# Patent

## Title
Electrical connector

## Abstract

An electrical connector includes a plurality of terminals (1) having contact sections (4) extending in the plugging direction and arranged in the arranging sections at a predetermined intervals for contact with the contact sections (32A) of a mating connector (30). The arranging section is made in the inside surface of a single wall of the housing.

## Background
This is a division of application Ser. No. 10/959,337, filed Oct. 7, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,004,792.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, particularly, to an electrical connector to be attached to a circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP 05-94847 discloses an electrical connector of this type. The connector includes a board connector to be attached to a circuit board and an external connector to be plugged to the connector in a direction parallel to the circuit board. The board connector includes a tubular shield case and a housing spaced within the shield case and having an arranging plate in the back side of which the contact sections of terminals are arranged. The external connector includes a housing with a receiving cavity for receiving the arranging plate and a shield case surrounding the housing. The U-shaped contact sections of terminals are provided in the receiving cavity for pressing the arranging plate upon plugging.
There is a strong demand for miniaturization of electronics devices, especially, low-profile electronics components including electrical connectors. The afore-mentioned electrical connector, however, failed to meet the low-file requirement. The connector on a circuit board must have a receiving space around the arranging plate for receiving a mating connector and the mating connector must have a projection section with a receiving cavity for receiving the arranging plate, resulting in the high-profile connectors.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a low-profile connector to be mounted on a circuit board.
The invention relates to an electrical connector comprising a housing having an outer wall with at least one arranging section at a predetermined interval and at least one terminal having a contact section provided in the arranging section and brought into contact with a contact section of a mating connector upon plugging operation.
According to the invention, the arranging section is provided in an inner side of the outer wall of the housing. There is no wall corresponding to the outer wall so that the height of the connector is reduced by the thickness of another wall.
The electrical connector is a receptacle connector provided on a circuit board for receiving a mating connector in a direction parallel to the circuit board or a plug connector to be connected to a receptacle connector in a direction parallel to a circuit board on which the receptacle connector is provided.
The contact section of the terminal is raised from the arranging section and is made flexible or fixed closely to a bottom of the arranging section. For the fixed contact section, the arranging section is an arranging groove having a depth sufficiently deep to house the contact section therein so that no finger or the like can touch the contact section accidentally.
The electrical connector further comprises a shield case for covering the housing so as to facilitate guiding and supporting the mating connector. The shield sheet is so thin that its thickness hardly affects the height.
The housing includes a housing body and a holding member to form a retention section for retaining an intermediate portion of the terminal, the housing body having a retention groove communicating with the arranging groove. This structure eliminates the difficult task that a curved terminal is inserted into an aperture in the housing.
According to the invention, the contact section of a terminal is arranged on a single wall of a housing so that no opposed wall is required, thus minimizing the height of the connector. The shield case, which is made of a metal sheet and provided on the housing, working as an opposed wall to the single wall, not only hardly increases the height of the connector but also facilitates the plugging of a mating connector.



BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a receptacle connector and a plug connector according to the first embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the receptacle connector;
FIG. 3 is a exploded perspective view of the receptacle connector;
FIG. 4(A) is a perspective view of the plug connector;
FIG. 4(B) is a sectional and perspective view of the contact section of a terminal;
FIG. 5 is a plan view of the front portion of a shield case for the plug connector;
FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a receptacle connector and a plug connector according to the second embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 7(A) is a perspective view of a portion of a terminal for the receptacle connector of FIG. 6;
FIG. 7(B) is a perspective view of the arranging grooves of a housing for the receptacle connector of FIG. 6; and
FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a receptacle connector according to a variation of the second embodiment.



DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Embodiments of the invention will now be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First Embodiment
In FIGS. 1–4, a receptacle connector 20 is attached to the edge of a circuit board P so as to receive a plug connector 30. The receptacle connector 20 has an opening for receiving the plug connector 30 in a direction parallel to the circuit board P. The receptacle connector 20 includes a terminal 1, a housing 2, and a shield case 3.
The terminal 1 is made by bending a strip of metal to provide a front contact section 4 and a rear connection section 5. The contact section 4 is made by folding back the front portion of the terminal 1 and then raising its tip obliquely upwardly with the rear end rounded. The connection section 5 is made by bending the rear portion downwardly and then horizontally for contact with the circuit board.
The housing 2 is made of an insulative material, such as a plastic, so as to provide a housing body 6 and a holding member 7. The housing body 6 includes an arranging plate 9 in which a plurality of parallel arranging grooves 8 are provided and a pair of fixing blocks 10 provided on opposite rear ends of the arranging plate 9 (FIG. 3). Each arranging groove 8 extends from the front edge 9A to the rear end of the arranging plate 9. The arranging groove 8 has a depth sufficiently deep to accommodate the terminal 1 but the resilient U-shaped contact section 4 projects upwardly from the arranging groove 8. A pair of indentations 9B extend along opposite lower sides of the arranging plate 9. The fixing block 10 extends upwardly and laterally from the arranging plate 9 and has a vertical guiding groove 10A in the inner side thereof.
The holding member 7 fits in a space between the fixing blocks 10 so as to be flat with the fixing blocks 10. A pair of vertical guided projections 7A are provided on opposite sides of the holding member 7 to be guided by the guiding grooves 10A. The lower ends of the guided projections 7A are tapered so as to facilitate insertion into the guiding grooves 10A. A plurality of projections 7B are provided on the lower face of the holding member 7 so as to fit in the respective arranging grooves 8 to retain the terminals without failure. Consequently, the arranging grooves 8 work as holding grooves in the range corresponding to the holding member 7. Thus, it is possible to fix to the housing the terminals that have a U-shaped front and a crank-shaped rear portions and have been impossible to insert into terminal apertures. The U-shaped contact sections of short terminals are able to provide satisfactory contact forces.
The shield case 3 is made by bending and forming a metal sheet to provide an upper face 3A, side faces 3B, and lower faces 3C so as to cover the top of the holding member 7, the sides of the fixing blocks 10, and the lower edges of the housing 2. The lower faces 3C of the shield case 3 fit in the indentations 9B of the arranging plate 9 so that not only the height of the connector is reduced by the thickness of the lower face 3C but also the arranging plate is reinforced. When the shield case 3 is attached to the housing 2, it forms an inner receiving space 21 above the arranging grooves 8 and to the sides of the arranging plate 9 for receiving a mating connector.
A pair of lock holes 3D are provided in the top face 3A of the shield case 3 for engagement with locks of the plug connector 30 as described hereinafter.
The terminal 1 is placed in the arranging groove 8 of the housing body 6, and the holding member 7 is placed between the fixing blocks 10 such that the guided projections 7A are guided by the guiding grooves 10A of the fixing blocks 10. The projections 7A of the holding member 7 fit in the arranging grooves 8 to firmly hold the terminals 1 in the arranging grooves 8. Then, the shield case 3 is attached to the housing 2 so as to cover the housing body 6, the fixing blocks 10, and the holding member 7.
The plug connector 30 includes a housing 31, terminals 32, a shield case 33, and a cover case 34. The housing 31 is made of an insulative material, such as a plastic, to provide a terminal retention section 35 and a plugging section 36 having a plate shape thinner than the terminal retention section 35 and extending forwardly from the terminal retention section 35. The terminal retention section 35 is molded together with the terminals 32 so as to hold the intermediate sections. As FIGS. 4(A) and (B) show, the plugging section 36 has a plurality of grooves 37 for guiding the contact sections 4 of terminals 1. The fixed contact sections 32A of the terminals 32 are closely attached to the bottoms of the grooves 37. The crank-shaped portions of the terminals 32 are retained by the terminal retention section 35 alternately up/down positions so that the rear connection sections 32B are arranged in two tiers. The front ends 32C of the terminals 32 are embedded in the housing to avoid collision with a mating connector. The contact sections 32A of the terminals 32 are located inside the grooves 37 so that no finger or the like can touch them easily.
