Patent Application
20170302035
The present invention relates to an electrical connector and an electrical connector assembly, and more particularly to an electrical connector with high-frequency performance and an electrical connector assembly.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
With fast development of electronic elements, design specifications of the universal serial bus (USB) organization are also always being updated and upgraded. From USB 2.0 at beginning to USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 at present, or even the USB TYPE C specification, the transmission speed is higher and higher. To satisfy higher high-frequency requirements, a large quantity of efforts and capitals has been required in cooperatively developing those types of products, so that mass production can be implemented, and efficiency can be improved.
Therefore, it is necessary to design an improved electrical connector and an electrical connector assembly, so as to overcome the foregoing problem.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention uses the following technical means.
An electrical connector is used for mating with a mating connector. The mating connector has at least two metal elastic sheets. The electrical connector includes: an insulation body, where the insulation body has a base portion and a tongue located at a front end of the base portion; multiple terminals fixedly disposed in the base portion and grouped into an upper row of terminals and a lower row of terminals, where each of the terminals has a contact portion exposed from either an upper surface or a lower surface of the tongue, and the mating connector and the contact portion are contacted; a middle shielding sheet, fixedly disposed at the base portion and the tongue, where the middle shielding sheet is located between the upper row of terminals and the lower row of terminals; at least two snap-fit portions disposed at two sides of the middle shielding sheet and exposed from two sides of the tongue, where two of the metal elastic sheets buckle the snap-fit portions to stop the metal elastic sheet from being disengaged; and an outer metal casing, where the outer metal casing wraps peripheries of the base portion and the tongue.
In one embodiment, the electrical connector further has an inner metal casing. The inner metal casing has at least one covering portion disposed on an upper surface of the tongue, and at least one extending portion extending from the covering portion toward the base portion. The extending portion has at least one contact arm, and the contact arm urges an inner wall of the outer metal casing. The extending portion is provided with two positioning portions, the base portion is provided with two positioning slots corresponding to the two positioning portions, and the two positioning slots accommodate and fix the two positioning portions.
In one embodiment, the upper row of multiple terminals are separately two grounding terminals, two power supply terminals and two signal terminals, the lower row of multiple terminals are separately two grounding terminals, two power supply terminals and two signal terminals, and the upper row of multiple terminals and the lower row of multiple terminals are disposed symmetrically on the upper surface and the lower surface of the tongue.
In one embodiment, the middle shielding sheet has a plate portion fixedly disposed in the tongue. Two protruding portions extend separately from two sides of the plate portion out of the two sides of the tongue, two of the snap-fit portions are grooves disposed at the two protruding portions, and the two grooves are located out of the two sides of the tongue.
In one embodiment, the outer metal casing has a wrapping casing and a shielding casing. The wrapping casing wraps the peripheries of the base portion and the tongue.
The shielding casing is disposed out of the wrapping casing. Each of two sides of the wrapping casing has a first soldering pin. Each of two sides of the shielding casing has a second soldering pin. The first soldering pin and the second soldering pin are staggered front and back. The first soldering pin is close to a lateral side of the base portion, and the second soldering pin is close to a lateral side of the tongue.
In one embodiment, the wrapping casing has a first rear wall, and the shielding casing has a second rear wall. The first rear wall has a first middle portion and first sheltering portions located at two sides of the first middle portion. The second rear wall has a second middle portion and a second sheltering portion connected to a lower part of the second middle portion. The first middle portion and the second middle portion are approximately superposed front and back, the second rear wall forms a notch at a place corresponding to the first sheltering portion, and the second sheltering portion exceeds the first middle portion downward.
In another aspect, an electrical connector assembly includes an electrical connector and a mating connector. The electrical connector includes: an insulation body, where the insulation body has a base portion and a tongue located at a front end of the base portion, multiple terminals are fixedly disposed in the base portion and grouped into an upper row of terminals and a lower row of terminals, and each of the terminals has a contact portion exposed from either of an upper surface and a lower surface of the tongue;
a middle shielding sheet, fixedly disposed at the base portion and the tongue, where the middle shielding sheet is located between the upper row of terminals and the lower row of terminals; at least two snap-fit portions disposed at two sides of the middle shielding sheet and exposed from two sides of the tongue; and an outer metal casing, where the outer metal casing wraps peripheries of the base portion and the tongue, and two of the metal elastic sheets buckle the snap-fit portions to stop the metal elastic sheet from being disengaged. The mating connector has two metal elastic sheets corresponding to two of the snap-fit portions. When the mating connector and the electrical connector are mated, the two metal elastic sheets are respectively cooperatively fixed to two of the snap-fit portions, and the mating connector and the contact portion are contacted.
