Terminal et boítier comprenant le terminal

Abstract: An electrical connector including a female connector (40). The female connector (40) is provided with a housing (12) which have insertion slots (14) opening its one side and allowing male terminals (6) to be inserted, and a plurality of female terminals (40) each having a pair of contact sections (46) which project into the respective insertion slots and hold a male terminal from both of its sides, and having a base section (42) which support these contact sections via a pair of arm sections and is fixed onto the housing. The housing (12) has a recess portion (22) which receives the base section (42) and is formed on one of side wall portions 20 partitioning the insertion slot (14). The arm sections (44) extend from the base section (42) received in the recess portion (22) in a state of being inclined with respect to the axial line of the insertion slot (14). The contact sections (46) are situated on the intermediate position between the side wall portion (20) having the recess portion (22) and the opposed side wall portion.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention: The present invention relates to An electrical connector for electrically, and mechanically connecting an electronic apparatus such as a hard disk drive to a printed circuit board. 2. Brief Description of Prior Developments: With the miniaturization and densification of an electronic apparatus such as a notebook type or palmtop type personal computer, there has been required the miniaturization of a electrical connector to be mounted on a printed circuit board. In general, some of such miniaturized electrical connectors have female terminal, for electrically connecting to pin-like male terminals, being formed flat by a conductive plate member. In the female terminals, a pair of contacts portions opposed in a plane at a predetermined space are supported by a plate-like base portion through a pair of arm portions. When a male terminal is fitted in between the paired contact sections of the female terminal, the arm sections are pressed by means of the male terminal, and then, move along a surface of the plate member. Whereupon the arm portions urges the paired contact portions toward a pin-like male terminal with a spring force generated by the movement of arm portions. Even if a thickness of the arm section is thin, a great spring force is created in the arm sections, so that the female terminal and the male terminal can be mechanically and electrically connected to each other. such a female terminal is disclosed in EP-A-0 777 306 comprising a pair of contact sections for contacting to a male terminal. Further, the US-A-4 781 612, an which the preamble of claim 1 is based, describes a female terminal for a card connector having a pair of contact sections and a base section wherefrom said pair of contact section extends in a way of being inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis of said female terminal. Said female terminal is supported by a lateral web engaging a housing projection for mounting said female terminal. Said terminal configuration requires much space based on its lateral dimension and it is, thus, disadvantageous for the miniaturization of connectors. Further, such a terminal is expensive in manufacture. It is therefore the problem of the present invention to provide a female terminal which is simple in manufacture and requires less space in the installed condition compared to the prior art. It is a further problem to provide a corresponding housing for mounting said female terminal. Summary of the invention The above problem is solved by a female terminal for an electrical connector comprising a pair of contact sections for projecting into an insertion slot of a housing; a base section supporting said contact sections via a pair of arm sections; said arm sections extending from said base section in a state of being inclined with respect to the axial line of said insertion slot, characterized by further comprising a middle tongue section extending from said base section between said pair of contact sections for inserting into a retaining slot of said housing being open along its axial line. Furthermore, a housing for an electrical connector made of an insulative material is provided, having a plurality of insertion slots for receiving male terminals each having a pair of opposed sides and an open end; a female terminal as described above, characterized by further comprising a retaining portion for retaining the base section of said female terminal; a slot for holding said middle tongue section of said female terminal having one open end in said recess portion and extending toward said open end of said insertion slot and being open along its axial line. The housing may have guide grooves which are individually formed on the mutually opposed side wall portions on both sides of the side wall portion formed with the recess portion of being the retaining portion so as to receive the arm sections. Thus, the arm sections of the female terminal slide in the guide grooves, so that a spring effect of the arm sections can be securely exhibited. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B) illustrate explanatory views showing an inner structure of a female connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention at a state of being engaged with a male connector, FIG. 1(A) being a diagrammatically longitudinal cross-sectional view, and FIG. 1(B) being a diagrammatically transverse cross-sectional view; FIGS. 2(A) through 2(D) illustrate explanatory views showing a housing of the female connector in FIG. 1, FIG. 2(A) being a plan view, FIG. 2(B) being a front view as taken along Line B-B in FIG. 2(A), FIG. 2(C) being a cross-sectional view as taken along line C-C in FIG. 2(B), and FIG. 2(D) being a cross-sectional view as taken along line C-C in FIG. 2(A); FIGS. 3(A) through 3(C) illustrate explanatory views showing a female terminal according to a preferred embodiment of the present device, FIG. 3(A) being a view showing a state of being punched from a blank and being partly folded, FIG. 3(B) being a view as taken along line B-B in FIG. 3(A), and FIG. 3(C) being a view as taken along C-C in FIG. 3(A); FIG. 4 is a perspective view diagrammatically showing an inner structure of an insertion slot and an arrangement of a female terminal; FIGS. 5(A) and 5(B) are explanatory views showing a male connector which is in a state of being engaged with the female connector of FIG. 1, FIG. 5(A) being a transverse cross-sectional view, and FIG. 5(B) being a partly enlarged view; and FIGS. 6(A) through 6(C) are explanatory views showing a state in which the male connector is engaged with the female connector according to the preferred embodiment of the present device, Fig. 6(A) being a longitudinal cross sectional view, Fig. 6(B) being a transverse cross sectional view and Fig. 6(C) being a top plan view from C - C in Fig. 6(B). DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present device will be explained below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a state in which a male connector 8 is fitted into a female connector 10 in an electrical connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the male connector 8 is arranged in a hermetic case of a hard disk drive, and is secured by threads onto the hard disk drive via a fixing portion 8a thereof. is connected to end portions of male terminals 6 projecting into the case, and the male connector 8 is electrically connected with internal equipments and electronic apparatuses via the board F. And then, relatively long terminals projecting outwardly on the case are fitted into the female connector 10 so as to be electrically connected with external equipments. A reference P denotes a printed circuit board on which the female connector 10 is mounted. FIG. 2(A) to FIG. 2(D) diagrammatically show plan, front and cross-section views of the female connector 10. A housing 12 of the female connector 10 is formed of an insulating material and is molded into an integral structure. Further, the housing 12 is formed with, e.g., 22 insertion slots 14, each of which receives the male terminal 6, and which are arranged in two lines. As shown in FIG. 2(A), the respective insertion slots 14 are arranged at predetermined intervals, and are open at one side of the housing 12, that is, its upper side into which the male connector 8 is fitted. An opening of the insertion slot 14 is formed slightly larger than the male terminal. Also, wall portions 16 are arranged at predetermined intervals along the longitudinal direction of the housing 12. These wall portions 16 project toward the printed circuit board P (see FIG. 1), and servo as a stand-off. The housing 12 may be formed of a proper insulating material; however, it is preferable to use a PPS (polyphenylene sulfide) resin in order to obtain desired heat resistance, insulating performance and strength. As shown in FIG. 2(A), each of insertion slots 14 has a square opening at its upper side with which the male connector 8 is connected. An edge portion of the insertion slot 14 is formed with an inner inclined plane for guiding the male terminal 6 thereto. Also, a lower side of the housing, that is, a side mounted onto the printed circuit board P is formed with an opening 18 for attaching a female terminal which will be described later, and communicates with the insertion slot 14. Each of these insertion slots 14 is partitioned by four side wall portions in the housing 12. A side wall portion 20 which is one of these side wall portions is formed with a recess portion 22. opposed side wall portions 24 and 26 on both sides of the side wall portion 20 having the recess portion 22 are formed with guide grooves 28 and 30 opposing to each other, respectively. A reference numeral 32 denotes a slot formed in the side wall portion 20. The slot 32 extends along the axial line of the insertion slot 14 in the side wall portion 20, and has a lower end portion opening to the recess portion 22. In this embodiment, the side wall portion 20 having the recess portion 22 is arranged inside the housing 12. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2(C), two insertion slots 14 adjacent to each other in the transverse direction of the housing 12 are symmetrically arranged. The recess portion 22 functions as a retaining section for receiving a base section of a female terminal 40 which will be described later. FIG. 3(A) and FIG. 3(B) show female terminals which are inserted into the housing 12 through the opening 18. As shown in FIG. 3(A), a female terminal 40 of this embodiment is formed by being punched from a blank 38 made of electrically and mechanically preferable metal such as bronze. In the female terminal 40, an inner side portion contacting with the male terminal 6, that is, a contact which will be described later, is subjected to so-called shaving so as to be formed into a flat surface. This serves to prevent the male terminal 6 from being damaged when contacting with the male terminal 6. In a state of being punched from the blank 38, the female terminal 40 has a flat shape as shown by a reference numeral 40a in the left-hand side of FIG. 3(A) and FIG. 3(B). Thereafter, principal parts of the female terminal 40a are bent so as to be formed into a solid shape as shown by a reference numeral 40b. Each of the female terminals 40 has a plate like base section 42, a pair of arm sections 44 extending from the base section, and a contact section 46 provided on the distal end of the respective arm sections 44. Also, a solder tail 48 extends from a lower side of the base section 42, that is, to a side opposite to the arm section 44. At first, the female terminal 40 is supported