Abstract:
A connector has a base having an opening formed at a front surface of the base, to which a distal end of a flexible printed circuit is inserted, a plurality of insertion holes passing from the front surface to a rear surface arranged in a line at a predetermined pitch, and a fit-in recess at an upper surface of the base, a connection terminal press-fit into the insertion hole of the base from a side, a support fitting assembled to the fit-in recess of the base from an upper side, and including an elastic temporary holding portion capable of engaging a temporary holding cutout portion arranged on both side edges of the distal end of the flexible printed circuit, and an operation lever for supporting a turning shaft portion arranged at both side ends at a bearing of the support fitting in a turnable manner, and driving the connection terminal.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Technical Field 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to connectors, and in particular, to an ultra-small connector for connecting a flexible printed circuit (hereinafter referred to as “FPC”). 
         [0003]    2. Related Art 
         [0004]    Conventionally, there is known a connector including a temporary holding mechanism for obtaining an inserting feeling and improving connection workability when inserting and connecting an FPC to the connector (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-277068). Thus, a predetermined inserting feeling can be obtained when the FPC is inserted into the connector, and the FPC can be temporarily held, as shown in  FIG. 8 ,  FIG. 9 , and  FIG. 12 . 
         [0005]    However, because an inner side beam portion  83  of a nail  81  merely moves up and down in the connector described above, it is not easy to visually determine whether the FPC is correctly positioned or not when inserted into the connector. 
         [0006]    In particular, further miniaturization is desired for the connector in recent years, and for example, the determination on whether the FPC is positioned correctly or not is not easy and the possibility of false connection increases in a connector in which a large number of connecting portions are arranged in an outer dimension of a width dimension of 5 mm, a depth dimension of 3 mm, and a height dimension of 1 mm. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0007]    In accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, there is provided a connector including: 
         [0008]    a base including an opening, to which a distal end of a flexible printed circuit is inserted at a front surface, having a plurality of insertion holes passing from the front surface to a rear surface being arranged in a line at a predetermined pitch, and including a fit-in recess at an upper surface; 
         [0009]    a connection terminal press-fit into the insertion hole of the base from the side; 
         [0010]    a support fitting assembled to the fit-in recess of the base from an upper side, and including an elastic temporary holding portion capable of engaging a temporary holding cutout portion arranged on both side edges of the distal end of the flexible printed circuit; and 
         [0011]    an operation lever for supporting a turning shaft portion arranged at both side ends at a bearing of the support fitting in a turnable manner, and driving the connection terminal; 
         [0012]    the connection terminal being operated by turning the operation lever to electrically connect the connection terminal to the distal end of the flexible printed circuit; wherein 
         [0013]    the elastic temporary holding portion of the support fitting elastically engaged to the temporary holding cutout portion of the flexible printed circuit is visible from the fit-in recess arranged at the upper surface of the base. 
         [0014]    According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, the operation feeling is obtained, temporary holding can be realized, and the elastic temporary holding portion of the support fitting can be visually checked from the upper side of the base. Therefore, it can be recognized at a glance that the elastic temporary holding portion is not positioned at a predetermined position when the elastic temporary holding portion is not correctly engaged to the temporary holding cutout portion of the flexible printed circuit. Therefore, false connection can be prevented in advance and a connector of high connection reliability and connection workability can be obtained. 
         [0015]    In one embodiment of the present invention, the support fitting may be assembled from the upper side to the fit-in recess formed on both side edges of the upper surface of the base. 
         [0016]    According to this embodiment, the positioning of the support fitting is facilitated since the support fitting can be assembled to the fit-in recess from the upper side, whereby a connector of high assembly workability is obtained. 
         [0017]    In another embodiment of the present invention, a press-fit tongue piece of the support fitting may be press-fit and supported in a press-fit hole formed at a bottom surface of the fit-in recess of the base, and the elastic temporary holding portion may be arranged through a coupling portion extending to the outer side from one end of the support fitting. 
         [0018]    According to this embodiment, the elastic temporary holding portion can be turned with the press-fit tongue pieces as the center and a large displacement amount can be obtained, whereby a connector of high positioning accuracy can be obtained. 
         [0019]    In still another embodiment of the present invention, the elastic temporary holding portion of the support fitting may have a substantially V-shape in plan view that projects toward an inner side. 
