GB2453644A

GB2453644A - A shielded connector housing

Info

Publication number: GB2453644A
Application number: GB0818141A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Masahito Ozaki
Original assignee: Yazaki Corp
Current assignee: Yazaki Corp
Priority date: 2007-10-10
Filing date: 2008-10-06
Publication date: 2009-04-15
Anticipated expiration: 2028-10-06
Also published as: GB0818141D0; JP2009094305A; GB2453644B; JP5111996B2; DE102008050526A1; DE102008050526B4

Abstract

A box shaped conductive shield case for an optical connector comprises overlapping portions 15. A pressing piece 35 is provided on either the optical connector housing 4 or the lower overlapping portion of the shield. The pressing piece urges the overlapping portions of the shield into contact ensuring electrical continuity. The pressing piece may be a protrusive shape or a rib shape. Ideally the shield is folded into shape and the overlapping portions eliminate any gaps in the shield. A second pressing piece may be provided on the other of the connector housing 4 and lower overlapping portion.

Description

CONTACT STRUCTURE OF SHIELD CASE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTiON

The present invention relates to a contact structure of a shield case, and more particularly to a contact structure in which an upper overlapping portion and a lower overlapping portion of a shield case An optical connector disclosed in Patent Reference JP-A-2005-266130 includes a shield case providing a measure against electromagnetic noise by covering an FOT (Fiber Optic Transceiver). The optical connector disclosed in Patent Reference JP-A-2006-2 15276 includes a shield case providing a measure against electromagnetic noise by covering the optical connector housing incorporating FOT.

The shield case is formed in a box shape by bending a conductive metallic plate Since the shield case is formed in a substantially box- like shape by bending the metallic plate, ends of the bent metallic plate are not in contact with each other at the closing portion In this case, conduction over the entire periphery of the shield case cannot be ensured Under the condition with interrupted conduction, the shielding performance will be adversely affected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention has been accomplished in view of the above circumstance An object of this invention is to provide the contact structure of a shield case, capable of ensuring the conduction over the entire periphery of the shield case in order to attain the above object, a first aspect of the invention provides a contact structure includes an optical connector housing, a box shaped conductive shield case including an upper over lapping portion and a lower overlapping portion overlapping each other, and a pressing piece which is provided on at least one of the ) lower overlapping portion and the optical connector housing and press the lower overlapping portion onto the upper overlapping portion so as to keep the lower and upper overlapping portion in contact when the shield case covers the optical connector housing According to the above mentioned invention, when the shield case is assembled so as to cover the FOT or optical connector housing, the pressing piece brings the upper overlapping portion and lower overlapping portion formed in the shield case into contact with each other, thereby ensuring conduction.

According to a second aspect of the invention in the contact structure of a shield case according to the first aspect of the invention, the pressing piece is formed in a rib shape or a protrusive shape According to the above mentioned invention, the pressing piece can be formed in a simple shape. The pressing piece formed in a simple shape facilitates setting of a size enough to ensure the contact between the upper overlapping portion and the lower overlapping portion.

According to third aspect of the invention provides a contact structure of a shield case according to the first and the second aspect of the invention, the upper overlapping portion is formed in a bent piece shape and the upper overlapping portion of the bent piece shape is located at a corner of the box shaped shield case According to the above mentioned invention, as the upper overlapping portion is located at a position where the shield case is hard to be deformed, the lower overlapping portion can be strongly pressed on the upper overlapping portion Thus, contact between the upper overlapping portion and the lower overlapping portion can be ensured According to the invention described in the first aspect of the invention, the overlapping portion and the pressing piece realize conduction over the entire periphery of the shield case Thus, high shielding performance can be obtained According to the invention described in the second aspect of the invention, the pressing piece formed in a simple shape facilitates setting of a size enough to ensure the contact between the upper overlapping portion and the lower overlapping portion According to the invention described in the third aspect of the invention, the upper overlapping portion is located at a position where the shield case is hard to be deformed so that the upper overlapping portion and the lower overlapping portion can be kept in contact with each other more surely

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 A and Fig lB are views showing an embodiment of the contact structure of a shield case according to this invention, Fig IA is a perspective view of a state where an optical connector is mounted on a circuit board, and Fig lB is an enlarged view of an overlapping portion and a pressing piece Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the optical connector when seen from the side of a cover member Fig. 3 is a perspective view of an optical connector housing.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a shield case Fig 5 is a perspective view of FOT Fig 6A to Fig 6C are views showing another example of the pressing piece, Fig 6A is a view showing the overlapping portion and pressing piece, and Fig.6B and Fig 6C are views for explaining the shape of the pressing piece Fig. 7A to Fig 7D are views showing still another example of the pressing piece; Fig 7A is a view showing the overlapping portion and pressing piece, Fig 7B is a view for explaining the shape of the pressing piece of Fig 7A, and Fig 7C and Fig 7D are views showing a yet another example of the overlapping portion and pressing piece.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFEERED EMBODIMENTS

