CN1096134C - Electrical Connectors and Connector Assemblies - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a high density, low profile, low insertion force electrical connector and connector assembly having a plurality of contacts preferably arranged in a plurality of rows. The electrical connector (10) includes plug and receptacle contacts (31, 32) arranged alternately in one or more rows within contact receiving cavities (21a-21c) in an insulative housing (20). The connector assembly is formed of a pair of connectors each having insulative housings of opposite properties to allow a plurality of plug contacts and receptacle contacts to be alternately arranged.

Description

Electrical Connectors and Connector Assemblies

This invention relates to electrical connectors, and more particularly to a connector having a plurality of contacts in one or more rows.

A typical electrical connector includes an insulating housing and at least one contact secured within the insulating housing. However, with the gradual complexity of the circuit and the continuous improvement of the performance, usually a lot of contacts are fixed at a relatively small center line interval or at a high density in the housing. In personal computers and office or commercial electronic equipment such as copiers, fax machines, etc., there are usually a large number of dense contacts that are divided into more than two rows and fixed in insulating casings.

A typical example of such a connector is the so-called drawer connector. One half of the connector is mounted on the main body and the other half of the connector is mounted in a module which is insertable into a module compartment in the main body. That is to say, in electronic equipment and equipment such as copiers, more than two moving parts that can be electrically and mechanically connected as a whole are used in design for the convenience of repair and maintenance. To achieve interconnection, one or more drawer connectors are required at the interface between the main body and the modules.

One such drawer connector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 276575/89. The two halves of the connector feature a typical housing of opposite nature, with the plug contacts arranged in one row and the receptacle contacts arranged in the other row.

Another example of a connector with the opposite nature is disclosed in US Pat. No. 4,737,118. Arrange multiple contacts of the same structure in a row in the same connector housing. Engages a pair of mating contacts in the same housing that are aligned perpendicularly opposite each other.

The conventional drawer type or opposite electrical connectors described above employ the same resilient contacts normally bent in one direction which are resiliently deflected when engaged with each other. In other words, both the plug and socket contacts use the same type of contact. If a pair of such identical connectors are mated, all the contacts in one connector will pivot to the contacts of the other connector and the connector housing in which they are mounted.

This conventional connector can meet the requirements when the number of contacts is relatively limited and the size of the connector is relatively large. However, in small and high-performance electronic equipment, the contacts are usually arranged in multiple rows and fixed in the housing, and have a small centerline contact pitch. In this type of application, one row of contacts is oriented in the opposite direction to the other row, which compensates for biasing forces acting on the contacts. However, this compensation cannot be achieved if the number of rows in which the contacts are arranged is an odd number, such as 3 rows. In addition, common

The insertion force of the contact of the opposite nature is relatively large, and it is not suitable for a connector with a large number of contacts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector having a large number of contacts with very little space between the contacts.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a low insertion force electrical connector assembly having housings and contacts of opposite nature.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector with odd rows of contacts.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of conventional electrical connectors, and to achieve the above object, the electrical connector according to the present invention has a plurality of deflectable and non-deflectable contacts arranged alternately in at least one row in an insulating housing, by This compensates or balances any undue forces that may be acting on the housing. During mating, when the contacts are respectively engaged with deflectable and non-deflectable contacts in the mating connector, one wall of the housing supports the non-deflectable contacts in each row, while the deflectable contacts in the row The contacts are offset towards this wall.

In addition, the connector assembly of the present invention includes a pair of housings of the same or opposite nature, having a plurality of contact receiving cavities in the housing, and a plurality of non-displaceable contact receiving cavities alternately arranged in each row of contact receiving cavities in the housing. and deflectable joints.

The preferred embodiment of the electrical connector of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view of an electrical connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of several contacts used in the electrical connector of FIG. 1 .

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a mating connector assembly formed with electrical connectors of opposite nature in accordance with the present invention.

An exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 . The electrical connector 10 includes an insulating housing 20 , a plurality of right-angle contacts 30 , a pin alignment plate 40 , and a pair of board retaining members 50 . Such an electrical connector 10 may be mounted to a circuit board (see FIG. 3).

