Patent Publication Number: US-11381023-B2

Title: Electrical connector and method thereof making the same

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a connector assembly and the manufacturing method thereof, and particularly to the connector having corresponding contacts with a fine pitch contact arrangement and assembled into the housing via a contact module pattern. 
     2. Description of Related Arts 
     As shown in US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0227855, the electrical connector having a plurality of contacts with a strip connecting portion  241  at the bottom for connecting to a lower contact carrier  80 , and a connecting portion  25  at an upper portion for connecting to an upper contact carrier  90 . Anyhow, because of the side arms  242  of the conducting portion  24  around the strip connecting portion  242 , the neighboring contacts  2  cannot be densely arranged with one another with a fine pitch arrangement wherein the contacts  2  are arranged corresponding to every other positioning holes defined in the lower contact carrier  80 , thus precluding the miniaturization of the corresponding connector disadvantageously. 
     Therefore, an improvement to the electrical connector with a fine pitch arrangement of the corresponding contacts and an easy manufacturing method thereof, is desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To achieve the above object, an electrical connector includes an insulative housing, and plural rows of contact modules disposed in the housing. Each contact module includes a plurality of contacts integrally formed within an insulator/wafter which extends in a longitudinal direction. In each contact module, each contact includes a main body with opposite contacting arms on upper and lower sections wherein the contacts in the same contact carrier are originally linked with the neighboring contacts around lateral sides of the main body for insert-molding consideration, and the corresponding linking sections are removed for disconnecting the neighboring the contacts after insert-molding to form the final complete contact module. Each contact module is successively assembled downwardly, by a gripping tool, into the corresponding receiving channel in the housing. Each contacting arm forms a hole with two spaced beams by two sides of the hole. The contact may further optimally include a holding tab exposed in the hole and between the corresponding pair of beams so as to allow the gripping tool to be engaged thereon for assembling the contact module into the channel of the housing. 
     Other 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 DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an electrical connector according to the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is another perspective view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 5  is another perspective view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is an elevational view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 5 ; 
         FIG. 7  is an exploded perspective view of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 8  is an elevational view of the contacts of the contact module of the electrical connector of  FIG. 7  wherein the linking sections between the neighboring contacts are not removed; 
         FIG. 9  is a perspective view showing the gripping tools positioned above the corresponding contact modules of the electrical connector of  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 10  is a perspective view showing the gripping tools engaging the corresponding contact modules of the electrical connector of  FIG. 9 ; 
         FIG. 11  is a side view showing the gripping tools engaging the corresponding contact modules of the electrical connector of  FIG. 10 ; 
         FIG. 12  is a perspective view showing the gripping tools retaining the corresponding contact modules for ready to assemble the contact modules into the corresponding channels in the housing of the electrical connector of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 13  is a perspective view showing the contact modules held by the corresponding gripping tools are assembled into the corresponding channels in the housing of the electrical connector of  FIG. 12 ; 
         FIG. 14  is a perspective view showing the contact module are assembled into the corresponding channels in the housing of the electrical connector of  FIG. 13  at an initial upper position, compared with the final lower position shown in  FIG. 1 ; and 
         FIG. 15  is another perspective view showing the contact module are assembled into the corresponding channels in the housing of the electrical connector of  FIG. 13  at the initial upper position. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-15 , an electrical connector  100  for mating with an electronic package (not shown), e.g., a chip, includes an insulative housing  1 , and a plurality of contact modules  4  retained in the housing  1 . Each contact module  4  includes a plurality of contacts  2  integrally formed within an insulator/wafer  3  via insert-molding. In this embodiment, direction X is a longitudinal direction, direction Y is a transverse direction, a direction Z is a vertical direction. All directions X, Y and Z are perpendicular to one another. 
     The hosing  1  includes an upper surface  11  and a lower surface  12  opposite to each other in the vertical direction Z, a pair of side surfaces  14  opposite to each other in the longitudinal direction, and a plurality of channels  13  extending along the longitudinal direction X and upwardly through the upper surface  11  in the vertical direction Z, and through the pair of side surfaces  14  in the longitudinal direction. 