Now referring to the drawings, this invention will be explained below Fig. 1A and Fig lB are views showing the contact structure of a shield case according to an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 1 A is a perspective view of an optical connector in condition that the optical connector is mounted on a circuit board, and Fig.IB is an enlarged view of an overlapping portion and a pressing piece Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the optical connector when seen from the side of a cover member Fig. 3 is a perspective view of an optical connector housing. Fig 4 is a perspective view of a shield case Fig 5 is a perspective view of a FOT In Fig. I A, the optical connector of this invention denoted by reference numeral I is a receptacle type of an optical connector to be fitted to a mate type optical connector (not shown) along a direction A to make an optical connection each other The optical connector 1 is assembled on a circuit board 2 such that the fitting direction A in which the mate optical connector is fit is substantially perpendicular to the circuit board 2.

Prior to concrete explanations, an arrow P in Figs 1A and 2 is defined as being oriented in a vertical direction (defined as exemplary). An arrow Q is defined as being oriented in a right-and-left direction. An arrow R is defined as being oriented at a front-and-back direction. The fitting direction A is defined as being in parallel to the front-and-back direction R, Referring to Figs I A and 2, the optical connector I includes an optical connector housing 4 having a holding portion 3 to hold the optical connector 1 on the circuit board 2, a light-emitting side FOT (Fiber Optic Transceiver) having a light emitting element, a light-receiving side FOT having a light receiving element, a shield case 5 for providing a measure against electromagnetic noise, and a cover member 6 fitting-mounted at the rear of the optical connector housing 4 The above light-emitting side FOT and light receiving side FOT are basically the same as an FOT 7 described later referring to Fig 5 for example They are accommodated in a FOT housing portion 8 formed at the rear of the optical connector housing 4 The optical connector I further includes a sleeve (not shown) intervening between the ferule of the mate connector and the FOT 7 Referring to Figs IA and 3, the optical connector housing 4 is a substantially square box shaped member. At the front thereof, a connector fitting portion 9 to make mechanical fitting to the mate optical connector is formed Further, at the rear thereof, as described above, the FOT housing portion 8 is formed. A partition is formed between the connector fitting portion 9 and the FOT housing portion 8 A cylindrical portion into which the mate optical connector is inserted and the above sleeve is mounted is formed at this partition The optical connector housing 4 is so formed that the optical axis of the light-emitting element or light-receiving element of the FOT 7 (see Fig. 5) incorporated in the FOT housing portion 8 is consistent with that of the optical fiber exposed to the end surface of the ferrule of the mate optical connector fitted in the connector fitting portion 9 In this embodiment, the securing piece 3 for holding the optical connector 1 to the circuit board 2 is formed as a screwing piece A pair of securing pieces 3 are formed so as to agree with the rear surface of the optical connector housing 4 (the pair of securing pieces 3 are arranged on both sides in the right-and-left direction indicated by arrow Q) in the vicinity of the securing piece 3, a ground pin guiding area ii through which a ground pin 10 of the shield case 5 passes is formed The optical connector housing 4 has four corners At the one corner 12 of them, a pressing piece 1 3 is formed integrally The pressing piece 13 will be concretely explained below In the present embodiment, the pressing piece is formed on the upper wall 14 of the optical connector housing 4 (another example of the pressing piece will be explained later) The pressing piece 13 is formed in a low rib shape projecting upward The pressing piece 13 is formed to extend straight in the front-and-back direction indicated by arrow R. The pressing piece 13 is located at the position corresponding to the overlapping portion 15 of the shield case 5 described later. The height of the pressing piece 13 is set for the size enough to ensure the contact at the overlapping portion 15 described later. Since the pressing piece 13 is formed in the rib shape as described above, it can be easily machined by molding to set the height precisely.

Referring to Figs 1A, 2 and 4, the shield case 5 is formed in a substantially box shape by bending a conductive metallic plate (In the present embodiment, the shield case 5 is formed in the substantially box shape to open in the front-and-back direction indicated by arrow K This is because the optical connector 1 is assembled with the circuit board 2 in a substantially perpendicular direction thereto) The shield case 5 is formed to cover the optical connector housing 4 incorporating the FOT 7, thereby providing the measure against electromagnetic noise.

