Patent Publication Number: US-9837740-B2

Title: Electrical connector

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to an electrical connector. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     Taiwan Patent Issued No. M393890 discloses an electrical connector including an insulative housing, a plurality of terminals received in the insulative housing and a shell covering the insulative housing. The insulative housing has a mating space for receiving a mating connector. The terminal has a mating portion protruding into the mating space. When the electrical connector is mating with a card edge of a Central processing unit, a height of the electrical connector and the number of the terminals are unchangeable. 
     It is desired to obtain a new electrical connector. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector comprising a plurality of first terminal blocks and a plurality of second terminal blocks stacked together along a first direction. The first terminal block and the second terminal block are stacked one by one. Each of the first terminal block and the second terminal block has a first insulative plate and a plurality of first terminals fixed in the first insulative plate. The first terminals are arranged along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The first terminal extends along a third direction perpendicular to the first direction and the second direction. The first terminal has a deflectable contacting arm and a connecting foot, and the deflectable contacting arm of the first terminal block and the deflectable contacting arm of the second terminal block bend in a face to face style to form an inserting space in the first direction. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an electrical connector and a cable in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view along line  2 - 2  shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector and the cable shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a first terminal block shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is another perspective view of the first terminal block shown in  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is an exploded perspective view of a third terminal block and a shielding plate shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 7  is an assembling perspective view of the third terminal block and the shielding plate shown in  FIG. 6 ; and 
         FIG. 8  is another assembling perspective view shown in  FIG. 7 . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made to the drawings to describe the present invention in detail. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-2 , an electrical connector  100  is used for mating with a card edge of a Central Processing Unit. The electrical connector  100  includes a plurality of terminal blocks stacked together in a vertical direction, an insulative shell  40  and a shielding shell  50 . The insulative shell  40  and the shielding shell  50  cover the terminal blocks. The shielding shell  50  is located behind the insulative shell  40 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2-8 , the terminal blocks includes a first terminal block  10 , a second terminal block  11 , a third terminal block  20  and a fourth terminal block  21 . The third terminal block  20  is stacked at a lateral side of the first terminal block  10 . The fourth terminal block  21  is stacked at a lateral side of the second terminal block  11 . The structure of the first terminal block  10  is same as the structure of the second terminal block  11 . The structure of the third terminal block  20  is same as the structure of the fourth terminal block  21 . The first terminal block  10  includes a first insulative plate  12  and a plurality of first terminals  14  fixed in the first insulative plate  12 . The first insulative plate  12  of the first terminal block  10  and the first insulative plate  12  of the second terminal block  11  are shaped as a horizontal plate structure and stacked together in the vertical direction. The first terminals  14  are arranged in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical direction. The first terminal  14  extends along a third direction perpendicular to the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. The first terminal  14  includes a first deflectable contacting arm  15  and a first connecting foot  16 . The first deflectable contacting arm  15  of the first terminal block  10  and the first deflectable contacting arm  15  of the second terminal block  11  bend face to face and form an inserting space in the vertical direction. The third terminal block  20  includes a second insulative plate  22  and a plurality of second terminals  24  fixed in the second insulative plate  22 . The second insulative plate  22  of the third terminal block  20  and the second insulative plate  22  of the fourth terminal block  21  are shaped as a horizontal plate structure. The second insulative plate  22  of the third terminal block  20  is stacked at a lateral side of the first insulative plate  12  of the first terminal block  10  in the vertical direction. The second insulative plate  22  of the fourth terminal block  21  is stacked at a lateral side of the first insulative plate  12  of the second terminal block  21  in the vertical direction. The second terminals  24  are arranged in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the vertical direction. The second terminal  24  extends along the third direction perpendicular to the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. The second terminal  24  includes a second deflectable contacting arm  25  and a second connecting foot  26 . The second deflectable contacting arm  25  of the third terminal block  20  and the second deflectable contacting arm  25  of the fourth terminal block  21  bend face to face and form an inserting space in the vertical direction. The second deflectable contacting arm  25  of the third terminal block  20  and the second deflectable contacting arm  25  of the fourth terminal block  21  are located in front of the first deflectable contacting arm  15  of the first terminal block  10  and the first deflectable contacting arm  15  of the second terminal block  11 . The first deflectable arms  15  of the first and second terminal blocks  10 , 11  and the second deflectable arms  25  of the third and fourth terminal blocks  20 , 21  extend beyond the first and second insulative plate  12 , 22 . The electrical connector  100  also includes a shielding plate  30  disposed between the first insulative plate  12  of the first terminal block  10  and the second insulative plate  22  of the third terminal block  20 . The electrical connector  100  also includes another shielding plate  30  disposed between the first insulative plate  12  of the second terminal block  11  and the second insulative plate  22  of the fourth terminal block  21 . Referring to  FIGS. 6-7 , each lateral side of the second insulative plate  22  of the third terminal block  20  defines three latching slots  221 . Each lateral side of the second insulative plate  22  of the fourth terminal block  21  defines three latching slots  221 . Each lateral side of the shielding plate  30  includes three latching arms  31 . The latching arms  31  cooperate with the latching slots  221 , respectively. The shielding plate  30  is fixed to the second insulative plate  22 . The vertical direction is defined as a first direction, the horizontal direction is defined as a second direction. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-3 , the insulative shell  40  defines an opening. The insulative shell  40  covers the first insulative plate  12  and the second insulative plate  22 . The insulative shell  40  surrounds the first deflectable contacting arms  15 . The first deflectable contacting arm  15  is located behind the opening. The shielding shell  50  covers the first insulative plate  12  and the second insulative plate  22 . The shielding shell  50  is located behind the insulative shell  40 . Each lateral side of the second insulative plate  22  of the fourth terminal block  21  includes a plurality of protrusions  220 . The shielding shell  50  includes three lateral walls  51 . The shielding shell  50  also includes a plurality of fixing holes  52  for fixing to the protrusions  220 , respectively. Each first insulative plate  12  defines a first slot  13  and each second insulative plate  22  defines a second slot  23 . The first connecting foot  16  of the first terminal  14  is received in the first slot  13 , and the second connecting foot  26  of the second terminal  24  is received in the second slot  23 . The connecting foot of the terminal is soldered to a cable. 
     The first terminal block, the second terminal block, the third terminal block and the fourth terminal block are stacked together in the first direction. A height of the electrical connector can be adjusted by changing the number of terminal blocks. So, the electrical connector can mate with many different kinds of Central Processing Units. 
     Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various alterations and modifications can be made to the embodiments without in any way departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.