Patent Application
20120244734
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card edge connector, and more particularly to a card edge connector incorporated with a pair of cantilevered beams on which a grounding pad is moveably attached thereto.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 8,052,449 B2 issued to Zhu on Nov. 8, 2011 discloses a card edge connector for mounting onto a printed circuit board. The card edge connector includes an elongated insulative housing which defines a central slot extending along a transverse direction with a plurality of contacts disposed therein, a pair of side arms disposed at opposite ends thereof and extending along a mating direction perpendicular to the transverse direction, a pair of grounding pads each floatably assembled onto a holding section which is formed adjacent to the corresponding side arm, and a pair of metal plates each respectively attached to the corresponding side arm and forming a blocking portion projecting toward the grounding pad for avoiding the grounding pad releasing from the holding section.
However, the metal plates which have blocking portions for resisting the grounding pads have complex structures and if the grounding pad is to be removed therefrom, the metal plate has to be removed firstly. Hence, an improved card edge connector is highly desired to overcome the aforementioned problem.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a card edge connector having a grounding pad which can be easily disassembled from the card edge connector if required, and can compensates any co-planarity among the contacts.
In order to achieve the object set forth, a card edge connector for connecting a card to a printed circuit board includes an insulative housing, a plurality of contacts and a pair of grounding pads. The insulative housing has a lengthwise base portion having a card-receiving slot and a pair of locating arms having an extending portion which extends forwardly from the base portion. The contacts are retained in the insulative housing and extend into the card-receiving slot to electrically contact with the inserted card. The grounding pads each include a main body which has a frame and a solder pad. The locating arms each further include a spring fork-shaped locking portion extending from the extending portion for preventing the grounding pad releasing from the corresponding locating arm when the frame of the grounding pad is securely seated in the extending portion from the locking portion.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the preferred embodiment of the present invention in detail.
Referring to
Referring to
The card edge connector 100 defines a front-to-rear direction and a vertical direction perpendicular to the front-to-rear direction. Each of the retaining arms 11 comprises an inner arm 112 extending from the base portion 10 and an outer arm 111 located at the outside of the inner arm 112 extending from the base portion 10 and positioned beside the inner arm 112 for preventing the inner arm 112 from moving outwardly. The inner arm 112 and the outer arm 111 form a fork shaped configuration and a receiving aperture 113 is defined therebetween for holding the metal plate 3 therein to improve the strength of the retaining arms 11. A guiding portion 116 slopes to the receiving space with thereof the bottom for abutting against a top face of the inserted memory module, and a stop portion 117 extends into the receiving space from the bottom of the guiding portion 116 for preventing the inserted card releasing from the card edge connector 100 in the horizontal direction.
Further referring to
The metal plate 3 includes a body portion 31, a pressing piece 32, a guiding piece 33 and a hook portion 34. The body portion is received in the receiving aperture 113 and covers the outside surface of the inner arm 112. The pressing piece 32 bends inwardly from the top and front end of the body portion 31. The guiding piece 33 extends inwardly and has a downward opening cooperating with the guiding portion 116. The hook portion 34 extends outwardly from the bottom and the middle portion of the body portion 31 and has an upward opening receiving the bottom edge of the outer arm 111. The metal plate 3 holds the bottom of the inner arm 112 and the top of the outer arm 111, therefore, when a card is rotatably inserted into the card-receiving slot, the inner arm 112 is pushed outwardly and the hook portion 34 exerts a retaining force to the outer arm 111 in order to prevent the rupture of the inner arm 112.
The grounding pad 4 comprises a main body 41 located at the notch 1211, a horizontal solder pad 42 extending outwardly and perpendicular to the main body 41 and a connecting portion 43 connecting the main body 41 to the solder pad 42. The main body 41 includes a rectangular frame 410 having an upper wall 411 set in the notch 1211 and a bottom wall 412 which is in parallel with the upper wall 411, an inner surface 413 and an outer surface 414. The solder pad 42 defines a through hole 421. When the solder pad 42 is soldered onto the PCB, the through hole 421 can serve as a reservoir to receive additional solder mass so that the grounding pads 4 can be soldered onto the PCB more securely, and the connecting portion 43 can prevent the solder mass from wicking up to the locating arms 12 and contaminating the locating arms 12. The terminals 2 have tails 21 set in a same plane with the solder pad 42. When the grounding pad 4 is seated into the notch 1211, the grounding pad 4 can be moved in the notch 1211 along the up-to-down and card-insertion direction, so a commonly-known issue of cold joint can be prevented.
When the grounding pad 4 is assembled to the locking bar 122, firstly the rectangular frame 410 is located in the front end of the locking bar 122 and then the grounding pad 4 is pushed along the plug direction till the upper wall 411 is securely seated in the notch 1211. Because the spring locking bar 1222 has an interfering or guiding portion 1221, the grounding pad 4 can be easily and securely assembled at the locking bar 122. When the grounding pad 4 is dismounted from the locking bar 122, firstly the spring locking bar 1222 is depressed downwardly and then the floating bar 4 can be removed from the locking bar 122 easily. So it is easy to replace the grounding pad 4 when necessary via this kind of design. The cost of the assembly or disassembly can be decreased.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201120081147.X | Mar 2011 | CN | national |