The shield case 5 includes the overlapping portion 15 at the position of the ends closed by bending the metallic plate. The overlapping portion 15 includes an upper overlapping portion 16 and a lower overlapping portion 17 which overlap each other over a predetermined width. The overlapping portion 15 is formed to extend in the front-and-back direction indicated by arrow R. in the shield case 5, since the upper overlapping portion 16 and lower overlapping portion 17 are kept in contact with each other, conduction can be ensured over the entire periphery of the shield case The sure contact between the upper overlapping portion 16 and the lower overlapping portion 17 is given by the presence of the pressing piece 13 of the optical connector housing 4 The upper overlapping portion 16 is located at the corner of the shield case 5, in other words the corner 12 of the optical connector housing 4 The upper overlapping portion 16 is formed to be a bent piece The upper overlapping portion 16 is located at the position (corner) where the shield case 5 is hard to be deformed in the present embodiment, the upper overlapping portion 16 and lower overlapping portion 17 are brought into contact with each other between their fiat planes (This is exemplary) Since the upper overlapping portion 16 is formed in the bent piece shape as described above, even when the lower overlapping portion 17 is strongly pressed thereon from below, the upper overlapping portion 16 can hold the lower overlapping portion 17 down Thus, the contact between the upper overlapping portion 16 and the lower overlapping portion 17 can be surely kept Besides, by this holding-down stress, it is possible to keep the shape of the shield case 5 itself without being deformed in the shield case 5, reference numeral 18 denotes a recess for the holding piece 3 of the optical connector housing 4 The ground pin 10 of the shield case 5 is located adjacently to the recess 18 The segment 19 of the ground pin 10 is held by the ground pin guiding piece 11 of the optical connector housing 4 Referring to Fig 5, the FOT 7 includes an optical element sealing segment 20 and a plurality of L-shaped lead pins 21 The optical element sealing segment 20 is formed as the portion where a predetermined optical element, for example light-emitting element or light-receiving element, is sealed by a light permeable material The plurality of L-shaped lead pins 21 are formed so as to extend from the optical element sealing part 20 and to have the L-shape The plurality of L-shaped lead pins 21 are formed by bending straight lead pins, respectively The L-shaped lead pin 21 includes a base-side pin segment 22 and a tip-side pin segment 23 Referring to Fig 2, the cover member 6 is a substantially square plate member which can cover the FOT housing portion 8 of the optical connector housing 4 by slide mounting The cover member 6 presses the FOT 7 (see Fig 5) accommodated in the FOT housing portion 8 forward to hold the FOT and also keeps its held state.

In the structure described above, the sleeve is mounted in the cylindrical portion of the above partition through the FOT housing portion 8 of the optical connector housing 4 and thereafter two FOTs 7 are accommodated in the FOT housing portion 8, respectively Thus, the plurality of L-shaped lead pins 21 of the FOT 7 are held at their base-side pin segments 22 (or bent segments 24 (See Fig 5)) by lead holding portions (not shown) formed in the FOT housing portion 8 Further, the plurality of L-shaped lead pins 21 are arranged so that their tip- side pin segments 23 are projected outwardly while being placed on the inner face of the lower wall of the FOT housing portion 8 The tip-side pin segments 23 are aligned to form a rank When the cover member 6 is sliding-mounted in the FOT housing portion 8 after the FOTs 7 have been accommodated, the cover member 6 is retained to the FOT housing portion 8 Finally, the shield case 5 is assembled to cover the optical connector housing 4 Thus, the optical connector I is completed. The tip-side pin segments 23 of the plurality of L-shaped lead pins 21 protruding outwardly are inserted into the predetermined positions of the circuit board 2 and soldered there Thus, mounting of the optical connector I on the circuit board is completed (see Fig 1A) At the time of assembling the shield case 5, as the optical connector housing 4 is covered with the shield case 5 in assembling the shield case 5, as seen from Fig lB.

