ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR WITH LEAD POSITIONING COMB

Abstract: An electrical connector assembly (2) for use with a circuit board (6) comprises an electrical connector (4) and a lead positioning comb (48). The electrical connector includes a housing having a plurality of cavities (26) located in at least one row, terminals (26) positioned in the cavities, each terminal extending from a corresponding cavity and then extending at a right angle relative to the corresponding cavity and including a terminal lead (40) at a distal end of the terminal. The lead positioning comb (48) includes a plurality of side by side slots (52) formed by cantilever beams (54) which are located in a common plane and extend from a base (50) toward the housing. Each slot has an open end, facing the housing, through which the terminal leads enter as the comb is moved toward the housing for attachment to the housing. The assembly is characterized by adjacent cantilever beams being spaced apart by relief slots (55) which are sufficiently wide to permit the adjacent beams to flex outwardly in the common plane as side by side terminal leads are simultaneously inserted into the side by side slots.

Description: ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR WITH LEAD POSITIONING COMB The invention is related to an electrical connector having leads extending at a right angle from one side of the connector so that the leads can be soldered or otherwise connected to traces on a circuit board. Connectors which are mountable on a circuit board have leads which are arranged in a pattern corresponding to a pattern of holes or pads on the circuit board. When the leads are very long or very thin, there is difficulty in ensuring that the leads will be in registration with their associated holes or pads. In order to overcome this problem, a number of circuit board mountable connectors have lead positioning means for precisely positioning the leads. U.S. Patent No. 4,721,473 discloses an electrical connector which is mountable on a circuit board. The connector has a mating face which is arranged to receive a mating connector in a mating direction which is parallel to the circuit board, and the connector has terminals that are bent at a right angle from the mating direction to form terminal leads that extend downwardly to the circuit board. This connector has an adapter for positioning the terminal leads, but the adapter includes three separate parts. There is a need for a lead positioning adapter that is simpler and more versatile than the prior art adapters. The invention is an electrical connector assembly for use with a circuit board. The assembly comprises an electrical connector including a housing having a plurality of cavities located in at least one row, terminals positioned in che cavities, each terminal extending from a corresponding cavity and then extending at a right angle relative to the corresponding cavity and including a terminal lead at a distal end of the terminal, and a lead positioning comb attachable to the housing. The lead positioning comb includes a plurality of side by side slots formed by cantilever beams which are located in a common plane and extend from a base toward the housing. Each slot has an open end, facing the housing, through which the terminal leads enter as the comb is moved toward the housing for attachment to the housing. The assembly is characterized by adjacent cantilever beams being spaced apart by relief slots which are sufficiently wide to permit the adjacent beams to flex outwardly in the common plane as side by side terminal leads are simultaneously inserted into the side by side slots. The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector assembly including a comb for positioning terminal leads for insertion in an array of holes in a circuit board; Figure 2 is a side view partially in section showing the major components of the electrical connector assembly, with the lead positioning comb shown prior to assembly to the connector; Figure 3 is a side view similar to Figure 2 , but showing one of the comb latches in section; Figure 4 is a side view showing the lead positioning comb assembled to the electrical connector and also showing removal of the carrier strips from two rows of terminal leads; Figure 5 is a bottom view of the electrical connector and the lead positioning comb with the slots in the lead positioning comb aligned with the terminal leads prior to the assembly of the comb to the connector; Figure 6 is a bottom view showing the comb assembled to the connector, with portions broken away to reveal details of the assembly; Figure 7 is a perspective view of the lead positioning comb; Figure 8 is a front view of the lead positioning comb; Figure 9 is a top view of the lead positioning comb showing paired cantilever beams forming lead positioning slots and showing unpaired cantilever beams on either side of relief slots; and Figure 10 is a view of a portion of the cantilever beams and lead positioning slots formed by these beams and illustrating portions of two mold halves which are used to fabricate these cantilever beams and slots and the direction in which these mold halves move away from the parting line after molding is complete. The preferred embodiment of the electrical connector assembly 2 includes an electrical connector 4 and a lead positioning comb 48 that can be mounted on a circuit board 6. The electrical connector 2 has a connector housing 8 and terminals 26 located in housing cavities 10 in two parallel rows. The terminals extend from a mating face 12 through the housing cavities 10 in a central housing wall 16 and out the rear housing face 14. The connector housing 8 is conventional in construction and in the preferred embodiment comprises a