Abstract:
An electrical connector includes an insulative housing having a top face, a pair of side walls, a rear face and a first receiving cavity extending upwardly and through the top face; a contact module including a first tongue portion extending into the first receiving cavity, and a number of first contacts insert molded with the first tongue portion, the first contacts being disposed on a mounting surface of the first tongue portion and exposed to the first receiving cavity, the contact module being attached to the insulative housing; a second receiving cavity into which a second tongue portion extends, the first receiving cavity being essentially narrower than the second receiving cavity communicating with the first receiving cavity, the first and the second tongue portions being parallel to each other; a number of second contacts disposed on opposite first and second surfaces of the second tongue portion, the second contacts being elastic and protruding into the second receiving cavity.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to electrical connectors such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,467,977, which is more particularly related to electrical connectors with additional mating ports for mating with corresponding connectors. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    Personal computers (PC) are used in a variety of ways for providing input and output. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to the PC architecture with a focus on computer telephony interface, consumer and productivity applications. The design of USB is standardized by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), an industry standard body incorporating leading companies from the computer and electronic industries. USB can connect peripherals such as mouse devices, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras, printers, external storage, networking components, etc. For many devices such as scanners and digital cameras, USB has become the standard connection method. 
         [0005]    As of 2006, the USB specification was at version 2.0 (with revisions). The USB 2.0 specification was released in April 2000 and was standardized by the USB-IF at the end of 2001. Previous notable releases of the specification were 0.9, 1.0, and 1.1. Equipment conforming to any version of the standard will also work with devices designed to any previous specification (known as: backward compatibility). 
         [0006]    USB supports three data rates: 1) A Low Speed rate of up to 1.5 Mbit/s (187.5 KB/s) that is mostly used for Human Interface Devices (HID) such as keyboards, mice, and joysticks; 2) A Full Speed rate of up to 12 Mbit/s (1.5 MB/s); (Full Speed was the fastest rate before the USB 2.0 specification and many devices fall back to Full Speed. Full Speed devices divide the USB bandwidth between them in a first-come first-served basis and it is not uncommon to run out of bandwidth with several isochronous devices. All USB Hubs support Full Speed); 3) A Hi-Speed rate of up to 480 Mbit/s (60 MB/s). Though Hi-Speed devices are commonly referred to as “USB 2.0” and advertised as “up to 480 Mbit/s”, not all USB 2.0 devices are Hi-Speed. Hi-Speed devices typically only operate at half of the full theoretical (60 MB/s) data throughput rate. Most Hi-Speed USB devices typically operate at much slower speeds, often about 3 MB/s overall, sometimes up to 10-20 MB/s. A data transmission rate at 20 MB/s is sufficient for some but not all applications. However, under a circumstance transmitting an audio or video file, which is always up to hundreds MB, even to 1 or 2 GB, currently transmission rate of USB is not sufficient. 
         [0007]    As discussed above, with limited data transmission speed of the USB 2.0 connectors, there is a need to design electrical connectors with additional mating ports for high-speed signal transmission. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    According one aspect of the present invention, an electrical connector, comprising: an insulative housing having a top face, a pair of side walls, a rear face and a first receiving cavity extending upwardly and through the top face; a contact module including a first tongue portion extending into the first receiving cavity, and a plurality of first contacts insert molded with the first tongue portion, the first contacts being disposed on a mounting surface of the first tongue portion and exposed to the first receiving cavity, the contact module being attached to the insulative housing; a second receiving cavity into which a second tongue portion extends, the first receiving cavity being essentially narrower than the second receiving cavity communicating with the first receiving cavity, the first and the second tongue portions being parallel to each other; a plurality of second contacts disposed on opposite first and second surfaces of the second tongue portion, the second contacts being elastic and protruding into the second receiving cavity. 
         [0009]    According to another aspect of the present invention, an electrical connector, comprising: an insulative housing having a top face, a pair of side walls, a rear face and a first receiving cavity extending upwardly and through both the top face and the rear face; a contact module including a first tongue portion extending into the first receiving cavity, and a plurality of first contacts extending through the first tongue portion, the first contacts being exposed to the first receiving cavity, the contact module being attached to the insulative housing along a rear-to-front direction; a second receiving cavity into which a second tongue portion extends, the first receiving cavity being essentially narrower than the second receiving cavity communicating with the first receiving cavity, the first and the second tongue portions being parallel to each other; a plurality of second contacts disposed on opposite first and second surfaces of the second tongue portion, the second contacts being elastic and protruding into the second receiving cavity, the second receiving cavity, the second contacts and the second tongue portion are compatible with Standard-B USB 2.0 plug. 
