TWI431853B - Electrical connector - Google Patents

Description

Electrical connector

The present invention is directed to an electrical connector and an electrical connector assembly.

In particular, the present invention relates to an electrical connector adapted to be mounted on a circuit board, comprising: a housing comprising: - a front side; - a substantially parallel side of the front side; - a Defined as the thickness of the distance between the front side and the back side; - a length parallel to the upper surface of the circuit board; - a positioning arm projecting laterally and rearwardly from the back side, the positioning arm having an adaptation to be mounted thereon a lower support surface above the surface of the circuit board; at least one of the through openings extending from the back surface to the front receiving contact; at least one electrical contact mounted to the pair of through holes, the at least one electrical contact There is a first section extending along a first axis of symmetry and a second section extending along a second axis of symmetry, the first and second axes of symmetry forming a 90-turn angle.

Such connectors are known, for example: right angle D-Sub connectors.

Electrical connectors with boards are typically attached to the surface of the board on which other electronic or electrical components are mounted. It is particularly important that the market for such electrical connectors is operating in smaller, smaller, thinner and lighter electrical connectors, as the cabinets that typically contain such connectors are becoming smaller.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved electrical connector for mounting on a circuit board that meets the trend of smaller and smaller electronic devices and denser circuit board packages.

To achieve this object, in accordance with the present invention, the connector is characterized in that the outer casing includes a lower edge below the lower support surface and outside thereof, and has a projection formed in a portion from the back to the front surface. The projection extends vertically to the underlying support surface of the positioning arm and below and extends a distance substantially corresponding to the length of the housing to form a recess for accommodating a portion of the circuit board. The connector feature is further characterized by a portion of the first section of the electrical contact mounted to the housing including an asymmetrical shape that provides an available space adapted to receive the front portion of the circuit board.

With these features, the front face portion of the board has more available surfaces, for example, for the conductive rails, the front portion of which is received by the free space defined by the projections. The present invention is of particular interest for cabinet applications in that it is possible to use a connector with a larger sized circuit board for the same available space. Therefore, a more dense board package can be achieved.

Moreover, by providing a portion of the first section of the electrical contact mounted to an outer casing having an asymmetrical shape, it is possible to obtain a connector of reduced height. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, the connector can be mounted over a thicker circuit board within the same available space of a cabinet.

In some embodiments, it is also possible to use one of the corresponding request items 2 to 4 One or more features.

According to another aspect, the invention is directed to an electrical connector assembly according to claims 5-7.

Figure 1 shows a cross-sectional view taken along plane P by the connector of Figure 2. The connector 1 is for connection to a circuit board 2 (Fig. 4), such as a D-sub electrical connector.

The electrical connector 1 comprises an insulative housing 3 having a thickness along a first transverse direction T1, a length H along a second transverse direction T2, a high H. The directions T1 and T2 are perpendicular to the height H, and the directions T1 and T2 are perpendicular to each other. The outer casing 3 has a front surface 3a on which a front shielding member is attached, and a rear surface 3b. The outer casing 3 is provided with a pair of through holes for the electrical contacts to be inserted therein. For example, according to the invention, the connector has a housing height of 25 mm, a length of about 40 mm and a thickness of about 2.4 mm.

As shown in Figure 2, these electrical contacts are of two types: power contact 4 and electrical signal contact 5. The power contacts are large in size and have a diameter greater than 8 mm. For example, a power contact of approximately 10 mm in diameter is used to transfer power to the board and/or to transfer power from the board. Small diameter electrical signal contacts are used to transmit signals to and/or from the board.

The number of power contacts and signal contacts in the drawings is for illustrative purposes only.

As shown in Figure 1, the outer casing 3 includes two layers of through holes that are adapted to receive an upper and lower contact member 4. Each power contact 4 includes a first contact portion 4a having a mating end 6 extending along a first axis of symmetry 7 and a second portion 4b having a mating end 9 along a Two symmetry The shaft 10 extends. The first contact portion 4a is connected to the second section 4b by a curved portion 23 such that they are perpendicular to each other to provide a contact at right angles. The power contact member 4 as shown in Figures 2 and 3 is substantially circular and has a flange 11 which is located in the first section 4a which, when inserted into the back side 3b of the housing, is the back of the housing and the back of the housing 3b adjacency.

