Abstract:
A modular jack has a magnetic assembly including insulative body, two rows of terminals retained to the insulative body, four transformers, and four common mode chokes. Each of the transformer and common mode choke includes a magnetic core and a plurality of conductive wires wound therearound. Each terminal has a recess for receiving an end portions of a corresponding wire and then the terminal is inserted into a through-hole of an internal printed circuit board for dip soldering. Guiding of the wire to the recess can be automated in contrast to manual winding operation.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to the field of network conditioning assembly having terminals and magnetic cores with winding wires, and more specifically to retaining end portions of the wires to the terminals. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     U.S. Pat. No. 8,439,705, issued to Zhang on May 14, 2013, discloses an electrical connector having an insulative housing and a terminal module. The terminal module includes an insulative body, an internal printed circuit board (PCB), a plurality of signal conditioning components, e.g., transformers, common mode chokes, etc., and a plurality of terminals connected to both of the PCB and the signal conditioning components. The component includes a magnetic core and a plurality of wires wound around the core. End portions of the wires wind around top portions of the terminals and then the top portions are soldered to conductive apertures or via of the PCB. Winding operation of the wires to the terminals are not performed by an automatic machine but done by manual labor, which is time-consuming and prone to breakage. 
     An electrical connector having a simple structure is desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides an electrical connector comprising a magnetic assembly. The magnetic assembly includes an insulative body, a plurality of contacts, a plurality of leads, a plurality of signal conditioning components, and a printed circuit board (PCB). The insulative body has a front wall, a rear wall, two oppositely facing side walls between the front wall and the rear wall, and a receiving slot surrounded by said walls. Each contact has a first connecting portion extending outwardly along the front wall. Each lead has a second connecting portion extending outwardly along the rear wall. Each signal conditioning component has a magnetic core and a plurality of conductive wires wound therearound to define a transformer or a common mode choke. The magnetic cores are received within the receiving slot. Each conductive wire has a first distal portion connecting to the first connecting portion and a second distal portion connecting to the second connecting portion. The PCB defines a plurality of conductive apertures for the first and second connecting portion inserted therethrough. Each of the first and second connecting portions defines a recess to receive one of the first and second distal portions of the conductive wires. The distal portions of the conductive wires extend across the conductive apertures, and the distal portions are retained to corresponding connecting portions through dipping into a solder pool for soldering. Therefore, the distal portions of the conductive wires need not to wind around the contacts and leads, and the distal portions can be guide to the recesses through an auto-machine. It needs only one soldering process that soldering the conductive wires to the contacts and soldering the contacts to the PCB. 
     Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an embodiment of an electrical connector; 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the electrical connector as shown in  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 3  is a manufacturing flow chart of a magnetic assembly shown in  FIG. 2 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-3 , an electrical connector  100  in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention can be mounted to an exterior mother board (not shown). The electrical connector  100  includes a front metallic shell  1 , an insulative housing  2 , a pair of light emitting devices  3 , a magnetic assembly  4 , and a rear metallic shell  5 . 
     The insulative housing  2  is formed by injection molding and shaped substantially rectangular. The insulative housing  2  has a plug-receiving cavity  21  extending inwardly from a front face, a mounting port  22  extending forwardly from a rear face, a pair of mounting posts  23  projecting downwardly from a bottom face, a receiving passage  24  located above the plug receiving cavity  21 , and a latching hole  25  recessed from a top face. The mounting port  22  communicates with the plug-receiving cavity  21  on the interior of the insulative housing  2 . The plug-receiving cavity  21  is configured to receive a modular plug. The magnetic assembly  4  is mounted to the mounting port  22  along a back-to-front direction. The mounting posts  23  are inserted into through-holes of the exterior mother board. The light emitting devices  3  are inserted within the receiving passage  24 . The latching hole  25  locks with the tail of the modular plug. 
     The magnetic assembly  4  includes an insulative body  41 , a plurality of signal conditioning components  42 , a plurality of contacts  43 , a plurality of leads  44 , and a printed circuit board (PCB)  46 . The insulative body  41  includes a front wall  411 , a rear wall  412 , two oppositely facing side walls  413  between the front wall  411  and the rear wall  412 , a bottom wall  414 , and a receiving slot  415  surrounded by the walls. The contact  43  has a first retention portion (not shown) retained in the front wall  411 , a first connecting portion  431  projecting upwardly from a top section of the front wall  411 , and a mating portion  432  exposed in the plug-receiving cavity  21 . The lead  44  has a second retention portion (not shown) retained in the rear wall  412 , a second connecting portion  441  projecting upwardly along the rear wall  412 , and a mounting portion  442  extending downwardly beyond the bottom wall  414 . The mounting portions  442  are mounted onto the mother board. Each of the first and second connecting portion  431 ,  441  defines a receiving recess  434  recessed downwardly from a top distal thereof. The contacts  43  and leads  44  are insert molded with the insulative body  41 . The contacts  43  have eight contacts arranged in a row, and the leads  44  have ten leads arranged in two rows. The leads  44  have eight leads corresponding to the eight contacts and two other leads including one grounding lead and one power connecting lead. The magnetic assembly  4  also includes four center tap pins  47  located behind the contacts  43 . Moreover, four LED pins  48  are located behind the leads  44 . The center tap pins  47  connect with corresponding center tap wire distals of the transformers. In the shown embodiment, the center tap pins  47  are retained to the front wall  411 , alternatively they could also be retained to the side walls  413 . 
