WO2008047181A1

WO2008047181A1 - Electrical connector

Info

Publication number: WO2008047181A1
Application number: PCT/IB2006/054686
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michel Fonteneau; Sinesh Kumar
Original assignee: Fci
Priority date: 2006-10-20
Filing date: 2006-10-20
Publication date: 2008-04-24
Also published as: CN101617443A; CN101617443B; TW200836416A; TWI431853B

Abstract

The electrical connector comprises: an insulating housing (3) having a contact- receiving through aperture extending from a rear face to a front face, an electrical contact (4) inserted into the aperture . The connector housing (3) includes a lower edge (17) situated below and beyond said lower supporting surface (14) provided with a ledge (18) formed within a portion of the thickness from the rear face (3b) towards the front face (3a), said ledge (18) extending perpendicularly to and below the lower supporting surface (14) of the positioning arm (13) and extending over a distance corresponding substantially to the length of the housing. A portion of the first section (4a) of the electrical contact fitted into the housing includes an asymmetric shape.

Description

ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The instant invention relates to an electrical connector and to an electrical connector assembly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In particular, the instant invention is related to an electrical connector adapted to be mounted on a circuit board comprising: a housing including:

- a front face;

- a rear face substantially parallel to the front face;

- a thickness defined as the distance between said front and rear face; - a length parallel to an upper surface of the circuit board;

- a positioning arm projecting transversely and rearwardly from the rear face, said positioning arm having a lower supporting surface adapted to be mounted on the upper surface of the circuit board;

- at least one contact receiving-through aperture extending from said rear face to the front face; at least one electrical contact fitted into said through aperture, said at least one electrical contacts having a first section extending along a first symmetry axis and a second section extending along a second symmetry axis, said first and second symmetry axis forming a 90° angle.

Such connectors are for example known from right angle D-Sub connector. Conventionally, board-mounted electrical connectors have been attached to the surfaces of circuit boards on which other electronic or electrical components are mounted. The market trend for this kind of connector runs towards more compact and slim electrical connectors, this is particularly important since the cabinets, which usually contain such connectors, are becoming smaller.

Accordingly, it is an object of the instant invention to propose an improved electrical connector for mounting to a circuit board, which meets the trend toward more compact electronic equipment and denser circuit board packaging.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To this end, according to the invention, such a connector is characterized in that the housing includes a lower edge situated below and beyond said lower supporting surface provided with a ledge formed within a portion of the thickness from the rear face towards the front face, said ledge extending perpendicularly to and below the lower supporting surface of the positioning arm and extending over a distance corresponding substantially to the length of the housing thereby forming a recess for accommodating a circuit board portion. The connector is further characterized in that a portion of the first section of the electrical contact fitted into the housing comprises an asymmetric shape providing an available space adapted to receive the front portion of the circuit board.

With these features, more available surface area on the front portion of the circuit board for e.g. conductive tracks the front portion of said circuit board is received into the free space defined by the ledge. The connector of the present invention is particularly interesting for cabinet applications, since for a same available room, it is possible to use the connector with circuit boards having larger dimensions. Accordingly, a denser circuit board packaging is achievable.

In addition, by providing a portion of the first section of the electrical contact fitted into the housing with an asymmetric shape, it is possible to have a connector of reduced height. Consequently, the connector according to the present invention may be mounted on thicker circuit board in a same available space of a cabinet .

In some embodiments, one might also use one or more features corresponding to claims 2 to 4.

According to another aspect, the invention relates to an electrical connector assembly according to claims 5 to 7.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other specific features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description hereinafter, of particular embodiments of the invention given as examples, reference being made to the appended drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a sectional view along plane P of Fig. 2;

Fig. 2 is an elevation front view of an embodiment of a connector; - Fig. 3 is an elevation rear view of the connector of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a top partial view of a connector assembly comprising the connector of Fig. 2 and 3.

