Information
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Patent Grant
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6558200
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Patent Number
6,558,200
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Date Filed
Monday, January 7, 200222 years ago
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Date Issued
Tuesday, May 6, 200321 years ago
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Inventors
-
Original Assignees
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Examiners
- Bradley; P. Austin
- Figueroa; Felix O.
Agents
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CPC
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US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 439 637
- 439 60
- 439 59
- 439 108
- 439 567
- 439 101
- 439 636
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International Classifications
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Abstract
A card edge connector includes an insulative housing defining a central slot along a longitudinal direction thereof. Two rows of passageways are disposed by two sides of the central slot, respectively. An elongated slit is formed in an outer side of each corresponding row of the passageways. A contact strip includes a elongated strip retention portion retained in the corresponding slit, a plurality of first contacts extending, from an upper portion of the retention portion, laterally into the some corresponding designated passageways. A plurality of discrete second contacts are respectively retainably disposed in the remaining passageways.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to card edge connectors, and particularly to the card edge connector with individual signal contacts and commoning power contacts and the method making the same.
2. The Related Arts
Card edge connectors are popularly used in the computer industry, for example, Micro Channel connectors, EISA connectors and DIMM connectors, etc. The contacts used in the card edge connectors generally include two types of which one is the so-called forming type in which the curved contact portion is successively bent/formed after the individual contact has been stamped from the metal sheet, and the other is the so-called blanking type in which the curved contact portion generally is directly formed when the individual contact is being stamped from the metal sheet.
The advantage of the former is to own the superior resiliency and the contacts on the same side of the connector housing can be commonly formed on the same carrier and simultaneously inserted into the corresponding passageways. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,766 discloses a card edge connector, i.e., the EISA connector, with two level contacts which are of the so-called forming contacts arranged on the same contact carrier and adapted to be inserted into the corresponding passageways of the housing at one time.
Oppositely, the advantage of the latter is to own the more precise shape of the contacts than the forming type, and have only one step, i.e., direct stamping, to form each individual contact rather than two steps, i.e., one stamping plus one forming, required by the forming type one. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,102 discloses the so-called blanking type in which the odd configuration of the curved contact portion or even the dual-beam contact portion can be achieved.
From another viewpoint, in some applications some of the individual contacts in the connector are expected to be electrically connected. Under such a condition, the jumper strip(s) or the shunting bar(s) is/are intentionally applied to the connector for implementation of commoning such specific contacts, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,464 (the card edge connector) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,597 (the cable connector).
The invention is to provide a card edge connector with some commoned designated contacts in an easy manufacturing way.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to an aspect of the invention, a card edge connector includes an insulative housing defining a central slot along a longitudinal direction thereof. Two rows of passageways are disposed by two sides of the central slot, respectively. An elongated slit is formed in an outer side of each corresponding row of the passageways. The slit is configured to laterally communicate with some designated passageways in the corresponding row. A contact strip includes a elongated strip retention portion retained in the corresponding slit, a plurality of first contacts extending, from an upper portion of the retention portion, laterally into the some corresponding designated passageways and communicating with the central slot, and a plurality of tail portions extending downwardly from a lower portion of the retention portion out of a bottom face of the housing. A plurality of discrete second contacts are respectively retainably disposed in the remaining passageways with the corresponding tail portions extending downwardly out of the bottom face of the housing.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a bottom view of the DIMM connector according to the invention.
FIG. 2
is a top view of the DIMM connector of
FIG. 1
where some positions have been numbered to show the contacts in the corresponding passageways are commoned via the contact strip.
FIG. 3
is a plan view of one of the two contact strips, with the unmoved carrier thereon, used in the DIMM connector of FIG.
1
.
FIG.
4
(A) is a side view of the contact strip with the carrier thereon of FIG.
3
.
FIG.
4
(B) is a side view of the contact strip without the carrier thereon of FIG.
4
(A).
FIG. 5
is a cross-sectional view of the DIMM connector of
FIG. 1
, showing the first contact extending from the contact strip, and the discrete second contact in which, for clearly showing the differences between the first contacts and the second contacts, second contacts including the second tails on the left side are not shown, the first contacts including the first tails and the associated contact strip on the right side are not shown, and the ejector and the end portion of the housing are not shown.
FIG. 6
is a cross-sectional view of the housing without showing the ejectors thereof, to illustrate engagement between the metal hold-down and the contact strip.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
References will now be in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention. While the present invention has been described in with reference to the specific embodiments, the description is illustrative of the invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention. Various modifications to the present invention can be made to the preferred embodiments by those skilled in the art without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined by appended claims.