     The contact  2  is made by sheet metal and includes a planar main body  21 , a first/upper spring arm  22  upwardly extending from an upper portion of the main body  21  with a first/upper contacting section  23  at a free end, a second/lower spring arm  24  downwardly extending from a lower portion of the main body  21  with a second/lower contacting section  25  at a free end. The first spring arm  22  defines a first opening  224  therein so as to form a pair of first and second beams  221 ,  222  located by two sides of the first opening  224  and merged together at the upper/first bridge  223 . The first contacting section  23  extends upwardly from the first bridge  223 . A holding tab  26  extending from an upper portion of the main body  21  into the opening  224  and between the pair of beams  221 ,  222 . As shown in  FIG. 8 , along the longitudinal direction, the width d 1  defined by the first spring arm  22  is similar to the width d 2  defined by the main body  21 . The contacts  2  of the same contact module  4  are made from a same metal sheet so as to have the linking carrier  200  between every adjacent two contacts  2  linked with the corresponding connecting sections/edges  27  of the lateral sides of the main bodies  21  thereof. The main body  21  forms an opening  211  for forming the contact module  4 . The width of the first contacting section  23  is smaller than that of the holding tab  26 . 
     Similar to the first spring arm  22 , the second spring arm  24  forms a second opening  244  with a pair of beams  241 ,  242  by two side of the second opening  244 , and merged together at the second bridge  243  from which the second contacting section  25  downwardly extends. Therefore, the first spring arm  21  and the second spring arm  22  are essentially symmetrically arranged with each other in the vertical direction. Notably, the distance d 3  between the corresponding spring arms  22  or  24  of the neighboring contacts  2  is around 0.24 mm which is relatively tiny compared with the traditional design, thus increasing the coupling effect for better signal transmission advantageously. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 4-7 , in each contact module  4 , the insulator  3  encloses the corresponding row of contacts  2 . The insulator  3  forms a plurality of openings  41  aligned with the corresponding linking carriers  200  and a plurality of openings  42  aligned with the corresponding openings  211  in the transverse direction Y. Notably, the linking carriers  200  are removed from the contact module  4  after insert-molding for separating the neighboring contacts  2 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 9-15 , the method of making the connector  100  includes the following steps as follows: 
     Step 1: providing an insulative housing  1  with opposite upper and lower surfaces  11 ,  12  in the vertical direction, and a plurality of channels  13  extending along the longitudinal direction; 
     Step 2: providing in one row a plurality of contacts each having a main body  21 , a first spring arm  22  extending upwardly from the upper portion of the main body  21  with a first contacting section thereon, and a second spring arm  24  extending downwardly form the lower portion of the main body  21  with a second contacting section thereon, a plurality of linking carriers  200  linked between the corresponding main bodies  21  of the neighboring contacts  2 , and a holding tab  26  forms around the upper portion of the main body  21 ; 
     Step 3: integrally forming the plurality of contacts within an insulator via an insert-molding process to form a contact module; 
     Step 4: punching out the linking carriers  200  from the contact module  4  via the corresponding openings  41  for separating the neighboring contacts  2  from each other; 
     Step 5: gripping the corresponding holding tabs  26  by the pair of clamping pieces  301  of a gripping tool  300 , e.g., another carrier, wherein the gripping tool  300  includes a main part  303 , a plurality of bars  302  extending downwardly from the main part  303  with the pair of clamping pieces  301  at the free end, and downwardly assembling the contact module  4  into the corresponding channel  13  from the upper side of the housing  1  until the contact module  4  is located at the initial/upper position as shown in  FIGS. 13-15 ; 
     Step 6: using another pushing tool to downwardly press the corresponding holding tabs  26  until the contact module  4  is located at the final/lower position as shown in  FIGS. 1-3  wherein the second contacting sections  25  are exposed under the lower surface  12  and the first contacting section  23  are exposed above the upper surface  11 . 
     Compared with the traditional design, in the invention the contact module allows the stable and efficient assembling of the contacts into the housing. The holding tab allows the gripping tool to assemble the contact module into the housing. The pitch of the contacts in the same row may be reduced because the linking carrier  200  is linked to the lateral sides of the main body rather than to the bottom portion of the contact. In this embodiment, the gap/distance between the upper spring arms of the neighboring contact is smaller than one third of the width of the upper spring arm in the longitudinal direction so as to achieve the fine pitch arrangement of the contacts in each contact module. 
     Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various alterations and modifications can be made to the embodiments without in any way departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.