional view of a coupling portion of the gripper arm assembly formed in the I-beam shape and the printed circuit board shown in FIG. 9;

12 is a vertical sectional view of the connector gripper arm assembly formed in a C-channel shape;

13 is a perspective view of a simplified automatic insertion device for fastening a connector to an edge of a single-sided printed circuit board;

14 is a partial perspective view from the front of another embodiment of the connector assembly of the present invention;

15 is a perspective view of the connector shown in FIG. 14 viewed from the rear;

16 is a perspective view from the bottom of the connector of FIG. 14 supporting a printed circuit board;

17 is a perspective view of the connector of FIG. 14 from the bottom.

The connector for edge mounting to a single-sided printed circuit board according to one aspect of the present invention includes an insulating housing having side and rear walls opposite the top and bottom walls forming the header assembly. The back wall extends through and includes at least one opening in which the electrical contact is inserted. The electrical contact includes a contact pin portion located inside the header assembly and a lead lead extending from the rear wall of the housing in a direction opposite to the header assembly. The connector further includes a plurality of gripper arm assemblies located along the insulative housing and extending vertically in the lead-lead direction at the rear wall of the connector header portion. Each gripper arm assembly includes an upper and lower gripper arm defining a receiving space therebetween that defines a receiving space for receiving the edge of the printed circuit board. Since the gripper arm assembly provides effective mechanical locking of the printed circuit board and the connector, the lead lead is electrically coupled with the lead pad of the printed circuit board inserted into the connector.

The gripper arm assembly may be of a simple form having an upper and a lower gripper arm, and may be configured in an I-beam or C-channel shape. In the gripper arm assembly arranged in the I-beam shape, the assembly includes an upper and lower gripper arm and a vertical extension member placed between these upper and lower gripper arms, thereby forming an approximately I-shaped cross section. In order for the printed circuit board to be inserted into the I-beam-shaped gripper arm assembly, the printed circuit board includes a slot for fitting into the vertically extending member of the I-beam.

The gripper arm assembly configured in the C-channel shape includes a vertically extending member coupled with the outer surfaces of the upper and lower gripper arms to form a gripper arm assembly having a C-shaped cross section. Since the C-shaped gripper arm assembly is positioned along the edge of the printed circuit board, the printed circuit board may include a slot for fitting and engaging a vertically extending member of the C-channel.

The connector is preferably integrally molded, including a header and a gripper arm assembly. The contact is pressurized into the opening of the rear wall of the header assembly to form a connector according to the invention. The gripper arm assembly according to the present invention provides excellent mechanical connection with a printed circuit board and avoids the problem of connector tilting without fastening means such as through holes and screws. In addition, the connector of the present invention provides a structure that can be easily manufactured, which is simply combined with one edge of a printed circuit board.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a top perspective view of a single-sided straddle mounted connector coupled to the rim of a printed circuit board 20 in accordance with the present invention. The connector 10 has a contact or lead lead 12 that is electrically connected to a lead pad 14 located on the upper surface of the printed circuit board 20. Also shown is a plurality of connector gripper arm assemblies 16 with effective locking means for fastening the connector to the rim of the printed circuit board as shown in FIG. 1.

The connector 10 is single-sided because the lead lead 12 is provided on only one side of the printed circuit board. Many prior art devices have lead pads on two opposite sides of the printed circuit board, and the connector has top and bottom contacts for engagement with each of the lead pads. This type of double-sided printed circuit board has many drawbacks, including manufacturing difficulties associated with double reflow and double-sided solder pasting. In the present invention, since the printed circuit board including the lead pad is required as a single-side, the manufacturing speed is increased, and the above-mentioned difficulties can be avoided. A printed circuit is formed and attached to the upper surface of the substrate to form a printed circuit board.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial view of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the connector contact or lead lead 12 is electrically inserted into the lead pad 14 of the printed circuit board 20 because the circuit board is frictionally inserted into the receiving space formed by the gripper arm assembly of the connector. The spring retention type contact is connected to Since the lead lead 12 is biased to the inserted circuit board, the lead tail 18 of the lead lead is electrically coupled to the lead pad of the circuit board. The lead lead 12 has at least one bend within the range, and the lead tail 18 is twisted upward to accommodate the edge of the printed circuit board 20 without scratching.