In one embodiment, the mating connector has an insertion portion, the insertion portion has a mating space, each of two sides of the insertion portion has a hollowing portion in communication with the mating space, the two metal elastic sheets are at least partially located at the two sides of the insertion portion, and pass through the hollowing portion to enter the mating space, and the tongue and the snap-fit portions are located in the mating space.
In one embodiment, the mating connector has a metal cover. The metal cover is formed by means of one-piece drawing or stretching. The metal cover has a front segment and a rear segment connected to each other. The front segment has a top surface and a bottom surface provided opposite to each other, and two side surfaces connected to the top surface and the bottom surface. A place at where the top surface or the bottom surface is connected to the rear segment is provided with a step. The two side surfaces and the rear segment are in a form of direct extension.
In another aspect, an electrical connector, which is used for mating a mating connector, is characterized by including an insulation body having a base portion and a tongue extending forward from the base portion. The tongue has an upper surface and a lower surface which are arranged opposite to each other, and has a front surface connected to the upper surface and the lower surface. The electrical connector further includes multiple terminals divided into an upper row and a lower row and fixed to the insulation body, where the upper row of terminals are exposed on the upper surface, and the lower row of terminals are exposed on the lower surface. The electrical connector further includes a middle shielding sheet embedded in the tongue and located between the upper row of terminals and the lower row of terminals, where the middle shielding sheet has a front end surface extending out of the front surface. A slot is formed on the front end surface, a first projection portion extends into the slot, and overlaps a central line of the middle shielding sheet along a longitudinal direction. And the first projection portion is located behind the front surface.
In one embodiment, the terminals include a pair of signal terminals which are in compliance with the USB 2.0 specifications, and the pair of signal terminals are arranged to vertically correspond to the first projection portion.
In one embodiment, the middle shielding sheet has a first hole, the first hole is located behind the first projection portion, and overlaps the central line of the middle shielding sheet along the longitudinal direction, and moreover, the first hole is arranged to vertically correspond to the pair of signal terminals.
In one embodiment, the middle shielding sheet has two second holes, the two second holes are located behind the first projection portion, and are located on both sides of the central line of the middle shielding sheet along the longitudinal direction, and the two second holes are arranged to one-to-one vertically correspond to the pair of signal terminals.
In one embodiment, the middle shielding sheet has a third hole, the third hole is located between the slot and the side edge of the middle shielding sheet, the terminals include a grounding terminal, and the third hole is arranged to vertically correspond to the grounding terminal.
In one embodiment, the slot defines a first space, the first space is located on one side of the first projection portion, the terminals include a power supply terminal, and the power supply terminal is arranged to vertically correspond to the first space.
In one embodiment, each row of the terminals include at least one pair of differential signal terminals, each differential signal terminal has a first portion and a second portion extending from the first portion, the first portion and the second portion are arranged on the tongue, and moreover, the width of the first portion is larger than the width of the second portion.
In one embodiment, the distance between the two neighboring first portions is larger than the distance between the two neighboring second portions.
In one embodiment, each row of the terminals include two non-high-speed terminals, the two non-high-speed terminals are arranged on two sides of the pair of differential signal terminals, and the distance between the first portion and the neighboring non-high-speed terminal is less than the distance between the second portion and the neighboring non-high-speed terminal.
In one embodiment, each terminal has a soldering portion, the soldering portion extends out of the base portion, the soldering portions of the upper row of terminals are arranged in a row, and the soldering portions of the lower row of terminals are arranged in two rows.
In one embodiment, the middle shielding sheet bends and extends to form a pin, the pin extends out of the base portion, each terminal has a soldering portion, which extends out of the base portion, and the soldering portions of the lower row of terminals and the pin are located on the same straight line.
