Patent Publication Number: US-2002009908-A1

Title: Wire-to-board connector

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] This application incorporates by reference Taiwanese application Serial No. 089212577, Filed Jul. 20, 2000.  
       [0002] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0003] The invention relates in general to a wire-to-board connector, and more particularly to the wire-to-board connector used in hand-held electronic devices.  
       [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art  
       [0005] With the rapid evolution of high technology, electronic products are being developed quickly. A trend of this development is towards portability. Portable electronic products can help people dealing with personal information and daily work, and allows the user to control what, when, where, and how he or she receives and manipulates information due to a great diversity of function thereof. Hence, portable electronic products, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), have proven useful and quite popular.  
       [0006] In order to minimize the size and weight of hand-held electronic products, the appearance of portable devices trend towards smaller, lighter, and easy to carry. However, certain technical limitations still need to be overcome, one of which is the space restriction of printed circuit board occupied with complicate connectors. Therefore, research to minimize the size of interior components of hand-held products so as to develop smaller products is an ongoing challenge.  
       [0007] Referring to FIG. 1 (prior art), the conventional connector, which connects the wire  100  to the printed circuit board  102 , consists of the plug  104  and the socket  106 , of which the socket  106  is fixed on the printed circuit board  102 . One end of the wire  100  is connected to the pin assembly  108  installed in the plug  104 . When plug  104  is connected with the socket  106 , the pin assembly  108  is joined with the corresponding hole assembly  110  and thus closing the circuit. The completed connector is as shown in FIG. 2 (prior art). However, space as demanded by the conventional wire-to-board connector described above makes minimization difficult.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008] It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved and simplified wire-to-board connector. This simplified connector can effectively couple the wire to the printed circuit board while only occupying a very small space thus achieving minimization of space in hand-held products.  
       [0009] According to the objective of the invention, a wire-to-board connector is provided for connecting the wire to the printed circuit board. The characteristic of the wire-to-board connector in the invention includes a spring, which is welded and coupled on the printed circuit board. This wire-to-board connector achieves the electric connection and fixed condition via the electrical conductivity and elasticity of a spring. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0010] Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:  
     [0011]FIG. 1 (prior art) illustrates the structure of the conventional wire-to-board connector;  
     [0012]FIG. 2 (prior art) is a lateral view of the conventional wire-to-board connector;  
     [0013]FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the wire-to-board connector according to the invention; and  
     [0014]FIG. 4 is a lateral view of the wire-to-board connector according to the invention. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
     [0015] Referring to FIG. 3, which depicts a perspective view of the wire-to-board connector according to the invention, the wire-to-board connector is able to achieve a closed circuit due to the electrical conductivity of the spring  300 . The spring  300  is preferrably welded on the print circuit board  102  by the Surface Mounting Technique (SMT). The groove distance H of the spring is such that it is larger than the diameter of the wire  100  that is inserted in the groove when an external force is imposed on the spring  300 . Subsequently, the spring  300  compresses and grips the wire  100  tightly by the elastic recovery of the spring  300 , as shown in FIG. 4. A live electrical connection between the wire  100  and the printed circuit board  102  is then achieved through the spring  300  because of its electrical conductivity. For example, one end of the wire  100  can link to a power source, speaker, microphone, or earphone (not presented in FIG. 4). Consequently, the invention of the wire-to-board connector achieves the objective of wire-to-board connection utilizing very simple structure and small space.  
     [0016] Furthermore, the invention of the wire-to-board connector provides a preferred method of assemblage. The wire  100  is directly placed in the spring  300  without additional components such as the plug  104  and the socket  106  resulting in a reduction of product assembling time.  
     [0017] According to the invention of the wire-to-board connector, the advantages include very simple structure and minimal required space as well as greatly reducing the time of assembly and overall minimizing the size of hand-held products.  
     [0018] While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.