Patent Publication Number: US-10333254-B2

Title: Electrical connector with shielding plate and shell soldered together

Description:
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     The invention is related to an electrical connector, and particularly to the connector with the shielding plate and the metallic shell soldered together. 
     DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ARTS 
     China Patent No. 204216260 discloses the electrical connector having a contact module enclosed within a metallic main shell. A metallic shielding plate contacts the inner surface of the metallic shell via the tiny legs, thus resulting in unstable grounding effect. 
     It is desired to provide a connector with a reliable grounding effect. 
     SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
     To achieve the above desire, an electrical connector includes a contact module enclosed within a metallic shielding shell. The contact module includes an insulative housing and a plurality of upper contacts and lower contact with a metallic shielding plate commonly retained in the housing. The upper contacts and the lower contacts have the corresponding contacting sections and soldering sections exposed upon the mounting surface of the housing. The shielding plate has the contacting area on the mounting surface. The shielding shell forms contacting legs positioned upon the contacting area for grounding. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the electrical connector of the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is another perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 4  is another exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a further exploded perspective view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is another exploded perspective view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 5 ; and 
         FIG. 7  is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present disclosure. Referring to  FIGS. 1-10 , an electrical connector  100  is mounted to a printed circuit board (not shown) wherein the connector  100  includes a contact module  20  and a metallic shielding shell  10  enclosing the contact module. The contact module  20  includes a base  21  and a mating tongue  22  extending forwardly from the base  21 . The mating tongue  22  includes a step structure around the root thereof, and a metallic collar  60  encloses the step structure for grounding with the complementary plug. The collar  60  includes an abutment section  61  secured to the base  21  and connects to the shell  10 . 
     The metallic shell  10  includes an inner shell  11 , an upper outer shell  12  and a lower outer shell  13  located by two opposite sides of the inner shell  11  in the vertical direction. The inner shell  11  is secured to the base  21  and surrounds the mating tongue  22  to form a mating cavity  101  therebetween. The inner shell  11  includes an upper wall  111 , a lower wall  112 , left and right side walls  113 ,  114  to connect the upper wall  111  and the lower wall  112 . The upper wall  111  is longer than the lower wall  112  in the front-to-back direction. The upper wall  111  covers the base  21  and has a pair of fixing legs  115  on two sides and a plurality soldering legs  116  between the fixing legs  115  in the transverse direction. The upper outer shell  12  includes a top wall  121  covering the upper wall  111 , and a pair of first side walls  122  extending downwardly from two sides the top wall  121 . The first side wall  122  has first securing sections  123  and mounting legs  124  beside the first securing sections  123 . The lower outer shell  13  includes a bottom wall  131  covering the lower wall  112 , and a pair of second side wall  132  extending upwardly from two sides of the bottom wall  131 , and a rear wall  134  extending upwardly from a rear edge of the bottom wall  131 . The second side wall  132  further extends with a second securing sections  133 . The first securing sections  123  and the second securing section  133  are secured together to firmly sandwich the inner shell  11  therebetween. The top wall  121  of the upper outer shell  12  and the upper wall  111  of the inner shell  11 , and the bottom wall  131  of the lower outer shell  13  and the bottom wall  112  of the inner shell  11  can be soldered together for securing therebetween. The rear wall  134  of the lower outer shell  13  has three contacting legs  135 . 