onto the blank 38 through tail section 48. Moreover, a middle tongue section 50 extends from the base section 42 between the paired arm sections 44, 44. The middle tongue section 50 has a distal end formed into taper, and is formed with a plurality of small projections 52 projecting from its circumferential portion. In this embodiment, the small projection 52 projects along the surface direction on the same plane as the middle tongue section 50. However, the small projection 52 is not limited to this, and may be extended in a thickness direction or in both thickness and surface directions. The female terminal 40 is bent from the flat shape as shown by the reference numeral 40a into the solid shape as shown by the reference numeral 40b. In such a bent state, the paired arm sections 44 is bent so as to be inclined with respect to the plane where the base section 42 and the middle tongue section 50 are arranged. On the other hand, the contact section 48 is offset in a thickness direction so as to be substantially parallel with the base section 42 and the middle tongue section 50. FIG. 4 shows a state in which the aforesaid female terminal 40 is fitted into the housing 12. Each of the female terminals 40 is inserted into the housing 12 through the opening 18, and then, the middle tongue section 50 thereof is inserted into the slot 32 (see FIG. 2(C) and (D)) formed in the side wall portion 20. Small projections 52 formed at the periphery of the middle tongue section 50 bite into the housing material to firmly retain the female terminal in the housing 12. When the middle tongue section 50 is inserted into the slot 32, the base section 42 is retained on the recess portion 22 which is formed as a retaining portion of the side wall portion 20. Thus, the female terminal 40 does not project into the insertion slot 14. Also, in the case where the base section 42 is retained on the recess portion 22, both edge portions of the base section may bite into their neighborhood wall portions 24 and 26. By doing this, the female terminal 40 can be more firmly retained. Arm sections 44,44 are individually received in guide grooves 28 and 30 formed in the side wall portions 24 and 26. These arm sections 44,44 extend along the guide groove 28 and 30 from the base section 42 received in the retaining portion, that is, in the recess portion 22, in a state of being inclined with respect to the axial line of the insertion slot 14. Contact sections 46 on the distal end of the arm sections between portion 44 is situated on the intermediate position the side wall portion 20 formed with the recess 22 and the slot 32 and the opposed side wall (see FIG. 1(B)). The respective arm sections 44, 44 are slidable in the guide grooves 28 and 30 along directions in which these contact sections 46 is closed to and away from the axis of the insertion slot 14. ordinarily, these contact portions 46,46 are arranged in a state of projecting into the insertion slot 14. It is possible to form the solder tail section 48 into a proper shape. In case of bending the solder tail section 48 as shown in FIG. 1(B), when the solder tail sections 48 are inserted into a through hole of the printed circuit board P, it is possible to momentarily hold these solder tail sections 48 on the printed circuit board P. FIG. 5(A) and FIG. 5(B) individually show a cross section of the male connector 8 paring with the female connector 10 as described above. The male connector 8 has 22 male terminals comprising a square-section pins which is the same number as the female terminal 40. Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) is applied onto the circumference of respective male terminals 6 by injection molding. As shown in FIG. 5(B), the male terminal 6 has a small diameter portion for preventing it from coming off at its intermediate portion. Also, the male terminal has a tapered distal end portion. As shown in FIG. 5(C), preferably, a side of the square section of the male terminal has a length of a substantially half of a side of the square section of the insertion slot 14. It is possible to provide preferable engagement of the aforesaid female connector 10 with the male connector having longer terminals 6. As shown in the right-hand side of FIG. 6(A), normally, the male terminal 6 is inserted coaxially with the axis of the insertion slot 14, and the distal end portion thereof reaches between opposed contact sections 45 and 46. And then, when a distance between contact sections 46 and 46 is widened by means of the inserted male terminal 6, arm sections 44, 44 slide in the guide grooves 28 and 30. When the male terminal i further inserted into the insertion slot 14, the male terminal 6 is pressed from its both side by contact sections 46 and 46 in a state of being held therebetween, so that it is electrically connected with the female terminal 40 while being mechanically connected therewith by a spring force of the arm sections 44, 44. Also, since the base section 42 is retained in the recess portion 22 of the side wall portion 20, the male terminal does not interfere with the base section 42 even if being inserted into the inner part. Therefore, there is no need of making large the dimension of the female terminal 40 and the housing 12 of the female connector 10. Moreover, it is possible to electrically and mechanically connect the male connector 8 with female connector 10 in a state of inserting the longer male terminal 6 by the innermost position of the female terminal. The middle tongue section 50 is inserted into the slot 32 (see FIG. 2(C)). When the male terminal 6 pushes the contact sections 46;46, a rotational force acting on the female terminal 40 is offset by means of the middle tongue section 50; therefore, the female terminal 40 does not come off from the housing 12. Even if the male terminal 6 is inserted into the insertion slot 14 in a state of being