CN113904140A

CN113904140A - Terminal, terminal assembly and electric connector

Info

Publication number: CN113904140A
Application number: CN202111066501.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 葛林忠; 张佳华; 陈伟; 费啸天; 练文义
Original assignee: Kunshan Jiahua Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Kunshan Jiahua Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-09-13
Filing date: 2021-09-13
Publication date: 2022-01-07

Abstract

The application discloses terminal, terminal subassembly and electric connector, the terminal includes base plate portion, by two at least extension arms of the outside extension formation of border position of base plate portion and the elastic arm that forms of the opposite bending of border position of base plate portion, the elastic arm is formed with the contact site that corresponds and dock the component contact, the at least part of elastic arm sets up with base plate portion is relative and interval along upper and lower direction, the elastic arm can follow upper and lower direction elastic deformation, the terminal still includes from every the extension arm further extends the butt joint foot portion that is used for and docks the base plate and combines that forms, base plate portion and extension arm all can follow upper and lower direction elastic deformation to do benefit to miniaturized design.

Description

Terminal, terminal assembly and electric connector

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of connectors, and particularly to a terminal, a terminal assembly and an electrical connector.

Background

The prior art refers to chinese utility model patent CN201966366U, which discloses an electrical connector, comprising a shielding shell, a third terminal module, a first terminal module and a second terminal module integrally formed on the inner surface of the top plate of the shielding shell. The shielding shell combined with the third terminal module is arranged on the butt joint substrate and forms an accommodating space with the butt joint substrate, the accommodating space is used for inserting or pulling out the card support module bearing the electronic card, and the first terminal module and the second terminal module are attached to the surface of the butt joint substrate and are positioned under the shielding shell.

The first terminal module, the second terminal module and the third terminal module respectively comprise an insulating body and a plurality of conductive terminals which are combined in the insulating body through integral injection molding, and each conductive terminal comprises a terminal fixing section which is embedded in the insulating body, an elastic arm-shaped contact section which protrudes into the accommodating space and a butt joint part which protrudes out of the insulating body and corresponds to and is in electrical contact with the butt joint substrate.

After the card support modules with the electronic cards loaded on the upper and lower surfaces are inserted into the accommodating space, the card support modules correspondingly electrically contact with the first terminal module, the second terminal module and the third terminal module to realize signal transmission. Such electronic card connectors are commonly referred to as stacked electronic card connectors or dual-layer card connectors. However, due to the stacked type of the electronic card connector, the overall thickness of the card connector is thicker, which is contrary to the current design development route of light weight, thin and small size. It cannot be applied to some electronic products (such as smart mobile phones) with thinner thickness.

Therefore, there is a need to design a new terminal, terminal assembly and electrical connector to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks in the prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

The present application is directed to a novel terminal, terminal assembly and electrical connector, which is advantageous for miniaturization design.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the present application provides the following technical solutions:

the utility model provides a terminal, includes base plate portion, by the outside extension of the marginal position of base plate portion two at least extension arms that form and by the elastic arm that the marginal position of base plate portion reverse bend formed, the elastic arm is formed with the contact site that corresponds with the contact of butt joint component, the relative just interval setting of at least part along upper and lower direction and base plate portion of elastic arm, the elastic arm can be followed up and down direction elastic deformation, the terminal still includes from every the extension arm further extends the butt joint foot portion that is used for combining with the butt joint base plate that forms, base plate portion and extension arm all can be followed up and down direction elastic deformation.

Further, the substrate portion is located below the mating portion and the contact portion is located above the mating portion in the vertical direction.

Furthermore, the extension arms are four and are respectively located at different positions around the base plate part, and the projections of the four extension arms and the elastic arms are not overlapped along the vertical direction.

Further, the extension arm and the base plate portion are located in the same plane.

Further, two the extension arm is located one side of base plate portion, two in addition the extension arm is located the relative opposite side of base plate portion, along left right direction, two the extension arm with two in addition the extension arm symmetry sets up.