When the mating end 6 of the first section 4a protrudes from the front side 3a, one of the first sections 4a is partially mounted to the pair of through holes of the connector housing 3. The portion of the upper power contact that engages the outer casing is generally symmetrical with respect to the first axis of symmetry 7.

The underlying power contact is substantially identical in shape to the upper power contact, but differs in that the housing engagement portion includes an asymmetrical shape. More specifically, the bottommost portion of the contact portion is shaped to provide a planarized surface 12 that is generally parallel to the first axis of symmetry 7. In this example, the planar shape corresponds in cross section to the shape in which the cylindrical surface is divided parallel to the longitudinal axis plane of the cylindrical surface. This provides, for example, a planarization surface 12 of the electrical contact that extends parallel to the upper surface of the circuit board 2 and is facing the upper surface. Further, the flange 11 of the lower layer is cut, for example, in the same manner as shown in FIG. In accordance with the present invention, it will be appreciated that any other cutting shape of the lowermost portion of the contact member can be employed as long as the outer casing engaging portion of the contact member has an asymmetrical shape.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the housing 3 further includes a mechanical positioning feature 13 of the connector 1 mounted on the circuit board 2. In this embodiment, the holding features are: positioning arms projecting laterally and rearward from the back surface 3b of the insulative housing 3. Each of the positioning arms 13 has a lower support surface 14 It is assumed to rest on the upper surface of the circuit board 2 when the electrical connector is held in place. As in the example of Figure 2, the positioning arms also include retention features. For example, the retaining features are provided as a series of vertically downwardly extending parallel tabs 15 for retaining complementary apertures and forming complementary retention features 16 provided in the circuit board 2.

The outer casing 3 has a lower edge 17 below the lower support surface 14 and outside thereof, and has a projection 18 formed in a portion of the thickness from the back surface 3b to the front surface 3a. The projection 18 is located below the lower support surface 14 of the positioning arm 13 and extends vertically to the lower support surface 14 such that the lower edge 17 of the outer casing forms a flange portion 19.

In terms of use, for example, when the connector 1 is mounted on a circuit board 2, the flange portion formed by the lower edge of the outer casing abuts the front edge 22 of the circuit board 2 (Fig. 4), the front portion thereof It is accommodated in the gap provided by the protrusion 18. Therefore, more board surface area can be provided on the board 2; this surface area gain is substantially equivalent to the space released by the protrusions 18. Thus, for cabinet applications, the connector of the present invention can be mounted on a circuit board having more available surface area to provide a smaller, compact cabinet configuration.

Due to the asymmetrical shape of the contact provided by the bottommost planar portion, it is possible to lower the height of the connector 1. The shape feature of the contact also helps to provide a more dense cabinet construction in which the circuit board is secured to one another by one layer. In fact, the reduction in connector height can advantageously be converted to the benefit of connecting thicker boards (eg, having more embedded conductive tracks).

As shown in FIG. 4, the electrical connector 1 is mounted on the circuit board 2 such that the first retention feature 15 and the complementary retention feature 16 of the circuit board cooperate. In this figure, only one power contact 4 and the signal contact 5 are shown inserted into respective portions 20, 21 of the circuit board 2, respectively. The lower support surface 14 of the back side 3b of the outer casing 3 is in contact with the edge 22 of the circuit board 2 for better retention. Please note that it is only sufficient to design a slit on the board that corresponds to the connector length w and the depth d corresponding to the thickness t of the lower edge of the housing (for example, 2.4 mm in this example). Conversely, when using prior art electrical connectors, a deeper PCB cut is required to be able to be installed, such as a slit of about 7.7 mm deep. Thus, with the electrical connector of the present invention, a larger surface area can be provided on the circuit board 2 for the electrical rails.

The above description is provided as a non-limiting example, and various modifications of this example are also part of the invention in the scope of the appended claims.

