Electrical connector

An electrical connector includes an insulative housing, a plurality of terminals retained in the insulative housing. The insulative housing has a receiving room and a mating part received in the receiving room, the mating part defines a mating hole and a pair of receiving grooves extending rearward on two lateral sides of the mating hole. The terminals include a detecting terminal received in the mating hole and a pair of power terminals received in the receiving grooves. The mating part further defines a pair of guiding surfaces on two sides of the mating hole and a pair of stiffening ribs on two sides of the receiving groove, which can reduce the mating force during the mating process and protect the mating part.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to People's Republic of China Patent Application 201320153379.0 entitled “Electrical Connector” filed Mar. 29, 2013.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to electrical connection, and more particularly to electrical connectors mounted on a printed circuit board (short as “PCB”).

BACKGROUND

Electrical connector is one kind of electrical components with high accuracy, which is normally used for mating with another coupled electrical connector in order to provide signal transmission, so electrical connectors are widely used in kinds of electrical connections, especially in computer, such as USB connector, D-sub connector, RJ-45 connector etc.

Usually, an electrical connector includes an insulative housing and a plurality of terminals retained in a mating portion of the insulative housing. Normally, each terminal has a tail soldered on a PCB, and there is a plurality of soldering areas corresponding to said tails so that the tails can be mounted on the PCB. Meanwhile, said mating portion mates with a coupled electrical connector to build up electrical connection therebetween. During the mating process, the mating portion will be damaged easily by mating force if mating in a wrong way, because most of the mating portion is made of insulative material with small size. Moreover, the terminals retained on said mating portion will also have risk of being damaged which may cause wrong connection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector with firm structure during a mating process.

In order to achieve the object set forth, in one embodiment, an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises an insulative housing having a mating room and a mating part received in said mating room, said mating part defines a mating hole and a pair of receiving grooves extending rearward on two lateral sides of said mating hole; a plurality of terminals retained in said insulative housing and including a detecting terminal received in said mating hole and a pair of power terminals received in said receiving grooves; wherein said mating part further defines a pair of guiding surfaces on two sides of said mating hole and a pair of stiffening ribs on two sides of each receiving groove.In yet another embodiment, an electrical connector, comprising: an insulative housing having a mating room, a T-shaped first mating part and a second mating part which are both received in said mating room, said first mating part including a vertical portion and a horizontal portion, said second mating part having a mating hole; a plurality of terminals retained in said insulative housing; a shell covering on said insulative housing; a spacer engaged with said insulative housing; wherein said second mating part has a pair of slanted guiding surfaces on two lateral sides and a pair of receiving grooves behind said slanted guiding surface.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As referring toFIG. 1toFIG. 10, the present invention provides an electrical connector100. The electrical connector100includes an insulative housing10, a plurality of terminals20retained in said insulative housing10, a spacer30for fixing said terminals20, and a shell40covered on said insulative housing10. Said terminals20are soldered on a printed circuit board (short as “PCB”) and also mating with a coupled connector so that the electrical connection therebetween is formed.

Said insulative housing10extends longitudinally and has a top wall11, a bottom wall12, a pair of sidewalls13, a rear wall130connecting with two sidewalls13, and a mating portion formed between said walls. Said top wall11, bottom wall12, sidewalls13and rear wall130jointly define a mating room17and a mating port16for receiving said coupled connector. Additionally, the sidewall13has a retaining slot131on an outer surface thereof for retaining said shell40, and an engaging slot132on an inner surface thereof. Said rear wall130has a notch1301for receiving the terminals20and a fixing slot1302located on two sides of said notch1301, as shown inFIG. 10, said fixing slot1302is vertically extending and having a wider upper part and a narrower lower part which defines a T-shape for engaging with said spacer30.

Said mating portion includes a first mating part14and a second mating part15which are both located in said mating room17in way of left and right arrangement. Said first mating part14is T-shaped with a vertical portion141and a horizontal portion142, the vertical portion141is used for preventing wrong insertion, the horizontal portion142defines a plurality of passageways143on a top face and a bottom face for receiving said terminals20. Said second mating part15is rectangular-shaped, and further defines a rectangular mating hole151, a pair of slanted guiding surfaces152on two sides of said mating hole151and a pair of receiving grooves153which extends rearward through the rear wall130and located behind the guiding surfaces152. Said guiding surface152can lead a smooth insertion for the coupled connector when the inserting direction is wrong so that the second mating part15may not be damaged easily by the mating force. Moreover, said rectangular mating hole151is located in the middle of said second mating part15and facing to said mating port16, as referring toFIG. 7andFIG. 8, said second mating part15further defines a pair of stiffening ribs154on two sides of each receiving groove153which configures a cross section of the second mating part15with a horizontal H shape. Said stiffening ribs154will make the second mating part15stronger and difficult to be broken during the mating process with the coupled connector. Furthermore, there are two lateral channels155on two sides said rectangular mating hole151, said lateral channels155and the rectangular mating hole151are connected to define a cross-shaped hole.