3 and 4 illustrate an embodiment of a header assembly of a single-sided straddle mounted connector. In particular, Figure 3 is a rear view of the connector showing the arrangement of the signal pin 24 and the power pin 22 of the male connection. The connector housing 26 is made of an electrically insulated material, such as PPS or glass filled with PPA. The connector has a plurality of male power pins 22 that are integral with the female power plug. Moreover, the connector has a predetermined number of signal pins 24 depending on the application. 4 is a top plan view of the connector housing showing the gripper arm assembly, the spring retention contact 28 connected to the power pin, and the contact 12 connected to the signal pin 24 of the connector. In this particular embodiment, the connector has three gripper arm assemblies, located near each end 16a, 16c of the connector and the central portion 16b of the connector. The connector housing also includes a marking scale 30 formed in the housing for indicating the position of the first signal pin located within the connector.

5 is a cross-sectional view of the connector 10 according to the present invention before being connected to the edge of the printed circuit board. In particular, the connector moves along the surface in the direction of the edge of the printed circuit board for mechanical and electrical coupling. This connector is manufactured to accommodate any particular printed circuit board thickness, for example a printed circuit board having a thickness of 1.45 mm. Thus, the printed circuit board is frictionally inserted between the upper 34 and lower 36 gripper arms for mechanically supporting the connector to the printed circuit board. The lower gripper arm 36 extends long enough to be perpendicular to the edge portion in order to effectively support the connector at the edge portion of the printed circuit board. For example, the lower gripper arm assembly extends at least 4 mm from the rear wall 38 of the connector. The gripper arm assembly may typically have a width of 2 to 5 mm or a predetermined width. By having a large number of gripper arm assemblies and supporting the connector along its long axis, the problem of tilting the connector can be avoided.

The multiple gripper arm assembly arrangements for clearly locking the connector to the printed circuit board have a number of advantages in addition to the preceding design. For example, the novel arrangement of the gripper arm assembly eliminates the serious problem of tilting the connector for each printed circuit board. Furthermore, the lead leads or contacts of the connector can be designed with positive pre-load interference to enhance electrical contact with the printed circuit board lead pads without the risk of connector tilting. Moreover, the arrangement of the gripper arm assembly is used as an effective means for correcting the distortion of the printed circuit board whose shape will be described in detail below.

6A illustrates a pre-loaded leadide formed in accordance with the present invention. In particular, the lead lead 12 has a lead tail 18 having a round contact surface located below the printed circuit board seating surface 40 defined by the gripper arm assembly receiving space 42. The receiving space 42 is defined by the upper surface 41 of the lower gripper arm and the lower surface 45 of the upper gripper arm (FIG. 5). Accordingly, the lead lead 12 is pre-loaded by protruding onto the printed circuit board in order to provide good electrical contact force. Moreover, control of the coplanarity of the leadtail as shown in FIG. 6A can be relaxed without loss of excellent electrical contact force with the printed circuit board. The printed circuit board seating surface is shown by dashed line 40 as shown in FIG. 6A. Contact tails provide excellent electrical contact with the printed circuit board as long as the contact tail is below the seating surface of the printed circuit board in its relaxed position. However, even when the lead tail 18 is formed on the printed circuit board seating surface, that is, when there is no pre-loading of the lead lead 12 on the printed circuit board lead pad, An excellent solder joint can be supported as long as it is not separated from the seating surface of the printed circuit board by a gap larger than the thickness of the lead pad (FIG. 6B). In general, the lead pads have a thickness of 0.15 mm, as shown by arrows A-A in FIG. 6B. Therefore, when the lead tail is formed on the seating surface of the printed circuit board by a gap smaller than the thickness of the lead pad (shown as image table B-B in FIG. 6B), an excellent lead bond can be formed. The coplanar tolerance is represented by the lower limit shown by the dotted line 47 and the seating surface 40. Therefore, connector manufacturing methods and processes are simplified because they allow increased tolerances for contact tail coplanar surfaces. Also shown in FIG. 6A is a connector opening 43 in which male contact pins and lead leads are mounted on the connector.