1‧‧‧Electrical connector

2‧‧‧ boards

3‧‧‧ Shell

3a‧‧‧ positive

3b‧‧‧back

4‧‧‧Power Contact

4a‧‧‧ first section

4b‧‧‧second section

5‧‧‧Electrical signal contacts

6‧‧‧Matching end

7‧‧‧First axis of symmetry

9‧‧‧Connected end

10‧‧‧Second axis of symmetry/curved part

11‧‧‧Flange

12‧‧ ‧ flattened surface

13‧‧‧ positioning arm

14‧‧‧Bottom support surface

15‧‧‧Parallel tongue

16‧‧‧Complementary retention characteristics

17‧‧‧Lower edge

18‧‧‧Protruding

19‧‧‧Flange section

20, 21‧‧‧ Power supply contacts and signal contacts are respectively inserted into the corresponding parts of the relevant circuit board

22‧‧‧ front edge of the board

23‧‧‧Shape section

Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view along the plane P of FIG. 2; Is a front elevational view of one of the embodiments of an electrical connector; - Figure 3 is a front elevational view of one of the connectors of Figure 1; and - Figure 4 is an electrical connector including the electrical connector of Figures 2 and 3. Part of the top view of the assembly.

In the different figures, the same reference symbols indicate similar elements.

3‧‧‧ Shell

4‧‧‧Power Contact

6‧‧‧Matching end

7‧‧‧First axis of symmetry

9‧‧‧Connected end

10‧‧‧Second axis of symmetry

11‧‧‧Flange

12‧‧ ‧ flattened surface

13‧‧‧ positioning arm

14‧‧‧Bottom support surface

15‧‧‧Parallel tongue

17‧‧‧Lower edge

18‧‧‧Protruding

19‧‧‧Flange section

3a‧‧‧ positive

3b‧‧‧back

4a‧‧‧ first section

4b‧‧‧second section

Claims (6)

An electrical connector (1) adapted to be mounted on a circuit board (2), the circuit board defining a port having a width and a depth, the electrical connector comprising: a housing (3) , which comprises: - a front side (3a); - a back surface (3b) substantially parallel to the front side (3a); - a thickness defined as a distance between the front side and the back side; - a circuit board (2) a length parallel to the upper surface; - a positioning arm (13) projecting laterally and rearwardly from the back surface (3b), the positioning arm (13) having an adaptation to be mounted on the circuit board (2) a lower support surface (14); at least one of the through-holes extending from the back surface (3b) to the front surface (3a); at least one power contact mounted to the pair of openings The at least one power contact member has a first segment (4a) extending along a first axis of symmetry (7) and a connecting end extending along a second axis of symmetry (10) a second section (4b), the first and second axes of symmetry forming a 90° angle; characterized in that the outer casing (3) comprises a lower edge having a lower edge thickness The lower edge is located below and below the lower support surface (14) and has a protrusion (18) formed in a portion from the back surface (3b) to the thickness of the front surface (3a), the protrusion The portion (18) extends perpendicularly to the lower support surface (14) of the positioning arm (13) and below and extends Generally corresponding to the length of the outer casing, thereby forming a recess for accommodating the circuit board; and a portion of the first section (4a) of the power contact member mounted to the outer casing includes an asymmetry A shape that reduces the thickness of the lower edge of the electrical connector and reduces the depth of the cutout of the circuit board to provide a larger surface area for the electrical rail on the circuit board. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein one of the power contacts (4) has a diameter greater than 8 mm, preferably 10 mm. The electrical connector of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the power contact member comprises a flange (11) that is circular and adjacent to the back surface (3b), and the bottommost portion of the flange (11) is a The shape of the flattening. An electrical connector assembly comprising a circuit board (2) and an electrical connector (1) according to claim 1 or claim 2. The electrical connector assembly of claim 4, wherein the circuit board (2) has an upper surface that receives the connection end (9) of the power contact; and wherein the bottommost portion of the power contact has a parallel And for the flattened surface (12) of the upper surface of the circuit board (2). The electrical connector assembly of claim 4, wherein the slit has a depth substantially corresponding to the thickness of the connector housing (3).