Electrical connector having high density contacts for miniaturization

An electrical connector includes an insulative housing (1) with a rear portion (11) and a front portion (12) along a first direction (A), a spacer (4) assembled on the rear portion (11) which has a plurality of first wedged positioning sections (42, 43) in an inner side thereof and arranged along a second direction (B) and a plurality of contacts (2) received in the insulative housing and comprising a soldering portion (203) extending out of the insulative housing. The spacer (4) includes a plurality of positioning grooves (45) in an external side thereof for receiving and positioning the soldering portions (203c) of one part contacts (23) located at an upper side of the front portion (12). The soldering portions (203a, 203b) of the other contacts (21a, 21b) are sandwiched between the spacer (4) and the rear portion (11) thereby forms a waved configuration.

This application is related to so and so U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/755,383, filed Apr. 6, 2010, entitled “LOW PROFILE CONNECTOR WITH COMBO SOLDER TAILS”, and which is assigned to the common assignee, and is incorporated herewith for reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an electrical connector having a plurality of high density contacts for miniaturization.

2. Description of the Related Art

U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,465 issued to Mao et. al on May 26, 2009, discloses an electrical connector including an insulative housing, a plurality of contact units arranged in the insulative housing along a horizontal direction, a shielding shell covering on the insulative housing and a spacer assembled with the insulative housing. The insulating housing defines a front end portion and a rear end portion having a first wedged positioning section. The contact includes a tail portion extending out of the rear end portion of the insulative housing. The spacer has a second wedged positioning section corresponding to and engaging with the rear end portion of the insulative housing thereby forming a positioning device for sandwiching the tail portion of the contact therein. So the contacts are retained between the rear end portion of the insulating housing and the spacer.

With development of electronics technology, the numbers of the contacts need to be increased and then the size of the spacer in the horizontal direction would be changed to become more bigger than before if the contacts are arranged on the spacer in original pitch. On the contrary, the interval between the two adjacent contacts is required to be smaller and smaller if the original pitch is decreased to keep the original size of electrical connector, so it would generate electronic magnetic interference between adjacent contacts.

Therefore, an improved electrical connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the related arts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a miniaturize electrical connector having a plurality of high density contacts, but being able to transmit a high quality signal.

In order to achieve above-mentioned object, an electrical connector in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes an insulative housing with a rear portion and a front portion along a first direction, a spacer assembled on the rear portion which has a plurality of first wedged positioning sections in an inner side thereof and arranged along a second direction and a plurality of contacts received in the insulative housing and comprising a soldering portion extending out of the insulative housing. The spacer includes a plurality of positioning grooves in an external side thereof for receiving and positioning the soldering portions of one part contacts located at an upper side of the front portion. The soldering portions of the other contacts are sandwiched between the spacer and the rear portion thereby forms a waved configuration.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the preferred embodiment of the present invention in detail.

Referring toFIGS. 1 and 2, an electrical connector100in accordance with the present invention includes an insulative housing1with a rear portion11regarded as a base portion and a front portion12regarded as an engaging portion along a first direction, i.e. direction A, a plurality of contacts2received in the insulative housing and arranged along a second direction, i.e. direction B, a metallic shell3and a spacer4assembled on the base portion11of the insulative housing1. The metallic shell3includes a top shell301and a bottom shell302thereby surrounding and covering on the housing10for providing a perfect shielding with a simple structure.

Referring toFIGS. 2,3and4, the engaging portion12of the insulative housing1is a tongue shape configuration and surrounded by the shell3thereby forming a mating space101for receiving and mating with a mating connector (not shown). The base portion11forms a receiving slot110for receiving the spacer4and a protecting portion110afor preventing the spacer4from moving upwards. Each of the contact2are inserted into the insulative housing along the direction A and includes a retaining portion201retained in the base portion11, said soldering portion203extending out of the base portion11from one end of the retaining portion201and a contacting portion204extended into the mating space101for electrically connecting with the mating connector.

Referring toFIGS. 4,5and6, the contacts2are respectively arranged in an upper side and a lower side of the engaging portion12. Further more, a plurality of first contacts21aand a plurality of second contacts21bare located at the lower side of the engaging portion12and opposite to the bottom shell302. A first contacting portion204aof the first contact21and a second contacting portion204bof the second contact21bare coplanar, while the soldering portions203a,203bthereof are perpendicular to a mounting surface (not shown) of the electrical connector100. While a plurality of third contact23are disposed on an upper side of the engaging portion12and opposite to the top shell301. The soldering portions203cof the third contacts23are arranged along the direction B in a row while the soldering portions203thereof are parallel to said mounting surface for soldered onto a corresponding PCB (not shown) as a surface mounting technology (SMT) manner.