On the different figures, the same reference signs designate like of similar elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Figure 1 shows a sectional view along plane P of the connector represented in Fig. 2. The connector 1 is for connection to a circuit board 2 (Fig. 4), for example of the D-subminiature type.

The connector 1 includes an insulating housing 3 having a thickness along a first transversal direction Tl, a length along a second transversal direction T2, a height

H. Directions Tl and T2 are perpendicular to the height H and are perpendicular one with the other. The housing 3 has a front face 3a, on which are assembled front shielding elements, and a rear face 3b. Said housing 3 is pierced with through apertures for insertion therein of electrical contacts. By way of example the connector housing according to the present invention is 25 mm height, with a length of about 40 mm and a thickness of about 2.4 mm.

As shown in Fig. 2, these electrical contacts may be of two types: electrical power contacts 4 and electrical signal contacts 5. Electrical power contacts are of large dimension, over 8 millimetres (mm) in diameter and for example of diameter about 10 mm, for transmitting electrical power to and/or from the circuit board. Electrical signal contacts are of lower diameter for transmitting signal to and/or from the circuit board. The number of electrical power and signal contacts on the drawings is purely by way of example.

As shown in Fig. 1, the housing 3 comprises two stages of through-apertures adapted for receiving an upper and a lower power contact 4. Each power contact 4 comprises a first contact section 4a, provided with a mating end 6, extending along a first symmetry axis 7 and a second section 4b, provided with a connection end 9, extending along a second symmetry axis 10. The first contact section 4a is joined to the second section 4b by a curved portion 10 so as they are mutually perpendicular providing a right angle contact. The power contact 4 as shown in Fig. 2 and 3 has a generally rounded shape and is provided with a flange 11, located on its first section 4a, which abuts the rear face 3b of the housing 3 when it is inserted therein. A portion of the first section 4a is fitted into the through aperture of the connector housing 3, while its mating end 6 protrudes from the front face 3a. The portion of the upper power contact engaged into the housing is substantially symmetric with respect to its first symmetry axis 7. The lower stage power contact has substantially the same general shape as the upper power contact but it differs in that its housing engaging portion comprises an asymmetric shape. More precisely, the lowermost part of said contact portion has been shaped to provide a lower flattened face 12 which extends substantially parallel to the first symmetry axis 7. In this example this truncated shape corresponds, in section, to the shape of a cylinder intersected by a plane running parallel to the longitudinal axis of the cylinder. This provides for example a flattened face 12 of the electrical power contact which extends parallel to the upper face of the circuit board 2, and facing this upper face. Further, the flange 11 in the lower stage is cut-out, for example in a similar way, as shown on Fig. 3. It should be understood that according to the present invention, any other cut-out shape of the lowermost part of the contact may be employed, provided that the housing engaging portion of the contact has an asymmetric shape . As disclosed in Fig. 2 and 3, the housing 3 further comprises mechanical positioning features 13 of the connector 1 onto the circuit board 2. In the present embodiment, such retention features are positioning arm projecting transversely and rearwardly from the rear face 3b of the insulating housing 3. Each of said positioning arms 13 presents a lower supporting surface 14 designed for resting on the upper surface of the circuit board 2 when the connector is in place. In the example of Fig. 2, said positioning arms further includes retention features. By way of example, the retention features are provided as a series of parallel tongues 15 extending vertically downward for snapping into complementary holes forming complementary retention features 16 provided in the circuit board 2.

The housing 3 has a lower edge 17 positioned below and beyond said lower supporting surface 14 and is further provided with a ledge 18 formed within a portion of the thickness from the rear face 3b towards the front face 3a. Said ledge 18 is situated below and extends perpendicular to the lower supporting surface 14 of the positioning arm 13, so as the lower edge 17 of the housing forms a flange portion 19.

In use, i.e. when the connector 1 is mounted on a circuit board, the flange portion formed by the lower edge of the housing abuts against the front edge 22 (Fig. 4) of the circuit board 2 with its front part received within the clearance provided by the ledge 18. Consequently, more surface area of the circuit board 2 can be provided on the circuit board; the surface area gain substantially corresponds to space set free by the ledge 18. Thus, for cabinet applications, the connector of the present invention could be mounted on a circuit board having more available surface area, thus providing a more compact cabinet architecture.

