Electrical connector with an improved grounding member and an improved metal shell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12294187-B2
Application number	US-202217972140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2022
Priority date	Oct 26, 2021
Publication date	May 6, 2025
Grant date	May 6, 2025

Abstract

An electrical connector includes a housing having a base portion and a tongue portion, two rows of terminals having signal terminals and ground terminals, a grounding member, and a metal shell. The grounding member is formed by bending a metal plate to have two long plates with fingers in contact with corresponding ground terminals. The base body defines a mating face and an outer face. A positioning groove is formed between a first side plate and the outer wall face. The metal shell is provided with an inner plate of which the lower edge is cut into a specific shape to form a locking edge. The metal shell has an inner shell and an outer shell.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electrical connector comprising:
a housing comprising a base portion and a tongue portion extending from the base portion;
two rows of terminals retained in the housing, each row of terminals comprising signal terminals and ground terminals, each terminal having a contacting portion and a connecting portion, the contacting portions being respectively arranged on opposite surfaces of the tongue portion; and
a grounding member retained in the housing and located between the two rows of terminals;
wherein the grounding member is formed by bending a metal plate and comprises two long plates and an arc portion integrally connecting the two long plates, and each of the long plates defines a plurality of fingers in contact with corresponding ground terminals, respectively.

2. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the electrical connector comprises two terminal modules, each of the terminal modules comprises one row of terminals and an insulating block retaining the row of terminals, the insulating block defines a plurality of slots, and the fingers pass through corresponding slots and press against corresponding ground terminals.

3. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the finger has an oblique portion and a vertical portion, the oblique portion extends outwards from a bottom edge of the long plate and passes through the slot, and the vertical portion extends vertically downward from the oblique portion continually and abuts against the corresponding ground terminal.

4. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the arc portion defines a plurality of openings.

5. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the electrical connector comprises two terminal modules, each terminal module comprises an insulating block and one row of the terminals retained in the insulating block, the long plates reach downwards to the insulating blocks and upwards approximately to the contacting portions of the terminals.

6. An electrical connector comprising:
a housing defining a mating face and a first outer face perpendicular to a vertical direction;
a plurality of terminals arranged in the housing; and
a metal shell surrounding the housing and comprising a first side plate at least partially spaced apart from the first outer face with a certain distance to define a positioning groove between the first side plate and the first outer face of the housing;
wherein the metal shell comprises an inner plate bent into the positioning groove integrally from the first side plate, the inner plate defines a locking edge for locking with a locking member of a mating connector, and the inner plate is cut into a specific shape to form a locking edge.

7. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 6 , wherein a lower edge of the inner plate is cut into a specific shape to form the locking edge.

8. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the metal shell extends upwardly beyond the mating face of the housing and defines a plurality of bending tabs bent inwardly from an upper edge of the metal shell.

9. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the metal shell comprises an inner shell and an outer shell closely attached to each other, and the inner plate bent inwardly from an upper edge of the outer shell.

10. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the bending tabs are bent inwardly from the outer shell and are located above the inner shell.

11. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the outer shell comprises bending tabs bent outwardly from an upper edge of the other side plate opposite to the first side plate.

12. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the housing comprises a base portion and a tongue portion and a surrounding wall extending from the base portion and spaced apart from each other, and the surrounding wall defines the first outer face.

13. An electrical connector comprising:
a housing and two rows of terminals retained in the housing, each row of terminals comprising signal terminals and ground terminals; and
a grounding member retained in the housing and located between the two rows of terminals;
wherein the grounding member is made from a metal plate and comprises two long plates located proximal to corresponding rows of the terminals and a connecting portion integrally connecting respective first ends of the two long plates, the long plates define a plurality of fingers extending from respective second end thereof opposite to the first ends, and the fingers mechanically connects with the ground terminals of corresponding rows of terminals, respectively.

14. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the connecting portion is in an arc shape and defines a plurality of openings.

15. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 13 , wherein there are two terminal modules each comprising an insulating block and one row of terminals, and the fingers pass through slots defined on the insulating blocks and contact the grounding terminals.

16. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 13 , further comprising an inner shell and outer shell, wherein the inner shell is fittingly attached to the housing and the outer shell is fittingly attached to the inner shell, and wherein the outer shell defines a plurality of inner bending tabs located above the inner shell.

17. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 16 , further comprising an inner plate, wherein the inner plate is folded from the outer shell and attached to an inner side of the inner shell, and the inner plate defines a locking edge.

18. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 13 , further comprising a metal shell fittingly surrounding the insulating housing and defining a positioning groove between a part of the metal shell and the housing, and an inner plate attached to an inner side of the metal shell and defining a locking edge.

Assignees

• Fuding Prec Industry Zhengzhou Co Ltd
• Foxconn Interconnect Technology Ltd

Inventors

• Liu Meng
• Liu xiao-li
• Zong Ling
• Meng zhan-sheng

Classifications

• H01R12/75 Primary

  connecting to cables except for flat or ribbon cables · CPC title

• H01R13/6586

  for separating multiple connector modules · CPC title

• H01R13/6582

  with resilient means for engaging mating connector · CPC title

• H01R24/60

  Contacts spaced along planar side wall transverse to longitudinal axis of engagement · CPC title

• H01R13/6585 Primary

  Shielding material individually surrounding or interposed between mutually spaced contacts · CPC title