     The insulative body  41  also has a set of middle walls  416  disposed within the receiving slot  413  to divide the receiving slot  415  into a plurality of container chambers. Each conditioning component  42  has a magnetic core  421  and a plurality of conductive wires  45  wound therearound to define a transformer or a common mode choke. Each container chamber receives two conditioning components  42  comprising one transformer and one common mode choke. Each conductive wire  45  has a first distal portion  451  connecting to the first connecting portion  431  and a second distal portion  452  connecting to the second connecting portion  441 . The first distal portion  451  is received in the recess  434  of the first connecting portion  431 . The second distal portion  452  is received in the recess  434  of the second connecting portion  441 . Each of the center tap pin  47  has a similar receiving recess  471  as the contacts  43  to receive the first distal portion  451  of the conductive wire  45 . 
     The PCB  46  defines a plurality of conductive apertures  461  extending through the PCB  46  along a top-to-bottom direction. The distal portions  451 ,  452  of the conductive wires  45  extend across the conductive apertures  461  and are received in the recesses  434  of the first and second connecting portion  431 ,  441 . The distal portions  451 ,  452  are retained to corresponding connecting portions  431 ,  441  by dipping into a solder pool (not shown) for soldering. 
     The PCB  46  has a plurality of electronic component such as resistors and capacitors (not shown) mounted thereon. The PCB  46  are disposed above the insulative body  41  and disposed horizontally along a front-to-back direction. The first and second connecting portions  431 ,  441  extend upwardly beyond the PCB  46 . 
     The front metallic shell  1  has a locking tab  11  projecting outwardly from a side face thereof, and a through-hole  12  extending vertically from a top face thereof. The rear metallic shell  5  has an engaging hole  51  extending transversely from a side face thereof to lock with the locking tab  11 , and an engaging tap  52  projecting upwardly to inert in the through-hole  12 . 
     The light emitting device  3  includes a lighting portion  31  and two conductive terminals  32  extending backwardly. The LED pins  48  electrically connect with corresponding conductive terminals  32  of the light emitting devices  3  through the PCB  46 . In the shown embodiment, the pins  48  are retained to the rear wall  411 , alternatively they could also be removed from the rear wall  412  and instead formed as a portion of the conductive terminals  32 , which are not retained to the insulative body  41 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a method of manufacturing the electrical connector  100  comprises: (a) providing a carrier including an insulative body  41  having a front wall  411  and a rear wall  412  with a receiving slot  415  between the front and rear walls, a plurality of contacts  43  retained on the front wall  411 , and a plurality of leads  44  retained on the rear wall  412 , each of the contacts  43  and the leads  44  defining a recess  434 ; (b) providing a plurality of conditioning components  42  each having a magnetic core  421  and a plurality of conductive wires  45  wound therearound to form a transformer or a common mode choke, each conductive wire  45  having a first distal portion  451  and an opposite second distal portion  452 ; (c) disposing the magnetic cores  421  into the receiving slot  415 , routing the first distal portion  451  of the conductive wire  45  across the recess  434  of the contact  43 , and the second distal portion  452  of the conductive wire  45  across the recess  434  of the lead  44 ; (d) providing a PCB  46  defining a plurality of conductive apertures  461 , and mounting the PCB  46  to the contacts  43  and leads  44  under condition that the distal portions  451 ,  452  of conductive wires  45  together with the contacts  43  and the leads  44  insert across the corresponding aperture  461 ; (e) providing a solder pool (not shown) with soldering flux, and dipping the recesses  434  of the contacts  43  and the leads  44  into the solder pool to solder and retain the conductive wires  45  to the contacts  43  and the leads  44 . 
     The step of soldering the conductive wires  45  also forms conductive pads  462  onto the conductive apertures  461  for electrical connection the contacts  43  and the leads  44  with the PCB  46 . 
     The method of manufacturing the electrical connector  100  further comprises: (f) cutting the excessive ends of the conductive wires to form the magnetic assembly  4 ; (g) assembling the magnetic assembly  4  to the mounting port  22  of the insulative housing  2 ; (h) assembling the front metallic shell  1  and the rear metallic shell to insulative housing  2  for forming the electrical connector  100 . 
     The shown embodiment is an RJ45 connector. Understandably, the electrical connector  100  could be embodied in a LAN (local area network) transformer mounted on a mother board or on an inner PCB of an RJ45. 
     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 broad general meaning of the members in which the appended claims are expressed.