Electrical connector with separate shield and grounding member

An electrical connector comprises an insulative housing, a number of terminals received in the housing, a pair of grounding members, and a shield. The housing defines a mating opening at a front face thereof. Each of the two side walls of the housing defines a recess, and a pair of grooves is defined in both lateral walls of the recesses and in communication with a bottom of the housing. Each grounding member comprises a main body for inserting into the grooves of the housing by two edges of the main body from the bottom of the housing, and a solder pad for soldering to the printed circuit board. A protruding rib is formed on the main body. The shield covers the housing, two resilient arms extending inwardly from both lateral plates of the shield to electrically contact the protruding rib of the grounding member for grounding.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a connector, and particularly to a modular 
jack having a shield and a grounding member separate from the shield. 
Modular jack connectors are prevalently in use in the telecommunications 
industry, matable to modular plug connectors commonly terminated to 
multi-conductor cable for signal transmission. One example of such a 
modular jack (see FIG. 4) is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,466, in 
which an insulative housing 50 is covered by a shield 60. The shield 60 
includes two side walls 62, a grounding tail 64 extending downwardly from 
each side wall 62 for being received in a through hole 72 of a printed 
circuit board 70 for connection to a ground circuit thereof. The surface 
of the shield 60 is usually electroplated with nickel for cosmetic 
reasons, and each grounding tail 64 is usually electroplated with tin to 
aid in soldering. However, the conventional shield with the grounding 
tails is stamped from a one piece blank. If the surface of the shield is 
electroplated with nickel and the grounding tail is electroplated with 
tin, two electroplating steps will be involved thereby making the 
manufacturing difficult and increasing cost. If the surface of the shield 
and the grounding tail are both electroplated with nickel, the soldering 
characteristics of the grounding tail will be poor. If the shield is 
electroplated with tin, the visual appearance of the modular jack will be 
poor and the tin-plate on the surface of the shield will melt when the 
shield is soldered at high temperature. Hence, an improved electrical 
connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art. 
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
A main object of the present invention is to provide a modular jack 
connector, the shield and the grounding tail of which are made separately, 
thereby improving the appearance of the shield and the soldering 
characteristics of the grounding member. 
To achieve the above objects, a modular jack connector comprises an 
insulative housing, a plurality of terminals received in the housing, a 
pair of grounding members, and a shield. The housing is roughly a cube, a 
mating opening being defined in a front face thereof. Each of the two side 
walls of the housing defines a recess, and a pair of grooves is defined in 
both lateral walls of the recesses and in communication with a bottom of 
the housing. Each grounding member comprises a main body for inserting 
into the grooves of the housing by two edges of the main body from the 
bottom of the housing, and a solder pad for soldering to a printed circuit 
board. A protruding rib is formed on the main body. The shield covers the 
housing, two resilient arms extending inwardly from both lateral plates of 
the shield to electrically contact the protruding rib of the grounding 
member for grounding. 
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become 
more apparent from the following detailed description of the present 
embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring to FIG. 1, a modular jack connector in accordance with the 
present invention comprises an insulative housing 10, a plurality of 
terminals 22 insert molded with an insert block 24 and received in the 
housing 10, a pair of grounding members 30 mounted on the housing 10 for 
soldering to a printed circuit board (not shown), and a shield 40 covering 
the housing 10. 
The housing 10 is roughly a cube, a mating opening 12 being defined in a 
front face thereof and a mounting opening 14 being defined in a rear face 
thereof. An inner face of each side wall 16 of the housing 10 defines a 
slot (not shown). Each of side walls 16 defines a recess 162 adjacent to a 
bottom side (not shown) of the housing 10, a pair of grooves 164 being 
defined in both lateral walls of the recesses 162 and being in 
communication with the bottom side (not shown) of the housing 10. An edge 
of each recess 162 forms an incline 166 from the side wall 16 to the 
groove 164. 
Each terminal 22 comprises a contact portion 222 extending from an upper 
end of the insert block 24 for contacting with a mating connector (not 
shown), and a solder portion 224 extending from a bottom end of the insert 
block 24 for soldering to the printed circuit board (not shown). A pair of 
protrusions 242 is formed on both side walls (not labelled) of the insert 
block 24 for engaging with the slots (not shown) of the housing 10. 
The grounding member 30 comprises a main body 32, and a solder pad 34 
perpendicular to the main body 32 for soldering to the printed circuit 
board. A protruding rib 322 projects from the main body 32 and extends in 
the same direction as the solder pad 34. 
The shield 40 comprises a front portion 42 for covering the housing 10 
except for the mating opening 12 and the mounting opening 14, and a rear 
portion 44 extending from a rear edge of the front portion 42 for covering 
the mounting opening 14 of the housing 10. The front portion 42 has a pair 
of lateral plates 422, each plate 422 forming a resilient arm 4222 
extending inwardly therefrom. Each resilient arm 4222 comprises a bevel 
arm 4224 connecting with the lateral plate 422, and a contact arm 4226 for 
abutting against the protruding rib 322. A pair of indentations 4228 is 
defined in a rear edge of each lateral plate 422, and a pair of clip 
portions 442 is correspondingly formed on each side (not labelled) of the 
rear portion 44 of the shield 40 for engaging with the indentations 4228. 
Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, in assembly, the insert block 24 is first 
inserted into the housing 10 from the mounting opening 14, and engages 
with the housing 10 by the protrusions 242 being received in corresponding 
slots of the housing 10. Secondly, the main body 32 of the grounding 
member 30 is inserted into the recess 162 from the bottom side of the 
housing 10, the two lateral edges of each main body 32 being received in 
the corresponding grooves 164. Then the housing 10 is inserted into the 
front portion 42 of the shield 40, the lateral plates 422 covering the 
side walls 16 whereby the bevel arms 4224 of the resilient arms 4222 abut 
against the inclines 166 and the contact arms 4226 make electrical contact 
with the protruding ribs 322 of the main bodies 32 of the grounding 
members 30. The rear portion 44 of the shield 40 is then downwardly bent 
to cover the mounting opening 14 of the housing 10 and the clip portions 
442 correspondingly engage with the indentations 4228 of the lateral 
plates 422 thereby positioning the front portion 42 and the rear portion 
44. A grounding path is established from the shield 40 via the resilient 
arms 4222, the protruding ribs 322 and the solder pads 34 to the printed 
circuit board. 
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics 
and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the 
foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function 
of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be 
made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of 
parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated 
by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are 
expressed.