Furthermore, the terminal also comprises a limiting part formed by reversely bending one side of the substrate part, and one end of the limiting part is hung above the elastic arm and has a limiting effect on the elastic arm along the vertical direction.

Furthermore, the elastic arm comprises a bending transition section connected with the base plate part, a flat plate section which is spaced from and opposite to the base plate part, an elevated section formed by extending one end of the flat plate section towards the side far away from the base plate part, and the contact part formed by the elevated section, and the limiting part is positioned above the end, close to the elevated section, of the flat plate section.

Furthermore, the terminal assembly further comprises a second insulating body, a plurality of terminals are fixed on the second insulating body to form a terminal module, and the terminal module is combined with the butt joint substrate through the butt joint foot part to form the terminal assembly.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the present application further provides the following technical solutions:

a terminal assembly comprises the terminal and a butt joint substrate, wherein the butt joint substrate is provided with an upper surface and a lower surface, a through hole penetrates through the butt joint substrate, the butt joint pin part is electrically connected to the lower surface of the butt joint substrate, the elastic arm penetrates through the through hole, and the contact part protrudes to the upper side of the upper surface.

an electric connector comprises the terminal assembly and a housing module, wherein the housing module comprises a metal housing, the metal housing comprises a top plate, side plates formed by downward extension of two sides of the top plate and fixing feet formed by further extension of the side plates, the metal housing is correspondingly covered on the upper surface of the butt joint substrate, the fixing feet are correspondingly fixed with the butt joint substrate, the metal housing and the butt joint substrate jointly define a plug space for inserting the butt joint module, and a contact part of the terminal protrudes into the plug space.

Further, still include the upper terminal module, the upper terminal module include first insulator and with a plurality of signal terminal spare that first insulator combines, the upper terminal module combine in the internal surface of roof, the upper terminal module with form between the butt joint base plate the plug space, the signal terminal spare is formed with the terminal contact site that downwardly extends in the plug space.

Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of this application are: the contact site shape of terminal is the middle ladle form of upwards arching roughly, is provided with the extension arm between the base plate portion of terminal and the butt joint foot portion, extension arm and base plate portion are located the coplanar, butt joint foot portion sets up in the extension end of extension arm, along the upper and lower direction, base plate portion is located the below of butt joint foot portion, the contact site is located the top of butt joint foot portion, the design like this, under the prerequisite of guaranteeing terminal elasticity, the size of terminal on the thickness direction has been reduced, thereby electric connector's overall height has been reduced.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of an electrical connector of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of fig. 1 from another angle.

Fig. 3 is a top view of the electrical connector of fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line a-a of fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the electrical connector of fig. 1, particularly illustrating an exploded perspective view of a metal shell and terminal assembly incorporating an upper terminal module.

Fig. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a second embodiment of the electrical connector of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a second embodiment of the electrical connector of the present application, shown in the same cross-sectional position as the first embodiment, taken along line a-a as shown in fig. 4.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Referring to fig. 1 to 5, a first embodiment of an electrical connector disclosed in the present application includes a terminal assembly 10 and a housing module 6 engaged with the terminal assembly 10. The terminal assembly 10 includes a docking substrate 5 and a plurality of terminals 1 coupled to the docking substrate 5. The terminal assembly 10 and the cover module 6 together enclose a plug-in space 60 into which a card holder module (not shown) carrying an electronic card is inserted, and form an insertion opening. The housing module 6 includes a metal housing 61 made of a metal plate and an upper terminal module 62 combined with the metal housing 61. Specifically, the metal cover 61 includes a flat top plate 611, side plates 612 formed by extending downward from both sides of the top plate 611, an end plate 614 formed by extending downward from one end of the top plate 611, and a plurality of fixing legs 613 formed by further extending the side plates 612 and the end plate 614.