         [0020]    According to this embodiment, the plane area of the entire elastic temporary holding portion becomes large and hence can be more easily checked visually, whereby a connector capable of more reliably preventing false connection can be obtained. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0021]      FIGS. 1A and 1B  are a perspective view showing a connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and a cross-sectional perspective view taken along line B-B of  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0022]      FIGS. 2A and 2B  are a cross-sectional perspective view taken along line A-A of  FIG. 1A , and a center longitudinal cross-sectional view; 
           [0023]      FIG. 3  is an exploded perspective view of the first embodiment shown in  FIG. 1A ; 
           [0024]      FIG. 4  is an exploded perspective view of the first embodiment shown in  FIG. 1A  seen from a different angle; 
           [0025]      FIGS. 5A ,  5 B, and  5 C are a perspective view, a front view, and a perspective view seen from the lower side of a base shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0026]      FIGS. 6A ,  6 B, and  6 C are perspective views of the support fitting shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0027]      FIGS. 7A and 7B  are a plan view and a bottom view of an operation lever shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0028]      FIGS. 8A and 8B  are perspective views for describing a connection method of an FPC; 
           [0029]      FIGS. 9A and 9B  are a partially broken perspective view for describing the connection method of the FPC and a perspective view showing a state after the connection; 
           [0030]      FIGS. 10A ,  10 B, and  10 C are cross-sectional views for describing the connection method of the FPC; 
           [0031]      FIGS. 11A and 11B  are partially broken perspective views for describing a false connection preventing structure; 
           [0032]      FIGS. 12A and 12B  are a perspective view showing a connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention and a perspective view of a support fitting; and 
           [0033]      FIG. 13  is a cross-sectional perspective view taken along line A-A of the connector shown in  FIG. 12A . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0034]    Embodiments of a connector according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings of  FIGS. 1A to 13 . In embodiments of the invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid obscuring the invention. As shown in  FIGS. 1A to 11B , a connector  10  according to a first embodiment is configured mainly by a base  11 , first and second connection terminals  20 ,  30 , a pair of support fittings  40 ,  50 , and an operation lever  60 . 
         [0035]    The outer dimension of the connector  10  according to the first embodiment has a width dimension of 4.3 mm, a depth dimension of 3 mm, and a height dimension of 0.7 mm. 
         [0036]    As shown in  FIGS. 5A to 5C , the base  11  is formed with a side wall portion  13  by forming a fit-in recess  12  that is a position checking recess along the depth direction on both side edges of the upper surface, and is formed with a cutout  12   a  at the edge on the depth side of the fit-in recess  12 . A press-fit hole  15  into which the support fittings  40 ,  50 , to be described later, can be press-fit is formed between a partition wall  14  arranged in a projecting manner on the bottom surface of the fit-in recess  12  and the side wall portion  13 . An opening  16 , to which an FPC  70  can be inserted, is formed on the front surface of the base  11 , and first and second insertion holes  17   a,    17   b  that communicate to the opening  16  and pass through from the front surface to the rear surface are alternately arranged in a line. An adjustment cutout  18  is formed on the outward surface of the side wall portion  13 . 
         [0037]    As shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  4 , and  FIGS. 10A to 10C , the first connection terminal  20  includes a fixed piece  21  inserted and fixed along the insertion hole  17   a  communicating to the opening  16  from the front surface side of the base  11 , a coupling piece  22  arranged in a projecting manner on the upper side of the fixed piece  21 , and a movable piece  23  extending substantially parallel to the fixed piece  21  on both sides from the upper end of the coupling piece  22 . One end of the movable piece  23  is the movable contact portion  24  and the other end is the operation receiving portion  25 . A position regulating nail portion  21   a  and a slip-put preventing projection  21  b are arranged on the fixed piece  21 . 
         [0038]    As shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  4 , and  FIGS. 10A to 10C , the second connection terminal  30  includes a fixed piece  31  inserted and fixed along the insertion hole  17   b  from the rear surface side of the base  11 , a coupling piece  32  arranged in a projecting manner on the upper side of the fixed piece  31 , and a movable piece  33  extending substantially parallel to the fixed piece  31  on both sides from the upper end of the coupling piece  32 . One end of the movable piece  33  is the movable contact portion  34  and the other end is the operation receiving portion  35 . A position regulating nail portion  31   a  and a slip-out preventing projection  31   b  are arranged on the fixed piece  31 . A cam receiving portion  31   c  is arranged between the position regulating nail portion  31   a  and the slip-out preventing projection  31   b.    