The insulating housing 20 has three rows of contact receiving cavities 21a, 21b, 21c extending from a mating face 22 to a rear face 23 of the housing. The first row of contact receiving cavities 21a are provided in a shielding plate 24 along the inner surface of an inner shielding plate wall. The second row of contact receiving cavities 21b is provided on the bottom surface of the inner wall of the shielding plate 24, and the third row of contact receiving cavities 21c is provided on the upper surface of a rib 25 separated from the shielding plate 24 and parallel thereto. A cutout 26 is provided in the outer wall of the shielding plate 24 , and a guide projection 27 is provided on the underside of the rib 25 . A pair of mounting flanges 28a, 28b extending rearwardly in parallel to each other are formed at both ends of the insulating case 20 . A pair of openings 29a, 29b are provided in the mounting flanges 28a, 28b through the flanges for receiving the plate securing member 50. As shown in FIG.

Contacts 30 include three rows of right-angle contacts 30a, 30b, 30c that are receivable in contact receiving cavities 21a, 21b, 21c within insulating housing 20, respectively. Each row of contacts 30a-30c includes alternating non-deflectable or plug contacts 31 and deflectable or receptacle contacts 32. Each plug and receptacle contact 31, 32 includes a contact portion 33, securing portion 34, and solder end 35 bent generally at a right angle. The contact portion 33 of each plug contact 31 is supported by a wall of the housing and the contact portion of each socket contact 32 is separated from this wall so as to be deflected towards this wall during mating.

Each row of contacts 30a-30c is stamped and formed from a conductive sheet or strip of metal. The solder end 35 of each contact 30, 31 is substantially a pin contact of rectangular cross-section. The contact portion 33 of the plug contact 31 is substantially straight, but its front or mating end is bent downward, while the front end of the socket contact 32 has a raised semicircular portion.

The pin positioning plate 40 is made of insulating material and is basically a flat member with a number of openings 41 equal to the number of contacts 30 . It can be seen from FIG. 1 that the openings 41 for receiving the soldering ends 35 are arranged in 6 rows, that is, two columns of three openings forming an alternating pattern, and the contact portions 33 of the contacts 30 are arranged in 3 rows of contact receiving ports in the above-mentioned manner. cavities 21a-21c. Additionally, the openings 41 in the latch alignment plate 40 are offset in alternate rows such that the openings 41 form an oblique line or an angle of approximately 45 degrees relative to the edge of the latch alignment plate 40 . There are also a pair of openings or cutouts 42 at both ends of the latch positioning plate 40 for receiving plate retaining elements 50 .

The plate fixing element 50 is produced from a flat sheet metal by conventional stamping techniques. Each panel retaining member 50 has a generally flat retaining or base portion 51 with several barbs 52 along the side edges and a pair of resilient legs 53 separated by vertical cuts 54 . There are barbs or serrations 55 on the outer edge of the fixing leg 53, which can bite the inner wall of a hole in the circuit board in a conventional manner.

The board fixing element 50 can be inserted into the positioning opening 42 and the opening 29 of the insulating housing 20 from the bottom of the insulating housing 20 so as to firmly fix the pin positioning board 40 and the insulating housing 20 . The pin retaining plate 40 is obviously mounted from the bottom to the insulating housing 20 so that the solder ends 35 of the contacts 30 pass through the openings 41 . Alternatively, the latch positioning plate 40 can be held in the insulating housing 20 by friction, so that the opening (or cutout portion) 42 can be omitted.

In Fig. 2 there is shown a portion of contacts 30 which are integrally formed along a support strip 39 by stamping a metal strip. Before the joints 30 are cut off from the bracket bar 39 and assembled with the insulating housing 20, the fixed portions 34 of these joints are also preferably connected. Plug and socket contacts 31, 32 are alternately formed and the required number of plug and socket contacts are cut from the support bar 39 and bent at different locations into different rows of contacts 30a-30c.

It should be noted that the first, second and third rows of contacts 30a-30c may be the same contacts. In other words, except for the length of the solder end 35, the contacts 30a-30c are identical. Accordingly, the contact strip is preferably designed with the contacts 30a having longer solder ends 35, which are then cut at progressively shorter positions to form the second and third rows of contacts 30b, 30c. This can reduce the overall production cost.

A longitudinal cross-sectional view of a mated connector assembly 100 according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 3 . The connector assembly 100 includes a pair of electrical connectors 200, 300 with opposite properties, which are substantially the same as the electrical connector 10 of FIG. 260, 360 on.