It will be noted here that for a better understanding, most of like components are designated by like reference numerals throughout the various figures in the embodiments. Attention is directed to
FIGS. 1-6
, wherein a DIMM connector
10
includes an insulative housing
12
with a central slot
14
extending along a longitudinal direction thereof. Two rows of passageways
16
are formed by two sides of the central slot
14
. A pair of ejectors
18
are disposed at two opposite longitudinal ends of the housing
12
for ejection of the inserted card (not shown) out of the central slot
14
.
An elongated slit
20
is formed on an outer side of each row of the passageways
16
. The slit
20
are arranged to laterally communicate with some designated passageways
16
. A contact strip
22
includes an elongated intermediate or retention portion
24
retainably received in each corresponding elongated slit
20
. In this embodiment, the embossments
26
on the contact strip
22
interfere within the elongated slit
20
to retain the contact strip
22
in position. A plurality of first contacts
28
extend from an upper portion of the retention portion
24
and into the aforementioned those designated passageways
16
, respectively. A plurality of first tails
30
extend from a lower portion of the retention portion
24
, generally in alignment with the first contacts
28
, and out of the bottom face
32
of the housing
12
.
Oppositely, a plurality of discrete second contacts
34
are respectively and individually retained and disposed in the corresponding remaining passageways
16
. Understandably, in this embodiment both the first contacts
28
and the second contacts
34
extend into the central slot
14
for mechanical/electrical engagement with the inserted card (not shown). Each second contact
34
further includes a second tail
36
extending out of the bottom face
30
of the housing
12
.
It can be contemplated that the feature of the invention is to provide an elongated slit
20
, along a longitudinal direction of the housing
12
, beside the passageways
16
and communicating with some designated passageways
16
, and provide the contact strip
22
with the elongated retention portion
24
retainably received within the slit
20
and with the corresponding first contacts
28
extending into those designated passageways
16
. Understandably, the second contacts
34
are still respectively retainably received within the corresponding passageways
16
via the traditional assembling method where those second contacts
34
are first stamped and formed on a contact strip (not shown) linked by a carrier (not shown) and later disconnected from that carrier (not shown) after assembled into the corresponding passageways
16
. It is also noted that the contact strip
22
used in the invention, is also originally connected via a carrier
40
for easy assembling to the housing while such a carrier
40
is removed once the contact strip
22
has been assembled to the housing
12
. It can been seen that the retention of the contact strip
22
with regard to the housing
12
can be formed on each first contact
28
instead of the elongated retention portion
24
, alternately.
It is also noted that the contact portions
29
of the first contacts
28
and the contact portions
35
of the second contacts
34
still keep the same contour with each other as the traditional DIMM connector, and that all the tails regardless of the first tails
30
and the second tails
36
, are still arranged in a staggered manner for compliance with the layout of the printed circuit board on which the DIMM connector
10
is mounted. In other words, the first tails
30
may be either in an inner position or in an outer position, depending upon the odd numbers or the even numbers of the positions the first contacts is disposed at along the longitudinal direction of the housing
12
, and similarly the second tails
36
follow the same rule.
In application, a pair of metal hold-downs
42
are respectively located under the corresponding ejectors
18
. Each of the metal hold-down
42
mechanically and electrically engages the corresponding distal end of the retention portion
24
for establishing a conductive connection thereof.
While the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, the description is illustrative of the invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention. Various modifications to the present invention can be made to the preferred embodiments by those skilled in the art without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
Therefore, person of ordinary skill in this field are to understand that all such equivalent structures are to be included in the scope of the following claims.
Claims
- 1. A card edge connector comprising:an insulative housing defining a central slot along a longitudinal direction thereof; two rows of passageways formed by two sides of said central slot; a slit formed by at least one of said rows of passageways; a contact strip including an elongated retention portion retainably received within said slit, and a plurality of first contacts extending from said retention portion and into some designated passageways; and a plurality of second contacts respectively and independently retainably received within the remaining passageways wherein said slit is positioned in an outer side of said at least one of said rows of passageways; wherein a pair of metal hold-downs are located at two opposite longitudinal ends of the housing, and said contact strip mechanically end electrically engages at least one of said pair of metal hold-downs; wherein said slit laterally communicates with said some designated passageways; wherein said first contact upwardly extend from said retention portion; and wherein said contact strip includes tail portion extending from said retention portion and arranged in two rows.
US Referenced Citations (7)