     The contact module  20  includes an insulative housing  30  and a plurality of upper contacts  41 , a plurality of lower contacts  42  and a metallic shielding plate  50  therebetween all commonly retained in the insulative housing  30 . Each of the upper contacts  41  and the lower contacts  42  has a front contacting section  43  exposed upon the mating tongue  22 , and a rear connecting section  44  exposed outside of the housing  30 . The housing  30  includes the upper insulator  31  integrally formed with the upper contacts  41  via an insert-molding process, a lower insulator  32  integrally formed with the lower contacts  42  via another insert-molding process, and a front insulator  33  to integrally formed with the contacting sections  43  of both the upper contacts  41  and the lower contacts  42  via another insert-molding or over-molding process. The upper insulator  31  has a plurality of positioning holes  311 , the lower insulator  32  has a plurality of positioning posts  321 , the shielding plate  50  has a plurality of notches  511  so as to allow the positioning posts  321  to extend through the corresponding openings  511  into the corresponding positioning holes  311 . The upper insulator  31  and the lower insulator  32  commonly form the base  21 . The contacting sections  43  of upper contacts  41  are exposed in front of the upper insulator  31 , and the contacting sections of the lower contacts  43  of the lower contacts  42  are exposed in front of the lower insulator  32 . The front insulator  33  are insert-molded upon the contact sections  43  of the upper contacts  41  and those of the lower contacts  42  for forming the mating tongue  22 . The mating tongue  22  includes opposite mating surfaces  221  on which the contacting sections  43  of the upper contacts  41  and the lower contacts  42  are exposed to an exterior. The upper insulator  31  includes a positioning section  312  for securing to the lower insulator  32 , and a mounting section  313  behind the positioning section  312 . The mounting section  313  forms a protruding blocks  314  on which the connecting sections  44  of the upper contacts  41  are supported. The connecting sections  44  of the upper contacts  41  and those of the lower contacts  42  are located at a same horizontal plane which is also the mounting surface of the connector  100 . A receiving space  315  is formed between the protruding block  314  and the positioning section  312  for receiving the shielding plate  50 . 
     The shielding plate  50  is sandwiched between the upper insulator  31  and the lower insulator  32  and includes a first/front part  51  in the mating tongue  22 , and a second/rear part  52  in the base  21 . The first part  51  and the second part  52  has therebetween an offset transition section in which the openings  511  are formed for receiving the positioning posts  321 . The second part  52  includes a supporting section  521 , a pair of extension section  522  and a pair of legs  523  extending downwardly from the extension section  522 . 
     The upper insulator  31 , the lower insulator  32  and the front insulator  33  commonly form the insulative housing  30 . The first part  51  of the shielding plate  50  is embedded within the mating tongue  22 , and the second part  52  of the shielding plate  50  is received within the receiving space  315  wherein the supporting section  521  is seated upon the mounting surface of the connector. The three contacting legs  135  of the rear wall  134  of the lower outer shell  13  are soldered upon the supporting sections  521 . A space is formed between the pair of extension sections  521  to receive the protruding block  314  therein so as to allow the connecting sections  44  of the upper contacts  41  can be lowered to be coplanar with the contacting sections  44  of the lower contacts  42 . The second part  52  of the shielding plate  50  is located above and spaced from the contacting sections of the lower contacts  42  in the vertical direction for avoiding the shorting risk. The legs  523  abut against the fixing legs  115  in the transverse direction. A rear edge of the lower wall  112  of the inner shell  11  forms a securing section  117  to be received within the recess  322  in the lower insulator  32  for preventing backward movement of the contact module  20  from the inner shell  11 . 
     The invention includes several features as follows. The upper outer shell  12  and the lower outer shell  13  commonly sandwiching the inner shell  11 , and the outer lower shell forms contacting legs  135  soldered to the shielding plate  50 . The legs  523  of the shielding plate  50  intimately abut against the corresponding fixing legs  115  of the inner shell  11 , respectively, in the transverse direction wherein both the legs  523  and the fixing legs  115  are essentially located at a rear end of the connector  100 . The shielding plate  50  forms a space between the pair of side extension sections  522  to allow contacting sections  44  of the upper contacts  41  with the associated upper insulator  31  to downwardly extend therethrough to be coplanar with the contacting section  44  of the lower contacts  42 . The mounting legs  124  formed around the first securing sections  123  of the upper outer shell  12  are located beside the mating cavity  101  in the transverse direction. 
     While a preferred embodiment according to 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 described in the appended claims.