Specifically, the electrical connector 200 is the same as the electrical connector 10 , and the electrical connector 300 adopts the same insulating shell 320 as the insulating shell 20 of FIG. 1 , but in an upside-down relationship. That is, the electrical connectors 200 and 300 have opposite properties to each other. The insulating shell 220 of the first electrical connector 200 faces upward, and the shielding plate 224 is located above or away from the circuit board 260 . On the other hand, the insulating shell 320 of the second electrical connector 300 is upside down relative to the shell 220 , and the shielding plate 324 thereof is located at the bottom or close to the circuit board 360 . According to this arrangement, the ribs 325 of the second insulating case 320 are received in the shield plate 224 of the insulating case 220 and the ribs 225 of the first insulating case 220 are received in the shield plate 324 of the insulating case 320 . The guide protrusions and the cutouts 26 of the two electrical connectors 200 and 300 also cooperate with each other. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3 , the pin positioning plate 40 is mounted on the housing 20 from the side of the housing close to the shielding plate of the circuit board 360 . The solder end 335 of the contact 330 is bent so as to be received in the opening 341 of the plate 340 .

As shown in FIG. 3, the contacts 230, 330 of the two electrical connectors 200, 300 are mated with each other. It should be noted that the plug contact 231 of the first electrical connector 200 is matched with the socket contact 332 of the second electrical connector 300 , and the socket contact 232 of the first electrical connector 200 is matched with the plug contact 331 of the second electrical connector 300 . Also note that a plug contact 231, 331 in one row of contacts 230, 330 corresponds to a receptacle contact 232, 332 in an adjacent row or rows of contacts 230, 330. This configuration minimizes stress on the insulating housings 220,320 due to biasing forces acting on the mating contacts 230,330. In this arrangement, the gaps between adjacent rows of contact-receiving cavities and the contacts inserted therein remain constant.

The foregoing has described in detail the preferred embodiments of the electrical connector and connector assembly according to the present invention. However, it is obvious that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the board fixing member 50 may adopt any other conventional structures described in Japanese UM Publication No. 42645/89 and US Patent No. 5,336,111. The latch plate 40 may have a plurality of cutouts extending from one (outer) edge of the plate instead of openings. Such latch retaining plates are used in a number of prior art publications including US Patents US5037334, US5167531 and US5336109. According to this arrangement, the pin positioning plate can be slidably engaged with the board retaining element of the electrical connector. The pin positioning plate can also be formed as a whole with the insulating housing instead of an independent plate. Additionally, the contacts 30 may have straight solder ends rather than having solder ends bent at right angles. According to this design, the circuit boards 260, 360 should be placed parallel to each other.

As can be seen from the foregoing description and drawings, such electrical connectors and connector assemblies are characterized by the use of alternating plug and receptacle contacts arranged in a row. In this way, the force acting on the insulating shell due to the normal mating force of the contacts can be minimized, thereby obtaining a high-density reversed or drawer type connector with a large number of contacts, where the contacts can be arranged in the desired manner. The number of rows, for example 3 rows. Most importantly, the mating between the alternating plug and receptacle contacts reduces the insertion force of the electrical connector assembly.

Claims (8)