As mentioned above, the electrical connector of the present invention provides two types of mating parts for transmitting two different types of signals. The electrical connector combines two kinds of connector which reduces the cost and the occupancy on PCB.

Said terminals20includes a plurality of signal terminals21retained on said first mating part14, a detecting terminal22and a pair of power terminals23retained on said second mating part15, and at least one pair of ground terminals24retained on two sidewalls13of the insulative housing10.

Said signal terminals21is divided into two groups which located on the top face and the bottom face of the horizontal portion142as a upper array and a lower array respectively. Said signal terminal21extends longitudinally and includes a contacting arm211receiving in said passageways143, and a U-shaped tail212extending outwardly beyond the rear wall130from an end of said contacting arm211. Said tail212is firmly retained in said spacer30which prevents the tail from moving during the process of soldering onto the PCB, therefore, the tails212can be soldered onto the soldering areas on the PCB. Moreover, in order to reduce the influence between said two arrays of signal terminals, the contacting arms211of said two arrays of signal terminals are configured in way of one-to-one correspondence while the tails212of said two arrays of signal terminals are arranged in a stagger way. As shown inFIG. 3, the tails212of said upper array B extend from a right side of the contacting arms211while the tails212of said lower array A extend from a left side of the contacting arm211, as a result, there is enough space for the lower array A to be installed into the insulative housing10even after the upper array B been installed, the tails of the two arrays may not influence each other during the installation process which improves the efficiency of installation and reduces the cost.

Said detecting terminal22is received in said rectangular mating hole151of the second mating part15. And the power terminal23is received in said receiving groove153on two sides of second mating part15and located between said stiffening ribs154which are used for stopping moving. Said ground terminals24are retained on an inner surface of the sidewalls13of the insulative housing10, furthermore, in order to improve the grounding effect and avoid impact between the first mating part14and the second mating part15, there is another ground terminal24retained between said first mating part14and second mating part15, as referring toFIG. 2andFIG. 4, this ground terminal24is received in a receiving slot144which is formed on a lateral surface of the first mating part14. All detecting terminal22, the power terminal23and the ground terminal24has a U-shaped leg25for mounting onto a PCB. Specially, said detecting terminal22includes a pair of mating beams221which is fork-shaped and retained in said lateral channels155.

As shown inFIG. 9, said spacer30is plate-shaped and includes a horizontal base plate31and a pair of locking posts32formed on a lateral side of the base plate31. Said base plate31is a rectangular plate with a plurality of retaining holes311formed thereon for receiving the tails212of said signal terminals21. Moreover, said base plate31further includes a step portion312on a bottom side for stopping against the tails212of the lower array signal terminals21, as shown inFIG. 6, so that the U-shaped tails212of the lower array signal terminals21can be firmly retained along vertical direction. Furthermore, the step portion312also detaches the tails212of said upper array and lower array away from each other, which reduces the cross-talk influence therebetween. Said locking post32extends vertically from a top surface the base plate31for engaging with said fixing slot1302so that the spacer30can be firmly retained along a horizontal direction. Said locking post32has a protruding strip321engaging into said fixing slot1302. As a result, after the U-shaped tails212leans against said step portion312, the locking post32engages with said fixing slot1302, the spacer is stopped from moving horizontally and vertically.

Said shell40covers on said insulative housing10and includes a retaining portion41retained into said retaining slots131of sidewalls13, a soldering portion42mounted onto the PCB and a pair of bended tabs43. Said bended tabs43are inwardly bended and extending into the engaging slots132of the sidewalls13to contact with said ground terminals24.

The electrical connector of the present invention provides a new type second mating part15with two lateral guiding surfaces152and a spacer30. Said second mating part15makes the insertion smoothly even in a wrong inserting direction, so the second mating part15may not be damaged easily. Moreover, the spacer30can firmly hold the tails of the terminals and engage with the insulative housing10by the locking post32, the structure of the spacer30is simple which can reduce the cost and make the installation convenient.

Although embodiments have been fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as being included within the scope of the various embodiments as defined by the appended claims.