7 is a front view of a single-sided straddle mounted connector according to the present invention shown with a distorted printed circuit board 44. In general, printed circuit boards tend to be distorted by shrinkage or other manufacturing conditions. With this distortion, it is not impossible but very difficult to obtain an excellent electrical connection along the entire length of the connector using an edge connector of a predetermined shape. The present invention comprising a plurality of gripper arm assemblies can effectively correct printed circuit board distortion and ensure excellent electrical contact. As shown in Fig. 7, the single-sided straddle mounting connector is connected to the edge of the distorted printed circuit board, three gripper arm assemblies 16a, 16b, and 16c, which will be described in detail below. This gripper arm assembly tends to firmly stretch the printed circuit board. Distortion is an important problem for thin printed circuit boards, and this problem can be corrected by the arrangement of the gripper arm assemblies on the single-side connector according to the present invention. If the distorted circuit board is located in the connector of the present invention, the circuit board distortion is corrected by providing a substantially planar connecting surface 46.

FIG. 8 is a side view of a single-sided straddle mounted connector showing a gripper arm assembly having a single-side with a printed circuit board seated in a gripper arm assembly receiving space. FIG. The gripper arm assembly includes a lower arm 36 having an upper surface that determines the Z-height (center line subtraction) of the printed circuit board. In particular, the Z-height of the printed circuit board is determined depending on the thickness and / or positioning of the lower gripper arm 36. The unusual shape of the upper gripper arm 34 and the lower gripper arm 36 provides superior Z-height adjustment.

The connector housing 26 is molded as possible as a unit with a gripper arm assembly 16a, 16b, 16c formed integrally with the connector header 27 (FIGS. 3 and 4). The connector header includes top and bottom walls, opposite side walls, and rear walls 38. The connector contact has a male connector pin at one end and a lead lead at the other end, and includes a rectangular transition portion 49 (FIG. 6) which is recessed in the housing and can be pressed into the molded contact receiving space 43. can do. The contact includes a single-sided lead lead on the printed board receiving side and a female connector pin for integrally engaging with the female connector in the header assembly of the connector. The gripper arm assemblies 16a, 16b, and 16c include a receiving space 42 between the upper 34 and lower 36 gripper arms, the receiving space 42 for receiving a printed circuit board having a predetermined thickness. To a predetermined size.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 the lower gripper arm is generally at right angles in shape and has a right angle cross section. In addition, the upper gripper arm 38 is substantially perpendicular in shape, but is tapered from the header 27 toward the opening of the printed circuit board receiving space and has a substantially perpendicular cross-sectional shape over its longitudinal direction.

The lower gripper arm 36 protrudes from the upper side to the upper side and has at least one protrusion or crush rib 48 connected to the lower surface of the printed circuit board. At least one protrusion or crush rib 48 helps to provide a good mechanical lock that is coupled to the edge of the printed circuit board. In one embodiment a single crush rib may be located centrally on the upper surface of the lower gripper arm. Meanwhile, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 9 to 10, a pair of crush ribs 48 may be provided at both sides of the lower gripper arm to prevent deflection when connecting to the lower surface of the printed circuit board. .

When the mechanical or electrical connection is made by the gripper arm assembly of the present invention, the lead tail is connected with the lead pad of the printed circuit board. This connection is made by oven / eye reflow soldering, providing a quick and reliable electrical connection between them.

9-11 illustrate aspects of another embodiment of the gripper arm of the present invention. In particular, FIG. 9 shows a gripper arm assembly 16 and a connector housing header having an I-beam shape. In particular, the gripper arm assembly 16 includes a lower gripper arm 36 and an upper gripper arm 34 forming a receiving space 42 of a printed circuit board therebetween, and a reinforcing rib positioned at the center of the circuit board receiving space. 50). The reinforcing rib 50 is integrally formed with the lower surface of the upper gripper arm and the upper surface of the lower gripper arm. The I-beam shape enhances the strength of the gripper arm assembly.

The I-beam shape allows the load to be tolerated without risk of breaking the thin plastic portion of the gripper arm assembly. Since the I-beam shape adds enhanced strength to the gripper arm assembly, a wider range of Z-height can be used, making the lower gripper arm thinner without sacrificing connector load capacity. However, when using the I-beam shape, as shown in Fig. 9, it is necessary to have a slot 52 in the printed circuit board to accommodate the reinforcing ribs of the gripper arm assembly. The slot 52 of the printed circuit board and the I-beam shape of the gripper arm assembly serve as an alignment means for the connector of the printed circuit board. Thus, printed circuit board lead pads are closely aligned with the lead leads of the connector to ensure excellent electrical bonding to the lead pads on all printed circuits.

