Patent Publication Number: US-11031711-B2

Title: Electrical connector of charging device

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan patent application serial no. 108206034, filed on May 15, 2019. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of the specification. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present disclosure relates to a connector, and particularly relates to an electrical connector. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     An electrical connector is a common component on an electronic device and can be connected with an adapted electrical connector on another electronic device to serve as a transmission medium for signals and power between the two electronic devices. An existing electrical connector, such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) electrical connector, is the most widely and commonly used signal transmission and charging interface at present due to a hot plug function. 
     At present, the USB protocol additionally provides a specification of a Type-C electrical connector which can provide a 10 Gbps ultra-high data transmission rate, and plug-in interfaces of the Type-C electrical connector are symmetrical and can be forward and reversely plugged, so that the Type-C electrical connector is widely applied to various electronic devices, such as a notebook computer. According to different purposes, the USB Type-C electrical connector has different sizes. For example, when the Type-C electrical connector is used for a charging device, an obvious size difference is generated due to the state only used for signal transmission. Furthermore, the manufacturing process is complicated accordingly, the yield of the manufacturing process is often unstable due to the size difference, and the management difficulty to the manufacturing process is increased. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present disclosure provides an electrical connector capable of increasing the availability of terminals by means of an assembled structure. 
     The electrical connector provided by the disclosure is suitable for being disposed on a circuit board. The electrical connector includes a terminal set having a plurality of terminals, a first insulator, at least one second insulator, and a third insulator. Each of the terminals includes a contact portion, a soldering portion connecting to the circuit board, and a bending portion connected between the contact portion and the soldering portion. The first insulator is structurally integrated with the contact portions. The second insulator is structurally integrated with the terminals and is located between the bending portions and the soldering portions. The third insulator is locked with the second insulator. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal set is divided into a first group of terminals and a second group of terminals. The electrical connector includes a pair of second insulators, wherein one of the second insulators is structurally integrated with the first group of terminals, and the other one of the second insulators is structurally integrated with the second group of terminals. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electrical connector further includes two separated metallic plates disposed on the first insulator and located between the first group of terminals and the second group of terminals, and the two metallic plates are partially and respectively exposed out two opposite sides of a tongue portion of the first insulator. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first group of terminals includes at least one first grounding terminal arranged at the most lateral side, the second group of terminals includes at least one second grounding terminal arranged at the most lateral side, the second grounding terminal is corresponding to the first grounding terminal, and one of the separated metallic plates is located between the first grounding terminal and the second grounding terminal. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the height of the metallic plate relative to the circuit board is equal to or greater than 5 mm. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when the second insulator is not structurally integrated with the first group of terminals and the second group of terminals, the first group of terminals and the second group of terminals do not include the bending portions. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the bending portions are exposed between the first insulator and the third insulator. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electrical connector further includes a shell which is assembled to the first insulator and the third insulator and covers the bending portions. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the third insulator is provided with a hollow portion, and the second insulators passes through the hollow portion and are locked in the third insulator. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, an extending direction of the hollow portion is consistent with an extending direction of the soldering portion. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, an extending direction of the hollow portion is consistent with an extending direction of the contact portion. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, an extending direction of the hollow portion is orthogonal to an extending direction of the contact portion and an extending direction of the soldering portion. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a cross section of the third insulator at the hollow portion is of a “θ” shape, an “I” shape or an “E” shape. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electrical connector is a receptacle electrical connector of a charging device. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electrical connector is a USB Type-C connector. 
     In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the electrical connector further comprises an integrated metallic plate which is located between the first group of terminals and the second group of terminals of the terminal set, wherein the integrated metallic plate comprises the pair of existing metallic plates extended to each other to form the integrated metallic plate and the two opposed side edges of the integrated metallic plate are partially and respectively exposed out two opposite sides of a tongue portion of the first insulator. 
     Based on the above, the electrical connector includes the terminal set and the first insulator, the at least one second insulator and the third insulator which are matched with the terminal set, wherein the second insulator firstly is structurally integrated with the plurality of corresponding terminals respectively, the terminals are bent, and then, the second insulator and the third insulator are mutually locked, so that the electrical connector can be smoothly disposed on the circuit board. Therefore, the second insulator is located between the bending portions and the soldering portions, and then, the second insulator can be smoothly locked with the third insulator to form an assembled structure, thereby simplifying the structure and manufacturing process of the electrical connector, and further improving the situation that the existing manufacturing process cannot meet product requirements such as size difference. 
     To make the foregoing features and advantages of the present disclosure more comprehensible, embodiments are particularly provided below and described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1A  is a schematic view of an electrical connector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 1B  shows an electrical connector in  FIG. 1D  from another perspective. 
         FIG. 1C  is a schematic view of partial components of the electrical connector in  FIG. 1A . 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the electrical connector in  FIG. 1A . 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view of a terminal set in  FIG. 2  before manufacturing. 
         FIG. 4A  is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector in  FIG. 1A . 
         FIG. 4B  is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4C  is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 5A  is a schematic view of an electrical connector according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 5B  is an assembly schematic view of partial components of the electrical connector in  FIG. 5A . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1A  is a schematic view of an electrical connector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.  FIG. 1B  shows an electrical connector in  FIG. 1D  from another perspective.  FIG. 1C  is a schematic view of partial components of the electrical connector in  FIG. 1A . The drawings simultaneously provide orthogonal coordinates X-Y-Z so as to facilitate the description of the related components. Referring to  FIG. 1A ,  FIG. 1B  and  FIG. 1C , in the present embodiment, an electrical connector  100  is, for example, a USB Type-C connector and is disposed (soldered) on a circuit board  200  to serve as a receptacle electrical connector. Further, the electrical connector  100  of the present embodiment serves as a receptacle electrical connector of a charging device  10  to output electric power. 
     The electrical connector  100  includes a first insulator  110 , a terminal set  140 , a third insulator  130 , a metallic shell  150  and two metallic plates (i.e. shielding members)  160 A and  160 B. The terminal set  140  includes a first group of terminals  141  and a second group of terminals  142  which are respectively disposed correspondingly up and down along the Z-axis on an upper surface of a tongue portion of the first insulator  110  and a lower surface of the tongue portion of the first insulator  110 , so that the terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8  of the terminal set  140  form a connecting interface butted with an external electrical connector (plug electrical connector, not shown herein) at the upper surface of the tongue portion of the first insulator  110  or the lower surface of the tongue portion of the first insulator  110 . The two metallic plates (i.e. shielding members)  160 A and  160 B are disposed inside the first insulator  110  and are partially exposed from the tongue portion of the first insulator  110  along two opposite sides of the X-axis, thereby serving as the reinforced structure of the first insulator  110  and further providing a grounding effect when the electrical connector  100  is butted with the external electrical connector. 
     Furthermore, the terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8  of the terminal set  140  are firstly bent and inserted into the third insulator  130  before being soldered to the circuit board  200 , and the metallic shell  150  is assembled to the first insulator  110  and the third insulator  130  and covers the portions of the terminal set  140  which is exposed from the first insulator  110  and the third insulator  130 . As shown in  FIG. 1A  and  FIG. 1B , a bottom bulge of the metallic shell  150  serves as a locating structure for the electrical connector  100  to be assembled to the circuit board  200 . In the present embodiment, the metallic shell  150  can achieve the effects of shielding the portion of the terminal set  140  exposed out of the insulator and being located on the circuit board  200 , and can achieve a grounding effect by being electrically conducted to the circuit board  200 . 
       FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the electrical connector in  FIG. 1A . Referring to  FIG. 2 , in detail, the electrical connector  100  of the present embodiment also includes second insulators  120 A and  120 B, and the terminals A 1  to A 8  of the first group of terminals  141  and the terminals B 1  to B 8  of the second group of terminals  142  have the similar structure. Taking a terminal A 8  shown in  FIG. 2  as an example, the terminal A 8  includes a contact portion  143 , a bending portion  145 , and a soldering portion  144 , wherein the contact portion  143  is structurally integrated with the first insulator  110 , the soldering portion  144  is used for being soldered to the circuit board  200 , and the bending portion  145  is connected between the contact portion  143  and the soldering portion  144 . Equivalently, the contact portion  143  extends along the Y-axis, passes through the bending portion  145 , and is then changed to the soldering portion  144  extending along the Z-axis. Before the metallic shell  150  is assembled to the first insulator  110  and the third insulator  130 , the bending portion  145  is exposed between the first insulator  110  and the third insulator  130 , and the bending portion  145  is covered until the metallic shell  150  is assembled. Equivalently, for the terminal set  140 , the second insulators  120 A and  120 B are respectively structurally integrated with the first group of terminals  141  and the second group of terminals  142  and are located between the bending portion  145  and the soldering portion  144 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 1C , the third insulator  130  includes hollow portions  131  and  132  extending along the Z-axis, i.e., extending directions of the hollow portions  131  and  132  are consistent with an extending direction of the soldering portions  144 . The second insulators  120 B and  120 A pass through the hollow portions  131  and  132  and are inserted into the third insulator  130 , and the second insulators  120 A and  120 B are locked with the third insulator  130 . Herein, the structure in which the components are locked to each other is not limited, and can be obtained from the prior art. As shown in  FIG. 1B , the soldering portions  144  of the terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8  penetrate out of the bottom of the third insulator  130  so as to be conveniently arranged on the circuit board  200  in a penetrating way. 
