Electrical connector having better anti-EMI performance

An electrical connector includes an insulative housing defining a rear wall and a mating cavity running through a front end of the insulative housing from the rear wall, the rear wall defines an inner surface facing the mating cavity. A plurality of conductive terminals are fixed in the insulative housing and include a plurality of grounding terminals, each conductive terminal defines a body portion and a first contacting arm extending into the mating cavity. And a grounding plate is disposed in the rear wall and defines a plurality of contacting portions running through the inner surface and extending into the mating cavity and a plurality of connecting portions connecting to the respective body portions of the grounding terminals.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector having a grounding plate with better anti-EMI performance, and related to the copending application Ser. No. 14/477,890 filed on Sep. 5, 2014.

2. Description of the Related Art

Taiwan Utility Pat. No. M367498 issued on Nov. 21, 2009, discloses an electrical connector including an insulative housing, a plurality of ESATA terminals, a plurality of USB terminals and a grounding plate. The insulative housing defines a mating cavity extending forwardly and a tongue portion extending into the mating cavity along a first direction, the tongue portion defines a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other. The ESATA terminal defines a contacting portion located on the first surface of the tongue portion and the USB terminal defines a contacting portion located on the second surface of the tongue portion, the grounding plated is disposed between the first and second surfaces and spaced by the tongue portion so as to not contact with the ESATA terminals or the USB terminals which effectively prevents electromagnetic interference of the terminals. However, with the development of demand for high-frequency transmission, the signal interference between the terminals is becoming increasingly serious.

Therefore, an improved electrical connector is highly desired to meet overcome the requirement.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector selectively adjusting the overlapping position of the grounding plate and the grounding terminals.

In order to achieve above-mentioned object, an electrical connector includes an insulative housing defining a rear wall and a mating cavity running through a front end of the insulative housing from the rear wall, the rear wall defines an inner surface facing the mating cavity. A plurality of conductive terminals are fixed in the insulative housing and include a plurality of grounding terminals, each conductive terminal defines a body portion and a first contacting arm extending into the mating cavity. And a grounding plate is disposed in the rear wall and defines a plurality of contacting portions running through the inner surface and extending into the mating cavity and a plurality of connecting portions connecting to the respective body portions of the grounding terminals.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe a preferred embodiment of the present invention in detail. Referring toFIG. 1andFIG. 2, an electrical connector100for use with a complementary connector as shown in the related copending application Ser. No. 14/477,890, has better anti-EMI performance and includes an insulative housing1, a plurality of conductive terminals2, a grounding plate3and a shielding shell4. The electrical connector100defines a mating cavity12extending forwardly and the mating cavity12defines an inner surface121facing the mating cavity. The conductive terminals are projecting into the mating cavity12and include a plurality of grounding terminals20and signal terminals25arranged in a row, the signal terminals and the grounding terminals are arranged at intervals. A front end of the grounding plate3is projecting into the mating cavity12and the rear end of the grounding plate3is overlapping the grounding terminals20, the grounding plate3not only achieves a good shielding effect, but also can reduce the electrical length and improve the resonance frequency which is contribute to the transmission of high frequency signals.

Referring toFIG. 3toFIG. 5, the insulative housing1is substantially a hexahedron and includes a rear wall11and the mating cavity12running through the insulative housing1, the inner surface121of the mating cavity12is the front surface of the rear wall11. The insulative housing1defines a plurality of terminal slots131,132located on the corresponding upper and lower sidewalls and a through groove14running through the front surface and the rear surface122of the rear wall11. This embodiment is a horizontally mounted electrical connector, but the rear wall is a bottom wall in a vertically mounted electrical connector so that the rear wall has a wide meaning.

The conductive terminals2are fixed vertically in the insulative housing1and each includes a vertical body portion21, a soldering portion24extending out of the insulative housing1, an elastic first contacting arm22and an elastic second contacting arm23extending into the mating cavity12. The first contacting arm22and the second contacting arm23are respectively extending from the upper and lower ends of the body portion21, and the soldering portion24is located below the second contacting arm23. The first and second contacting arms are respectively inserted into the terminal slots131,132from the rear surface122of the rear wall11until the first and second contacting arms slightly inclined extend into the mating cavity12, the front end of the body portion21is fixed in the rear wall11and the rear end of the body portion21is projecting out of the rear surface122of the rear wall11and exposed to the air.

The grounding plate3is a L-shaped and disposed in the rear wall11. The grounding plate3includes a flat portion31disposed within the through groove14, a vertical portion32bending from the flat portion31and attached to the inner surface121and two bending portions33formed between the flat portion31and the vertical portion32, two bending portions33are respectively connecting with the both ends of the flat portion31and the vertical portion32in a longitudinal direction. The flat portion31, the vertical portion32and two bending portions33of the grounding plate are together formed a lengthwise cutout portion34, the cutout portion34is embedded in the insulative housing1and used for giving way to the die when the vertical portion32is stamping molding.

The grounding plate3further includes a plurality of contacting portions35running through the inner surface121of the mating cavity12and extending into the mating cavity12and a plurality of connecting portions36overlapping to the body portion21of the grounding terminals, the contacting portions35are a plurality of tabs formed by stamped forwardly from the vertical portion32, and the connecting portions36are a plurality of elastic clamping pieces extending from rear edge of the flat portion31. The contacting portions35are arranged in a row in the longitudinal direction and extending in a same direction, the flat portion31and the vertical portion32of the grounding plate3are connected together by the bending portions located both ends thereof, and the top of the vertical portion32is higher than the flat portion31. The connecting portion36is projecting out of the rear surface of the insulative housing1and clamping the grounding terminal of the body portion21. The elastic clamping pieces36extend from the rear end of the ground plate3and close to the middle from coarse to fine, the end of each elastic clamping piece36defines a hook361which can effectively fixed corresponding ground terminal20so that the grounding path is shorter and has better effect of anti-EMI. Moreover, according to different needs at different ground terminals and signal terminals are arranged, we can adjust the position of the connecting portions36to overlap the grounding terminals20, which is easy to use.

The grounding plate3further includes a plurality of soldering pieces37extending rearwardly and projecting out of the insulative housing1, the connecting portions36and the soldering pieces37are formed by the grounding plate3extending rearwardly and horizontally. The electrical connector100further includes a pair of power terminals6located on both ends of the mating cavity12and perpendicular to the grounding terminals. The shielding shell is frame structure and surrounding the outside of the insulative housing1.

In summary, the grounding plate3can be adjusted the position of the connecting portions36to overlap the grounding terminals20, which is easy to use, so that the grounding path is shorter and has better effect of anti-EMI.

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.