         [0010]    Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]    For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0012]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an electrical connector according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a partly exploded perspective view of the electrical connector; 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is an exploded view of the electrical connector; 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is a view similar to  FIG. 3 , while taken from a different aspect; 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is an exploded view of a contact module of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0017]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view of an electrical connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 7  is a partly exploded perspective view of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 6 ; 
           [0019]      FIG. 8  is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 6 ; 
           [0020]      FIG. 9  is a view similar to  FIG. 8 , while taken from a different aspect; 
           [0021]      FIG. 10  is an exploded view of a contact module of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 6 ; and 
           [0022]      FIG. 11  is a perspective view of a lateral plate of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 6 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0023]    Reference will be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail, wherein depicted elements are not necessarily shown to scale and wherein like or similar elements are designated by same or similar reference numeral through the several views and same or similar terminology. 
         [0024]    Within the following description, a standard USB 2.0 connector, receptacle, plug, and signaling all refer to the USB architecture described within the Universal Serial Bus Specification, 2.0 Final Draft Revision, Copyright December, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. 
         [0025]    Referring to  FIGS. 1-5 , an electrical connector of the preferred embodiment is an USB receptacle  100  to mating with an standard B-type USB 2.0 plug or a second plug which is different from the standard B-type USB 2.0 plug. The electrical receptacle  100  is mounted on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and includes an insulative housing  1 , a contact module attached to the insulative housing  1 , a plurality of second contacts  4  retained in the insulative housing  1 , and a shell enclosing the insulative housing  1  for EMI protection. 
         [0026]    Referring to  FIGS. 1-4 , the insulative housing  1  includes a front face  10 , a receiving cavity  101  recessed rearward from the front face  10 , a rear face  11 , a pair of side walls  12 , a top face  13 , a mounting face  14  opposite to the top face  13  and a base portion connecting with inner sides of the side walls  12 . A pair of protrusions  121  project outwardly to lock with the shell. The receiving cavity  101  defines a first receiving cavity  107  with the contact module extending thereinto, and a second receiving cavity  102  with a second tongue portion  103  extending thereinto. The first and the second receiving cavities  107 ,  102  communicate with each other, the second receiving cavity  102  is much larger than the first receiving cavity  107 . The second tongue portion  103  is formed integrally with the insulative housing  1  and extends forwardly from the base portion. 
         [0027]    The width of the second receiving cavity  102  is larger than the width of the first receiving cavity  107 . The height of the second receiving cavity  102  is larger than the height of the first receiving cavity  107 . The first receiving cavity  107  is substantially rectangular shaped. The insulative housing  1  has a pair of chamfered portions  106  on an upper left corner and an upper right corner of the second receiving cavity  102 , respectively. The chamfered portions  106  act as keys for regulating the insertion orientation of the second plug or the standard B-type USB 2.0 plug. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first and the second tongue portions  320 ,  103  are stacked and spaced from each other in a vertical direction. The first tongue portion  320  is parallel to second tongue portion  103 . 
         [0028]    The contact module includes an insulative plate and a plurality of first contacts  5  insert molded with the insulative plate, the insulative plate has a lateral plate  3  and a vertical plate  2 . The lateral plate  3  defines a main portion  31  and a first tongue portion  320  extending forwardly from a front face  32  of the main portion  31 . The first tongue portion  320  includes a mounting surface  321  on which the first contacts  5  is located. The second tongue portion  103  is much thicker than the first tongue portion  320  along a height direction of the insulative housing  1 . The second tongue portion  103  includes opposite first and second surfaces  104  on upper and lower sides thereof. The first and the second surfaces  104  each defines a pair of passageways  105 , respectively, for receiving the second contacts  4 . The mounting surface  321  is a lower surface of the first tongue portion  320 . The mounting surface  321  is much closer to the first surface than to the second surface. That is to say, the mounting surface  321  directly faces the first surface  104 . 
         [0029]    The insulative housing  1  is further formed with a rear receiving room  131  to accommodate the contact module, the first receiving cavity  107  extends rearward through the rear face  11  of the insulative housing to communicate with the rear receiving room  131 . A pair of resisting tabs  132  extend inwardly from inner sides of the side walls  12 , the main portion  31  is provided with a pair of opposite cutouts  340  on a middle portion thereof to lock with the resisting tabs  132  respectively. The vertical plate  2  is retained in the rear receiving room  131 . 