Referring to fig. 1 to fig. 3, the upper terminal module 62 includes a first insulating body 621 and a plurality of signal terminal elements 622 combined with the first insulating body 621. The upper terminal module 62 is integrally formed on the inner surface of the top plate 611 by injection molding. The docking substrate 5 defines an upper surface 501 and a lower surface 502, the metal casing 61 is correspondingly covered on the upper surface 501 of the docking substrate 5, the fixing feet 613 are correspondingly fixed to the docking substrate 5, and the metal casing 61 and the docking substrate 5 jointly define a plugging space 60 into which a docking module (in this application, a card holder module) is inserted (specifically, the plugging space 60 is formed between the upper terminal module 62 and the docking substrate 5). The signal terminal member 622 is formed with a terminal contact portion (not labeled) protruding downward into the insertion space 60.

Referring to fig. 4 and 5, the terminal 1 includes a substrate portion 11, four extending arms 12 formed by extending two opposite sides of the substrate portion 11 outward, and an elastic arm 13 formed by bending one end of the substrate portion 11 in opposite directions, wherein two of the extending arms 12 are located on one side of the substrate portion 11, the other two extending arms 12 are located on the other opposite side of the substrate portion 11, and the four extending arms 12 and the substrate portion 11 are located in the same plane. The terminal 1 further includes a butt-joint part 14 bent from the extending end of each extending arm 12, that is, the terminal 1 includes four butt-joint parts 14, and the four butt-joint parts 14 are used for contacting with the butt-joint substrate 5. One end of the elastic arm 13 forms a contact portion 114 corresponding to the contact with the docking element (i.e. the electronic card inserted into the inserting/extracting space 60 after being loaded on the card holder module). At least a part of the elastic arm 13 is disposed opposite to and spaced apart from the substrate portion 11 in the up-down direction (i.e., the thickness direction of the docking substrate 5). The four extension arms 12 are provided on both sides of the base plate portion 11 in a left-right direction perpendicular to the up-down direction, along which each pair of the extension arms 12 are symmetrically provided. Two of the four butt joint leg portions 14 are arranged symmetrically in the left-right direction perpendicular to the up-down direction. The two butt leg portions 14 located on the same side of the base plate portion 11 extend in opposite directions. The elastic arm 13 is located between the two extension arms 12 in the left-right direction, and the elastic arm 13 can be elastically deformed in the up-down direction.

In the vertical direction, the substrate portion 11 is located below the mating portion 14, and the contact portion 114 is located above the mating portion 14. The terminal 1 further includes a limiting portion 15 formed by reversely bending one side of the substrate portion 11, the bending direction of the limiting portion 15 is the same as the bending direction of the elastic arm 13, and the joint of the limiting portion 15 and the substrate portion 11 is located between two extending arms 12 on one side of the substrate portion 11. Along the up-down direction, the limiting part 15 is located above the elastic arm 13 and has a pre-pressing limiting effect on the elastic arm 13. In the vertical direction, the plane of the stopper 15 is located above the plane of the butt-joint leg 14.

Referring to fig. 4 to 5, a through hole 51 is formed through the docking substrate 5, the docking leg portion 14 of the terminal 1 is electrically connected to the lower surface 502 of the docking substrate 5, the elastic arm 13 passes through the through hole 51, and at least a portion of the contact portion 114 protrudes above the upper surface 501 (protrudes into the inserting and pulling space 60). So that the terminal 1 forms a sink-plate type bonding manner on the mating substrate 5. In the present application, a pair of the butt-joint leg portions 14 of the terminal corresponding to each other in the left-right direction are respectively located on both sides of the through hole 51.

