Connector

A connector for power or data transmission includes terminals arranged at front and rear sides of a main body thereof. Each of the terminals has a middle portion embedded in an injection-molded plastic material of the main body, a conducting head slightly upward exposed from the main body, and a soldering tail flatly attached to a bottom of the main body. The conducting head and the soldering tail are axially offset from the middle portion in two opposite directions, so that conducting heads of terminals at the front or rear side of the main body and soldering tails extended from terminals at the other side alternate at each side of the main body. A cover is turnably closed to a top of the main body to press and electrically connect an inserted card to the conducting heads of the connector.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector having terminals arranged in a special way to provide coplanar conducting heads and soldering tails as well as highly positional and electrical stability, avoid high-frequency electromagnetic wave interference, and enable low assembling cost.

(b) Description of the Prior Art

While connector sockets have been largely miniaturized, they have not had many structural improvements or changes over past years. Connectors play very important roles in many popular electronic products, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, notebook computers, personal digital assistants (PDA). Different connectors might have different positional and electrical stability as well as different durability due to different designs thereof, however, they all have to meet the requirements of being compact, miniaturized, easily plugged and unplugged, stable, solid, and durable.

Most of the currently available connectors have internal terminals with projected and exposed soldering legs separately located in individual recesses. The soldering of the projected terminal legs takes time, and the soldered terminal legs do not always provide coplanar contact surfaces. The following are some common problems with the currently available connectors.

Since the terminals are located in and projected from their respective recesses, they are not well protected from easy separation and deformation, and tend to have broken legs under externally applied force. All these factors result in very high wear and damage rates of the connector.

Since the terminals before soldering are not always coplanar, the connector soldered to a motherboard via the non-coplanar terminals tends to bias, which inevitably results in secondary processing and increased manufacturing cost of the connector to lower its competing ability in the market.

The projected terminal legs form a weakened portion of the connector and are subjected to breaking or deformation under external force. The broken or deformed terminal legs result in a non-conductive connector or shorten the usable life of the connector.

It takes additional time and labor and requires high precision machinery to solder the projected terminal legs. Moreover, the projected terminal legs are not protected against interference in electric signals.

To solve the above-mentioned problems, another type of connector with terminals embedded in a plastic material thereof has been developed, so that the terminals are firmly connected to the connector without the risk of easily becoming separated, deformed, or broken, and are not necessarily located in individual recesses in a precise manner. However, this new type of connector does not really solve the problems existed in the conventional connectors. That is, the projected and exposed soldering legs of the terminals are still not always coplanar, and the increased costs for quality control, inspection, and secondary processing of the connector still exist.

It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop a connector with specially designed and arranged terminals, so that soldering tails of the terminals soldered to a motherboard are not exposed or projected from the connector, and the problem of high-frequency electromagnetic wave interference is prevented.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a connector having terminals that are embedded in a plastic material of the connector, have concealed soldering tails, and are arranged in a special way to provide highly positional and electrical stability, so that the connector could avoid high-frequency magnetic wave interference, and be manufactured at lowered cost.

To achieve the above and other objects, the connector of the present invention includes a plurality of terminals arranged at front and rear sides of a main body of the connector. Each of the terminals has a middle portion embedded in an injection-molded material of the main body, a conducting head located in and slightly upward projected from an individual opening on the main body, and a soldering tail flatly attached to a bottom of the main body with a free end of the soldering tail flushed with the front or rear side of the main body. The conducting head and the soldering tail are axially offset from the middle portion in two opposite directions, so that conducting heads of terminals at one of the front and rear sides of the main body and soldering tails extended from terminals at the other side alternate at each front or rear side of the main body. A cover is pivotally turnably connected to a top of the main body to press and electrically connect an inserted card to the conducting heads of the connector.

With the middle portion of the terminals embedded in the injection-molded plastic material of the main body, the connector has a strengthened structure without the risk of easily becoming deformed, bent, or warped. And, with the soldering tails partially embedded in the plastic material of the main body and free ends of the soldering tails flatly attached to the bottom of the main body and flushed with front and rear sides of the main body, the soldering tails soldered to the motherboard are completely concealed below the connector. In this manner, the problems of non-coplanar terminals and a bias connector soldered to a motherboard via such non-coplanar terminals could be solved.

Furthermore, with the conducting head and the soldering tail axially offset from the middle portion of each terminal, and the conducting heads of terminals at one side and the soldering tails extended from terminals at the opposite side alternating at each of the front and the rear side of the main body of the connector, the miniaturized connector has not only enhanced bending strength and deformation strength, but also terminals that are effectively spaced at both the conducting heads and the soldering tails to minimize possible errors in soldering the terminals.

