1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connector, and in particular to an improved electrical connector.
2. Description of Prior Art
Due to the development of the electronics industry, many types of electronic devices are now popular and surrounding people's life. In order to transmit control commands, multimedia data and power, most electronic devices are arranged with at least one electrical connector.
The most popular electrical connector in the market is universal serial bus (USB) connector. General speaking, the most popular USB connector is USB Type-A connector. Besides, USB Micro-B connector is another USB interface which is smaller than USB Type-A connector, and is mostly adopted in portable devices such as smart phones, tablets, etc. Furthermore, USB Implementers Forum announced USB Type-C interface for USB 3.1 standard, which is made for slighter, thinner devices.
A skilled person in the technical field may know the amount of the terminals in a USB 3.0 Type-A connector is nine, the amount of the terminals in a USB 2.0 Type-A connector is four, and the amount of the terminals in a USB 3.1 Type-C connector is twenty-four. As a result, if a computer needs to use a USB 3.1 Type-C connector, the pin definition of the mainboard of the computer needs to be changed following the USB 3.1 Type-C standard (for example, traditional nine pins or four pins of the mainboard needs to be changed into twenty-four pins). Besides, the circuit design of the mainboard also needs to be extremely adjusted. Therefore, the cost of development and manufacture of the mainboard will be increased.
The present invention is to provide an electrical connector, which may connect with a mainboard through inserting holes adopted with USB Type-A standard and make the mainboard to use a USB Type-C connector of the electrical connector.
In one of the exemplary embodiments, the electrical connector comprises an insulating housing, a USB Type-C connector arranged in the insulating housing, a circuit board and a plurality of transferring terminals. One side of the circuit board is connected with twenty-four connection terminals of the USB Type-C connector, other side of the circuit board is connected with the plurality of transferring terminals which are corresponding to USB Type-A standard. The circuit board is arranged with a connecting line which is used to integrate signal transmitted through the twenty-four connection terminals of the USB Type-C connector into USB Type-A standard adopted outputting signal, and outputs the outputting signal through the plurality of transferring terminals.
In comparison with prior art, the electrical connector of the present invention may connect with an external mainboard through USB Type-A adopted inserting holes, so as to connect with the mainboard and make the mainboard to use the USB Type-C connector on the electrical connector without changing the circuit arrangement of the mainboard, which is very convenient.
In cooperation with the attached drawings, the technical contents and detailed description of the present invention are described thereinafter according to a preferable embodiment, being not used to limit its executing scope. Any equivalent variation and modification made according to appended claims is all covered by the claims claimed by the present invention.
Please refer to
In one aspect, the USB Type-C connector 3 is a USB 3.1 Type-C connector, which comprises a plurality of connection terminals 31. In one embodiment, an amount of the plurality of connection terminals 31 is twenty-four.
In one embodiment shown in
More specific, the insulating housing 2 is internally arranged with a circuit board container 22 which communicates with the connector container 21, and the circuit board 4 is horizontally arranged in the circuit board container 22. In one embodiment, the circuit board container 22 is arranged below the connector container 21.
As shown in
The connector assembly 1 further comprises the plurality of transferring terminals 5. One end of the circuit board 4 is electrically connected with the plurality of connection terminals 31 of the USB Type-C connector 3, the other end of the circuit board 4 is electrically connected with the plurality of transferring terminals 5. The plurality of transferring terminals 5 is corresponding to USB Type-A standard. In one embodiment, the amount of the plurality of transferring terminals 5 may be nine, which is corresponding to the amount of terminals in a USB 3.0 Type-A connector. In other embodiment, the amount of the plurality of transferring terminals 5 may be four, which is corresponding to the amount of terminals in a USB 2.0 Type-A connector, not limited thereto. One end of the plurality of transferring terminals 5 is electrically connected with the circuit board 4, other end of the plurality of transferring terminals is protruding from the bottom of the insulating housing, so as to connect with an external mainboard 8.
The connector assembly 1 further comprises a connecting line 40. The connecting line 40 is arranged on the circuit board 4, so as to electrically connect with the plurality of connection terminals 31 of the USB Type-C connector 3 and the plurality of transferring terminals 5 through the circuit board 4. In particular, the circuit board 4 is arranged with a plurality of first contacts 41 and a plurality of second contacts 42. The connecting line 40 is connected with both the plurality of first contacts 41 and the plurality of second contact 42, so as to connect with the plurality of connection terminals 31 of the USB Type-C connector 3 through the plurality of first contacts 41, and to connect with the plurality of transferring terminals 5 through the plurality of second contacts 42. In other words, the plurality of transferring terminals 5 is to connect with the USB Type-C connector 3 through the circuit board 4, the plurality of second contacts 42, the connecting line 40, the plurality of first contacts 41 and the plurality of connection terminals 31.
