Source: http://patents.com/us-10201088.html
Timestamp: 2019-02-18 14:11:59
Document Index: 648899233

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 17188408', 'art 30', 'art 110', 'art 110', 'art 110', 'art 30', 'art 30', 'art 30', 'art 30', 'art 30', 'art 30', 'art 30', 'art 110', 'art 30', 'art 110', 'art 110', 'art 30']

US Patent # 1,020,1088. Contact element and contact structure for electronic device - Patents.com
United States Patent 10,201,088
Park; Jin Yong (Suwon-si, KR), Kim; Jeong Geun (Suwon-si, KR), Park; Si Young (Daegu, KR)
Family ID: 1000003804534
15/689,206
US 20180098431 A1 Apr 5, 2018
Sep 30, 2016 [KR] 10-2016-0126976
Current CPC Class: H05K 1/184 (20130101); H05K 1/0213 (20130101); H05K 1/115 (20130101); H05K 3/341 (20130101); H05K 7/142 (20130101); H01R 4/58 (20130101); H05K 2201/10409 (20130101); H05K 1/145 (20130101); H05K 3/3457 (20130101); H05K 2201/09072 (20130101); H05K 2201/0999 (20130101); H05K 2201/09754 (20130101); H05K 2201/1028 (20130101); H05K 2201/10189 (20130101); H05K 2201/10295 (20130101); H05K 2201/10303 (20130101)
Current International Class: H01R 9/00 (20060101); H05K 3/34 (20060101); H01R 4/58 (20060101); H05K 1/18 (20060101); H05K 1/02 (20060101); H05K 7/14 (20060101); H05K 1/11 (20060101); H05K 1/14 (20060101)
4927367 May 1990 Salvagno
6016089 January 2000 Goudie
7385830 June 2008 Liu
2008/0106358 May 2008 Katagiri
2015/0229076 August 2015 Lee
10-1178869 Sep 2012 KR
Communication dated Feb. 26, 2018, issued by the European Patent Office in counterpart European Patent Application No. 17188408.3. cited by applicant.
1. A contact structure for an electronic device, the contact structure comprising: a printed circuit board (PCB) having a hole; a housing on which the PCB is mounted; and a contact element, at least a portion of which contacts the housing, wherein the contact element comprises: a contact portion soldered onto a peripheral portion of the PCB, the peripheral portion being disposed around the hole; and a protrusion passing through the hole and contacting the housing, wherein the housing comprises a projection configured to project toward a surface of the PCB, and wherein the protrusion contacts a side surface of the projection.
4. The contact structure of claim 3, wherein the hole has a first width in a first direction and a second width in a second direction, the second direction being orthogonal to the first direction, wherein the first width is greater than or equal to a width of the protrusion in the first direction, and wherein the second width is greater than or equal to a distance between first and second ends of the protrusion in the second direction.
5. The contact structure of claim 3, wherein the protrusion has a width corresponding to a gap between the plurality of second regions.
6. The contact structure of claim 1, wherein the protrusion of the contact element has an elastic force.
7. The contact structure of claim 1, wherein the housing is secured to the PCB using a plurality of coupling members, wherein the housing contacts a ground of the PCB using the plurality of coupling members, and wherein the contact element is located between the plurality of coupling members.
8. The contact structure of claim 1, wherein the protrusion is bent in a shape corresponding to the side surface of the projection.
9. The contact structure of claim 1, wherein the housing further comprises a plurality of projections formed at multiple positions to balance the PCB on the housing, and wherein the contact structure further comprises a plurality of contact elements formed at a plurality of positions on the PCB that correspond to the plurality of projections.
10. The contact structure of claim 1, wherein the peripheral portion is disposed on an other side of the PCB opposite to a side of the PCB which contacts the housing.
11. The contact structure of claim 1, wherein the contact element includes cuts extending from a short edge thereof, the cuts defining the protrusion, and wherein the protrusion extends obliquely with respect to a plane of the contact portion.
12. A contact element comprising: a contact portion disposed on a side of a hole in a printed circuit board (PCB) and soldered onto a peripheral portion of the PCB, the peripheral portion being disposed around the hole; and a protrusion passing through the hole and contacting a housing on which the PCB is mounted, wherein the protrusion contacts a side surface of a projection of the housing, the projection being configured to project toward a surface of the PCB.
13. The contact element of claim 12, wherein the protrusion extends from the contact portion at an angle of less than 90 degrees with respect to the contact portion.
14. The contact element of claim 12, wherein the peripheral portion is disposed on an other side of the PCB opposite to a side of the PCB which contacts the housing.
15. The contact element of claim 12, wherein the contact element includes cuts extending from a short edge thereof, the cuts defining the protrusion, and wherein the protrusion extends obliquely with respect to a plane of the contact portion.
16. A contact element comprising: a contact portion disposed on a side of a hole in a printed circuit board (PCB) and soldered onto a peripheral portion of the PCB, the peripheral portion being disposed around the hole; and a protrusion passing through the hole and contacting a housing disposed on a side of the PCB and facing the hole, the PCB being seated on the housing, wherein the contact portion comprises a first region having a specified polygonal shape and a plurality of second regions extending from the first region, the plurality of second regions being spaced apart from one another to abut the first region, and wherein the protrusion extends from a coupling portion where the first region and the plurality of second regions join together, in a direction away from the contact portion.