         [0030]    The first contacts  5  of the preferred embodiment are non-elastic. Each first contact  5  comprises a plate-shaped contact portion  51  insert molded with the lateral plate  3 , a bending portion  52  insert molded with the vertical plate  2 , and a tail portion  522  on a distal end of the bending portion  52  to extend downwardly through the vertical plate  2 . The contact portions  51  are exposed to the first receiving cavity  107  for mating with the second plug. The first contacts  5  of the preferred embodiment includes a middle grounding contact and two pairs of first and second signal contacts respectively disposed on a left side and a right side of the grounding contact respectively. The contact portion of the grounding contact is located on the mounting surface  321  of the first tongue portion  320  and is longer than that of the first or the second signal contacts so that the front end of the grounding contact is much closer to a free end of the first tongue portion  320 . While insertion of a corresponding plug, the plug contacts with the contact portion of the grounding contact firstly and then contacts with the first and second signal contacts for better grounding protection. 
         [0031]    The second contacts  4  of the preferred embodiment are elastic. Each second contact  4  comprises a convex shape elastic contact section  43 , a retaining section  44  and a tail section  45  perpendicular to the retaining section  44 . The contact sections  43  are located on the passageways  105  of the second tongue portion  103  and extend beyond the first and the second surfaces  104  to protrude into the second receiving cavity  102 . The second contacts  4  include two contacts  43  disposed on the first surface of the second tongue portion  103 , and two contacts  42  disposed on the second surface of the second tongue portion  103 . The tail sections  45  are retained in through holes  113  on a bottom wall of the insulative housing  1  and extend downward beyond the insulative housing  1 . 
         [0032]    The electrical receptacle  100  includes a lower port compatible with the existing standard B-type USB 2.0 plug and an additional upper port for transmitting high-speed signals in order to improve the transmission speed. The upper and the lower ports are simultaneously combined to receive the second plug. It is obvious that the overall height of the electrical connector  100  is much larger than that of the standard B-type USB 2.0 receptacle because of the additional upper port. 
         [0033]    The shell includes a front shell  6  enclosing the insulative housing  1 , a rear shell  7  attached to the front shell  6  and a rear side of the insulative housing  1 . The front shell  6  is stamped from a unitary one-piece metal sheet to have a top wall  61 , a pair of side walls  62  and a pair of front walls  63  bending inwardly from front ends of the side walls  62 . Each side wall  62  includes an engaging arm  624  extending into the second receiving cavity  102  to abut against the plug. Each side wall  62  further includes a plurality of locking holes  621  to latch with the protrusions  121  of the insulative housing  1 , and a plurality of slits  622  to retain flexible latches  731  formed on the rear shell  7 . The top wall  61  encloses the first receiving cavity  107 , the first tongue portion  320  is located between and the top wall  61  and the second tongue portion  103 , the first tongue portion  320  is parallel to both the top wall  61  and the second tongue portion  103 . The vertical plate  2  is sandwiched between the rear face  11  of the insulative housing  1  and the rear metal shell  7 . 
         [0034]    When the contact module is assembled onto the insulative housing  1  along an upper-to-lower direction, the vertical plate  2  abuts against the rear face  11  and straddles on a pair of posts  115  on a bottom wall of the insulative housing  1 , the vertical plate  2  includes a lower portion  240  on a lower end thereof to be sandwiched between the posts  115 . The cutouts  340  of the lateral plate  3  lock with the resisting tabs  132  respectively to prevent the lateral plate  3  from moving along a front-to-rear direction. The main portion  31  of lateral plate  3  is sandwiched between side walls  12  of the insulative housing  1  along a lateral direction thereof. The main portion  31  is fixed between the insulative housing  1  and the top wall  61  of the front shell  6  along a height direction thereof. 
         [0035]    Referring to  FIGS. 6-10 , a second embodiment of the electrical connector  100 ′ is similar to the first embodiment shown in  FIGS. 1-5 , and differs in that a pair of retaining slots  117 ′ are provided on inner sides of the side walls  12 ′ on the insulative housing  1 ′, the main portion  31  ′ of the lateral plate  3 ′ defines a pair of retaining plates  340 ′ which are fixed in the retaining slots  117 ′ respectively. The side wall  12 ′ of the insulative housing  1 ′ is provided with fixing slot  114 ′ on a rear side thereof, the vertical plate  2 ′ is formed with lateral tab  220 ′ retained in the fixing slot  114 ′. A guiding slot  135 ′ is formed on an upper portion of the base portion  136 ′ of the insulative housing  1 ′, a resisting rib  134 ′ is provided in the guiding slot  135 ′. While the contact module is assembled onto the insulative housing  1 ′ along a rear-to-front direction, the front end of the retaining plates  340 ′ abuts against the resisting tabs  132 ′, the resisting rib  134 ′ abut against a projection  322 ′ formed on a lower face of the main portion  31 ′, the lateral plate  3 ′ is restricted along a front-to-rear direction. 
         [0036]    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 terms in which the appended claims are expressed.