     It should be noted that the first insulator  110  includes components  111 ,  112  and  113 , and the terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8  of the terminal set  140  are mutually structurally integrated with the components  111 ,  112  and  113  at the contact portions  143 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the first insulator  110  is split into different components so as to be mutually assembled with the terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8 . However, in other embodiments, the terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8  of the terminal set  140  can also be mutually structurally integrated with the first insulator  110  at the contact portions  143  by means of the insert molding technology. 
     Furthermore, as shown in  FIG. 2 , because the electrical connector  100  of the present embodiment is used for charging without transmitting high-frequency signals, the pair of metallic plates (i.e. shielding members)  160 A and  160 B of the present embodiment can save a large area and are only located between the grounding terminals. In other words, in the first group of terminals  141  of the present embodiment, the terminals A 1  and A 8  arranged at the most lateral sides are grounding terminals; in the second group of terminals  142 , the terminals B 1  and B 8  arranged at the most lateral sides are grounding terminals; and the metallic plate  160 A is located between the terminals A 1  and Bl, and the metallic plate  160 B is located between the terminals A 8  and B 8 . Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the electrical connector  100  can be effectively saved. Of course, in another embodiment not shown, when the electrical connector needs to transmit high-frequency signals, the pair of existing metallic plates  160 A and  160 B extend to each other to form an integrated metallic plate which is located between the first group of terminals  141  and the second group of terminals  142  of the terminal set  140 , thereby achieving the needed shielding effect. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1A , because the electrical connector  100  is used for power output of the charging device  10 , the electrical connector  100  and the circuit board  200  keep a certain height along the Z-axis. Taking the electrical connector  100  of the present embodiment as an example, the metallic plate  160 A (or  160 B) has a center height CH relative to the upper board surface of the circuit board  200 , and the center height CH is greater than or equal to 5 mm. 
     As mentioned above, compared with an electrical connector only used for signal transmission in the prior art, a higher center height CH is not needed. In other words, the center height CH of the existing electrical connector only used for signal transmission is approximately equal to or less than 4 mm. However, because the electrical connector  100  of the present embodiment has a higher center height CH, in the manufacturing process of the electrical connector  100 , in order to avoid defects due to a too large size when the terminals and the insulators are combined (by means of insert molding), the present embodiment adopts a mode different from the prior art so as to simplify the manufacturing process and optimize the structure of the terminals and the insulators. 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic view of a terminal set in  FIG. 2  before manufacturing. Referring to  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3 , different from the prior art that the terminals are bent and then structurally integrated with the insulators, the terminal set  140  of the present embodiment is characterized in that the needed terminals are firstly arranged and then combined respectively by means of the second insulator  120 A or  120 B. As shown in  FIG. 3 , a terminal raw material  141 A includes terminals A 1  to A 8  and extension portions A 11  to A 81  thereof ( FIG. 3 , a structure shown by dotted lines), and a terminal raw material  142 A includes terminals B 1  to B 8  and extension portions B 11  to B 81  thereof ( FIG. 3 , a structure shown by dotted lines). In other words, according to the process as shown in  FIG. 3 , the needed terminals are firstly arranged and gathered by means of the second insulators  120 A and  120 B to form prototypes of the first group of terminals  141  and the second group of terminals  142  (namely the terminal raw material  141 A and the terminal raw material  142 A). 
     Subsequently, the prototypes are reprocessed according to the requirement (namely the center height CH needed by the electrical connector  100 ). The present embodiment can refer to the conversion process from  FIG. 3  to  FIG. 2 . After the needed center height CH is determined, the terminal raw material  141 A and the terminal raw material  142 A are respectively cut and bent, wherein the cutting operation is to cut the unneeded extension portions A 11  to A 81  and extension portions B 11  to B 81  and bend the terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8  so as to enable the bending portion  145  of each terminal to be located between the second insulators  120 A and  120 B and the contact portions  143 , thereby forming the first group of terminals  141  and the second group of terminals  142  as shown in  FIG. 2 . On the other hand, when the second insulators  120 A and  120 B are not combined with the first group of terminals  141  and the second group of terminals  142 , the first group of terminals  141  and the second group of terminals  142  have no need of the bending portions  145 . It should be mentioned that in another embodiment, the terminal raw material  141 A and the terminal raw material  142 A can be combined and gathered together by an integrated second insulator. 