miniature ribbon connector housing. A miniature ribbon electrical connector is a connector having a male or plug half and a female or receptacle half having two rows of terminals. Each terminal 26 has a mating section 28 that is generally rectangular in cross- section and is resilient and arched so that a separable connection can be made with a mating connector. Male and female terminals are positioned on the mating face 12 of the housing so that they are opposed for mating. The mating sections of male connectors face outward and the mating sections of female connectors face inward. This mating face is standard so that numerous commercial variants of miniature connectors are intermatable. One example of a miniature ribbon connector used to interconnect cables is shown U.S. Patent No. 3,760,335 incorporated herein by reference. Miniature ribbon connectors are a standard interface for telecommunications, computer and instrumentation applications. For example, the miniature ribbon connector mating interface is specified for FCC Part 68 interconnections and for use in an IEEE 488 General Purpose Information Bus, among others. The miniature ribbon connector depicted herein differs from that disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 3,760,335 differs in that this assembly is connected to a circuit board and is normally used as part of a cable to circuit board input/output or I/O connection. In all significant respects the connector housing used for a cable connector is the same as the housing used for this circuit board electrical connector assembly 2. The circuit board terminals 26 used in the preferred embodiment of this connector assembly differ from those used for a cable connector. The terminals 26 have a lead portion 40 extending from the rear of the housing instead of a wire terminating or insulation displacement portion as used at the rear face of a cable connector. The thickness of the terminals 26 is however determined by the standard mating interface requirements of the mating section 28 and mating housing face 12, which are unchanged. Terminals 26 having a thickness of 0.0085 and 0.010 inch can be employed in this circuit board mounted miniature ribbon connector. A spring metal such as phosphor bronze can be used for stamping and forming terminals 26. Although this thickness may be required to comply with the mating interface standards of a miniature ribbon connector, it is not ideal for insertion into an array of holes in a circuit board 6 because the terminal lead section 40 is flexible and misalignment of only one terminal lead section 40 will prevent insertion of the array of the terminal leads into the prescribed hole pattern in the circuit board. A similar problem arises when surface mount leads must be aligned with surface mount pads on a circuit board. Figure 1 shows both the miniature ribbon connector 4 and the lead positioning comb 48. In this view the lead positioning comb is spaced from the rear connector face 14 and the terminal leads 40 in the top row of terminals 26 are positioned at the entry of slots 52 formed by cantilever beams 54 in the lead positioning comb 48. The lead positioning comb 48 is assembled to the connector 4 upon forward movement into engagement with the rear face 14 of the connector 4. During this movement the terminal leads 40 in both the upper and lower terminal rows simultaneously move into the slots 52. Of course corresponding terminals in separate rows enter the slots sequentially during this same simultaneous mass insertion assembly operation, but only one assembly step is required. Carrier strips 46 join the rear ends of terminal leads 40 in each of the two terminal rows as the terminal leads 40 are inserted into slots 52 to prevent lateral deflection of the terminal leads 40 during assembly. The terminals 26 on carrier strips 46 are inserted into the connector housing 8 from the rear housing face 14 before the terminal lead sections 40 are bent at right angles. The straight terminals are inserted into cavities 10, one of which is shown in Figure 2, into the mating face 12. Two rows of cavities 10 extend through a central wall 16 between the rear face 14 and the mating face 12. The terminal rows are located on opposite sides of a central housing rib 22. Partitions or separators 18 extend from the housing rib 22 to separate adjacent terminals 26. A ledge 24 is located at both ends of the row of partitions 18. As shown in Figure 2, a contact stop shoulder 20 is located on each partition 18. These stop shoulders prevent movement of stop tabs 30 into the cavities 10 so that each terminal is prevented from moving forward beyond its fully inserted position. Each terminal 26 also includes a latch 34 at the terminal distal end 32. This latch 34 engages a surface 38 on the housing mating face 12 upon complete insertion of the terminal. Latch 34 prevents retraction of the terminal. The rear face 14 of this preferred embodiment of the miniature ribbon electrical connector is identical for both male and female, or plug and receptacle, connectors and for both the cable and circuit board connector versions. Therefore the same lead positioning comb 48 can be used with both plug and receptacle connectors. A female connector 4A is shown in Figures 2-4, and a male connector 4B is shown in Figures 5 and 6. Other versions of miniature ribbon connectors may employ rear face that differs from that of the preferred connector depicted herein and the preferred embodiment of the lead positioning comb 48 may not be operable with all miniature ribbon connector versions. Certain changes, primarily in the configuration of the comb latches, will be necessary for those other miniature ribbon connector configurations, but changes to the comb latches do not entail changes to the lead