In one embodiment, the electrical connector further has a metal casing wrapping the insulation body, the metal casing comprises a shielding casing and a wrapping casing, the wrapping casing wraps the base portion and the tongue, and the shielding casing is arranged outside of the wrapping casing.
In one embodiment, each of two sides of the wrapping casing has a first soldering pin, each of two sides of the shielding casing has a second soldering pin, the first soldering pins and the second soldering pins are staggered in the longitudinal direction, the first soldering pins are closer to the base portion than the second soldering pins are, and the second soldering pins are closer to the tongue than the first soldering pins are.
In one embodiment, the wrapping casing has a first rear wall, the shielding casing has a second rear wall, the first rear wall and the second rear wall cover the base portion, each terminal is provided with a connecting portion, the connecting portion is embedded in the base portion, and projections of the first rear wall, the second rear wall and connecting portions of the terminals in the longitudinal direction overlap each other.
In one embodiment, each of two sides of the shielding casing has a second soldering pin, the two second soldering portions are located on two sides of the insulation body, a fixing pin extends from the second rear wall, and the fixing pin is located between the two second soldering pins.
Compared with the related art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects.
When the mating connector is inserted into the electrical connector after the electrical connector is completely assembled, two of the snap-fit portions are disposed at two sides of the tongue and cooperatively fixed to the mating connector, thereby being in firm snap-fit to ensure stable high-frequency performance.
The multiple terminals are arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the tongue. The tongue has the front surface. A middle shielding sheet, embedded in the tongue, is located between the upper row of terminals and the lower row of terminals. The front end of the middle shielding sheet is provided with the slot. The first projection portion is located in the slot, overlaps the central line, and is arranged to vertically correspond to the pair of signal terminals, thereby enhancing the shielding effect. The front end surface extends beyond the front surface to protect the tongue. The first projection portion does not extend beyond the front surface, so that the middle shielding sheet and the tongue can be better fixed, and the probability of short-circuiting caused by the electrical contact between the terminals and the middle shielding sheet due to foreign matters (such as dust and moisture) attached on the tongue is effectively decreased.
These and other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the following drawings and their captions, although variations and modifications therein may be affected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.
The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
The present disclosure is more particularly described in the following examples that are intended as illustrative only since numerous modifications and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Various embodiments of the disclosure are now described in detail. Referring to the drawings, like numbers, if any, indicate like components throughout the views. As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a”, “an”, and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Moreover, titles or subtitles may be used in the specification for the convenience of a reader, which shall have no influence on the scope of the present disclosure. Additionally, some terms used in this specification are more specifically defined below.
The terms used in this specification generally have their ordinary meanings in the art, within the context of the disclosure, and in the specific context where each term is used. Certain terms that are used to describe the disclosure are discussed below, or elsewhere in the specification, to provide additional guidance to the practitioner regarding the description of the disclosure. For convenience, certain terms may be highlighted, for example using italics and/or quotation marks. The use of highlighting has no influence on the scope and meaning of a term; the scope and meaning of a term is the same, in the same context, whether or not it is highlighted. It will be appreciated that same thing can be said in more than one way. Consequently, alternative language and synonyms may be used for any one or more of the terms discussed herein, nor is any special significance to be placed upon whether or not a term is elaborated or discussed herein. Synonyms for certain terms are provided. A recital of one or more synonyms does not exclude the use of other synonyms. The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples of any terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and in no way limits the scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term. Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given in this specification.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. In the case of conflict, the present document, including definitions will control.
As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
As used herein, “around”, “about” or “approximately” shall generally mean within 20 percent, preferably within 10 percent, and more preferably within 5 percent of a given value or range. Numerical quantities given herein are approximate, meaning that the term “around”, “about” or “approximately” can be inferred if not expressly stated.
As used herein, “plurality” and/or “multiple” means two or more.
As used herein, the terms “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to.
As used herein, the phrase at least one of A, B, and C should be construed to mean a logical (A or B or C), using a non-exclusive logical OR. It should be understood that one or more steps within a method may be executed in different order (or concurrently) without altering the principles of the present disclosure.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below can be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the present invention.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on”, “attached” to, “connected” to, “coupled” with, “contacting”, etc., another element, it can be directly on, attached to, connected to, coupled with or contacting the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being, for example, “directly on”, “directly attached” to, “directly connected” to, “directly coupled” with or “directly contacting” another element, there are no intervening elements present. It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent” to another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature.