         [0039]    As shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  4 , and  FIGS. 6A to 6C , the support fitting  40  has a press-fit tongue piece  41 , which is press-fit and supported at the press-fit hole  15  of the base  11 , arranged in a projecting manner to the lower side at the central part of the lower side. The support fitting  40  has a bearing  42  formed on one side with the press-fit tongue piece  41  therebetween and a coupling portion  43  extending to the side from the other side. The coupling portion  43  has an elastic temporary holding portion  44  formed on one side from the distal end, and a lock long tongue piece  45  extended on the other side. Therefore, the support fitting  40  is elastically deformable with the press-fit tongue piece  41  as the center. 
         [0040]    The support fitting  50  has a line symmetric shape with respect to the support fitting  40 , and thus the numbers conforming to the support fitting  40  are denoted to the corresponding portions and the description thereof will be omitted. 
         [0041]    As shown in  FIGS. 3 ,  4 , and  FIGS. 7A and 7B , the operation lever  60  has a slit  61  formed at the edge on both side end faces to cutout an elastic arm portion  62 , where turning shaft portions  63 ,  63  are arranged in a projecting manner on the same axis core at the distal end of the outer side surface of the elastic arm portions  62 ,  62 . The operation lever  60  has a cam portion  64  for operating the operation receiving portions  25 ,  35  of the first and second connection terminals  20 ,  30  arranged in a line at a predetermined pitch on one side edge, and through-holes  65 , to which the operation receiving portions  25 ,  35  can be inserted, arranged in a line at the position corresponding to the cam portion  64 . Furthermore, as shown in  FIG. 7A , the operation lever  60  has a lock cutout portion  66  and a lock step portion  67  formed at the opening distal end edge of the slit  61 . 
         [0042]    As shown in  FIGS. 8A and 8B , the FPC  70  to be connected to the connector  10  according to the first embodiment has a temporary holding cutout portion  72  formed both side edges of a connecting portion  71  positioned at the distal end. The connecting portion  71  has print-wired first and second connection pads  73 ,  74  alternately arranged in a zigzag manner on the upper surface. 
         [0043]    A method of assembling the connector  10  including the above-described constituent components will now be described. 
         [0044]    First, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the fixed piece  21  of the first connection terminal  20  is inserted to the first insertion hole  17   a  from the opening  16  on the front surface side of the base  11 . The slip-out preventing projection  21   b  arranged on the first connection terminal  20  is thereby locked at the top surface of the base  11 , and the position regulating nail portion  21   a  is locked and positioned at the opening edge of the base  11  ( FIGS. 10A to 10C ). 
         [0045]    The fixed piece  31  of the second connection terminal  30  is inserted along the second insertion hole  17   b  from the rear surface side of the base  11 . The slip-out preventing projection  31   b  of the second connection terminal  30  is thereby locked at the base  11 , and the position regulating nail portion  31   a  is locked and positioned at the edge of the base  11 . 
         [0046]    The press-fit tongue pieces  41 ,  51  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  are then press-fit and fixed to the press-fit hole  15  formed at the fit-in recess  12  of the base  11  from the upper side, so that the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  and the lock long tongue pieces  45 ,  55  can be visually checked from the upper side. 
         [0047]    The operation lever  60  has the turning shaft portion  63  fitted to the bearings  42 ,  52  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  through the cutout  12   a  of the base  11 . Furthermore, the operation receiving portions  25 ,  35  of the first and second connection terminals  20 ,  30  are respectively inserted to the through-hole  65  of the operation lever  60 , and the cam portion  64  is positioned at the cam receiving portion  31   c  of the second connection terminal  30 . The operation lever  60  is thus turnably supported with respect to the base  11 . 
         [0048]    The method of connecting the FPC  70  to the connector  10  will now be described based on  FIGS. 8A and 8B  and  FIGS. 9A and 9B . 