positioning slots 52 or the cantilever beams 54 or the assembly of the lead positioning comb 48 from the rear. As shown in Figure 1 and Figures 5-9, the injection molded one piece lead positioning comb 48 has a base 50 from which the cantilever beams 54 extend. Cantilever beams 54 are parallel to a common plane. The height of each beam is 0.08 inch, the length is 0.30 inch and the thickness varies between 0.023 and 0.0295 inch in the preferred embodiment. These dimensions are understood to vary within the range of normal engineering tolerances for injection molding operations. These flexible beams 54 define the lead positioning slots 52 that extend from the base 40 to a beveled slot entry 53 that faces the rear face 14 of the connector housing 8. The width of each slot 52 varies between 0.015 and 0.028 inch in the preferred embodiment. Each slot 52 includes a pair of notches 56 for positioning two terminal leads 40 at forward and aft locations in each slot. These notches 56 are positioned in the slots 52 to correspond to the holes or pads on the circuit board 6 on which the electrical connector assembly 2 will be mounted. Two paired cantilever beams 54 form each slot 52. Paired cantilever beams are identified by the same prime number in Figure 9. For example two beams 54' form one pair and two beams 54" form the next pair. Two adjacent beams form different pairs, for example adjacent beams from the pairs 54' and 54" are referred to as unpaired beams. Adjacent unpaired beams are separated by a relief slot 55. For example, two adjacent unpaired beams, again one from 54' and one from 54", are spaced apart and on opposite sides of a relief slot 55. These relief slots 55 permit beams from adjacent pairs to simultaneously flex outwardly towards each other in the plane occupied by all of the beams. Thus as the terminal leads 40 in one row simultaneously enter aligned slots 52, all of the beams 54 can flex outwardly due to the presence of the relief slots 55. The base 50 and the cantilever beams 54 extend between connector mounting sections 58 and board mounting sections 62 located at both ends of the lead positioning comb 48. First and second connector mounting latches 68 and 76 are also located at either end and are separated from the mounting sections 58 and 62 by a support ledge 66. The first and second latches 68 and 76 snap the circuit board comb 48 to the connector 2. The first latch 68 extends perpendicular to the plane of the cantilever beams 54 and is configured to snap onto the end ledge 24 on the electrical connector 4. First latch 68 includes a front bevel surface 70 that cams the first latch 68 outward as the lead positioning comb is mated to the electrical connector 4. A latching pocket 74 located on the opposite face of first latch 68 is configured to fit around the connector ledge 24 „ The second mounting latch 76 extends parallel to the cantilever beams 54 and perpendicular to the first latch 68. This second latch includes a forward camming surface 78 for flexing the second latch during engagement of the lead positioning comb 48 to the connector 4 and a shoulder 80 to engage the connector ledge 24 on the opposite side of the connector rib 22 from the first mounting latch 68. The first and second latches 68 and 76 thus provide the means for attaching the lead positioning comb 48 to the connector housing 8. The connector mounting sections 58 and board mounting sections 62 on each end form an L-shaped bracket for securing the connector assembly 2 to a mating electrical connector (not shown) and for mounting the electrical connector assembly 2 to the circuit board 6. Conventional fasteners (not shown) are inserted in connector latch mounting openings 60 and hold down openings 64 to secure the mated connectors together and the assembly 2 to the circuit board 6. Openings 64 are shown as slots in this embodiment, but a hole or raised boss for receiving a self-tapping screw could also be employed. The lead positioning comb 48 thus provides a means for mounting an electrical connector 4, that includes a standard cable connector housing 8 that does not have any circuit board mounting means, to a mating connector and to a circuit board. The comb mounting sections 58, the board mounting section 62, the support ledge 66, the first mounting latches 68 and the second mounting latches 76 are all located on the ends of the lead positioning comb 48. The cantilever beams 54 located in the center of the comb 48 are unobstructed both above and below. In this way the relatively thin beams 54 separated by slots 52 and 55 can be molded by an upper mold section 82 and a lower mold section 84 that join on a parting line or plane parallel to the cantilever beams 54 as depicted in Figure 10. Since the cantilever beams 54 are formed without undercuts in the direction perpendicular to their plane, they can be formed by straight pull of the mold pieces without the need for any side pulls or any additional mold pieces that must be withdrawn perpendicular to the relative motion between upper mold 82, lower mold 84 and the molded comb 48 during removal of the comb 48 from the mold. Furthermore, the relatively thin cantilever beams 54 surrounded by the relatively narrow slots 52 and 55 can be formed by blades 88 and 90 on one of the mold pieces. Since these blades need not be long and thin, as would be necessary if the mold blades were withdrawn along the axes of slots 52 and 55, these blades 88 and 90 will not be fragile and prone to damage during normal molding operations. Furthermore, this molding technique will permit the mold to properly fill so that voids do not result during the injection of thermoplastics, such as Valox, into the mold. Valox is a trademark of General Electric Plastics. Examination of Figures 1 and 5-9 will also