1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a plug connector that has two rows of soldering sections of terminals to reduce a density of a soldering section layout to facilitate a soldering process and improve a production rate of the plug connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 connectors are popularly used in various electronic devices. However, USB 2.0 protocol only allows a maximum transmission speed of 480 Mbps. Because electronic devices are constantly developed to increase transmission speeds, the USB 2.0 protocol does not meet current transmission speed requirement of new electronic devices. Therefore, the USB Implementers Forum (USB IF) established USB 3.0 protocol, with a theoretical maximum transmission speed of 5 Gbps.
However, a USB 3.0 connector having two rows of terminals is structurally complicated so manufacturing a USB 3.0 connector is difficult. Because almost double a number of terminals is required in comparison to a conventional connector, soldering sections of the terminals are packed more tightly so impeding soldering the soldering sections on a printed circuit board (PCB). Such tight packing also risks short circuit caused by excess solder connecting two adjacent terminals. Therefore, the USB 3.0 connector has a low production rate and high manufacturing cost.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a plug connector with two rows of soldering sections to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The main objective of the invention is to provide a plug connector that has two rows of soldering sections of terminals to reduce a density of a soldering section layout to facilitate a soldering process and improve a production rate of the plug connector.
A plug connector in accordance with the present invention has an insulative housing, a mounting bracket, multiple first terminals, multiple second terminals and a shell. The mounting bracket is mounted on the insulative housing. The first terminals are mounted through the insulative housing and have soldering sections arranged in a first transverse row. The second terminals are mounted through the mounting bracket and have soldering sections arranged in a second transverse row. The soldering sections arranged in the different rows reduce a density of a soldering section layout and facilitate soldering the plug connector to a PCB.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
The plug connector comprises an insulative housing (10), a mounting bracket (20), multiple first terminals (30), multiple second terminals (40) and a shell (50).
With further reference to
The base (11) has a top, a bottom, a front end and a rear end and may further have a mounting slot (111), multiple first engaging elements, multiple positioning notches (112) and multiple mounting posts (116). The mounting slot (111) is defined in the top of the base (11). The first engaging elements are formed on the top of the base (11) and may be multiple first notches (115a) and first ribs (115) arranged alternately. The positioning notches (112) are defined in the base (11). The mounting posts (116) are formed on the bottom of the base (11) and may be mounted respectively in mounting holes of a PCB.
The tongue (12) is formed on and protrudes forward from the front end of the base (11).
The mounting bracket (20) is a separate component from the insulative housing (10), is mounted on the insulative housing (10) and has a mount (21) and an extension member (22).
The mount (21) is mounted in the mounting slot (111) and has a rear end.
The extension member (22) is formed on and protrudes backward from the rear end of the mount (21), has a top surface and a bottom surface and may further have multiple second engaging elements and a fastening protrusion (23). The second engaging elements are formed on the bottom surface, respectively engage the first engaging elements and may be multiple second ribs (225a) and multiple second notches (225) respectively engaging the first notches and ribs (115a, 115) of the insulative housing (10). The fastening protrusion (23) is formed on and protrudes upward from the top surface.
The first terminals (30) are mounted through the insulative housing (10) by an insert-molding process and each first terminal (30), may be capable of implementing USB 2.0 signal transmission and has a mounting section (31), a soldering section (32) and a contacting section (33).
The mounting section (31) is mounted in the insulative housing (10).
The soldering section (32) is formed on and protrudes downward from the mounting section (32) and may extend out of the rear end of the base (11). The soldering sections (32) of the first terminals (30) are arranged in a first transverse row (T1) relative to the insulative housing (10).
The contacting section (33) is formed on and protrudes forward from the mounting section (31) and may be mounted on the tongue (12).
The second terminals (40) are mounted through the mounting bracket (20) by an insert-molding process, may be capable of cooperating with the first terminals (30) to implement USB 3.0 signal transmission and may be respectively mounted in the positioning notches (112) of the insulative housing (10). Each second terminal (40) has a mounting section (41), a soldering section (42) and a contacting section (43).
The mounting section (41) is mounted in the mounting bracket (20).
The soldering section (42) is formed on and protrudes downward from the mounting section (41). The soldering sections (42) of the second terminals (40) are arranged in a second transverse row (T2) relative to the insulative housing (10). The first transverse row (T1) is closer to the rear end of the base (11) of the insulative housing (10) than the second transverse row (T2).
The contacting section (43) is formed on and protrudes forward from the mounting section (41).
The shell (50) covers the insulative housing (10), mounting bracket (20), first terminals (30) and second terminals (40) and has a cavity (500), a top panel (51), two opposite side panels (52) and a bottom panel (53).
The cavity (500) is defined through the shell (50) and may hold a tongue of a corresponding socket connector.
The top panel (51) has a rear end and a fastening slot (513) defined in the rear end and engaging the fastening protrusion (23) of the mounting bracket (20) to prevent the shell (10) from being detached inadvertently from the insulative housing (10) the mounting bracket (20).
The side panels (52) are formed on and protrude downward from the top panel (51).
The bottom panel (53) is formed between the side panels (52).
With further reference to
With reference to
With further reference to
With further reference to
The present invention has the following advantages.
1. The soldering sections (32, 42, 42a) of the first and second terminals (30, 40, 40a) are arranged in different transverse rows (T1, T2) so that the density of the soldering section layout is reduced to facilitate a soldering process. During the soldering process, when excess solder is applied to each soldering section (32, 42, 42a) such solder does not easily overflow to nearby soldering sections (32, 42, 42a), which prevents shorting problems.
2. The insulative housing (10) and mounting bracket (20) are separate components instead of being formed together so that designing and manufacturing a mold for each component is easy and cheap when compared to a structurally complicated mold for molding a one-piece insulative housing holding all terminals of a conventional connector. Thus, manufacturing costs of the plug connector are lowered.
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
98131178 A | Sep 2009 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
7367818 | Sakamoto | May 2008 | B2 |
7607947 | Ho | Oct 2009 | B1 |
7670150 | Hisamatsu et al. | Mar 2010 | B2 |
7748997 | Hamner et al. | Jul 2010 | B2 |