         [0049]    As shown in  FIGS. 8A and 8B , the connecting portion  71  of the FPC  70  is inserted from the opening  16  of the base  11 , and pushed to the far side of the base  11 . In this case, the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  respectively engage the temporary holding cutout portions  72 ,  72  of the FPC  70 , and are temporarily held after the operation feeling is obtained. Whether or not the FPC  70  is accurately positioned at a predetermined position can be checked by looking at the position of the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  in the fit-in recesses  12 ,  12  of the base  11  as shown in  FIGS. 9A and 9B . 
         [0050]    In the event of at least one of the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  not being engaged with the temporary holding cutout portions  72 ,  72  of the FPC  70 , it is possible to visually check that the elastic temporary holding portion  44  or the elastic temporary holding portion  54  is not positioned at a predetermined position in the fit-in recess  12  ( FIG. 9A ), and false connection can be prevented beforehand. 
         [0051]    When the operation lever  60  is turned with the axis center of the turning shaft portion  63  as the center and pushed down, the cam portion  64  simultaneously pushes up the operation receiving portions  25 ,  35  of the first and second connection terminals  20 ,  30  as shown in  FIGS. 10A to 10C . Therefore, the movable pieces  23 ,  33  are respectively inclined with the coupling pieces  22 ,  32  of the first and second connection terminals  20 ,  30  as supporting points. As a result, the first and second movable contacts  20 ,  30  are respectively pressure welded and conducted to the first and second connection pads  73 ,  74  arranged at the connecting portion  71  of the FPC  70 . 
         [0052]    Furthermore, as shown in  FIG. 11A , if the operation lever  60  is turned while the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  are engaged with the temporary holding cutout portions  72 ,  72  of the FPC  70 , the lock long tongue pieces  45 .  55  respectively fit into the slits  61 ,  61  of the operation lever  60  ( FIG. 9B ) so that the first and second connection terminals  20 ,  30  can be operated with the operation lever  60 . 
         [0053]    In the event of at least one of the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  not being engaged with the temporary holding cutout portions  72 ,  72  of the FPC  70 , the lock long tongue piece  45  turns toward the inner side with the press-fit tongue piece  41  of the support fitting  40  as the center, as shown in  FIG. 11B . Therefore, the lock long tongue piece  45  engages the lock cutout portion  66  and the step portion  67  of the operation lever  60  even if the operation lever  60  is turned, thereby inhibiting the turn of the operation lever  60  and reliably preventing false connection. 
         [0054]    The first embodiment has an advantage in that high contact reliability can be ensured since the first and second movable contacts  24 ,  34  cut into the surface of the FPC  70 , thereby preventing slip out. 
         [0055]    When detaching the FPC  70  from the connector  10 , the operation lever  60  is turned in the opposite direction to invert the cam portion  64 , so that the bending moment of the first and second connection terminals  20 ,  30  with respect to the operation receiving portions  25 ,  35  is released. The FPC  70  is pulled after the first and second connection pads  73 ,  74  and the first and second movable contacts  24 ,  34  are separated, so that the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  are elastically deformed to the outer side, and then the FPC  70  is pulled out. 
         [0056]    The lock long tongue  55  of the support fitting  40 ,  50  is fitted into and position regulated at the slits  61 ,  61  of the operation lever  60  even if a tension of forcibly pulling out the FPC  70  without turning the operation lever  60  in the opposite direction is acted, and the temporary holding cutout portions  72 ,  72  of the FPC  70  are brought into contact with the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  of the support fittings  40 ,  50 . Therefore, the elastic temporary holding portions  44 ,  54  of the support fittings  40 ,  50  do not elastically deform with the press-fit tongue pieces  41 ,  51  as the center, whereby forced pull-out with respect to the FPC  70  can be inhibited, and a connector having high connection reliability can be obtained. 
         [0057]    As shown in  FIGS. 12A and 12B  and  FIG. 13 , a second embodiment has the same basic configuration as the first embodiment, and differs in that the lock long tongue piece is not arranged in the support fittings  40 ,  50 . The same reference numerals are thus denoted for the same portions, and the descriptions thereof will be omitted. 
         [0058]    The connector according to the present invention is not limited to the connector of the same number as the connection terminals described above, and may be applied to a connector in which the number of connection terminals is different. 
         [0059]    Moreover, the fit-in recess formed in the base is not limited to a planar shape as described above, and may obviously be formed in accordance with the bent shape of the elastic temporary holding portion. 
         [0060]    While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.