Patent Publication Number: US-9429360-B2

Title: Electrical connector with heating device

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present disclosure relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to the electrical connector with a heating device to remove humidity therefrom. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     China Utility Patent No. CN201020192747.9 discloses an electrical connector including an insulative housing with a plurality of contacts therein, and a metallic shell enclosing said housing to form a mating cavity in which the contacting sections of the contacts are exposed. Anyhow, there is no proper protection in front of the mating cavity to prevent moisture from entering the mating cavity, which may short the contacting sections of the neighboring contacts, thus jeopardizing the quality and security of the whole electrical connector. 
     In view of the above, an improved antenna is desired to overcome the problems mentioned above. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to provide an electrical connector which may sense humidity in the mating cavity and expel such humidity therefrom in time, thus avoiding shorting thereof. 
     According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an electrical connector includes an insulative housing with a plurality of contacts therein and a metallic shell enclosing said housing to form a mating cavity in which the contacting sections of the contacts are exposed upon a mating tongue of the housing, which extends in the mating cavity. A heating device is retained in the housing and located adjacent to the contacting sections of the contacts to expel humidity therefrom and away from the mating cavity. 
     Other objects, advantages and novel features of the disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a front perspective view of an electrical connector in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 2  is a rear perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a front exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is an upside-down front perspective view of the housing in accordance with another embodiment of the electrical connector of the instant invention; 
         FIG. 5  is an upside-down front exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1   
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Reference will now be made to the drawings to describe a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure in detail. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-3 and 6 , an electrical connector  100 , which may sense invading humidity and successively heat and dry the contacting sections of the contacts in time for preventing shorting thereof, includes an insulative housing  1  and the contacts retained to the housing  1 , and a metallic shell  3  enclosing the housing  1  to form the mating cavity  10 . The contacts include a plurality of first contacts  21  and a plurality of second contacts  22  wherein the first contact  21  includes a front first contacting section  211  exposed upon a mating tongue  12  of the housing  1 , and a rear first connecting section  212  exposed outside of the housing  1 . 
     The housing  1  includes a base  11  from which the mating tongue  12  forwardly extends. The mating tongue  12  forms opposite surfaces  121  and  122  wherein the first contacting sections  211  are exposed upon the first surface  121 . A metallic reinforcement plate  7  is insert-molded in the housing  1  and exposed upon the second surface  122  opposite to the first contacting sections  211  for enhancing the structure of the mating tongue  12 . Further referring to  FIG. 6 , a heating device  6  is insert-molded within the housing  1  and includes a heating fin  61  equipped with the sensor (not shown) to sense the humidity thereabouts and generating heat to dry and expel such humidity therefrom. In this embodiment, the heating fin  61  essentially located within the mating tongue  12 ; anyhow the mating tongue  12  may be formed with recesses to allow the heating fin  61  to communicate with a mating cavity  10  around the first surface  121  and the second surface  122  so as to sensitively catch existence of the humidity thereabouts and successively dispatch the heat for drying. The heating device  6  further includes the connecting legs  63  for mounting to the printed circuit board to obtain the heat generating power, and a heating plate  62  connected to the connecting legs  63 , on which the heating fin  61  is seated. Notably, the sensor may be separated from the heating fin  61 . 
     In this embodiment, the second connecting sections  221  of the second contacts  22 , the first connecting section  212  of the first contacts  21 , and the connecting legs  63  of the heating device  6  are arranged in one row. The metallic shell  3  includes an enclosure  31  in which the mating cavity  10  is formed, and a bracket to and under which the enclosure  31  is attached. An inner seal  5  is located on a rear side of the housing  1  to avoid moisture invasion through the connector itself, and an outer seal  4  encloses the enclosure  31  to avoid moisture invasion through the gap between the connector and the opening of the panel of the computer enclosure in which the connector is located. 
     Notably, in this embodiment because the heating device is operated via electricity, it is improper to have the heating fin  61  directly contacts the reinforcement plate  7  if the reinforcement plate  7  is grounded. Accordingly, an insulative layer may be required to be sandwiched between the reinforcement plate  7  and the heat fin  61  for isolation therebetween. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the electrical connector of the second embodiment includes the similar structure with that of the first embodiment except that the heating fin and the reinforcement plate are arranged no long in a stacked manner but in a coplanar manner wherein a recess  123  is formed in the second surface  122  to receive the corresponding heating device  6  and the reinforcement plate  7  while the reinforcement plate  7  also forms an recession to receive the heating device  6  therein so as to have the heating device  6  is essentially located at a same level in a coplanar manner with the reinforcement plate  7 . Notably, similar to the first embodiment, the heating device is essentially electrically isolated from the reinforcement plate  7 . 
     While preferred embodiment in accordance with the present disclosure has been shown and described, equivalent modifications and changes known to persons skilled in the art according to the spirit of the present disclosure are considered within the scope of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims.