GB2350498A

GB2350498A - Battery connector terminal

Info

Publication number: GB2350498A
Application number: GB0010589A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kenji Sugimori
Original assignee: SMK Corp
Current assignee: SMK Corp
Priority date: 1999-05-10
Filing date: 2000-05-02
Publication date: 2000-11-29
Also published as: JP2000323197A; GB0010589D0; FI20001085A; JP3035544B1

Abstract

A terminal for connecting a battery 31 to equipment to be powered (eg a PCB 41) comprises a metal terminal and an insulating housing 10. The terminal comprises a mounting plate 4 to mount it on the housing, and two cantilevered arms, one of which contacts the battery at end 2a and the other of which contacts the PCB at end 3a. The terminal does not require soldering, thus facilitating the assembly of equipment and reducing the chance of a circuit break if the equipment is dropped. The terminal is formed by punching from a sheet of metal.

Description

2350498 CONNECTOR TERMINAL The present invention relates to a connector

terminal for making electric connection of an electrode of a battery to be used as an operating power supply for a portable electric apparatus such as a portable telephone (a cellular phone), a portable audio apparatus, a portable video apparatus, or the like, with a power supply pattern of the portable electric apparatus.

A battery connector BC mounted on a printed board is hitherto used for electrically connecting a battery with a portable electric apparatus, for example, a portable telephone, which operates with the battery as a DC. power supply. Connector terminals provided in the battery connector BC are electrically connected with electrodes of the battery and power supply patterns on the printed board, respectively.

Specifically, as shown in Figs. 12 and 13, a connector terminal 100 received in an insulating housing 111 of the battery connector BC is electrically connected with an electrode 110a of a battery 110 and a power supply pattern of a portable telephone, that is, a power supply pattern 120a of a printed board 120 so that power is supplied from the battery 110 to the power supply 1 pattern 120a of the portable telephone.

Here, the battery 110 is usually made removable from the portable telephone so as to be exchangeable for another charged battery 110. To this end, in the background-art connector terminal 100, as shown in Figs. 12 and 13, a battery-side terminal 102 cantilevered on a mounting plate portion 101 fixed to the insulating housing 111 is made to project from a top opening portion 111a provided in the insulating housing 111, so that a contact point 102a on the top end side of the battery-side terminal 102 is in elastic contact with the electrode 110a of the battery 110.

As a result, as the battery 110 is attached to or removed from the portable telephone, the battery 110 comes into contact with or goes away from the connector terminal 100. Thus, the battery 110 is made removable.

In addition, an apparatus-side terminal 103 provided vertically under the mounting plate portion 101 is passed through a bottom opening portion 111b of the insulating housing 111 and the printed board 120, and soldered with the power supply pattern 120a printed on the back surface of the printed board 120 (see a soldering portion 122), so that the connector terminal 100 is electrically connected with the power supply pattern 120a of the portable telephone.

Since the background-art connector terminal 100 was electrically connected with the power supply pattern 120a of the portable electric apparatus (portable telephone) by soldering as described above, there were problems as follows.

(1) A soldering step was required to thereby increase the manufacturing cost. In addition, solder containing lead and so on caused the destruction of the environment.

(2) Since the portable electric apparatus was portable, it was occasionally dropped by mistake. In such a case, impact was given to a soldering portion 122 between the apparatus-side terminal 103 and the power supply pattern 120a resulting in a crack, or the like, and causing a failure in connection. (3) In the portable electric apparatus, it was necessary to make the connector terminal 100 not only project to a position where it was brought into elastic contact with the electrode 110a of the battery 110, but also pass through the printed board 120 so as to be connected with the power supply pattern 12 Oa by soldering.

It was therefore requested to position the battery connector BC precisely, so that the manufacturing cost increased.

(4) It was necessary to incorporate the printed board 120 into a casing of the portable telephone after the apparatus-side terminal 103 was soldered with the power supply pattern 120a and the battery connector BC was mounted on the printed board 120.

It was therefore impossible to attach only the battery connector BC in a position to face the battery 110 previously. Thus, the assembling procedure was limited, and the assembling workability was low. 5 It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector terminal which solves the foregoing problems (1) to (4) caused by the electric connection of the connector terminal with a power supply pattern of a portable electric apparatus which is performed by soldering.

