Patent Publication Number: US-11381025-B2

Title: Electrical connector and method thereof making the same

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a connector assembly and the manufacturing method thereof, and particularly to the connector having corresponding contacts with a fine pitch contact arrangement and assembled into the housing via a contact module pattern. 
     2. Description of Related Arts 
     As shown in US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0227855, the electrical connector having a plurality of contacts with a strip connecting portion 241 at the bottom for connecting to a lower contact carrier 80, and a connecting portion 25 at an upper portion for connecting to an upper contact carrier 90. Anyhow, because of the side arms 242 of the conducting portion 24 around the strip connecting portion 242, the neighboring contacts 2 cannot be densely arranged with one another with a fine pitch arrangement wherein the contacts 2 are arranged corresponding to every other positioning holes defined in the lower contact carrier 80, thus precluding the miniaturization of the corresponding connector disadvantageously. 
     Therefore, an improvement to the electrical connector with a fine pitch arrangement of the corresponding contacts and an easy manufacturing method thereof, is desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To achieve the above object, an electrical connector includes an insulative housing composed of a plurality of parallel partitions each extending in a longitudinal direction, and plural rows of contact modules each extending in the longitudinal direction and disposed in the housing. Each contact module includes a plurality of contacts integrally formed within an insulator/wafter which extends in a longitudinal direction. In each contact module, each contact includes a main body with opposite contacting arms on upper and lower sections wherein the contacts in the same contact carrier are originally linked with the neighboring contacts around lateral sides of the main body for insert-molding consideration, and the corresponding linking sections are removed for disconnecting the neighboring the contacts after insert-molding to form the final complete contact module. The contact modules are successively assembled downwardly in the housing by plural assembling poles each of which retainably extends through plural contact modules in the transverse direction and retained in the corresponding positioning grooves formed in the corresponding partitions, respectively. 
     Other advantages and novel features of the 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 DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an electrical connector according to the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is another perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an elevational view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5  is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is another exploded view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 5 ; 
         FIG. 7  is an exploded perspective view of the contact module subassembly of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 8  is an exploded perspective view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 7 ; 
         FIG. 9  is another exploded perspective view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 10  is an elevational view of the contacts of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 9  before the linking carriers are removed therefrom; 
         FIG. 11  is a perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1  wherein the contact modules are located at an initial upper position; and 
         FIG. 12  is another perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 11 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-12 , an electrical connector  100  for mating with an electronic package (not shown), e.g., a chip, includes an insulative housing  1 , and a plurality of contact modules (not labeled) retained in the housing  1 . Each contact module includes a plurality of contacts  2  integrally formed within an insulator/wafer  3  via insert-molding. In this embodiment, direction X is a longitudinal direction, direction Y is a transverse direction, a direction Z is a vertical direction. All directions X, Y and Z are perpendicular to one another. 
     The hosing  1  includes a plurality of partitions  11  extending in the longitudinal direction and parallel to one another at equal intervals with corresponding channels  12  each formed between every adjacent two partitions  11 . The housing  1  forms opposite top surface  13  and lower surface  14 , and two opposite side surfaces  15 . The channels extend through the side surfaces  15  in the longitudinal direction and through the opposite top surface  13  and bottom surface  14  in the vertical direction. Each partition  11  forms a plurality of upwardly divergent guiding slots  111  each with a positioning slot  112  at a bottom end, and a cutout  113  upwardly recessed from the lower surface  14 . A pair of protrusions  114  are formed on a joint between the guiding slot  111  and the positioning slot  112 . 
     The contact  2  is made by sheet metal and includes a planar main body  21 , a first/upper spring arm  22  upwardly extending from an upper portion of the main body  21  with a first/upper contacting section  23  at a free end, a second/lower spring arm  24  downwardly extending from a lower portion of the main body  21  with a second/lower contacting section  25  at a free end. The first spring arm  22  defines a first opening  224  therein so as to form a pair of first and second beams  221 ,  222  located by two sides of the first opening  224  and merged together at the upper/first bridge  223 . The first contacting section  23  extends upwardly from the first bridge  223 . A holding tab  26  extending from an upper portion of the main body  21  into the opening  224  and between the pair of beams  221 ,  222 . As shown in  FIG. 8 , along the longitudinal direction, the width defined by the first spring arm  22  is similar to the width defined by the main body  21 . The contacts  2  of the same contact module are made from a same metal sheet so as to have the linking carrier  200  between every adjacent two contacts  2  linked with the corresponding connecting sections/edges  27  of the lateral sides of the main bodies  21  thereof. The main body  21  forms an opening  211  for forming the contact module. The width of the first contacting section  23  is smaller than that of the holding tab  26 . The first contacting section  23  is aligned with and located above the guiding slot  111 . 
     Similar to the first spring arm  22 , the second spring arm  24  forms a second opening  244  with a pair of beams  241 ,  242  by two side of the second opening  244 , and merged together at the second bridge  243  from which the second contacting section  25  downwardly extends. The second contacting section  25  is aligned with and located below the cutout  113 . Therefore, the first spring arm  21  and the second spring arm  22  are essentially symmetrically arranged with each other in the vertical direction. Notably, the distance d 3  between the corresponding spring arms  22  or  24  of the neighboring contacts  2  is around 0.24 mm which is relatively tiny compared with the traditional design, thus increasing the coupling effect for better signal transmission advantageously. 
     In each contact module, the insulator  3  encloses the corresponding row of contacts  2 . The insulator  3  forms a plurality of openings or apertures  31  aligned with the corresponding linking carriers  200 , and a plurality of openings  32  coaxially aligned with the corresponding openings  211  in the transverse direction Y to from a common through hole. Notably, the linking carriers  200  are removed from the contact module via the corresponding opening  31  after insert-molding for separating the neighboring contacts  2 . 
     A plurality of assembling poles  4  extend through the corresponding openings  32  of the contacts  2  and openings  211  of the insulators  3  in the transverse direction, and further retained in the corresponding positioning slots  112 . Notably, each contact module is received within the corresponding channel  12 . Each assembling pole  4  forms a plurality of ribs  41  extending through the corresponding openings  211  in an interference fit so as to retain the corresponding contact module to the assembling pole  4 . After the assembling poles  4  and the corresponding contact modules are assembled together by engagement of the ribs  41  within the corresponding openings  211  as a sub-combination, such a sub-combination is downwardly assembled to the housing  1  by having the assembling poles  4  downwardly extending into the corresponding positioning slots  112  via the corresponding guiding slots  111 . Because of the protrusions  114 , the assembling poles  4  cannot be easily upwardly withdrawn from the corresponding positioning slots  112 . Because a dimension of the positioning slot  112  is slightly larger than that of the pole  4 , the pole  4  is retained to the partition  11  in an interference fit without the relative axial movement therebetween in the transverse direction. 
     In this embodiment, the partitions  11  are not linked with one another in the transverse direction. Anyhow, the partitions  11  may be linked with the transverse walls in the transverse direction for reinforcement of the whole housing  1 . 
     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.