Patent Publication Number: US-11050179-B2

Title: Electrical connector having a contact formed of first and second contact parts coupled together

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an electrical connector including contacts designed to be constructed of two parts coupled to each other. 
     2. Description of Related Arts 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,589 discloses an electrical connector comprising, among others, a seat body including a bottom board section and a top board section and multiple top and bottom terminals secured to the bottom and top board sections. Terminals secured to the top board section are designed to have two parts coupled to each other. Specifically, a connecting terminal is provided and secured to the bottom board section and has a soldering leg and another end coupled to a terminating end of a top terminal. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An electrical connector comprises: a terminal module including an insulative body and a plurality of first contacts secured to the insulative body, each first contact having a leg and a first terminating portion; a plurality of second contacts each having a second terminating portion coupled to the first terminating portion of a corresponding first contact and a contacting portion extending from the second terminating portion rearwardly toward the leg of the corresponding first contact. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  is a rear perspective view of an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a front perspective view of the electrical connector; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded view of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a further exploded view of  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a further exploded view of  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is an exploded view of a first and a second terminal modules of the electrical connector; 
         FIG. 7  is a view similar to  FIG. 6  but from a different perspective; 
         FIG. 8  is a further exploded view of  FIG. 6 ; 
         FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector taken along line A-A in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 10  is a view similar to  FIG. 5  but showing a varied design of the electrical connector; 
         FIG. 11  is an exploded view of a first and a second terminal modules of the varied electrical connector in  FIG. 10 ; and 
         FIG. 12  is a cross-sectional view, similar to  FIG. 9 , of the varied electrical connector in  FIG. 10 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-4 , an electrical connector  100  of a first embodiment comprises an insulative housing  10 , a first terminal module  20 , a second terminal module  30 , and a third terminal module  40  received in the insulative housing, and a shielding shell  50  enclosing the insulative housing. The insulative housing  10  has a receiving space  11  open toward a front thereof for receiving a mating memory card or card tray. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 5-9 , the first terminal module  20  and the second terminal module  30  are stacked and secured to the insulative housing  10 . The third terminal module  40  is secured to the second terminal module  30  behind the first terminal module  20 . The first terminal module  20  includes an insulative base  21  and a plurality of terminals  26  secured to the insulative base  21  via an insert-molding process and functioning as a front row contacts. The terminal  26  has a resilient contacting portion  27  extending rearwardly into the receiving space  11  and a planar immovable terminating portion  28 . The terminating portion  28  is partially exposed through a bottom of the insulative base  21  to define a coupling portion  29 . The second terminal module  30  includes an insulative body  31  attached to the housing  10  in the vertical direction, and a plurality of terminals  34  secured to the insulative body  31  via an insert-molding process and functioning as supporting terminals or stationary terminals. The terminal  34  has a leg  35 , an intermediate securing portion  36 , and a terminating portion  37  for resiliently pressing against the coupling portion  29  of the terminal  26  to complete a functional terminal constructed of two parts in order to simplify its manufacturing process. The insulative body  31  has holes  32  and the insulative base  21  has posts  24  interference fit in the holes. The insulative base  21  has a main part  22  and a pair of protrusions  23  for interference fitting with the insulative housing  10 . The third terminal module  40  includes an insulative body  41  and a plurality of terminals  44  secured to the insulative body via an insert-molding process and functioning as a rear row contacts. The insulative body  41  has two end blocks  42  engaged in corresponding notches  33  of the insulative body  31 , thereby securing the insulative body  41  to the insulative body  31 . The terminal  44  has a contacting portion  45  and a leg  46 . The contacting portions  45  are lined behind the contacting portions  27 . The contacting portions  27  and the contacting portions  45  extend toward each other and apexes thereof substantially lie on a same plane. The legs  35  may engage the insulative body  41  if desired. The legs  46  are located above the legs  35 . The insulative base  21  has front vertical slots  25  for exposing ends of the terminating portions  28  of the terminals  26 . The insulative body  41  has front vertical slots  43  where the contacting portions  45  extend out forwardly into the receiving space  11 . 
       FIGS. 10-12  shows a varied design of the electrical connector in which coupling structure between a first terminal module  120  and a second terminal module  130  is modified. The first terminal module  120  includes an insulative base  121  and a plurality of terminals  126  secured to the insulative base. The terminal  126  has a resilient contacting portion  127  extending rearwardly and a planar terminating portion  128 . The terminating portion  128  is partially exposed through a bottom of an insulative base  121  to define a coupling portion  129 . The second terminal module  130  includes an insulative body  131  and a plurality of terminals  134  secured to the insulative body. The terminal  134  has a leg  135 , an intermediate securing portion  136 , and a terminating portion  137  for spot welding to the coupling portion  129  of the terminal  126  to complete a functional terminal constructed of two parts in order to simplify its manufacturing process. A third terminal module  140  including an insulative body  141  and a plurality of terminals  144  is secured to the insulative body  141 . The insulative base  121  has front vertical slots  125  for exposing ends of the terminating portions  128  of the terminals  126  and the terminating portion  137  of the terminals  134 . 
     In a conventional one-piece terminal design, a U-shaped in-turned portion is present which makes it difficult to manufacture as well as to control a height of the contacting portion  27  or  127 . Differently, in the instant invention the first terminal module  20  and the second terminal module  30  provide the two-piece design for each contact set having the paired terminal  26  and the terminal  34  working together wherein the terminal  26  essentially rearwardly extends in a cantilevered manner while the terminal  34  extends in a stationary manner. Notably, the terminals  44  of the third terminal module  40  are located behind the terminals  26  and extend forwardly in an opposite cantilevered manner. The opposing cantilevered manners in the front-to-back or mating direction between the terminals  26  and the terminals  44  may provide a counter-balanced arrangement when a mating memory card with or without the card tray is inserted into or withdrawn from the receiving space  11 . Understandably, in this embodiment both the terminals  26  and the terminals  44  perform in a simple cantilevered manner. Anyhow, in some alternate situation, such terminal may initially functions in a cantilevered manner while successively functioning like a restrained beam rather than a cantilevered beam.