In summary, the connector of the present invention has the following three structural features:

Concealed and non-projected terminals: After the connector is soldered to, for example, the motherboard of a computer, all the soldering tails of the terminals of the connector are completely concealed below the main body of the connector to eliminate the problems of secondary processing and broken soldering tails, and the whole connector could locate in a horizontal plane without biasing. And, all the conducting heads of the terminals are separately located in individual openings to slightly upward project therefrom and be elastically depressed by the cover to electrically contact with the card inserted into the connector. Therefore, all the spaced terminals are well protected against deformation by external force, and the power card or data card could be easily and horizontally inserted into the connector and pressed against the terminals by the cover without the need of being in surface contact with the terminals.

Terminals embedded in injection-molded plastic material of the connector: When the connector is located in place via an automated machine and then injection-molded with the plastic material, the terminals are separately, orderly, and uniformly embedded in the injection-molded plastic material to locate in the same horizontal plane with the conducting heads and the soldering tails exposed from the plastic material. Therefore, problems in connection with the provision of separate and precise recesses for locating the terminals in place are avoided. Moreover, the terminals may have specific elastic stress and size of soldering point determined by a length of the conducting heads and of the soldering tails exposed from the injection-molded plastic material, and could therefore be used for various types of connectors having different sizes. The spaced terminals partially embedded in the injection-molded plastic material are adapted to produce equal and uniform elastic stress when the pivotally turnable cover of the connector is closed to the top of the main body, and enhanced contact stress in contacting with the main body of the connector. All these factors enable the connector of the present invention to have prolonged usable life.

Alternate conducting heads and soldering tails of terminals at each of two opposite sides of the main body of the connector: The alternate conducting heads and soldering tails of terminals at two opposite sides of the main body not only enable a structurally strengthened connector with increased compression strength and bending strength, but also eliminate problems in connection with projected soldering legs existed in the conventional connectors. Therefore, the connector of the present invention could be smoothly and stably soldered to a desired place with the soldering tails flatly attached to and completely concealed below the connector.

With the above-mentioned features, the connector of the present invention has highly positional and electrical stability as well as coplanar terminals to avoid high-frequency magnetic wave interference and high assembling cost.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer toFIG. 1, which is a top perspective view of a connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for mounting on, for example, a motherboard to enable power or data transmission. As shown, the connector of the present invention mainly includes a main body1and a cover2connected to a top of the main body1to shield part of the main body1. The main body1is in the form of a framed slot for a power card or a data card to insert thereinto. The cover2could be pivotally lifted from the top of the main body1. When the cover2is closed to the main body1, it applies a pressure to the power card or the data card inserted in the main body1, so that the power or the data card is electrically connected to terminals11in the main body1.

Please refer toFIG. 2. The terminals11in the main body1are oppositely disposed at front and rear sides of the main body1, such that conducting heads111of the terminals11at one side and soldering tails112extended from the terminals11at the other side alternate at each side. The terminals11are embedded in the main body1when the latter is injection molded with a plastic material, so that a middle portion of every terminal11is completely embedded in the plastic material while the conducting heads111and the soldering tails112are exposed from the main body1. Please refer toFIG. 6, which is a bottom perspective view of the connector of the present invention. The soldering tail112is a bent and horizontally extended rear end of the terminal11. All the soldering tails112of the terminals11are initially exposed from and flatly attached to a bottom of the main body1, and then soldered to the main body1using surface mount technology (SMT) equipment, so that the soldering tails112on a finished connector of the present invention are completely concealed at the bottom of the main body1without any exposed soldering legs or soldering contacts.

FIGS. 4 and 5are front and top plan views, respectively, of the terminal11of the present invention. As can be seen fromFIG. 4, the terminal11includes a front portion that is forward and upward extended from the middle portion of the terminal11and then downward bent near a front end to form a hook-like conducting head111, and a rear portion that is rearward and horizontally extended from the middle portion of the terminal11and then downward bent near a rear end to form a horizontal soldering tail112. And, as can be seen fromFIG. 5, front and rear ends of the middle portion of the terminal11are sideward extended in two opposite directions, so that the conducting head111and the soldering tail112respectively forward and rearward extended from of the middle portion are axially offset from the middle portion.

Please refer toFIGS. 1,2,3and6for the arrangement of the terminals11on the main body1. As shown, the front portion of each terminal11is upward projected from the injection-molded plastic material of the main body1to locate in and exposed from an individual opening13with a top of the bent conducting head111slightly higher than a horizontal plane passing a top of the opening13, so that the conducting head111could be elastically depressed by the cover2to electrically contact with a card inserted into the connector of the present invention. On the other hand, the soldering tail112of each terminal11is downward projected from the injection-molded plastic material of the main body1to flatly locate at the bottom of the main body1offset from the middle portion and opposite to the conducting head111with a free end of the soldering tail112flushed with front or rear side of the main body1.

When the main body1of the connector of the present invention is soldered to a motherboard of a computer, all the soldering tails112are completely concealed below the main body1, and all soldered points at the soldering tails112are coplanar to provide the connector with highly positional and electrical stability. The problems of poor soldering, broken soldering legs, and non-coplanar conducting legs, as well as high manufacturing and/or processing cost resulted from the non-planar conducting legs are therefore overcome.