In addition to the abovementioned object, it is another object of the present invention to provide a connector terminal by which the width of a power supply pattern of a printed board provided in a portable electric apparatus can be made narrow, and a battery connector or a battery for the portable electric apparatus provided with this battery connector can be miniaturized.

Claims

According to Claim 1 of the present invention, there is provided a

connector terminal comprising a mounting plate portion fixed on an insulating housing, and batteryside and apparatus-side terminals connected to the mounting plate portion, the respective terminals being projected outside from opening portions of the insulating housing in a state where the mounting plate portion is fixed in the insulating housing, so that the battery- side and apparatus-side terminals are electrically and respectively connected with an electrode of a battery and a power supply pattern of a portable electrical apparatus using the battery as its operating power supply, to thereby make the electrode of the battery electrically connected with the power supply pattern of the portable electrical apparatus;.

wherein each of the battery-side and apparatus-side terminals is formed by punching a conductive flat plate into a strip band so that the battery-side terminal and the apparatus-side terminal are cantilevered on respective sides of the mounting plate portion; and wherein the battery-side and apparatus-side terminals are respectively in elastic contact with the electrode of the battery and the power supply pattern of the portable electric apparatus which are disposed to face the outsides of the opening portions of the insulating housing.

Since the apparatus-side terminal is electrically connected with the power supply pattern through an elastic contact, soldering is not required. Thus, the assembling process is not limited, and is hence simplified. In addition, even if the portable electric apparatus is dropped so that impact is given to a connection portion, such an elastic contact structure avoids a failure in connection.

In the connector terminal according to Claim 2 of the present invention, the apparatus-side terminal in elastic contact with the power supply pattern of the portable electric apparatus is a die-cut spring which can bend in parallel with a plane of the apparatus- side terminal so that a cut surface punched out of the conductive flat plate is brought into elastic contact with the power supply pattern.

The contact area between the cut surface of the apparatus-side terminal and the power supply pattern is smaller than the contact area based on a bent spring, so that a failure in contact hardly occurs due to interposition of dust or the like.

In addition, the contact pressure becomes large enough to reduce the contact resistance between the apparatus-side terminal and the power supply pattern. Thus, the power consumption is lowered in the portable electric apparatus operated by the battery.

Since the cut surface of the apparatus-side terminal has narrow width which is equal to the width of the conductive flat plate, the power supply pattern with which this cut surface is in elastic contact can be also made narrow in width. It is therefore possible to increase the mounting density of the printed board.

- 6 In the connector terminal according to Claim 3 of the present invention, the battery-side terminal in elastic contact with the electrode of the battery is a bent spring which is bent in the longitudinal direction of the strip band shape of the battery-side terminal so that a plane of the battery-side terminal is curved; and the apparatus-side terminal is supported erectly on one side of the mounting portion so as to go alongside the bent battery-side terminal, and is bent in parallel with a bending direction of the battery-side terminal.

The apparatus-side terminal is disposed alongside the battery-side terminal so as to bend in the same direction as the battery- side terminal. Accordingly, there is no f ear that the apparatus-side terminal interferes with the battery-side terminal even if it is elastically deformed.

Since the apparatus-side terminal along 1 side the battery- side terminal has narrow width which is equal to the width of the conductive flat plate, it is possible to form the connector terminal as a whole with width substantially equal to the width of the battery-side terminal which is a bent spring. It is therefore possible to receivea large number of connector terminals in the insulating housing at a narrow pitch.

A particular embodiment in accordance with this invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings; in which:- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a connector terminal 1 7 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a front view of the connector terminal 1.

Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the connector terminal 1.

Fig. 4 is a left side view of the connector terminal 1.

Fig. 5 is a right side view of the connector terminal 1.

Fig. 6 is an exploded perspective view partially schematically showing an example of a battery connector BC having four connector terminals 1.

Fig. 7 is a plan view showing the battery connector BC.

Fig. 8 is a front view of the battery connector BC.

Fig. 9 is a right side view of the battery connector BC.

Fig. 10 is a partially schematically expanded view in which the section taken on line X-X in Fig. 8 is viewed in the arrow direction.

Fig. 11 is a main portion longitudinally sectional view showing a state where a battery 31 is mounted on a portable telephone to which the battery connector BC has been attached.

Fig. 12 is a longitudinally sectional view showing an example of a battery connector BC having a background-art connector terminal 100.