17. The contact element of claim 16, wherein the protrusion has a width corresponding to a gap between the plurality of second regions and a length exceeding a thickness of the PCB.
18. The contact element of claim 17, wherein the hole has a first width in a first direction and a second width in a second direction, the second direction being orthogonal to the first direction, wherein the first width is greater than or equal to a width of the protrusion in the first direction, and wherein the second width is greater than or equal to a distance between first and second ends of the protrusion in the second direction.
19. The contact element of claim 16, wherein the protrusion has a width corresponding to a gap between the plurality of second regions.
20. The contact element of claim 16, wherein the first region has an area sufficient to enable a pick-and-place machine to pick up the contact element using surface mount technology (SMT).
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119(a) of a Korean patent application filed on Sep. 30, 2016 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office and assigned Serial number 10-2016-0126976, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Referring to FIGS. 1A to 1C, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a contact element 10 may be mounted and soldered on a ground of a PCB 20 (see FIG. 2A) to allow the ground of the PCB 20 to make contact with a mechanical part 30 (see FIG. 3A). Since the contact element 10 is mounted and soldered by surface mount technology (SMT), the contact element 10 may have a size sufficient to ensure a region that is to be picked up by a vacuum pick-and-place machine in the SMT. For example, a relatively large region of the contact element 10 (e.g., the first region of FIG. 1B) that makes close contact with the PCB 20 may have a size of 1.0 mm.times.1.0 mm or more.
For example, the contact part 110 of the contact element may have an overall rectangular shape or a shape similar thereto, and the length of the contact part 110 in a vertical direction as shown in FIG. 1B may be one third of the length thereof in a horizontal direction as shown in FIG. 1B. As illustrated in FIG. 1B, the first region 111 of the contact element may have a square shape, and the second and third regions 112 and 113 of the contact element may have a rectangular shape. The second and third regions 112 and 113 may be spaced apart from each other by a width L3 of the protrusion of the contact element and may abut the first region 111 so as to be parallel thereto. The contact part 110 may have the shape of ".OR right." as a whole, as illustrated in FIG. 1B.
Referring to FIG. 1D, the first region 111 and the second and third regions 112 and 113 of the contact element 10 may be formed by cutting a conductive panel into an overall shape similar to "E", as in state 160.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the PCB 20 may include a first mounting portion (not illustrated), first fixing holes 220-1 to 220-4 (hereinafter, referred to as "220"), and second mounting portions 210-1 to 210-4 (hereinafter, referred to as "210"). While the four first fixing holes 220 and the four second mounting portions 210 are illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For ease of identification, only the detailed configurations of one second mounting portion 210 are provided with reference numerals in FIGS. 2A and 2B. For the convenience of description, the second mounting portions 210 in FIGS. 2A and 2B are illustrated as occupying almost the entire PCB 20, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, in practice, the first mounting portion (not illustrated) may occupy almost the entire PCB 20, and the second mounting portions 210 and the first fixing holes 220 may occupy only part of the PCB 20 since the PCB 20 is aimed at mounting components thereon. Hereinafter, the first mounting portion (not illustrated), the first fixing holes 220, and the second mounting portions 210 will be described.
In one embodiment, the peripheries 230-1 to 230-4 around the first fixing holes 220 of the PCB may be grounds (see 230-1 to 230-4) from which a film has been removed, and the layers inside the first fixing holes 220 may have the form of a ground via. Accordingly, when the first conductive coupling members 411 are inserted through the first fixing holes 220 and the second fixing holes 320 and coupled with the second coupling members 412 on the bottom surface of the mechanical part 30, the first coupling members 411 may allow the ground of the PCB 20 to make electrical contact with the mechanical part 30 through the first surface, the inner layers of the PCB 20 and the second fixing holes 320-1 to 320-4 (hereinafter, referred to as "320"; see FIG. 3A) of the mechanical part 30.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the mechanical part 30 may include second fixing holes 320 and one or more projections 310-1 to 310-8 (hereinafter, referred to as "310"). The elements of the mechanical part 30 will hereinafter be described.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the protrusion 120 of the contact element 10 and the projection 310 of the mechanical part 30 may have a shape that allows the contact area between the contact element 10 and the mechanical part 30 to be increased. For example, the protrusion 120 of the contact element 10 may extend from the contact part 110 with a slope less than 90 degrees, and the projection 310 may have an arch shape (see FIG. 4B) or a frusto-pyramidal shape (see, e.g., FIG. 3A). In this case, the protrusion 120 of the contact element 10 may pass through the hole 213 of the PCB 20 and may make close contact with a non-horizontal side surface of the projection 310 on the mechanical part 30 with a specific slope with respect to the horizontal line of the projection 310. In another example, the protrusion 120 of the contact element 10 may extend vertically downward from the contact part 110 and may then be bent, for example, in the semi-U shape (see FIG. 4C). In yet another example, the protrusion 120 of the contact element 10 may extend vertically downward from the contact part 110 and may then be bent, for example, in the shape of " " (see FIG. 4D). Therefore, according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, it is possible to increase the contact area between the contact element 10 and the mechanical part 30.
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