inclined with respect to the axis of the insertion slot 14 as shown in the left-hand side of FIG. 6(A) and FIG. 6(B), the male terminal 6 necessarily contacts with the contact section 46 as shown in FIG. 6(C) because its distal end portion is formed so that a side of the square section of the male terminal has a length of a substantially half of a side of the square section of the insertion slot 14. Thus, it is possible to guide arm sections 44 into guide grooves 28 and 30 via the contact section 46. Therefore, the male or female terminal can be prevented from being damaged due to an engagement of the contact sections 46 and the male terminal 6. According to the aforesaid female connector 10, the longer male terminal can be securely inserted by the innermost position of the female terminal. As is evident from the above explanation, the electrical connector according to the present device is constructed in the following manner. Namely, the base section of the female terminal is received in the retaining portion recessed on one of side wall portions partitioning the insertion slot of the male terminal, and the arm sections supporting the contact sections extend in a state of being inclined with respect to the axial line of the insertion slot. Moreover, since the contact sections are situated on the intermediate position between the side wall portion recessed the retaining portion and the opposed side wall portion, the base section is arranged in a position shifting from the axial line of the insertion slot. Whereby is possible to insert a longer male terminal by the innermost position of the female terminal; therefore, the male terminal and the female terminal can be securely connected to each other. Also, since the housing has guide grooves which receive the arm sections and are individually formed on opposed side wall portions on both side of the side wall portion formed with a recess portion of being the retaining portion, the arm sections of the female terminal slide on the guide grooves, so that the spring effect of arm sections can be securely exhibited. Thus, the male terminal can be securely held by the elastic force. The housing is further formed with slots which have one end opening to the retaining portion and extend toward one side of the housing along the axial line of the insertion slot 14 in the side wall portion it recessing the retaining portion. The female terminal has a middle tongue section extending from the base section between the paired arm sections. When the base section of the female terminal is received in the retaining portion of the housing, the middle tongue section thereof is retained in the slots of the housing. Thus, even if the base section is affected by a rotational force because the pushing force of the male terminal acts on the contact sections, the middle tongue section serves to prevent the rotation of the base section, so that the base section can be securely retained in the retaining portion. The middle tongue section is formed with a plurality of small projections at its periphery. These small projections bite into the housing material so that the female terminal is firmly held in the housing. Thus, the female terminal can be prevented from coming off from the housing. While the present invention has been described in connection with the preferred embodiments of the various figures, it is to be understood that other similar embodiments may be used or modifications and additions may be made to the described embodiment for performing the same function of the present invention without deviating therefrom. Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, but rather construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the recitation of the appended claims.

Claims: A female terminal (40) for an electrical connector (10) comprising: a. a pair of contact sections (46) for projecting into an insertion slot (14) of a housing (12); b. a base section (42) supporting said contact sections (46) via a pair of arm sections (44); c. said arm sections (44) extending from said base section (42) in a state of being inclined with respect to the axial line of said insertion slot (14), characterized by further comprising a middle tongue section (50) extending from said base section (42) between said pair of contact sections (46) for inserting into a retaining slot (32) of said housing (12) being open along its axial line. The female terminal (40) according to claim 1, characterized in that said middle tongue section (50) comprises a plurality of projections (52) at its periphery for interlocking in said housing (12). A housing (12) for an electrical connector (10) made of an insulative material having: a. a plurality of insertion slots (14) for receiving male terminals (6) each having a pair of opposed sides (24, 26) and an open end; b. a female terminal (40) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by further comprising: c. a retaining portion (22) for retaining the base section (42) of said female terminal (40); d. a slot (32) for holding said middle tongue section (50) of said female terminal (40) having one open end in said recess portion (22) and extending toward said open end of said insertion slot (14) and being open along its axial line. The housing according to claim 3, further comprising guide grooves (28, 30) formed in said pair of opposed sides (24, 26) and extending from said retaining portion (22) for receiving and guiding said pair of arm sections (44) of said female terminal (40). The housing according to claim 3 or 4, wherein said pair of contact sections (46) of said female terminal (40) are slidable in said guide grooves (28, 30).

Inventors: KODAIRA YOSHIHIKO, KODAIRA, YOSHIHIKO
Applicants: BERG ELECTRONICS MFG, BERG ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING B.V.
Application year: 1998
Main classification: H01R13
IPC codes: H01R13