Fig. 13 is a main portion longitudinally sectional view showing a state where an electrode 110a of a battery 110 is electrically connected with a power supply pattern 120a of a printed board 120 through the background-art connector terminal 100.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described 5 below with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a connector terminal 1' according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2, a front view of the same; Fig. 3, a bottom view of the same; Fig. 4, a left side view of the same; and Fig. 5, a right side view of the same.

In addition, Fig. 6 is an exploded perspective view partially schematically showing a battery connector BC which receives four connector terminals 1 in accordance with the number.of electrodes 31a of a battery 31. Here, three of the connector terminals 1 which are conf igured in the same manner are not shown in the drawing while power supply patterns 41a of a printed board 41 on which the illustrated battery connector BC is to be mounted and the electrodes 31a of the battery 31 are illustrated.

Fig. 7 is a plan view showing the battery connector BC which receives the four connector terminals 1; Fig. 8, a front view of the same; Fig. 9, a right side view of the same; Fig. 10, a partially schematic expanded view in which the section taken on line XX in Fig. 8 is viewed in the arrow direction; and Fig. 11, a longitudinally sectional view showing a state where the battery 31 is mounted in a portable telephone in Fig. 10 and the electrode 31a of the battery 31 is electrically connected with the power supply pattern 41a of the printed board 41 through the connector 5 terminal 1.

As shown in Fig. 1, the connector terminal 1 constitutes main parts of the battery connector together with an insulating housing 10. A conductive flat plate is punched so that a mounting plate portion 4, a battery-side terminal 2 and an apparatusside terminal 3 are formed integrally to constitute the connection terminal 1. Preferably a metal plate superior in conductivity and elasticity, for example, beryllium copper or the like, is used as the conductive flat plate.

The mounting plate portion 4 is punched out into a rectangle in which lock protrusions 4a and 4a are formed on the opposite sides of the mounting plate portion 4 so as to be locked on the inside surface of a contact reception recess portion 11 formed in the insulating housing 1 so that the connector terminal 1 is fixedly positioned in the contact reception recess portion 11.

The batteryside and apparatus-side terminals 2 and 3 are punched out into strip bands and cantilevered on two perpendicularly intersecting sides of the mounting plate portion 4 respectively, so that the terminals 2 and 3 are elastically - deformed so as to come in elastic contact with the electrode 31a of the battery 31 and the power supply pattern 41a, respectively.

As shown in Figs. 1 to 5, the battery-side terminal 2 extends forward from the bottom side of the mounting plate portion 4 while bending like a U-shape. After the free end side is further bent forward, the battery-side terminal 2 is bent backward like a U-shape so as to be elastically deformed as a bent spring.

Incidentally, the front end of the battery-side terminal 2 acts as a battery-side contact 2a which comes into elastic contact with the electrode 31a of the battery 31.

On the other hand, the apparatus-side terminal 3 is formed so that its Sshaped portion extending from a left-side intermediate portion of the mounting plate portion 4 is bent forward at right angles so as to be elastically deformed as a die-cut spring. The free end (the illustrated lower end) of the S-shape acts as an apparatus-side contact 3a which comes into elastic contact with the power supply pattern 41a of the printed board 41.

Here, the bent spring means a spring which bends so that a plane of a portion formed by punching a conductive plate material like a strip band is curved, and the die-cut spring means a spring which bends so that a cut surface punched out like a strip band is in elastic contact, that is, the punched portion bends in parallel with its plane.

Since the thickness of the conductive flat plate is used as the width of the die-cut spring, the die-cut spring is suitable for making its pitch narrow and making its size small. However, a section modulus Z of the die-cut spring is larger than that of the bent spring. Thus, if the die-cut spring were to be bent by a predetermined quantity for the sake of elastic contact, larger bending stress would be generated (the die-cut spring would become a so-called hard spring), so that the spring would be fatigued easily. Therefore, the apparatusside terminal 3 is formed into an Sshape so that its spring span is ensured to be long. Thus, even if the same conductive plate material is used, the bending quantity is reduced when the apparatus-side terminal 3 is brought into elastic contact with the power supply pattern 41a. As a result, the apparatus-side terminal 3 is made to act as a soft spring apparently.

