Electrical connector having common grounding

• US 10,135,197 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2017
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Foxconn Interconnect Technology Limited (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Foxconn Interconnect Technology Limited (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Little, Terrance F., Chou, Chih-Hsien, Zhao, Jim, Yang, An-Jen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hammond, Briggitte R
• Application Number:
  US15/715,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20180090887A1
• Time in Patent Office: 421 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 12/58 terminals for insertion into holes
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 12/724 containing contact members forming a right angle
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/6585 Shielding material individually surrounding or interposed between mutually spaced contacts
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/6594 the shield being mounted on a PCB and connected to conductive members

Abstract

An electrical connector includes an insulative housing defining a front cavity for receiving a plug and a rear cavity, a terminal assembly assembled in the rear cavity, and a ground member. The terminal assembly includes an upper terminal module, a lower terminal module, and a shielding module sandwiched therebetween. The upper terminal module includes a pair of upper ground terminals. The lower terminal module includes a pair of lower ground terminals. The shielding module includes a metallic shielding plate. The ground member is associated with the shielding module to mechanically and electrically connect at least one of the upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals with the shielding plate.

Claims

1. An electrical connector comprising:

an insulative housing defining a front cavity for receiving a plug and a rear cavity opposite to said front cavity in a front-to-back direction;

a terminal assembly assembled in the rear cavity and including an upper terminal module, a lower terminal module, and a shielding module sandwiched therebetween in a vertical direction perpendicular to said front-to-back direction, said upper terminal module including a plurality of upper terminals integrally formed with an upper insulator, said upper terminals comprising a pair of upper ground terminals and a pair of upper differential signal terminals disposed between the pair of upper ground terminals, said lower terminal module including a plurality of lower terminals integrally formed with a lower insulator, said lower terminals comprising a pair of lower ground terminals and a pair of lower differential signal terminals disposed between the pair of lower ground terminals, said shielding module including at least one metallic shielding plate;

wherein

a ground member is associated with the shielding module to mechanically and electrically connect at least one of the upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals with the shielding plate.

2. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ground member is mechanically and electrically connected all of the upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals with the shielding plate.

3. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 2, wherein said ground member is assembled with the shielding module to establish the mechanically and electrically connection between the shield plate and the upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals.

4. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 3, wherein the ground member comprises an insulator and a plurality of contacts received in the insulator, each of the contacts comprising an upper beam and a lower beam opposite to the upper beam and both of them extending beyond the insulator to mechanically and electrically connect upper ground terminal and the lower ground terminal, respectively.

5. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 4, wherein the insulator defines a plurality of horizontal passages, and the shield plate comprised a plurality of blades received in the horizontal passages to mechanically and electrically connect the contacts.

6. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 5, wherein the insulator defines a plurality of vertical passageways for receiving the contacts, the horizontal passages alternately arranged with the vertical passageways, the blades received within the corresponding horizontal passages sidewardly contacted the corresponding contacts.

7. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 4, wherein the upper insulator and the lower insulator defines a plurality of through holes for the upper beams and a lower beams extending through to mechanically and electrically connect upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals, respectively.

8. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 4, wherein at least one of the upper beam and a lower beam is a bifurcated dual beam structure.

9. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 2, wherein the ground member comprises a pair of flexible printed circuits, one of the flexible printed circuits mechanically and electrically connected the upper ground terminals with the shielding plate, the other flexible printed circuit mechanically and electrically connected the lower ground terminals with the shielding plate.

10. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 2, further comprising an upper metallic ground plate located upon an upper surface of the housing, the upper metallic ground plate comprising a plurality of fingers extending into the front cavity of the housing.

11. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 10, further comprising a lower metallic ground plate located upon a bottom surface of the housing, the lower metallic ground plate comprising a plurality of fingers extending into the front cavity of the housing.

12. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 11, wherein the spring fingers of the upper and lower metallic ground plate are mechanically and electrically connected to the upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals respectively when the plug is inserted into the front cavity of the housing.

13. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 12, wherein the housing defines a plurality of slots extending through an upper and a bottom wall for the fingers of the upper and the lower metallic ground plate extending into the front cavity of the housing.

14. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the upper and the lower ground terminals comprises a front free end longer than each of a front free end of the upper and the lower differential signal terminals.

15. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the upper and the lower terminals comprises a tail portion extending downwardly and beyond a bottom surface of the housing for being surface mounted on a printed circuit board, and the metallic shielding plate comprises a plurality shielding tail extending downwardly and beyond a top surface of the tail portions for being mounted on the printed circuit board by through hole manner.

16. An electrical connector for mounting to a printed circuit board, comprising:

an insulative housing defining a front cavity for receiving a plug and rear cavity opposite to said front cavity in a front-to-back direction; and

a terminal assembly assembled in the rear cavity and including an upper terminal module, a lower terminal module, and a shielding module sandwiched therebetween in a vertical direction perpendicular to said front-to-back direction, said upper terminal module including a plurality of upper terminals integrally formed with an upper insulator, said upper terminals comprising upper ground terminals and upper differential signal terminals, said lower terminal module including a plurality of lower terminals integrally formed with a lower insulator, said lower terminals comprising lower ground terminals and lower differential signal terminals, said shielding module including a metallic shielding plate integrally formed with a middle insulator;

wherein

a grounding member is associated with the shielding module to common both the upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals to the shielding plate;

wherein

the middle insulator aligns tails of the upper terminals in position for surface mounting to the printed circuit board.

17. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 16, wherein said middle insulator includes securing mechanism to directly fix to the housing.

18. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 16, wherein said middle insulator further align tails of the lower terminals in position for surface mounting to the printed circuit board.

19. An electrical connector for mounting to a printed circuit board, comprising:

an insulative housing defining a front cavity for receiving a plug and rear cavity opposite to said front cavity in a front-to-back direction;

a terminal assembly assembled in the rear cavity and including an upper terminal module, a lower terminal module, and a shielding module sandwiched therebetween in a vertical direction perpendicular to said front-to-back direction, said upper terminal module including a plurality of upper terminals integrally formed with an upper insulator, said upper terminals comprising upper ground terminals and upper differential signal terminals, said lower terminal module including a plurality of lower terminals integrally formed with a lower insulator, said lower terminals comprising lower ground terminals and lower differential signal terminals, said shielding module including a metallic shielding plate;

wherein

a grounding member is associated with the shielding module to contact immovable retaining sections of both the upper ground terminals and the lower ground terminals to the shielding plate;

wherein

at least one shielding/grounding plate is attached to the housing around the front cavity and includes a plurality of grounding fingers extending into the front cavity so as to respectively contact moveable contacting sections of at least either the upper ground terminals or the lower ground terminals when a module is inserted into the front cavity between the upper terminals and the lower terminals thereby resulting in two grounding points for the corresponding upper ground terminal or lower ground terminal.

20. The electrical connector as claimed in claim 19, wherein said grounding fingers support the moveable contacting sections of the corresponding terminals in the vertical direction.