In one embodiment, the connecting line 40 is used to integrate the signal transmitted by the USB Type-C connector 3 through the plurality of connection terminals 31 into USB Type-A standard adopted outputting signal, and transmits the integrated outputting signal externally through the plurality of transferring terminals 5. Also, the connecting line 40 receives USB Type-A standard adopted input signal externally through the plurality of transferring terminals 5, and processes the received input signal to be transmitted by the plurality of connection terminals 31, then transmits it externally through the USB Type-C connector 3. In this embodiment, the aforementioned integrated procedure is to perform a parallel connection to same signal, but not limited thereto.
As shown in
The connector assembly 1 further comprises a processing unit 43, electrically connected on the circuit board 4, and electrically connected with the USB Type-C connector 3 and the plurality of transferring terminals 5 through the connecting line 40. In this embodiment, the processing unit 43 may be any type of protecting component for providing the safety of the connector assembly 1 during signal transmission.
In one embodiment, the connector assembly 1 further comprises a shielding 7, the shielding 7 is used to cover the insulating housing 2, the USB Type-C connector 3, the circuit board 4 and the plurality of transferring terminals 5, so as to provide shielding effect.
Refers to
The connecting area 81 is used to connect with a standard USB 3.0 Type-A connector. The nine connecting terminals of the USB 3.0 Type-A connector are respectively corresponding to the nine inserting holes of the inserting hole set 811.
In one aspect of the invention, the circuit board 4, the connecting line 40 and the plurality of transferring terminals 5 are used to integrate the plurality of connection terminals 31 of the USB Type-C connector 3 into an amount that is less than twenty-four and meets the amount of a standard USB Type-A connector (the amount in the embodiment shown in
The above table shows the well-known terminal standard of USB Type-C connector, no more discussion is needed here. A1 to A12 of the above table indicates the terminal definition of the twelve connection terminals 31 of top of the USB Type-C connector 3, B1 to B12 of the above table indicates the terminal definition of the twelve connection terminals 31 of bottom of the USB Type-C connector 3, wherein, GND indicates a grounding terminal, Tx1+ and Tx2+ indicate positive transmitting terminals, Tx1− and Tx2− indicate negative transmitting terminals, VBUS indicates a power terminal, D+ indicates a positive data terminal, D− indicates a negative data terminal, Rx1+ and Rx2+ indicate positive receiving terminals, Rx1− and Rx2− indicate negative receiving terminals. Furthermore, CC1, CC2, SBU1 AND SBU2 are irrelated with the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, no more discussion is needed here.
In one of the exemplary embodiments, the nine transferring terminals 5 comprise two grounding terminals 51 (GND), a positive transmitting terminal 52 (Tx+), a negative transmitting terminal 53 (Tx−), a power terminal 54 (VBUS), a positive data terminal 55 (D+), a negative data terminal 56 (D−), a negative receiving terminal 57 (Rx−) and a positive receiving terminal 58 (Rx+).
As shown in
According to the aforementioned configuration, the mainboard 8 may connect with the connector assembly 1 through pins corresponding to USB 3.0 Type-A standard. No matter a connector plug (not shown) inserted into the USB Type-C connector 3 is obverse or reverse, the mainboard 8 may establish a communication with an electronic device (not shown) connected with the connector plug through the USB Type-C connector 3. However, in the embodiments of the present invention, the signal transmitted by the USB Type-C connector 3 may be as similar as the signal transmitted through standard USB 3.0 Type-A connectors.
In particular, the connecting area 82 is used to connect a standard USB 2.0 Type-A connector, wherein the four terminals of the USB 2.0 Type-A connector are respectively corresponding to the four inserting holes of the inserting hole set 821.
As mentioned above, in order to connect with the connecting area 82 of the mainboard 8, the connector assembly 1′ needs to integrate the plurality of connection terminals 31 of the USB Type-C connector 3 into four outputting terminals which satisfies USB 2.0 Type-A standard (i.e., the amount of the plurality of transferring terminals 5 of the connector assembly 1′ is four).
It should be mentioned that the second terminal, the third terminal, the fifth terminal, the eighth terminal, the tenth terminal, the eleventh terminal (A2, A3, A5, A8, A10, A11) from the top and the second terminal, the third terminal, the fifth terminal, the eighth terminal, the tenth terminal, the eleventh terminal (B2, B3, B5, B8, B10, B11) from the bottom of the USB Type-C connector 3 are irrelated to USB 2.0 Type-A standard, it results in that the aforementioned terminals may not be connected with the plurality of transferring terminals 5 in the embodiment.
According to the disclosed embodiments of the present invention, the mainboard 8 may directly connect with the connector assembly 1 or 1′ through the current existed USB 2.0 Type-A standard adopted pins and/or USB 3.0 Type-A standard adopted pins, so as to use the USB Type-C connector 3 of the connector assembly 1 or 1′, which is very convenient.
As the skilled person will appreciate, various changes and modifications can be made to the described embodiment. It is intended to include all such variations, modifications and equivalents which fall within the scope of the present invention, as defined in the accompanying claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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104218619 U | Nov 2015 | TW | national |
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