The batteryside terminal 2 acting as a bent spring is also desired to have a section modulus Z as small as possible and to ensure its longitudinal length (spring span) to be long, so that the battery-side terminal 2 is made to act as a spring as soft as in the case where an expensive elastic material with a small longitudinal elastic modulus E is used. However, if the width of the battery-side terminal 2 were made narrow enough to reduce 12 - the section modulus Z or if the spring span were elongated, there would arise an antithetic problem that the conductor resistance of the battery- side terminal 2 as a whole would increase to thereby increase the power consumption when a power supply current flows 5 from the battery.

Therefore, in this embodiment, auxiliary contact springs 5 are formed on the opposite side portions of the battery-side terminal 2 which projects forward like a U-shape, as illustrated. As shown in Fig. 10, till the battery-side contact 2a at the front end of the battery-side terminal 2 abuts against the electrode 31a of the battery 31, the auxiliary contact springs 5 are in no contact with the U- shaped projecting portion of the battery-side terminal 2 so as to have no influence on the elastic deformation of the U-shaped projecting portion. As shown in Fig. 11, the auxiliary contact springs 5 come into contact with the U-shaped projecting portion when the battery-side contact 2a comes into perfect elastic contact with the electrode 31a. This contact between the auxiliary contact springs 5 and the U-shaped projecting portion results as follows. That is, two conductor resistances based on the auxiliary contact springs 5 as well as the conductor resistance based on the U-shaped portion of the battery-side terminal 2 are connected in parallel between the electrode 31a of the battery 31 and the mounting plate portion 4. As a result, the power consumption of the battery-side terminal 2 as a whole is lowered.

Thus, perfect elastic contact is established while soft spring elasticity is given to the battery-side terminal 2, and then the power consumption by the connector terminal 1 is lowered so that the duration of the battery 31 can be prolonged.

The auxiliary contact springs 5 also serve for preventing the batteryside terminal 2 from being deformed by an external force. That is, as shown in Fig. 10, the U-shaped portion projects forward from the front opening portion 11a in order to come into elastic contact with the electrode 31a of the battery 31, and the sides of the U- shaped portion of the battery-side terminal 2 are covered with the auxiliary contact springs 5. Thus, foreign matters such as a pin or the like are prevented from making an 15 invasion from the sides of the U-shaped portion to apply a prizing force to the U-shaped battery-side terminal 2.

The connector terminal 1 configured thus is inserted into a contact reception recess portion 11 from above the insulating housing 10 so as to be received in the insulating housing 10 as shown in Fig. 6.

Such contact reception recess portions 11 are provided in four positions of the insulating housing 10 in order to receive four connector terminals 1. The respective contact reception recess portions 11 are open not only in the top of the insulating housing 10 but also in the front and bottom sides at their front opening portions 11a and their bottom opening portions 11b (see Fig. 10) When the connector terminal 1 is attached to the insulating housing 10, the mounting plate portion 4 is pressed into the contact reception recess portion 11 along its back surface, and the lock protrusions 4a on the opposite sides of the mounting plate portion 4 are made to lock on the inside surface of the contact reception recess portion 11.

By this lock, the connector terminal 1 is fixedly positioned in the insulating housing 10. In the state where the connector terminal 1 is fixed, as shown in Figs. 7 to 10, the battery-side contact 2a of the battery-side terminal 2 projects forward from the front opening portion lla while the apparatus-side contact 3a of the apparatusside terminal 3 projects downward from the bottom opening portion llb.

The battery connector BC receiving the connector terminals 1 in such a manner is attached to a not-shown casing of a portable telephone so that the front side of the battery connector BC faces a recess portion which receives a battery. It is not always necessary to make this attachment after the battery connector BC has been mounted on the printed board 41. It is possible to attach only the connector BC to the casing previously.

The battery connector BC is mounted on the printed board 41 so that the apparatus-side contacts 3a of the respective connector terminals 1 projecting from the bottom opening portions 11b face their corresponding power supply patterns 41a. As a result, the apparatus- side contacts 3a of the apparatus-side terminals 3 come into elastic contact with their corresponding power supply patterns 41a of the printed board 41.

When the battery 31 is mounted on the portable telephone to which the battery connector BC has been attached, the battery-side contacts 2a of the battery-side terminals 2 projecting froward come into elastic contact with the electrodes 31a of the battery 31. As a result, the electrodes 31a of the battery 31 are electrically connected with the power supply patterns 41a through the battery-side terminals 2, the mounting plate portions 4 and the apparatus-side terminals 3, so that power is supplied to the portable telephone with the battery 31 as its operating power supply.