Cooperation withFIGS. 2,6and7, the base portion11defines a plurality of second wedged protruding portions113and a plurality of second wedged recessed portion114between the two adjacent second wedged protruding portions113along direction B thereby forms a second wedged positioning sections. The soldering portions203aof the first contacts21aare disposed and pre-positioned on a top of the second wedged protruding portions113and arranged in a row along the direction A. While the soldering portions203bof the second contacts21bare received and pre-positioned in the wedged recessed portion114and arranged in another row along the direction A. The soldering portions203a,203bare parallel to and alternated with each other, thereby forms a waved configuration.

The spacer4forms a plurality of first wedged protruding portions42and a first recessed portion43along direction B for respectively engaging with the second wedged recessed portion114and the second wedged protruding portions113, thereby forms a first wedged positioning sections. The spacer4also includes a plurality of protruding portions44and a plurality of positioning grooves45formed therebetween at a rear side of the spacer4opposite to the first wedged positioning sections42thereof. The base portion11of the insulative housing1has a pair of slots111for receiving a pair of fitting portions41defined by both ends of the spacer4and two guiding surfaces112formed at an opening of the slot111for guiding the spacer4inserted into the insulative housing1.

The spacer4is inserted into the receiving slot110of the base portion11and then blocked in the slot111when the first contact21aand the second contact21bare assembled into the insulative housing1. So the soldering portions203a,203bare respectively sandwiched between the first wedged positioning section43,42of the spacer4and the second wedged positioning sections113,114of the base portion11. The distance between the first contact21aand the second contact21bis added for prevent the contacts2from cross-talk. The third contacts23are inserted into after the spacer4assembled onto the insulative housing1. Therefore the soldering portions203cof the third contacts23are positioned between of two adjacent protruding portions44and received in the positioning grooves45of the spacer4. As a result, the soldering portions203of the contacts2are divided into pre-mentioned three rows and then it is benefit for increasing a length of the electrical connector100in the direction B.

Referring toFIGS. 7,8and9, the first contact21aand the third contact23in alignment with each other in the direction A can be regarded as a first contact unit2a, while the second contact21band the third contact23in alignment with each other in the direction A can be regarded as a second contact unit2b. The first contact units2aand the second contact units2bare alternately arranged in an interval P along Direction B. A distance L1between of the two soldering portions203a,203cis smaller than a distance L2between of the two soldering portions203b,203cin the direction A, i.e. the soldering portion203aof the first contact21ais closer to the soldering portion203cof the third contact23than the soldering portion203bof the second contact21b. In this structure, it is benefit for preventing the contacts2from cross-talk and reducing the size of the electrical connector100.

The spacer4defines an inner positioning area which is formed by the plurality of wedged positioning sections42,43for cooperation with the base portion11of the insulative housing10, and an external positioning area defined by the positioning grooves45at external side thereof, thereby the spacer4forms a positioning device for receiving and retaining the soldering portions203of the contacts2. So the first contacts21aand the second contacts21bare positioned at the inner side of the spacer4. The third contacts23are positioned at the external side of the spacer4as of the limited of the soldering portion203c. The spacer4has a bottom side40parallel to the pre-mentioned mounting surface and the positioning grooves45thereof are perpendicular to and closed to the bottom side40for steadily fixing a footer of the soldering portion203of the third contact23(seeFIG. 5). The base portion11forms a receiving recess115in bottom of the second recessed portion114for pre-position of and receiving the second contact21b. The spacer4defines another receiving recess431similar to said receiving recess115and formed in the first recessed portion43for receiving and positioning the first contact21a.

It is noted that the compliant engagement between the first wedged positioning sections42/43and the second wedged positioning sections113/114essentially requires a relatively large pitch between the neighboring soldering portions203a,203b. Therefore, the contacts2define the contacting portions204a,204bwith the relatively small pitch in comparison with the soldering portions. If there is no increase of the pitch arrangement on the soldering portions203a,203b, the first wedged positioning sections42/43and the second wedged positioning sections113/114may be formed relative tiny with less strength thereof with inoperability issue. In fact, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,537,465, the structure of the first wedged positioning sections and of the second wedged positioning sections is previously used with the contacts having two rows of contacting portions and two rows of soldering portions rather than one row of contacting portions and two rows of soldering portions. By means of the arrangement disposed in the invention, more flexibility and variety of the arrangement of the contacting portions and the soldering portions of the contacts may be obtained.

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 board general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.