Connector mountable on a circuit board and connectable with a mating connector having a housing and rows of contacts with fixed portions extending into an opening of a housing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9728873-B2
Application number	US-201615221004-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2016
Priority date	Oct 30, 2015
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

A connector is mountable on a circuit board and connectable with a mating connector. The connector comprises a housing and a plurality of contacts which are held by the housing. The contacts form two or more contact rows. The contacts of each of the contact rows are arranged in a pitch direction. Each of the contacts has a fixed portion which is fixed to the circuit board when the connector is mounted on the circuit board. The housing has one or more openings each of which is positioned between neighboring two of the contact rows in a predetermined direction perpendicular to the pitch direction. Two or more of the fixed portions extend into one of the openings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A connector mountable on a circuit board and connectable with a mating connector, wherein:
the connector comprises a housing and a plurality of contacts which are held by the housing;
the contacts form two or more contact rows;
the contacts of each of the contact rows are arranged in a pitch direction;
each of the contacts has a fixed portion which is fixed to the circuit board when the connector is mounted on the circuit board;
the housing has one or more openings, each of which is positioned between neighboring two of the contact rows in a predetermined direction perpendicular to the pitch direction;
two or more of the fixed portions extend into one of the openings; and
when the connector is viewed along an up-down direction perpendicular to both the pitch direction and the predetermined direction, the fixed portion is visible through the opening.

2. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein the fixed portions of the contacts of each of the contact rows extend in directions same as each other.

3. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein the fixed portions of all of the contacts extend toward orientations same as each other in the predetermined direction.

4. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein all of the fixed portions of the contacts of one of the neighboring two of the contact rows extend in one of the openings.

5. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
each of the contacts has a press-fit portion;
the housing further has press-fitted portions; and
the press-fit portions are held by the press-fitted portions, respectively.

6. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the connector is a plug;
the housing further has two or more plug contact supporters and one or more plug recesses;
the plug contact supporters correspond to the contact rows, respectively;
each of the plug contact supporters extends long in the pitch direction;
each of the plug recesses is positioned between neighboring two of the plug contact supporters in the predetermined direction; and
the openings are positioned within the plug recesses, respectively.

7. A connector assembly comprising the connector as recited in claim 6 and a receptacle connector, wherein:
the connector of claim 6 functions as the plug;
the receptacle connector is and functions as the receptacle; and
the receptacle connector is mountable on a circuit board and connectable with the connector of claim 6 as a mating connector, wherein:
the receptacle connector comprises a housing and a plurality of contacts which are held by the housing;
the contacts of the receptacle connector form two or more contact rows;
the contacts of each of the contact rows of the receptacle connector are arranged in a pitch direction;
each of the contacts of the receptacle connector has a fixed portion which is fixed to the circuit board when the receptacle connector is mounted on the circuit board;
the housing of the receptacle connector has one or more openings, each of which is positioned between neighboring two of the contact rows of the receptacle connector in a predetermined direction perpendicular to the pitch direction;
two or more of the fixed portions of the receptacle connector extend into one of the openings of the receptacle connector;
each of the contacts of the receptacle connector further has a spring portion and a contact point;
the spring portion is resiliently deformable;
the contact point is supported by the spring portion;
the housing of the receptacle connector further has two or more receptacle contact supporters, two or more island-like portions, one or more receptacle recesses and two or more receiving portions;
the receptacle contact supporters correspond to the contact rows of the receptacle connector, respectively;
the island-like portions correspond to the contact rows of the receptacle connector, respectively;
each of the receptacle contact supporters extends long in the pitch direction;
each of the island-like portions partially accommodates the spring portions of the contacts of the corresponding contact row of the receptacle connector;
each of the island-like portions extends long in the pitch direction;
in the predetermined direction, each of the receiving portions is positioned between the receptacle contact supporter and the island-like portion, both of which correspond to one of the two or more contact rows of the receptacle connector;
in the predetermined direction, each of the receptacle recesses is positioned between the receptacle contact supporter, which corresponds to one of the two or more contact rows of the receptacle connector, and the island-like portion which corresponds to one of remaining ones of the two or more contact rows of the receptacle connector; and
the openings of the housing of the receptacle connector are positioned within the receptacle recesses, respectively.

8. The connector assembly as recited in claim 7 , wherein, in the predetermined direction, each of the fixed portions of the plug extends toward an orientation opposite to an orientation toward which each of the fixed portions of the receptacle extends.

9. The connector as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the connector is a receptacle;
each of the contacts further has a spring portion and a contact point;
the spring portion is resiliently deformable;
the contact point is supported by the spring portion;
the housing further has two or more receptacle contact supporters, two or more island-like portions, one or more receptacle recesses and two or more receiving portions;
the receptacle contact supporters correspond to the contact rows, respectively;
the island-like portions correspond to the contact rows, respectively;
each of the receptacle contact supporters extends long in the pitch direction;
each of the island-like portions partially accommodates the spring portions of the contacts of the corresponding contact row;
each of the island-like portions extends long in the pitch direction;
in the predetermined direction, each of the receiving portions is positioned between the receptacle contact supporter and the island-like portion, both of which correspond to one of the two or more contact rows;
in the predetermined direction, each of the receptacle recesses is positioned between the receptacle contact supporter, which corresponds to one of the two or more contact rows, and the island-like portion which corresponds to one of remaining ones of the two or more contact rows; and
the openings are positioned within the receptacle recesses, respectively.

10. The connector as recited in claim 9 , wherein:
each of the contacts further has a facing spring portion which is resiliently deformable;
the facing spring portion has a facing portion;
the facing portion faces the spring portion in the predetermined direction; and
the facing spring portions of the contacts of each of the contact rows are partially accommodated in the corresponding receptacle contact supporter.

11. The connector as recited in claim 10 , wherein:
each of the contacts further has a held portion and a bent portion;
the bent portion extends upward from each of the held portion and the facing spring portion in the up-down direction;
the bent portion couples the held portion and the facing spring portion with each other; and
in a plane perpendicular to the pitch direction, the bent portion has a thickness thinner than a thickness of the spring portion.

12. The connector as recited in claim 11 , wherein the bent portion extends outward beyond the spring portion in the up-down direction.

13. The connector as recited in claim 1

Assignees

• Japan Aviation Electronics Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Komoto Tetsuya
• Hashiguchi Osamu
• Tatebe Yu
• Nakamura Keisuke

Classifications

• H01R13/115

  U-shaped sockets having inwardly bent legs, e.g. spade type · CPC title

• H01R12/716 Primary

  Coupling device provided on the PCB · CPC title

• H01R13/187

  with spring member in the socket · CPC title

• H01R13/02

  Contact members · CPC title

• H01R12/51 Primary

  for rigid printed circuits or like structures · CPC title