Patent ID: 7147489

Claim:
A socket having a structure for grasping solder balls for soldering with a circuit board, the socket comprising: a dielectric housing with a plurality of terminal passages being defined therethrough in a vertical direction thereof; a plurality of terminals respectively received in the terminal passages, each terminal being formed with a contact portion at the upper end thereof and a solder joint at the lower end thereof, each solder joint projecting from the bottom of each terminal passage; and a plurality of solder balls being spherical and respectively disposed between the solder joint of each terminal and a stop wall of the dielectric housing; wherein: a grasping hole is laterally defined in the solder joint of each terminal, the stop wall is formed at the dielectric housing spaced from the grasping hole at a proper distance, the grasping hole is an open tapered hole with a tapered inner edge thereof for accommodating the solder ball, the dimension of the grasping hole is slightly larger than that of a side surface of the solder ball received in the grasping hole, whereby the solder ball is movably grasped in the grasping hole of the solder joint, the solder ball is secured between the stop wall and the solder joint with a portion of the solder ball being received in the grasping hole, the solder ball is freely movable up and down in the grasping hole of the solder joint, whereby when the socket is soldered with the circuit board, the solder balls can adjust through moving up and down in accordance with a height of a contacting surface of the circuit board such that the solder balls can automatically fully contact the surface of the circuit board to achieve a best soldering effect.