In this application, the limiting portion 15 can have a certain pre-pressing effect on the elastic arm 13 to increase the positive pressure of the contact portion 114 of the terminal 1. It is also important to precisely control the height of the contact portions 114 during the manufacturing process so that the contact portions 114 of the plurality of terminals 1 have the same or similar contact height. It is also possible to prevent the spring arms 13 of the terminals from leaning back (particularly, leaning back of the contact portions 114). Further, the terminal assembly 10 formed of the plurality of terminals 1 is not fixed at a structure requiring a similar insulating body. The height of the electrical connector above the upper surface 501 of the docking board 5 can be sufficiently reduced, and the overall structure of the electrical connector is also made simpler. Furthermore, the thickness of the mating substrate 5 is sufficiently used, and the elastic arm 13 of the terminal 1 can have a sufficient elastic deformation space in the vertical direction, so that the risk of yielding due to plastic deformation of the elastic arm 13 can be prevented. Giving the structural design of the terminal 1 more space and possibilities. In some usage scenarios, the excess space under the lower surface 502 of the docking substrate 5 may also be fully utilized.

In addition, in the present invention, the substrate portion 11 and the extension arm 12 are designed to be elastically deformable in the vertical direction, so that almost the entire terminal 1 can be elastically deformed, and the height of the C-shaped bending transition section 111 can be reduced while ensuring that the terminal 1 has a sufficient elastic and elastic deformation space. It is also possible to occupy as little space below the docking substrate 5 as possible. Furthermore, in other embodiments, the length of the resilient arm 13 may be reduced even further. Thus, the height of the terminal 1 can be designed to be lower, and a sinking plate type design mode is combined to pursue an extremely low design scheme of the whole electric connector.

Referring to fig. 5, the elastic arm 13 includes a bending transition section 111 (in this application, the bending transition section 111 is substantially C-shaped) connected to the base plate portion 11, a flat plate section 112 spaced apart from and opposite to the base plate portion 11, an elevated section 113 extending from one end of the flat plate section 112 to a side away from the base plate portion 11, and the contact portion 114 extending from one end of the elevated section 113, wherein the limiting portion 15 is located above an end of the flat plate section 112 adjacent to the elevated section 113.

In the present application, fig. 1 to 5 show a first embodiment of the electrical connector of the present application, in which a plurality of terminals 1 are arranged on a mating substrate 5 to form a terminal assembly 10, and the terminal assembly 10 is matched with a Nano Sim card. Fig. 6 and 7 show a second embodiment of the electrical connector of the present application, in which a plurality of the terminals 1 are held in the second insulating housing 16 to form a terminal module 17, specifically, the substrate portion 11 and the four extension arms 12 of the terminals 1 are held in the second insulating housing 16, two of the terminal modules 17 are mounted on the docking substrate 5 to form a terminal assembly 10, and the terminal assembly 10 is matched with a Nano Sim card.

In the second embodiment, although the addition of the second insulating body 16 has a certain influence on the elastic deformation of the terminal 1 (particularly, the substrate portion 11 and the extension arm 12), since the electrical connector is thinner, the second insulating body 16 is thinner, and since the second insulating body 16 is merely bonded to the mating substrate 5 and is not directly fixed, the substrate portion 11 and the extension arm 12 can have a certain margin for elastic deformation even if there is a certain influence. In order to reduce the elastic influence of the second insulating body 16 on the terminal 1 as much as possible, in the present embodiment, a part of the second insulating body 16 is further thinned, specifically, as shown in fig. 6 and 7, it is obvious that the second insulating body 16 at the position of the substrate portion 11 is thinned, and of course, in other embodiments, the second insulating body 16 at the position corresponding to the extension arm 12 may also be thinned. In the present application, the second insulating body 16 has a function or function of integrally connecting the plurality of terminals 1, so as to facilitate the connection and fixation of the plurality of terminals 1 with the docking base 5 at one time.

The electrical connectors shown in the two embodiments of the drawings in the present application are stacked electrical connectors (i.e., the upper and lower surfaces of the card-holding module carry electronic cards). In other embodiments, the housing module 6 may only include the metal housing 61 without the upper terminal module 62, and the metal housing 61 is directly combined with the docking substrate 5 and forms the whole electrical connector (i.e. a single-layer electrical connector for a single-layer electronic card) by matching a plurality of terminals 1 (or terminal modules 17).