Although description was made about. a portable telephone as a portable electric apparatus in the aforementioned embodiment by way of example, the portable electric apparatus is not limited only to this, but it may be another portable electric apparatus, for example, a portable audio apparatus, a portable video - 16 apparatus, or the like. Although description was made along an example in which the connector terminals 1 were in contact with the electrodes 31a of the battery 31 and applied with a power supply current, the connector terminals maybe signal terminals supplied 5 with signal currents.

Although the battery-side terminals were bent springs and the apparatusside terminals were die-cut springs in the abovementioned embodiment, they are not limited to those described in the embodiment, but it is optional whether the respective terminals are formed as bent springs or die-cut springs.

As has been described above, according to the present invention, electric connections between the electrodes 31a of the battery 31 and the power supply patterns 41a are established by elastic contacts of the terminals 2 and 3. Accordingly, there is no failure in connection even if the portable electric apparatus is dropped.

In addition, in the manufacturing process of a portable electric apparatus, the battery connector BC can be attached into a casing of the portable electric apparatus before being mounted on the printed board 41. Accordingly, the assembling procedure is not limited, so that the workability is improved.

According to the invention stated in Claim 2, the contact area between the cut surface of the apparatus-side terminal and the power supply pattern is smaller than the contact area based on a bent spring, so that a failure in contact hardly occurs due to the presence of dust or the like. In addition, the contact pressure becomes large enough to reduce the contact resistance between the apparatus-side terminal and the power supply pattern, so that the power consumption of the portable electric apparatus to be operated by the battery can be lowered.

According to the invention stated in Claim 3, the apparatus-side terminal has narrow width, which is equal to the thickness of the conductive flat plate, alongside the batteryside terminal. It is therefore possible to form the connector terminal as a whole with width substantially equal to the width of the battery-side terminal which constitutes a bent spring. It is therefore possible to dispose a large number of connector terminals at a narrow pitch in an insulating housing.

As a result, it is possible to miniaturize the insulating housing and narrow the pitch of the electrodes of the battery, so that it is possible to miniaturize the battery and narrow the pitch of the power supply patterns.

CLAIMS 1 A connector terminal comprising a mounting plate portion fixed on an insulating housing, and battery-side and apparatus-side terminals connected to said mounting plate portion, said terminals being respectively projected outside from opening portions of said insulating housing in a state where said mounting plate portion is fixed in said insulating housing, SO that said battery-side and apparatus-side terminals can be electrically and respectively connected with an electrode of a battery and a power supply pattern of a portable electrical apparatus using said battery as its operating power supply, to thereby make said electrode of said battery electrically connected with said power supply pattern of said portable electrical apparatus; wherein each of said battery-side and apparatus-side terminals is formed by punching a conductive flat plate into a strip band so that said battery-side terminal and said apparatus-side terminal are cantilevered on respective sides of said mounting plate portion; and, wherein said battery-side and apparatus-side terminals are capable of forming an elastic contact respectively with said electrode of said battery and said power supply pattern of said portable electric apparatus which are disposed to face the outsides of said opening portions of said insulating housing.
2. A connector terminal according to Claim 1, wherein said apparatus-side terminal in elastic contact with said power supply pattern of said portable electric apparatus forms a die-cut spring which can bend in parallel with a plane of said apparatus-side terminal so that a cut surface punched out of said conductive flat plate is brought into elastic contact with said power supply pattern.
3. A connector terminal according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said batteryside terminal in elastic contact with said electrode of said battery forms a bent spring which is bent in the longitudinal direction of the strip band shape of said battery-side terminal so that a plane of said battery-side terminal is curved; and wherein said apparatus-side terminal is supported erectly on one side of said mounting portion so as to go is alongside said bent battery-side terminal, and said apparatus-side terminal is bent in parallel with a bending direction of said batteryside terminal.
4. A connector terminal substantially as described with reference to Figures 1 to 11 of the accompanying drawings.
5. A portable electric apparatus including a battery having an electrode, a power supply wiring pattern having an electrode, and a connector terminal in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, wherein said battery-side and apparatus-side terminals are respectively in elastic contact with said electrode of said battery and said power supply pattern of said portable electric apparatus.