Moreover, other advantages of the I-beam shape improve the manufacturability of the connector. In particular, the connector is preferably molded by injection molding with plastic. However, a problem may occur that the plastic is weakly flowed into the thin part of the connector, for example, the gripper arm assembly. The I-beam shape provides a good flow of plastic to the thinner part of the gripper arm assembly, thus improving the overall plastic injection molding process.

9, a crush rib 48 is provided on the upper surface of the lower gripper arm 36. As shown in FIG. The crush ribs 48 are generally right-angled protrusions having a tip protruding upwards on opposite sides of the upper surface of the lower gripper arm. As already mentioned, this crush rib 48 is applied to give a slight deviation to ensure good mechanical locking of the connector to the edge of the printed circuit board. This crush rib 48 is shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, which are partial cross-sectional views of the connector and gripper arm assembly shown in FIG. 9.

Fig. 10 is a partial vertical sectional view of the connector housing and gripper arm assembly formed by the I-beam shape depicted above. 10 also shows an opening 43 formed in a housing fabricated to receive connector contacts. As mentioned above, the connector contact can be inserted into the housing opening 43 by pressing, so that the tip of the male connecting pin can be connected in the header portion of the connector, and the lead lead 12 is connected to the lead on the printed circuit board. It may extend in the opposite direction to frictionally connect with the pad.

11 is a partial horizontal sectional view of the connector housing 27 with the lower gripper arm 36 and the reinforcing rib 50 shown. The reinforcing rib 50 is molded integrally with the connector housing and the lower gripper arm. The reinforcing rib is formed to fit into the slot 52 formed in the printed circuit board for the alignment of the connector and the printed circuit board.

12 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the gripper arm assembly. 12 is a partial vertical sectional view of the C-channel gripper arm assembly design in which the receiving space is defined between the upper portion 34 and the lower arm 36 and the rear portion 54 connecting the upper and lower gripper arms 36. to be. This C-channel design offers strength advantages in the thin plastic part of the gripper arm assembly. In addition, the C-channel design has each Z-height of the connector and allows for wider design functionality.

It can be understood that in the connector design, other gripper assembly designs can be used in any combination by the above technique. For example, it may include a C-channel design gripper arm assembly on the tip of the connector, and may include at least one I-beam gripper arm assembly along the long axis of the connector. On the other hand, the connector may comprise a reference gripper arm assembly (FIG. 5) comprising only the upper and lower gripper arms extending from the I-beam design gripper arm assembly or into the connector housing.

FIG. 13 is a simplified illustration of an auto-insertion apparatus for engaging a rim of a printed circuit board with a single-sided straddle mounted connector according to the present invention. The auto-insertion device includes a magazine holder for accumulating a plurality of connectors 10 and an insertion device 62 for pushing the connector 10 to the edge of the circuit board 20. The insertion device includes an air cylinder 64 having an insertion block 66 connected to the reciprocating rod 68 of the cylinder. By the operation of the cylinder, the insertion block 66 is in contact with the header of the connector, and the header is pushed in the direction of arrow A to be in contact with the edge of the circuit board 20. By fully inserting the connector into the circuit board, the connector spring-supported lead leads are frictionally and electrically coupled to the lead pads on the circuit board. The soldering process can then fuse the lead lead and lead pads permanently. Thus, the present invention provides good mechanical locking and provides reliable electrical contact of a single-sided printed circuit board using a simple assembly process. The assembly process does not require additional connections such as through screws to ensure reliable mechanical and electrical contact.

The single-sided straddle mounted printed circuit board connector of the present invention overcomes the disadvantages of surface-mounted and right-angled connectors, including connector inclinations, and provides reliable mechanical and electrical engagement with the circuit board. Furthermore, the assembly process of the connector to the edge of the circuit board is simplified. In addition, the manufacturing process of the connector is simplified because the increased tolerances allow the coplanarity of the contact leadtail without damaging the excellent electrical connection of the printed circuit board to the lead pads. In addition, the connector of the present invention is effective for correcting the distortion of the connected printed circuit board using the gripper arm mentioned herein.

