BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector with a plurality of terminal modules retained in an insulating housing.
2. Description of Related Arts
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0089097A1 discloses an electrical connector including an insulating housing and plural rows of terminals retained in the housing. Each row of terminals includes plural grounding terminals and plural differential pairs of signal terminals in a first direction. The grounding terminal includes a base portion and two separated elastic arms extending from the base portion. The signal terminal includes a base portion and one elastic arm extending from the base portion. The terminals are inserted into and retained in the insulating housing by interference fit. For a large quantity of the terminals, the assembling process of the terminals into the housing may take a lot of time, and moreover the terminals may become loose from the insulating housing.
An improved electrical connector is desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The instant invention is to provide an electrical connector for positively retained terminal modules in an insulating housing.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical connector comprises: a plurality of terminal modules each comprising a row of terminals arranged in a first direction and an insulator molded with the row of terminals, the plurality of terminal modules being arranged in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; and an insulating housing overmolding and retaining the plurality of terminal modules to define a mating cavity, wherein the insulator of each terminal module defines a plurality of through holes miming therethrough in the second direction, and materials of the insulating housing fill the through holes of each terminal module.
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.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view of the electrical connector in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of part of the electrical connector in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is another exploded perspective view of the electrical connector in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a terminal module in FIG. 3;
FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the terminal module in FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector taken along a broken line 7-7 in FIG. 1; and
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector taken along a broken line 8-8 in FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention.
Referring to FIGS. 1-4, an electrical connector 100 in this embodiment of this invention is illustrated, which is of a type of a mezzanine connector and includes a plurality of terminal modules 2 and an insulating housing 1. The insulting housing 1 includes a bottom portion 12 and side walls 11 extending upwards from the bottom portion 12, and commonly defines a mating cavity 13 among the bottom portion 12 and the side walls 11, the plurality of terminal modules 2 are retained in bottom portion 12, the terminals exposes to the mating cavity 13.
Referring to FIGS. 5-8, each of the terminal module 2 includes an insulator 21 and a plurality of terminals 20 arranged a row in a first direction A, the insulator 21 retains the row of terminals 20 by another injection molding process. The terminal 20 includes a base portion, an elastic arm extending upwards from the base portion and a leg portion extending downwards from the base portion. Each of the terminal module 2 defines plural through holes 211 through two opposite sides of the insulator 21 in a second direction B and plural recessed holes 212 at one side of the insulator 21 in the second direction, the recessed holes 212 do not run through the insulator 21 in the second direction. The plurality of terminal modules 2 are arranged in the second direction and retained in the insulating housing 1. The bottom portion 12 defines plural longitudinal grooves 121 running through the bottom portion 12 along a third direction or an upright direction. In this embodiment, the terminal modules 2 are arranged in the second direction and insulating material of the insulating housing 1 is injection molded to the plurality of terminal modules 2 and then cools to be the insulating housing 1. The through holes 211 are filled with the insulating material, improving the combination of the housing 1 and the terminal modules 2. The recessed holes 212 also improve the combination of the terminal modules 2 and the housing 1. Referring to FIG. 7, the portions 131, 132 of the insulating housing 1 are filled with the through holes 211 and the recessed holes 212. The insulators 21 are embedded in the bottom portion 12.
Referring to FIGS. 3-5, the plurality of terminals 20 in one row includes plural grounding terminals 22 and pairs of differential-pair signal terminals 23. The insulators 21 of adjacent terminal modules 2 differ in length in the first direction, the longer terminal modules are named as first terminal modules 24, the other terminal modules are named as second terminal modules 25. The first terminal module 24 includes six grounding terminals 22 and five pairs of signal terminals 23, the second terminal module 25 includes five grounding terminals and four pairs of signal terminals. The grounding terminals 22 and the pairs of signal terminals 23 are arranged alternately in the first direction. Referring to FIG. 7, the first terminal module 24 has two through holes 211, the second terminal module 25 has four through holes 211. The insulating material of the insulating housing 1 fills the through holes 131, for improving the combination of the terminal modules and the housing 1. FIG. 4, the bottom portion 12 defines square holes 213 opening in the upright direction, the leg portions 203 go across the square holes 213.
Referring to FIG. 6, the grounding terminals 22 are wider than the signal terminals in the first direction. The grounding terminal 22 includes a main portion 201, two elastic arms 202 extending upwards from the main portion and two leg portions 203 extending downwards from the main portion, the two elastic arms 202 are arranged side by side in the first direction with a gap 226. The width of the two elastic arms 202 adding the gap 226 equals to the width of the main portion 201. The elastic arm 202 extends upwards with continual arcs and form two arc portions 2021 protruding oppositely, wherein upper arc portions of the two elastic arms 202 are functioned as contacting portions to mate with a complementary connector. As shown, the two adjacent elastic arms 202 of the same grounding terminal protrude oppositely in the second direction. The main portion 201 of the grounding terminal defines a notch 222 at a lower edge thereof, the notch 222 is located between the two leg portions 203. Please notes, the through holes 211 go cross the notch 222.
Referring to FIG. 6, the differential pair of signal terminal includes two signal terminals 23 with a gap 223 in the first direction. Each signal terminal 23 includes a main portion 204, a leg portion 206 and an elastic arm 205. The width of the elastic arm 205 in the first direction equals the width of the main portion 204. The elastic arm 205 of the signal terminal 23 are twice oppositely in the second direction, wherein an upper arc portion is used as contacting portion. The main portions 204 of the signal terminals 23 defines through holes 233 in the second direction, an axial lines of the through holes 223 are offset from corresponding elastic arms 204. The width of the two elastic arms 203 of the differential-pair terminal is smaller than the two elastic arms 202 of the grounding terminal 22.
Referring to FIG. 5, please notes, the two elastic arms 202 of a same grounding terminal 22 direct oppositely, the elastic arm 205 of the signal terminal 23 and the adjacent elastic arm 202 of the grounding terminal 22 are direct in a same second direction while the two elastic arms 204 of the differential pair direct oppositely. Referring to FIG. 3, seen in the second direction, one elastic arm of each differential pair wholly overlap with the corresponding grounding terminal located in the adjacent row, while another elastic arm of the differential pair partially overlap with the corresponding grounding terminal located in the adjacent row.
Referring to FIGS. 7-8, during the insulating housing 1 is made by the injection molding process, some molding portions of the housing 1 fill the through holes 131 and the through holes 233 of the signal terminals 23 and the notches 222 of the grounding terminals, ensuring the signal terminals and the grounding terminals to be retained in the insulator 21. Some molding portions of the housing 1 fill the recessed holes 212 of the insulator 21.
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.
Patent Application
20240055806