In this application, the contact part 114 shape of terminal 1 is the middle ladle form of upwards arching roughly, be provided with extension arm 12 between the base plate portion 11 of terminal 1 and the butt joint foot portion 14, extension arm 12 is located the coplanar with base plate portion 11, butt joint foot portion 14 sets up in the extension end of extension arm 12, along the upper and lower direction, base plate portion 11 is located the below to butt joint foot portion 14, contact part 114 is located the top to butt joint foot portion 14, so design, under the prerequisite of guaranteeing terminal 1 elasticity, the size of terminal in the thickness direction has been reduced, thereby the overall height of electric connector has been reduced. Certainly, the electrical connector of the present application further includes a card ejecting mechanism and a switch terminal assembly, which are both in the prior art and are not described herein again.

Although embodiments of the present application have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the application, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A terminal comprises a substrate part, at least two extension arms formed by extending the edge position of the substrate part outwards and an elastic arm formed by reversely bending the edge position of the substrate part, wherein the elastic arm is provided with a contact part corresponding to a butting element, at least part of the elastic arm is opposite to the substrate part in the up-down direction and is arranged at an interval, and the elastic arm can elastically deform in the up-down direction, and the terminal is characterized in that: the terminal also comprises a butt joint pin part which is formed by further extending each extension arm and is used for being combined with a butt joint substrate, and the substrate part and the extension arms can elastically deform along the vertical direction.

2. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the substrate portion is located below the mating portion and the contact portion is located above the mating portion in a vertical direction.

3. The terminal according to claim 1, wherein the four extension arms are located at different positions around the base plate portion, and the projection of the four extension arms and the elastic arm does not overlap in the vertical direction.

4. A terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the extension arm and the base portion lie in the same plane.

5. A terminal according to claim 3, wherein two of the extension arms are located on one side of the base plate portion, and the other two of the extension arms are located on the opposite side of the base plate portion, and the two of the extension arms are symmetrically arranged with respect to the other two of the extension arms in the left-right direction.

6. The terminal according to claim 1, further comprising a stopper portion bent in a reverse direction from one side of the base plate portion, wherein one end of the stopper portion is hung above the elastic arm and has a stopper function for the elastic arm in an up-down direction.

7. The terminal of claim 6, wherein the spring arm includes a bent transition section connected to the base plate portion, a flat plate section spaced from and opposing the base plate portion, an elevated section extending from an end of the flat plate section to a side away from the base plate portion, and the contact portion formed by the elevated section, and the position-limiting portion is located above an end of the flat plate section adjacent to the elevated section.

8. The terminal assembly of claim 6, further comprising a second insulative housing, a plurality of said terminals being retained in said second insulative housing to form a terminal module, said terminal module being joined to said mating substrate by said mating foot portion to form said terminal assembly.

9. A terminal assembly comprising the terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising a docking substrate formed with an upper surface and a lower surface, wherein a through hole is formed through the docking substrate, wherein the docking pin portion is electrically connected to the lower surface of the docking substrate, wherein the elastic arm passes through the through hole, and wherein the contact portion protrudes above the upper surface.

10. An electrical connector comprising the terminal assembly according to claim 9, further comprising a housing module, wherein the housing module comprises a metal housing, the metal housing comprises a top plate, side plates formed by two sides of the top plate extending downward, and fixing feet formed by the side plates extending further, the metal housing is correspondingly covered on the upper surface of the docking substrate, the fixing feet are correspondingly fixed with the docking substrate, the metal housing and the docking substrate jointly define a plugging space for the docking module to be inserted, and the contact portions of the terminals protrude into the plugging space.

11. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 10, further comprising an upper terminal module, wherein the upper terminal module includes a first insulating body and a plurality of signal terminal members coupled to the first insulating body, the upper terminal module is coupled to an inner surface of the top plate, the insertion space is formed between the upper terminal module and the mating substrate, and the signal terminal members are formed with terminal contact portions extending downward into the insertion space.