1. An electrical connector (10, 300) having a plurality of first and second contacts (31, 32) arranged alternately in at least a first row (30a) within an insulating housing (20, 300), Each of its contact portions (33) is arranged along a mating surface (22) so as to cooperate with complementary second and first contacts (232, 231) in a mating connector (200), characterized in that: When mating with the above-mentioned second contact (232) of the above-mentioned mating connector (200), the above-mentioned first row (30a) of the above-mentioned first row (30a) is supported by a wall surface of the above-mentioned housing (20) of the above-mentioned first row (30a) The above-mentioned contact part (33) of a contact (31) prevents it from shifting, and when mating with the above-mentioned first contact (231) of the above-mentioned mating connector (200), the above-mentioned first row (30a) of the above-mentioned first row (30a) The contact part (33) of the second contact (32) is separated from the above-mentioned wall of the above-mentioned housing, and can be offset towards the same direction, and still biased on the above-mentioned first contact of the above-mentioned mating connector after mating. 2. The connector (10,300) according to claim 1, characterized in that the second row of said first and second contacts (31,32) straddles said mating surface (22) away from said first row (30a) ) extend so as to cooperate with the second and first contacts (232, 231) in the second row of the mating connector (200), when mating, with the above-mentioned shell (20, 320) of the above-mentioned second row (30b) ) of the second wall supports the above-mentioned contact part (33) of the above-mentioned first contact (31) of the above-mentioned second row (30b) to prevent it from shifting. The contact portion (33) of the contact (32) is separated from the second wall and can be offset in the same direction towards the second wall, while the contact of the second contact (32) of the second row (30b) Said common offset direction of said portion (33) is the same as said common offset direction of said contact portion (33) of said second contact of said first row (30a). 3. The connector (10,300) according to claim 2, characterized in that there is a shielding plate (24) and a rib (25) away from and parallel to said shielding plate from the mating surface of said housing (20,320) (22) extending forward, said shielding plate is sized to receive ribs (225) on another identical housing (220) aligned opposite and perpendicular to said housing, and said first row (30a) is arranged on said shielding plate (24) on an inner surface of the inner wall, and the second row (30b) is arranged on the above-mentioned rib (25), facing the above-mentioned inner surface of the above-mentioned shielding plate, between the above-mentioned connector and the above-mentioned other housing (220 ) when mated, the above-mentioned contacts on each shield plate (24, 224) engage with the contacts on the ribs (25, 225) of the opposite housing. 4. The connector (10,300) according to claim 2, characterized in that the third row (30c) of said first and second contacts (31,32) extends across said mating surface (22), away from and in Between said first row (30a) and said second row (30b), in order to cooperate with the second and first contacts (232, 231) in the third row (30c) of said mating connector (200), in When cooperating, the above-mentioned contact part (33) of the above-mentioned first contact (31) of the above-mentioned third row (30c) is supported by the third wall surface of the above-mentioned housing in contact with the above-mentioned third row (30c) to prevent it from shifting. When mating, the contact part (33) of the above-mentioned second contact (32) of the above-mentioned third row (30c) is separated from the above-mentioned third wall surface, and can be offset in the same direction towards the above-mentioned third wall surface, while the above-mentioned third wall surface The above-mentioned common offset direction of the contact portion (33) of the above-mentioned second contact (232) of the row (30c) is the same as the above-mentioned contact portion ( 33) above common offset directions are opposite. 5. The connector (10, 300) according to claim 4, characterized in that said housing includes a shielding plate (24) and a rib (25) separate and parallel thereto, and said shielding plate is adapted to receive said mating connector ( A rib (225) on 200), the above-mentioned first wall surface and the third wall surface are the opposite inner wall surfaces of the above-mentioned shielding plate (24), and the above-mentioned second wall surface is the upper surface of the above-mentioned rib (25) facing the above-mentioned first wall surface A surface, thereby defining a space between the two, for receiving the inner wall of the shield plate of the above-mentioned mating connector (200) when the above-mentioned rib (25) is received in the shield plate (224) of the above-mentioned mating connector . 6. The connector (10, 300) according to claim 1, characterized in that said housing (20, 320) includes mounting flanges (28a, 28b) extending rearwardly from its ends, said flanges including Through openings (29a, 29b) for receiving plate fixing elements (50), said flange is adapted to receive a pin positioning plate for receiving solder ends (35) of said contacts (31, 32). 7. A connector assembly (200, 300), comprising a pair of insulating shells (220, 320) and a plurality of contacts fixedly arranged in at least a first row (30a) in each of the above-mentioned insulating shells, wherein the above-mentioned insulating The casings (220, 320) have opposite properties, and the above-mentioned contacts in each of the above-mentioned insulating casings include first and second contacts (231, 232; 331, 332) arranged alternately in a row so as to communicate with the other insulating casing The second and first contacts (232, 231; 332, 331) in the match are characterized in that: Each of said housings (220, 320) is supported by a wall of said housing associated with said first row (30a) when mated with said second contact (232, 332) of another connector (300, 200) The above-mentioned contact part (33) of the above-mentioned first contact (231, 331) of the above-mentioned first row (30a) prevents it from being offset, and the above-mentioned first contact with the other connector (300, 200) (331, 231) when mating, the contact part (33) of the above-mentioned second contact (232, 332) of the above-mentioned first row is separated from the above-mentioned wall surface of the above-mentioned housing (220, 320), and can be biased towards the same direction. and remain biased on said first contact of said other connector after mating. 8. The connector assembly (200, 300) according to claim 7, characterized in that each of said housings (220, 320) includes multiple rows of contacts (230, 330), each row including alternately arranged first and second joints (231, 232; 331, 332) so that the positions of the first and second joints in each row are aligned with the other housing (320, 220) when mating is achieved by rotating or aligning the two housings (220, 320) Complementary joints (331, 332; 232, 231) are matched.