The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwan Application Serial Number 93218518, filed on Nov. 18, 2004, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a card edge connector and, in particular to a card edge connector with a position guider. The card edge connector can be used on a mother board of an electronic device for electrically connecting with a daughter board.
2. Related Art
The conventional card edge connector is normally comprised of a connection part, at least one position guider, and a fixing device. The connection part is provided with several terminals for electrical contacts with the contacts on the inserted daughter board. The position guider prevents incorrect insertion of the daughter board. The fixing device fixes the card edge connector on the circuit board.
In light of technological advances and environmental protection, all devices are made smaller. Therefore, the card edge connector and daughter boards have to be reduced in size too. The gaps between the terminals inside the card edge connector and the gaps between the contacts on the daughter board have to be reduced too.
Take a conventional card edge connector and a daughter board as an example. The width of each terminal inside the card edge connector is about 0.2 mm. The terminals are disposed at a pitch of 0.5 mm. Thus, the gap between each two adjacent terminals is 0.3 mm. Normally, the allowed error for a position guider is ±0.1 mm. The width of each connecting point on the daughter board is 0.33 mm. If they are disposed at the same pitch of 0.5 mm, the gap between each two adjacent contacts is 0.27 mm.
As shown in
As shown in
In
Moreover, since there is a gap between the daughter board crack 420 and the position guider 200 of the card edge connector due to the tolerance, vibrations or any other external forces may result in relative horizontal shifts between them when the daughter board 400 is inserted into the connection part 300 of the card edge connector. Therefore, the terminals 310 and the contacts 410 have a misalignment shift that causes imperfect contacts or short circuits.
An objective of the invention is to provide a card edge connector, which guides the insertion position of a daughter board into the card edge connector. It can reduce the misalignment shift between the terminals of the card edge connector and the contacts of the daughter board, maintaining good electrical connections between the daughter board and an electronic device.
To achieve the above objective, the disclosed card edge connector includes at least a position guider and a connection part. The connection part is disposed on a lateral surface in the longitudinal direction of the card edge connector. The connection part contains several terminals disposed in parallel and a long opening for the insertion of a daughter board. When the daughter board is inserted into the card edge connector, the contacts on the daughter board are in electrical connections with the terminals of the card edge connector. The inserted edge of the daughter board has at least a crack and several contacts.
The position guider of the card edge connector is disposed inside the connection part to prevent the daughter board from incorrect insertion. Therefore, the shape, position and size of the position guider match with the crack of the daughter board. The position guider contains a guiding structure, which contains two slant surfaces formed at two opposing lateral sides of the position guider. The slant surfaces extend in the opposite directions from the position guider.
With the connection and guidance of the daughter board crack and the guiding structure in the position guider of the card edge connector, the middle line of the daughter board crack aligns with the middle line of the position guider. It reduces the influence of the accumulated tolerance on the daughter board and the connection part, and renders a good electrical connection.
The disclosed card edge connector is often used along with a fixing device. The fixing device fixes the daughter board position after insertion and the connection between the daughter board and the card edge connector. However, the disclosed card edge connector is not limited to a specific fixing device. To avoid confusions, the fixing device is not explicitly shown in the drawings of the specification.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the following description and accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the invention, and wherein:
The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same references relate to the same elements.
Since a normal card edge connector is installed above a mother board for electrically connecting a daughter board and the mother board. Therefore, the “above” or “below” mentioned herein refers to the relative position of the card edge connector and the mother board. For example, we say the card edge connector is above the mother board.
As shown in
The connection part 300 is disposed on one lateral surface along the longitudinal direction of the card edge connector 100 and is provided with several terminals 310 (see simultaneously
The position guider 200 is disposed inside the connection part 300 to prevent incorrect insertion of the daughter board into the card edge connector 100. Each of the left and right sides of the position guider 200 has a sidewall 210. The position guider 200 contains a guiding structure 211 formed by providing a slant surface on each of the left and right sides of the position guider 200. As shown in the drawing, the card edge connector 100 of this embodiment has only one position guider 200. However, some card edge connectors 100 may have two or three position guiders 200.
As illustrated in
The disclosed card edge connector 100 can further include a fixing device 500 (as in
As shown in
As shown in
Any person skilled in the art can make various kinds of modifications without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the shapes, colors, textures, and numbers of all components are not limited to the card edge connector shown in the drawings, as long as they possess the desired functions described herein.
As shown in
As shown in all the previous plots, the slant surfaces of the guiding structure in the disclosed embodiments are flat surfaces. As long as being able to touch and correct the relative position between the daughter board crack and the position guider of the card edge connector, any surface with the function of correcting the misalignment shift belongs to the invention. That is, the slant surface may be a convex or concave surface with a curvature, as shown in
Moreover,
The disclosed card edge connector uses the guiding structure on its position guider to reduce the misalignment shift between the terminals of the connection part and the contacts on the daughter board. It can be applied to conventional daughter boards with cracks and contacts. Such applications should be included in the claims of the invention.
From the above-mentioned embodiments, we know that the invention has the following advantages:
1. The slant surfaces of the guiding structure correct the relative positions of the daughter board and the card edge connector, reducing the misalignment shift between the terminals of the connection part in the card edge connector and the contacts of the daughter board.
2. The slant surfaces of the guiding structure of the card edge connector are in contact with the two sides of the daughter board crack. Therefore, the daughter board is unlikely to shift within the card edge connector due to vibrations.
3. The invention only uses the guiding structure on the position guider to reduce possible misalignment shift between the terminals of the connection part and the contacts of the daughter board. It can be used to all kinds of daughter boards with cracks and contacts. Therefore, the invention has wide applications.
Although the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternative embodiments, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. It is, therefore, contemplated that the appended claims will cover all modifications that fall within the true scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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93218518 U | Nov 2004 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5326276 | Cheng | Jul 1994 | A |
5769668 | Tondreault | Jun 1998 | A |
5803761 | Mochizuki | Sep 1998 | A |
6666702 | Pickles | Dec 2003 | B1 |
6848927 | Shirai | Feb 2005 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20060105605 A1 | May 2006 | US |