     The manufacturing process can effectively save the use of the terminal materials and optimize the application scope of the terminal materials. Compared with the manufacturing process of first bending and then insert molding in the prior art, the sizes of the terminals are determined in advance, so that the terminals are discarded when not meeting the use requirements. Relatively, according to the present disclosure, the needed terminals A 1  to A 8  and B 1  to B 8  are firstly gathered by means of the second insulators  120 A and  120 B to form the terminal raw material  141 A and the terminal raw material  142 A, after the needed size (such as center height CH) of the electrical connector  100  is determined, the terminals are correspondingly trimmed and bent, therefore, before the terminals are bent, the terminal raw material  141 A and the terminal raw material  142 A are substantially applicable to various specifications of electrical connectors. 
       FIG. 4A  is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector in  FIG. 1A .  FIG. 4B  is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.  FIG. 4C  is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to  FIG. 4A , because the second insulators  120 A and  120 B are inserted and locked in the third insulator  130  along the Z-axis, the second insulators  120 A and  120 B are coated by the third insulator  130 , and the cross section of the third insulator  130  at the hollow portions  131  and  132  (marked in  FIG. 2 ) is of a “θ” shape. Furthermore, referring to  FIG. 4B , in the present embodiment, the hollow portions of the third insulator  330  extend along the Z-axis, but the openings of the hollow portions respectively face towards the positive Y-axis direction and the negative Y-axis direction (i.e., the direction of the openings is consistent with the extending direction of the contact portions  143 ), so that the second insulators  120 A and  120 B are inserted into the third insulator  330  still along the Z axis, and the cross section of the third insulator  330  at the hollow portions is of an “I” shape. Furthermore, as shown in  FIG. 4C , the openings of the hollow portions of the third insulator  530  face towards the positive X-axis direction, so that the second insulators  120 A and  120 B are inserted and locked in the third insulator  530  along the X-axis, and the cross section of the third insulator  530  at the hollow portions is of an inverted “E” shape (or “E” shape). At this moment, the extending direction of the hollow portions is simultaneously orthogonal to the extending direction of the contact portions  143  and the extending direction of the soldering portions  144 . 
     On the other hand,  FIG. 5A  is a schematic view of an electrical connector according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.  FIG. 5B  is an assembly schematic view of partial components of the electrical connector in  FIG. 5A . Simultaneously referring to  FIG. 5A  and  FIG. 5B , different from the foregoing embodiments, the opening of the hollow portion  431  of the third insulator  430  faces towards the Y-axis direction, so that the terminal set  140  needs to pass through the hollow portion  431  along the Y-axis so as to be assembled to the third insulator  430 , wherein the second insulators  120 C and  120 D have a height difference along the Z-axis to facilitate mutual locking with the third insulator  430  respectively, and other components are similar to those in the foregoing embodiments and are not described repeatedly. 
     In conclusion, in the above embodiments of the present disclosure, the electrical connector includes the terminal set and the first insulator, the at least one second insulator and the third insulator which are matched with the terminal set, wherein the second insulators is firstly structurally integrated with the plurality of corresponding terminals respectively to form the terminal raw materials which are not bent, the terminal raw materials are cut and bent after the size of the electrical connector is determined, and finally, the second insulators and the third insulator are mutually locked, so that the electrical connector can be smoothly disposed on the circuit board. Therefore, the second insulators are located between the bending portions and the soldering portions, and then, the second insulators can be smoothly locked with the third insulator to form an assembled structure, thereby simplifying the structure and manufacturing process of the electrical connector. 
     Further, in the manufacturing process of the electrical connector manufactured by an integrally formed structure, once semi-finished products do not meet the requirements of sizes, the semi-finished products are only discarded and cannot be used for other purposes, thereby increasing the material loss. However, the present disclosure adopts the terminal raw materials formed by the second insulators and the unbent terminals, and the terminal raw materials are reprocessed after the size is determined, thereby effectively increasing the operating flexibility of the manufacturing process, and simultaneously increasing the applicability of the semi-finished products (the terminal raw materials). 
     In other words, the structure and manufacturing process of the electrical connector of the present disclosure are simplified by means of the assembled components (the second insulators and the third insulator), thereby improving the situation that the prior art cannot meet product requirements such as size difference. 
     Although the present disclosure is disclosed above by using the embodiments, the embodiments are not intended to limit the present disclosure. A person of ordinary skill in the art can make some variations and polishes without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present disclosure should be subject to the scope of the following claims.