the overlapping portion 15 of the shield case S is pushed upward at the lower overlapping portion 17 by the pressing piece 13 of the optical connector housing 4 Thus, the lower overlapping portion 17 is pressed on the upper overlapping portion 16 As a result, the upper overlapping portion 16 and the lower overlapping portion 17 are brought into contact with each other, thereby ensuring the conduction over the entire periphery of the shield case 5 Accordingly, the shield case 5 can show excellent shielding performance In the optical connector 1 according to this embodiment, conduction can be ensured over the entire periphery of the shield case 5 without connecting the overlapping portion 15 of the shield case 5 by a separate process. For this reason, the optical connector I also contributes to reduction of the number of manufacturing processes -Next, referring from Figs.6A to Fig 6C and Fig.7A to Fig 7D, an explanation of other examples of the pressing piece will be given Fig. 6A is a view showing the overlapping portion and pressing piece Figs. 6B and 6C are views for explaining the shape of the pressing piece Further, Fig. 7A is a view showing the overlapping portion and pressing piece. Figs 7B is a view for explaining the shape of the pressing piece of Fig 7A Figs 7C and D are views showing another example of the overlapping portion and pressing piece Referring to Fig 6A, the overlapping portion 32 of a shield case 3 1 includes an upper overlapping portion 33 (assumed the same as the above upper overlapping portion 16) and a lower overlapping portion 34 The lower overlapping portion 34 has a downward-oriented pressing piece 35 The downward-oriented piece 35 is formed in a rib shape as shown in Fig 6B or in a protrusive shape as shown in Fig 6C (it is formed by embossing) When the tip of the downward-oriented pressing piece is brought into contact with the upper wall 14 of the optical connector housing 4, the lower overlapping portion 34 is pushed up so that its contact surface 36 is brought into face-contact with the upper overlapping portion 33 Referring to Fig. 7A, the overlapping portion 42 of a shield case 41 includes an upper overlapping portion 43 (assumed the same as the above upper overlapping portion 16, 33) and a lower overlapping portion 44 The lower overlapping portion 44 has a downward-oriented pressing piece 45 The downward-oriented piece 45 is formed in a rib shape as shown in Fig 7B (the rib shape is formed by bending the end) When the tip of the downward-oriented pressing piece 45 is brought into contact with the upper waIl 14 of the optical connector housing 4, the lower overlapping portion 44 is pushed up so that its contact face 46 is brought into face-contact with the upper overlapping portion 43, Referring to Fig 7C, the overlapping portion 52 of a shield case Si comprises an upper overlapping portion 53 (assumed the same as the above upper overlapping portion 16 and others) and a lower overlapping portion 54 The lower overlapping portion 54 has an upward-oriented pressing piece 55 The downward-oriented pressing piece 55 is formed in a rib shape as shown in Fig. 6B or in a protrusive shape as shown in Fig oC (it is formed by embossing) When the lower face 56 of the lower overlapping portion 54 is brought into contact with the upper wall 14 of the optical connector housing 4, the upper-oriented pressing piece 55 is brought into line-contact or point-contact with the upper overlapping portion 53 so as to push up it Referring to Fig 7D, the overlapping portion 52 of the shield case 51 comprises the upper overlapping portion 53 (assumed the same as the above upper overlapping portion 16 and others) and the lower overlapping portion 54 The lower overlapping portion 54 has the upward-oriented pressing piece 55 With respect to the pressing piece, the pressing piece 13 is also formed on the upper wall 14 of the optical connector housing 4. The upward-oriented pressing piece 55 is formed in the shape as described above When the lower face 56 of the lower overlapping portion 54 (or the opposite side of the upward-oriented pressing piece 55)is brought into contact with the pressing piece 13 of the optical connector housing 4, the lower overlapping portion 54 is pushed up and the upward-oriented pressing piece 55 is brought into line-contact or point-contact with the upper overlapping portion 53 so as to push up it It is needless to say that other various changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED iS: I A contact structure comprising.

an optical connector housing; a box shaped conductive shield case including an upper over lapping portion and a lower overlapping portion overlapped each other, and a first pressing piece which is provided on at least one of the lower overlapping portion and the optical connector housing and presses the lower overlapping portion onto the upper overlapping portion so as to keep the lower and upper overlapping portion in contact when the shield case covers the optical connector housing 2 The contact structure according to claim 1, wherein the first pressing piece is formed in a protrusive shape 3 The contact structure according to claim!, wherein the first pressing piece is formed in a rib shape 4 The contact structure according to claim 1, wherein the shield case is formed by bending a metallic plate into a box shape The contact structure according to claim4, wherein the upper overlapping portion is formed into a bent piece shape and located at a corner of the shield case 6 The contact structure according to claim I, wherein the optical connector housing accommodates Fiber Optic Transceiver 7 The contact structure according to claim 1, wherein the first pressing piece is formed on the lower overlapping portion and directed to the upper overlapping portion 8 The contact structure according to claim 1, wherein the first pressing piece is formed on the lower overlapping portion and directed to the optical connector housing 9 The contact structure according to claim 1, wherein the first pressing piece is formed on the optical connector housing and directed to the lower overlapping portion.

The contact structure according to claim 1 further comprising a second pressing piece, wherein the first pressing piece is formed on the lower overlapping portion and the second pressing portion is formed on the optical connector housing II. A box shaped conductive shield case for accommodating an optical connector housing, the shield case comprising a main body formed by bending a metallic plate, an upper overlapping portion and a lower overlapping portion overlapped each other, and a pressing piece provided on the lower overlapping portion