reveal that the other structures forming parts of the one piece lead positioning comb 48 can also be formed in a mold cavity defined by only upper and lower mold pieces without the need for any side pulls. Figures 2-4 show the steps in assembling the lead positioning comb 48 to the electrical connector 4 to form the final circuit board connector assembly. After the terminals 26 have been inserted in the connector housing 8 and with the carrier strips 46 remaining intact, the terminal lead sections 40 are bent to form right angle bends 36 adjacent to the rear face 14 of the connector 4. The top row of terminals extend further back than the lower row, but identical terminals can be used in each row because this bending operation only takes place after insertion of the terminals 26 into the housing 8. Note that the carrier strips 46 will be offset as shown in Figure 1 when identical terminal strips are used. At this point the lead positioning comb is positioned at the rear of the connector 4 and moved toward the housing rear face 14 and snapped into engagement with the connector 4. As shown in Figure 3 the mounting latches 68 and 76 can cam outwardly during this assembly step. Since the carrier strips 46 remain intact the rows of terminals can be inserted into their respective slots 52 and finally into the notches 56 to correctly position them. At this point the carrier strips 46 can be removed by a suitable punch which also chamfers the terminals ends for insertion into a circuit board. Although the terminal ends will normally remain straight to form through hole leads 42, Figure 4 shows that the ends of the leads may be bent to form surface mount leads 44. Although the lead positioning comb 48 is specifically intended for use with a miniature ribbon connector of the type shown in U.S. Patent No. 3,760,335, other lead positioning combs could be employed with other electrical connectors without departing from the subject matter of one or more of the claims set forth in this application. For example, other means could be provided to attach the connector to a miniature ribbon connector of the type depicted herein or of other miniature ribbon connectors . The lead position comb could be attached by screws or other separate fasteners for example. Modifications to the structure of the lead positioning comb could be made to permit a comb with a array of flexible cantilever beams to fit on a connector having a different rear face construction. Although this invention is especially suitable for use with terminal leads that are unformed and comprise only a thin flat member, this invention is also not limited to use with miniature ribbon connectors. For example, this invention could also be used with other standard connectors such as rectangular DIN connectors. Therefore the invention is not limited in scope to the preferred embodiment depicted herein and its use in modified configurations would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon inspection of this representative embodiment.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. An electrical connector assembly (2) for use with a circuit board, the assembly comprising an electrical connector (4) including a housing (8) having a plurality of cavities (10) located in at least one row, terminals (26) positioned in the cavities, each terminal extending from a corresponding cavity and then extending at a right angle relative to the corresponding cavity and including a terminal lead (40) at a distal end of the terminal, and a lead positioning comb (48) attachable to the housing including a plurality of side by side slots (52) formed by cantilever beams (54) , located in a common plane and extending from a base (50) toward the housing (8) , each slot having an open end, facing the housing, through which the terminal leads enter as the comb is moved toward the housing for attachment to the housing, characterized in that: adjacent cantilever beams are spaced apart by relief slots (55) which are sufficiently wide to permit the adjacent beams to flex outwardly in the common plane as side by side terminal leads are simultaneously inserted into the side by side slots. 2. The electrical connector assembly of claim 1 wherein the lead positioning comb includes mounting latches (68,76) on opposite ends of the base for attaching the lead positioning comb to the housing at opposite ends thereof. 3. The electrical connector assembly of claim 1 wherein the housing includes a mating face (12) and a rear face (14) , the terminals (26) extend from the rear face of the housing, and the lead positioning comb (48) is attachable to the rear face of the housing. 4. The electrical connector assembly of claim 1 wherein each of the slots (52) is configured to position the corresponding terminal lead at a specified position in the slot so that the terminal lead is properly positioned for attachment to a circuit on a circuit board when the electrical connector assembly is mounted on a circuit board. 5. The electrical connector assembly of claim 4 wherein at least one notch (56) is located on a cantilever beam (54) on at least one side of each slot (52) to engage the corresponding terminal lead to position the terminal lead at the specified position. 6. The electrical connector assembly of claim 1 wherein the terminals (26) are positioned in two rows and two terminal leads (40) , one from each row, are positioned in each slot (52) . 7. The electrical connector assembly of claim 1 wherein the terminal leads (26) are rectangular in cross section with the longer cross section dimension of each lead spanning the corresponding slot.

Inventors: FLAHERTY ROGER J, FLAHERTY, ROGER, J.
Applicants: WHITAKER CORP, THE WHITAKER CORPORATION
Application year: 1996
Main classification: H01R23
IPC codes: H01R12