BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a terminal of the electrical connector;
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is an FPC used for being inserted into the electrical connector;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a terminal of the electrical connector in accordance with another embodiment of the invention; and
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a terminal of the electrical connector in accordance with the other embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the preferred embodiment of the present invention in detail.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an electrical connector comprises an insulative housing 1, a plurality of conductive terminals 2, a stuffer 3, a pair of retaining terminals 4 and a pair of holding components 5.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, each conductive terminal 2 comprises a base section 20, a solder tail 24 extending backwards from the base section 20, a first resilient arm 21 and an extending section extending forwards from the base section 20. In this embodiment, the extending section is a doorframe 22 with two windows, a first window 221 and a second window 222 apart from the base section 20. The first resilient arm 21 upwards slants above the first window 221 from the base portion. A second resilient arm 23 upwards slants above the second window 222 from the front end of the extending section apart from the base section. The first and second resilient arms are formed along a centric line of the terminal 2 and extending towards each other. Furthermore, the two resilient arms 21, 23 are bent downwards at the distal ends and respectively formed a contact potion 211, 231 nearly at the same height, as best shown in FIG. 4.
The housing 1 defines a receiving cavity 10 between an upper wall 101 and a lower wall 102. The lower wall 102 extends forward beyond the upper wall 101, referring to FIG. 2. A plurality of grooves 12 is formed in the lower wall along a front-to-back direction. The grooves 12 are communicating with the receiving cavity 10 and an opening 121 is formed at a front end of the lower wall. The conductive terminals 2 are inserted into the grooves 12 from the back of the insulative housing 1, with the distal ends of the terminals retained in the openings 121 and contact portions 211, 231 respectively projecting into the receiving cavity 10 to electrically and mechanically contact with the conductive pads of a flexible printed circuit (FPC) 6.
Referring to FIG. 5, the FPC 6 comprises a plurality of conductive pads 60 arranged side by side in a row at its one end and a pair of projections 61 extending outward from lateral sides of the same end.
Referring to FIG. 2, the pair of retaining terminals 4 are respectively received in the slots 14 at two ends of the housing. Each retaining terminal 4 comprises a base portion 40, a fixing arm 42 and a retaining arm 41 longer than the fixing arm 42. The fixing arm 42 and the base section 40 are received in the housing and the retaining arm 41 extends along a groove 13 opposite the slot 14.
The pair of holding components 5 are used for mounting the connector to a circuit board (not shown). Each holding component 5 has an insertion portion 51, which is inserted in a channel 15 adjacent the groove 13 and retained in the housing, and a mounting portion 52, which is vertical to the insertion portion 51 and used to be soldered on the circuit board.
Furthermore, a guiding passageway 16 is defined at two ends of the housing. The guiding passageway 16 extends along the front-to-back direction through a rear end thereof. A first blocking portion 161 is at a front open of the passageway 16 and a second blocking portion 162 is in the middle of the passageway 16. The stuffer 3 has a rectangular base plate 30, a tongue plate 31 extending from the base plate 30 and a pair of latching arms 32 extending from lengthwise ends of the base plate 30 along a same direction of the tongue plate 31 to slide in the corresponding passageways 16. Each latching arm 32 has a latch 320 at its distal end, which faces to the tongue plate 31 for being blocked by the blocking portion 161,162 to prevent the stuffer 3 from breaking off the housing 1.
So, after the FPC 6 is inserted into the receiving cavity, push the stuffer 3 into the receiving cavity, the tongue plate 31 of the stuffer 3 urges the FPC 6 to move towards the contact portions 211, 231 so that the conductive pads 60 can electrically contact with the corresponding contact portions 211, 231 of the terminals 2. It is noted that the contact portion 211 and the contact portion 231 of one single terminal 2 electrically contact with the identical conductive pad 60 of the FPC. Therefore, the electric performance of the electrical connector is improved accordingly. Besides, the conductive terminal 2 is a kind of forming terminal, which is made by stamping a piece of metal plate and bending parts of it to form the resilient arms 21,23. As the two resilient arms are extending upwards from the same metal plate plane, and reach to the same height, therefore, the whole height of the connector can be reduced due to the low profile of the terminal 2, which is helpful to the miniaturization of the connector.
The present invention is not limited to the electrical connector mentioned above. This disclosure is illustrative only, changes may be made in detail, especially in matter of shapes, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention. For example, the followed two embodiments are also according with the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the first resilient arm 21′ extends aslant the base portion, and the second resilient arm 23′ extends along the same extending direction from the front window at the side near the base portion. Besides, as shown in FIG. 7, the terminal 2 has a single connecting arm 22″ to replace the doorframe 22, and the second resilient arm 23″ is formed in its distal end.
Patent Application
20080038957