By virtue of the asymmetric shape of the contact provided by the lowermost truncated portion, it is therefore possible to decrease the height of the connector 1. This contact shape feature also contributes to propose a denser cabinet architecture wherein circuit boards are placed one above another. Indeed, height reduction of the connector could advantageously be turned to profit for the connection with circuit boards having an increased thickness, i.e. having a greater number of embedded conductive tracks.

As shown in Fig. 4, the connector 1 is assembled with the circuit board 2 such that the first retention features 15 cooperate with the complementary retention features 16 of the circuit board. On this drawing, only one electrical power contact 4 and signal contact 5 is shown inserted into corresponding parts 20, 21, respectively of the circuit board 2. The lower supporting surface 14 of the front face 3b of the housing 3 comes into contact with the edge 22 of the circuit board 2, for better retention thereto. It should be noted that it is only sufficient to design a cut out in the circuit board of a width corresponding to the length w of the connector and of depth d sensibly corresponding to the thickness t of the lower edge of the housing, i.e. in the present example : 2.4 mm. In contrast, when using prior art connector, a deeper PCB cut-out is necessary to allow the assembling, as an example a cut-out depth of about 7,7 mm is required. Thus, when using the connector of the present invention, more surface area can be provided on the circuit board 2 for electrical tracks.

The above description is given as a non limiting example, and variants of this example could also be part of the invention as defined by the scope of the appended claims .

Claims

1. Electrical connector (1) adapted to be mounted on a circuit board (2) comprising: a housing (3) including: a front face (3a) ; a rear face (3b) substantially parallel to the front face (3a) ; a thickness defined as the distance between said front and rear face; a length parallel to an upper surface of the circuit board (2) ; a positioning arm (13) projecting transversely and rearwardly from the rear face (3b) , said positioning arm (13) having a lower supporting surface (14) adapted to be mounted on the upper surface of the circuit board (2); at least one contact receiving-through aperture extending from said rear face (3b) to the front face (3a); at least one electrical contact fitted into said through aperture, said at least one electrical contacts having a first section (4a) including a mating end (6), extending along a first symmetry axis (7) and a second section (4b) including a connection end, extending along a second symmetry axis (10), said first and second symmetry axis forming a 90° angle; characterized in that the housing (3) includes a lower edge (17) situated below and beyond said lower supporting surface (14) provided with a ledge (18) formed within a portion of the thickness from the rear face (3b) towards the front face (3a), said ledge (18) extending perpendicularly to and below the lower supporting surface (14) of the positioning arm (13) and extending over a distance corresponding substantially to the length of the housing thereby forming a recess for accommodating a circuit board portion and in that a portion of the first section (4a) of the electrical contact fitted into the housing comprises an asymmetric shape providing an available space adapted to accommodate the front portion of the circuit board.

2. Electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein said electrical contact is a power contact (4) .

3. Electrical connector according to claim 2, wherein said electrical power contact (4) has a diameter of over 8 millimetres (mm), and preferably of about 10 mm.

4. Electrical connector according to any preceding claim, wherein said electrical power contact comprises a ring-shaped flange (11) abutting on said rear face

(3b), the lowermost part of said flange (11) having a flattened shape.

5. Electrical connector assembly comprising a circuit board (2) and an electrical connector (1) according to any one of the preceding claims.

6. Electrical connector assembly according to claim 5, wherein said circuit board (2) has an upper face receiving said connection end (9) of the electrical contact and wherein said lowermost part of said electrical contact has a flattened face (12) parallel to and facing said upper face of the circuit board (2) .

7. Electrical connector assembly according to claims 5 or 6, wherein the circuit board (2) comprises a cut-out region for reception of the connector, said cut-out region having a depth substantially equal to the thickness of the connector housing (3) .