The present invention relates to a connector assembly and the manufacturing method thereof, and particularly to the connector having corresponding contacts with a fine pitch contact arrangement and assembled into the housing via a contact module pattern.
As shown in US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0227855, the electrical connector having a plurality of contacts with a strip connecting portion 241 at the bottom for connecting to a lower contact carrier 80, and a connecting portion 25 at an upper portion for connecting to an upper contact carrier 90. Anyhow, because of the side arms 242 of the conducting portion 24 around the strip connecting portion 242, the neighboring contacts 2 cannot be densely arranged with one another with a fine pitch arrangement wherein the contacts 2 are arranged corresponding to every other positioning holes defined in the lower contact carrier 80, thus precluding the miniaturization of the corresponding connector disadvantageously.
Therefore, an improvement to the electrical connector with a fine pitch arrangement of the corresponding contacts and an easy manufacturing method thereof, is desired.
To achieve the above object, an electrical connector includes an insulative housing, and plural rows of contact modules disposed in the housing. Each contact module includes a plurality of contacts integrally formed within an insulator/wafter which extends in a longitudinal direction. In each contact module, each contact includes a main body with opposite contacting arms on upper and lower sections wherein the contacts in the same contact carrier are originally linked with the neighboring contacts around lateral sides of the main body for insert-molding consideration, and the corresponding linking sections are removed for disconnecting the neighboring the contacts after insert-molding to form the final complete contact module. Each contact module is successively assembled downwardly, by a gripping tool, into the corresponding receiving channel in the housing. Each contacting arm forms a hole with two spaced beams by two sides of the hole. The contact may further optimally include a holding tab exposed in the hole and between the corresponding pair of beams so as to allow the gripping tool to be engaged thereon for assembling the contact module into the channel of the housing.
Other 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.
Referring to
The hosing 1 includes an upper surface 11 and a lower surface 12 opposite to each other in the vertical direction Z, a pair of side surfaces 14 opposite to each other in the longitudinal direction, and a plurality of channels 13 extending along the longitudinal direction X and upwardly through the upper surface 11 in the vertical direction Z, and through the pair of side surfaces 14 in the longitudinal direction.
The contact 2 is made by sheet metal and includes a planar main body 21, a first/upper spring arm 22 upwardly extending from an upper portion of the main body 21 with a first/upper contacting section 23 at a free end, a second/lower spring arm 24 downwardly extending from a lower portion of the main body 21 with a second/lower contacting section 25 at a free end. The first spring arm 22 defines a first opening 224 therein so as to form a pair of first and second beams 221, 222 located by two sides of the first opening 224 and merged together at the upper/first bridge 223. The first contacting section 23 extends upwardly from the first bridge 223. A holding tab 26 extending from an upper portion of the main body 21 into the opening 224 and between the pair of beams 221, 222. As shown in
Similar to the first spring arm 22, the second spring arm 24 forms a second opening 244 with a pair of beams 241, 242 by two side of the second opening 244, and merged together at the second bridge 243 from which the second contacting section 25 downwardly extends. Therefore, the first spring arm 21 and the second spring arm 22 are essentially symmetrically arranged with each other in the vertical direction. Notably, the distance d3 between the corresponding spring arms 22 or 24 of the neighboring contacts 2 is around 0.24 mm which is relatively tiny compared with the traditional design, thus increasing the coupling effect for better signal transmission advantageously.
Referring to
Referring to
Step 1: providing an insulative housing 1 with opposite upper and lower surfaces 11, 12 in the vertical direction, and a plurality of channels 13 extending along the longitudinal direction;
Step 2: providing in one row a plurality of contacts each having a main body 21, a first spring arm 22 extending upwardly from the upper portion of the main body 21 with a first contacting section thereon, and a second spring arm 24 extending downwardly form the lower portion of the main body 21 with a second contacting section thereon, a plurality of linking carriers 200 linked between the corresponding main bodies 21 of the neighboring contacts 2, and a holding tab 26 forms around the upper portion of the main body 21;
Step 3: integrally forming the plurality of contacts within an insulator via an insert-molding process to form a contact module;
Step 4: punching out the linking carriers 200 from the contact module 4 via the corresponding openings 41 for separating the neighboring contacts 2 from each other;
Step 5: gripping the corresponding holding tabs 26 by the pair of clamping pieces 301 of a gripping tool 300, e.g., another carrier, wherein the gripping tool 300 includes a main part 303, a plurality of bars 302 extending downwardly from the main part 303 with the pair of clamping pieces 301 at the free end, and downwardly assembling the contact module 4 into the corresponding channel 13 from the upper side of the housing 1 until the contact module 4 is located at the initial/upper position as shown in
Step 6: using another pushing tool to downwardly press the corresponding holding tabs 26 until the contact module 4 is located at the final/lower position as shown in
Compared with the traditional design, in the invention the contact module allows the stable and efficient assembling of the contacts into the housing. The holding tab allows the gripping tool to assemble the contact module into the housing. The pitch of the contacts in the same row may be reduced because the linking carrier 200 is linked to the lateral sides of the main body rather than to the bottom portion of the contact. In this embodiment, the gap/distance between the upper spring arms of the neighboring contact is smaller than one third of the width of the upper spring arm in the longitudinal direction so as to achieve the fine pitch arrangement of the contacts in each contact module.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various alterations and modifications can be made to the embodiments without in any way departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201911280203.X | Dec 2019 | CN | national |
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