Furthermore, relative terms, such as “lower” or “bottom” and “upper” or “top”, may be used herein to describe one element's relationship to another element as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in addition to the orientation shown in the figures. For example, if the device in one of the figures is turned over, elements described as being on the “lower” side of other elements would then be oriented on the “upper” sides of the other elements. The exemplary term “lower” can, therefore, encompass both an orientation of lower and upper, depending on the particular orientation of the figure. Similarly, if the device in one of the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements would then be oriented “above” the other elements. The exemplary terms “below” or “beneath” can, therefore, encompass both an orientation of above and below.
As used herein, the term “module” may refer to, be part of, or include an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC); an electronic circuit; a combinational logic circuit; a field programmable gate array (FPGA); a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) that executes code; other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality; or a combination of some or all of the above, such as in a system-on-chip. The term module may include memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that stores code executed by the processor.
The terms “chip” or “computer chip”, as used herein, generally refer to a hardware electronic component, and may refer to or include a small electronic circuit unit, also known as an integrated circuit (IC), or a combination of electronic circuits or ICs.
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A connecting portion 22 extends backward from the contact portion 21, the connecting portion 22 is embedded in the base portion 11, the connecting portion 22 includes a horizontally arranged portion and a vertically arranged portion, a soldering portion 23 extends from the vertical portion of the connecting portion 22, and extends out of the base portion 11, and moreover, the multiple soldering portions 23 of the lower row of terminals 2 are arranged in two rows or, according to an actual requirement, can also be arranged in a row (see
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Correspondingly, the lower row of terminals 2 are 12 in number, and are distributed corresponding to the upper row of terminals 2, so that the mating connector 200 may be inserted into the electrical connector 100 in dual orientation. The grounding terminals G are located on the outer sides of each row of terminals 2, and the pair of signal terminals S′ are located in the middle of each row of terminals 2. Among each row of the terminals 2, the two power supply terminals M are located on two sides of the pair of signal terminals S′ and the reserved terminals N.
The terminals 2 are large in number, and the electrical connector 100 is very small in volume, and therefore the multiple terminals 2 are arranged very densely in the insulation body 1. In this way, the assembly difficulty increases, and the electrical connector 100 is in the USB C TYPE, which has very high requirements on volume and high-frequency, and therefore the terminals 2 in the electrical connector 100 cannot be mounted to the insulation body 1 in an assembly manner. Therefore, the insulation body 1 has three parts independent from each other. The upper row of terminals 2 are integrally formed in a first part of the insulation body 1 by means of injection molding, the lower row of terminals 2 are integrally formed in a second part of the insulation body 1 by means of injection molding, and then the two are mounted in a third part of the insulation body 1. Certainly, in other embodiments, it may also be that, the insulation body 1 has two parts independent from each other, the upper row of terminals 2 are integrally formed in a first part of the insulation body 1 by means of injection molding, the lower row of terminals 2 are integrally formed in a second part of the insulation body 1 by means of injection molding, then the two are mounted and fixed together, and a third part does not need to be used. Alternatively, when requirements on high-frequency and functions of the electrical connector 100 are low, the terminals 2 are correspondingly reduced in number, and it may be appropriately considered that some of the terminals 2 are mounted, and other terminals are integrally formed by means of injection molding.
Multiple locations of the insulation body 1, corresponding to the terminals 2, are each provided with an adjustment hole (not labeled). The adjustment hole enables the terminals 2 to be exposed out of the insulation body 1, and is used for adjusting impedance of the terminals 2, so that the electrical connector 100 may meet the high-frequency requirements in the industry.