The shield case 33 is fitted over the housing 31. As FIG. 4(A) shows, it covers the upper half of the terminal retention section 35 and the plugging section 36 except for the lower intermediate section (which corresponds to the arranging plate 9 of the receptacle connector 20). A pair of projections 33A are provided on the shield case 33 for engagement with the lock holes 3D of the receptacle connector 20. As FIG. 5 shows, each project 33A is made by raising the center of a resilient strip 33C which is formed by a pair of grooves 33B so that it makes resilient movement upon engagement/disengagement with the lock hole 3D. Then, the upper and lower halves of the cover case 34 are attached to the housing 31 equipped with the shield case 33 as shown in FIG. 1. The projection 33A is widened to the size of the lock hole 3D to increase the locking power. Consequently, the groove 33B is curved outwardly at the position of the projection 33A.
The plugging section 36 of the plug connector 30 is plugged into the receptacle connector 20 provided on the circuit board P such that the terminal contact sections 4 of the receptacle connector 20 are brought into resilient contact with the fixed terminal contact sections 32A of the plug connector 30. The two connectors have only one outer wall in the plugging area so that the height of the plugged connectors becomes small. The shield case is made of a metal sheet which is so thin that it does not affect the height.
Second Embodiment
The second embodiment in FIG. 6 has an opposite structure of the terminal contact sections of the receptacle connector 20 and the terminal contact sections of the plug connector of the first embodiment in FIG. 1. Hence, the terminal contact sections 4 of the receptacle connector 20 are fixed and the terminal contact sections 32A of the plug connector 30 are resilient. Each terminal contact section 32A has a front tip supported by the supporting portion 38 of the housing with a biasing force so that it is not only flexible upwardly upon plugging into the receptacle connector 20 but also stable when the plug connector 30 is not plugged into the receptacle connector 20.
As shown in FIGS. 7(A) and (B), the terminal 1 has a pair of engaging notches 1A in the portion to be fitted into the arranging groove 8 of the housing body 6, and the arranging groove 8 has a pair of engaging projections 8A corresponding to the engaging notches 1A to prevent longitudinal movement or separation of the terminal 1 from the arranging groove 8. This structure may be used for the first embodiment.
FIG. 8 shows a variation of the second embodiment, wherein the housing of the receptacle connector 20 is inverted. A single outer wall of the housing constitutes the arranging plate 9 on which the contact section 4 is placed, thus minimizing the connector. Unlike the embodiment of FIG. 1, the housing is not divided into the housing body and the holding member but is made as a single member. The terminal is inserted into the insertion hole or molded integrally with the housing.

## Claims

1. An electrical connector, comprising:
a housing having a terminal retention section and a plugging section extending forwardly from said terminal retention section, and
a plurality of terminals each having a contact section being molded onto said plugging section with a predetermined interval for electrically connecting to a resiliently projecting contact section of a mating connector when the electrical connector is plugged to the mating connector, wherein said electrical connector is a plug connector to be connected to a receptacle connector in a direction parallel to a circuit board on which said receptacle connector is provided,
said plugging section having a plurality of grooves aligned with said contact section, each of said grooves having a depth sufficiently deep to house an entire portion of each said contact section therein and guide each said resiliently projecting contact section of said mating receptacle connector,
said terminal retention section integrally molded with intermediate sections of said terminals for support, wherein said electrical connector further comprises a shield case having substantially U-shaped side edges to cover a top and side faces of and only side edges of a bottom face of said plugging section so that said electrical connector can receive an arranging plate of said mating connector in a bottom space of said plugging section.

2. The electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein said contact sections of said terminals are fixed closely to a bottom of said arranging groove.