Patent Publication Number: US-6699049-B1

Title: Electrical connector with enhanced housing structure

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector mounted on a printed circuit board. 
     2. DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR ARTS 
     Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) connectors provide a storage interface for ATAPI (Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface) devices and hard disk drives, which are main storage peripheral devices of computer systems. Conventionally, a Serial ATA connector comprises an insulating housing and a plurality of terminals received in the housing. Such Serial ATA plug and receptacle connectors can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,552 and Taiwan Patent Issue Nos. 493301, 493804, and 509393. Generally, the insulative housing of the Serial ATA connector includes a main portion, a mating portion extending from the main portion and receiving the terminals, and one side arm extending from one lateral side of the main portion. The side arm defines an inner groove for guiding insertion of a complementary mating connector. A space is defined between a lateral edge of the mating portion and the adjacent side arm. However, such conventional Serial ATA connectors as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,340, usually suffer from a breakage over a period of use, under repeated insertion, and withdrawal of a mated cable connector, which will adversely influence the signal transmission. Specifically, the housing will be easily broken along a vertical line on the side arm where the side arm connects to the main portion when the complementary connector is pulled in a right-and-left direction repeatedly. Similarly, the housing will be also easily broken along a horizontal line on the side arm where the side arm connects to the main portion and on the mating portion where the mating portion connects to the main portion when the complementary mating connector is pulled up and down repeatedly. 
     Hence, it is desirable to enhance the structural stability of Serial ATA connectors to ensure the signal transmission reliability. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, it is a major object of the present invention to provide a Serial ATA connector having an enhanced housing structure for improving the rigidity of the connector and improving overall connector integrity. 
     In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a Serial ATA connector in accordance with the present invention for engaging a complementary connector, includes an insulating housing, a plurality of terminals received in the housing, and a pair of board locks retained in the housing for securing the housing on a printed circuit board. The housing comprises an H-shaped body having a middle section and a mating tongue extending from the middle section. The mating tongue defines a plurality of channels receiving corresponding terminals. The body has a pair of arms extending parallelly beside the mating tongue, each arm including a wall extending above the mating tongue. A space is defined between the walls and the mating tongue for receiving the mating complementary connector. 
     Other objects, 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 DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is an exploded, perspective view of an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is an assembled view of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 while taken from another aspect; 
     FIG. 4 is an assembled view of FIG. 3; 
     FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 1 while taken from still another aspect; 
     FIG. 6 is an assembled view of FIG. 5; 
     FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the electrical connector; and 
     FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector taken along line  8 — 8  in FIG.  7 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail. 
     With reference to FIGS. 1-6, an electrical connector  1  adapted to be mounted on the printed circuit board  100  (FIG. 8) in accordance with the present invention and adapted for using with a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment interface and for mating with a complementary connector (not shown but possibly referred to the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,552), comprises an insulating housing  10 , a plurality of terminals  20  disposed in the housing  10 , and a pair of board locks  30  retained in the housing  10 . 
     Particularly referring to FIGS. 1-4, the insulating housing  10  comprises a substantial H-shaped body  11  having a middle section  110  and a reversed L-shaped mating tongue  12  forwardly projecting from the middle section  110 . The H-shaped body  11  has a pair of side arms  112  extending parallelly beside the mating tongue  11  with the middle section  110  connecting therebetween. Each side arm  112  includes a front portion  1121  and an oppositely extending, rear portion  1122 . The front portions  1121  of the side arms  112  each have a wall or upper flange  1123  flanged thereon. One side arm  112  further includes another flange  1123 ′ opposite to the corresponding wall  1123  and cooperatively defining a keyway  1123 ″ for receiving a key of the complementary mating connector. The walls  1123  horizontally extend with distal edge portions right above the mating tongue  12  and toward each other. A receiving space  13  is defined between the two walls  1123  and the mating tongue  12 , within which corresponding part of the mating complementary connector is received. As best shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the rear portions  1122  of the side arms  112  each have a slot  1124  defined in a bottom face  1125  thereof. The mating tongue  12  also defines a plurality of channels  120  thereon for disposing corresponding terminals  20 . A groove  1128  is further defined in an inside face of one of the side arms  112  to guide insertion of the complementary mating connector. 
     The terminals  20  are categorized with a plurality of signal terminals  21  and a plurality of ground terminals  22 . The ground terminal  22  is longer than the signal terminal  21  such that the ground terminals  22  will engage with corresponding contacts of the complementary mating connector before the signal terminals  21  for hot plugging. The signal terminals  21  of the connector  1  of the preferred embodiment are employed to transmit differential signal pairs, which are known in the art. Each terminal  20  has a contact portion  201  extending in a corresponding channel  120  of the housing  10  and a tail portion  202  extending rearwardly between the two rear portions  1122  for soldering on a printed circuit board on which the connector  1  is mounted. 
     Turning to FIGS. 7 and 8 in conjunction with FIG. 1, the pair of board locks  30  each integrally include a housing-retaining portion  31  and a board-retaining portion  32 . The board-retaining portion  32  is configured in a fork shape to be engaged in a through-hole of the printed circuit board thereby securing the connector  1  on the board. The housing-retaining portion  31  is inserted and received in the slot  1124  of the housing  10 . The housing-retaining portion  31  further comprises a resilient tab  310  which extend along an obliquely direction with respect to the rest of the housing-retaining portion  31 . Correspondingly, the slot  1124  of the housing  10  further comprises a recess  1126  recessed in an inside wall for retaining the resilient tab  310  to thereby firmly fix the board lock  30  in the housing  10 . 
     Compared with the related arts, the horizontally extending walls  1123  of the side arms  112 , which extend above the mating tongue  11 , increases the structural rigidity of the whole housing  10  so that the housing  10  can scarcely suffer from undesired breaking when the mating complementary connector are repeatedly inserted in or pulled out the connector  1  along either up-and-down or right-and-left direction. It is also noted that in this embodiment the distal ends of two opposite horizontally extending walls  1123  is spaced from each other with a relatively large distance and leaving a space therebetween for allowing an optionally equipped deflectable latch of the complementary mating connector to pass by. 
     It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.