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Two sides of the middle shielding sheet 3 separately extend out of the tongue 12 laterally, the front end of the middle shielding sheet 3 extends forward out of the front end of the tongue 12, specifically, the front end surface 33 extends out of the front surface 124, and when the mating connector 200 and the electrical connector 100 are butted, the front end of the tongue 12 may be prevented from abrasion. A baffle plate (not labeled) extends from the rear end of the middle shielding sheet 3, and the baffle plate is located between the soldering portions 23 of the upper row of terminals 2 and the soldering portions 23 of the lower row of terminals 2, and used for shielding signal interference between the two rows of terminals 2. Further, two pins 37 extend from the rear end of the middle shielding sheet 3, and the pins 37 extend out of the bottom of the base portion 11, and are arranged in a row along with the soldering portions 23 of the lower row of terminals 2.
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In summary, the electrical connector 100 and the electrical connector assembly of the present invention have the following beneficial effects.
(1) The tongue 12 has the front surface 124, the middle shielding sheet 3 is arranged on the tongue 12, and the slot 330 is formed on the front end surface 33, and overlaps the central line X. The front end surface 33 extends out of the front surface 124, and consequently, when the mating connector 200 is connected to the electrical connector 100, the abrasion of the front surface 124 can be prevented. The first projection portion 331 overlaps the central line X but does not extend beyond the front surface 124, and thereby is arranged to vertically correspond to the pair of USB 2.0 terminals, which enhances the shielding effect, helps the fixing of the tongue 12 on the middle shielding sheet 3, and effectively decreases the probability of short-circuiting caused by the electrical contact between the terminals and the middle shielding sheet 3 due to foreign matters (such as dust and moisture) attached outside of the tongue 12.
(2) The multiple fixing pins 526 extend downward from the second rear wall 522, and the multiple fixing pins 526 are located between the two second soldering pins 521, and are used for cooperating with the first soldering pins 511 and the second soldering pins 521 to steadily position the electrical connector 100 on the circuit board 300.
(3) The contact portion 21 of each differential signal terminal S has the first portion 211, the second portion 212 extends backward from the first portion 211, the width of the first portion 211 is larger than the width of the second portion 212, the distance between the two neighboring first portions 211 is larger than the distance between the two neighboring second portions 212, consequently, the anti-interference performance of the differential signal terminals is enhanced, and thereby high frequency is improved.
(4) The upper shielding sheet 41 has the extending portion 43 covering the base portion 11, so as to increase the coverage range of the inner metal casing 4, and can, when the electrical connector 100 performs high-speed signal transmission, more effectively prevent the electromagnetic radiation in the insertion space 53 from being leaked backward which interferes with the tail of the terminals 2 to cause crosstalk, thereby improving the signal transmission quality of the electrical connector 100.
(5) The middle shielding sheet 3 has the two protruding portions 32 exposed from the two sides of the tongue 12, and the groove 321 is disposed at the protruding portions 32. Because both the middle shielding sheet 3 and the metal elastic sheet 8 are made of a metal material, when the mating connector 200 enters the insertion space 53, the metal elastic sheet 8 and the groove 321 are snap-fit and fixed, which not only can implement stable buckling of the mating connector 200 and the electrical connector 100, but also can prevent the abrasion problem.
Additionally, the protruding portion 32 and the groove 321 extend out of the two sides of the tongue 12 and are located in the insertion space 53, which helps the mating connector 200 enter the insertion space 53 to snap-fit the groove 321, the snap-fit strength is large, and the mating connector 200 is not easily disengaged.
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments of the disclosure has been presented only for the purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.
The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the disclosure and their practical application so as to enable others skilled in the art to utilize the disclosure and various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains without departing from its spirit and scope. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description and the exemplary embodiments described therein.
This application is a continuation application of U.S. Application Ser. No. 14/626,709, filed Feb. 19, 2015, which itself claims priority to and the benefit of, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e), U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/942,830, filed Feb. 21, 2014, entitled “ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR,” by Chin Chi Lin, and U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/024,728, filed Jul. 15, 2014, entitled “ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR,” by Ted Ju. The entire contents of the above identified applications are incorporated herein by reference. Some references, if any, which may include patents, patent applications and various publications, may be cited and discussed in the description of this invention. The citation and/or discussion of such references, if any, is provided merely to clarify the description of the present invention and is not an admission that any such reference is “prior art” to the invention described herein. All references listed, cited and/or discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference was individually incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62024728 | Jul 2014 | US | |
| 61942830 | Feb 2014 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 14626709 | Feb 2015 | US |
| Child | 15637302 | US |