As shown in FIGS. 4, 6 and 7, the present invention provides a method for coupling the printed circuit board 20 and the connector 10 in various ways to ensure coplanarity of the lead tails 18 extending from the housing 26. Is provided to ensure. In addition, the present invention compensates for some distortion of the printed circuit board, so that the printed circuit board distortion is corrected, which provides excellent electrical coupling between the leadtail 18 and the pad on one surface of the printed board over the entire long axis of the connector. To ensure that As mentioned above this is achieved using a gripper arm 16 extending from the housing 26. In particular, with each signal pin 24, the coplanarity of the lead tail 18 and the printed circuit board distortion are caused by a gripper arm 16c at one end of the housing and a third gripper arm located along the center of the housing 26. Is accommodated by 16b. Such alignment and position adjustment of the gripper arm satisfactorily meets the intentions, thereby additionally compensating the leadtail coplanarity and the printed circuit board distortion that can be addressed by the addition of the gripper arm connected to the contact of the signal pin. Can be.

The single-sided straddle mount connector 10 mentioned in FIG. 14 to FIG. 17 is supported along the bottom surface 26a of the housing 26 as shown in detail in FIGS. And an intermediate protrusion 17 extending forward in 26b). This protrusion 17 additionally serving as a gripper arm is located approximately in the middle between the gripper arm 16c and the gripper arm 16b. Between these spaces, the connector 26 supports at least one signal contact 18 with lead tails arranged in a tightly arranged row. While the above-described arrangement of gripper arms 16a, 16b, 16c is provided for some non-coplanarity and distortion of the printed circuit board, the positioning and positioning of the intermediate projections is an additional non- copper lead tail. Compensates for flatness and significant distortion of the printed circuit board.

The non-coplanarity of the leadtail as well as the distortion of the printed circuit board results in a non-lead connection between the leadtail and the trace on the printed circuit board, particularly along the leadtail 18 of the signal contact. This problem is encountered, especially when performed by a user where a thin substrate is used, in the thickness of various printed circuit boards. Such thin substrates increase the above mentioned problems. Also in the user's situation, the acceptance of such substrates results in increasing the problem of distortion. Moreover, during the soldering process, PC boards tend to distort or deform when high temperatures are added for proper soldering effects. Problems also arise with connectors. In certain instances, deformation or distortion of the plastic connector housing is possible due to built-in molding stresses generated during the formation of the connector or high temperatures added during the soldering process.

The addition of the intermediate protrusion 17 addresses the above problem and can make the solder connection between the lead pad 18 and the trace on the printed circuit board more accurate and reliable. This is particularly important in the region along the tip gripper arm 16c and the gripper arm 16b, which is an unsupported range in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4 and 6 and 7.

As described above, the protrusion 17 may be integrally formed with the connector housing 26. The protrusion 17 together with the gripper arms 16b and 16c forms a substrate accommodating space having a lead tail 18 for accommodating an edge of the substrate 40. The receiving space where the leadtail is biased to the printed circuit board ensures spring coupling to compensate for the lack of coplanarity of the tail along the entire row of contacts. Furthermore, the upper surface 17a of the protrusion 17 may include a central crush rib 17b protruding from the upper surface 17a for engagement with the substrate to hold the substrate 20 in a defined place. . In addition, the crush rib 17b is also used to arrange and position the substrate in the substrate receiving space.

Although embodiments have been described in the present invention described with reference to the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and the present invention is not limited to the technical gist and scope of the present invention. Various changes and modifications can be made.

As described above, according to the present invention, the gripper arm assembly effectively locks the printed circuit board to the connector without the use of screws or through-holes. To overcome the disadvantages.

Claims (6)

A long insulating housing having a top wall, an opposite bottom wall, and sidewalls spaced apart from each other; A plurality of electrical contacts supported by the housing in at least one row along the longitudinal direction and having a lead tail extending from the housing for electrical connection with a lead pad attached to an edge of the printed circuit board; A pair of gripper arms formed in the housing and extending from the housing adjacent to both ends of the row-contacts, the gripper arms forming a substrate receiving space together with the contact lead tails; And a lead pad formed on the housing, the intermediate protrusion extending from the housing at an intermediate position of the pair of gripper arms, the intermediate protrusion further defining a substrate receiving space together with the lead tail. Connector for mounting on the edge of a printed circuit board. 2. A connector according to claim 1, wherein said intermediate projections are generally located at equal distances between said pair of gripper arms. The connector according to claim 2, wherein the intermediate protrusion has a first surface for connection with the printed circuit board. 4. The connector according to claim 3, wherein the intermediate protrusion comprises a crush rib protruding upward. 3. A connector according to claim 2, wherein one of said pair of gripper arms is located adjacent one side wall of said housing. 6. A connector according to claim 5, wherein the other paired gripper arms are positioned inward at other sidewalls of the housing.