Terminal with card edge locking provisions

• US 6,932,659 B1
• Filed: 01/14/2004
• Issued: 08/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yazaki North America Incorporated (Yazaki Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yazaki North America Incorporated (Yazaki Corporation)
• Inventors: Wong, Richard P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Hien
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHUNG TRANS, XUONG MY
• Application Number:
  US10/757,916
• Time in Patent Office: 587 Days
• Field of Search: 439850-853, 439/857, 439/856, 439/59, 439/61, 439/62, 439352-353, 439357-358, 439/848, 439/849
• US Class Current: 439/853
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 11/22 End pieces terminating in a spring clip
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 12/721 cooperating directly with the edge of the rigid printed circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/113 co-operating with pins or blades having a rectangular transverse section
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/20 Pins, blades, or sockets shaped, or provided with separate member, to retain co-operating parts together

Abstract

A card edge terminal box-like configuration made from bending a stamped blank into the desired form. A pair of longer, lower spaced apart arms engage a trace side of a circuitboard while a pair of shorter upper arms having detents formed on the distal or free ends thereof engage an opposite surface of the circuitboard and have detent portions which snap into a slot which is strategically located in the non-trace surface of the circuitboard. A spring contact between the arms is resiliently deflected from a first raised position to a second lowered position as it engages the edge trace on the circuitboard. Stable mechanical and electrical association between the terminal and the circuitboard is assured over a wide variety of harsh operating environmental conditions.

Claims

1. A terminal for making electrical contact with a circuitboard having a slot and edge trace comprising:

a box-shaped conductive body having a first pair of laterally spaced arms to engage a trace surface of a circuitboard;

a second pair of laterally spaced arms to engage a second circuitboard surface opposite said trace surface, at least one of said second pair of arms having a detent portion integrally depending from a distal end thereof toward an arm of said first pair, such that the detent fits into said slot;

said pair of first arms being spaced apart from said second pair of arms to define a circuitboard receiving volume; and

a spring contact extending from at least one of the first pair of arms toward the second pair of arms and into said volume to engage said trace surface when a circuitboard is inserted into said volume between the first and second pairs of arms, wherein the body further includes integral means for receiving, gripping and making electrical contact with a wire conductor.

2. A terminal as defined in claim 1 wherein the arms of said second pair substantially directly overlie the arms of said first pair.

3. A terminal as defined in claim 1 wherein the conductive body is made of a material sufficiently flexible to permit the second pair of arms to flex away from the first pair of arms when a circuitboard is inserted into the volume.

4. A terminal as defined in claim 1 wherein the first pair of arms is longer than the second pair of arms.

5. A terminal as defined in claim 1 wherein the detent portion is lobe-shaped.

6. In combination:

a circuitboard having opposite planar surfaces, one of which carries a trace and the other of which has a slot formed therein; and

a terminal for making electrical contact with an edge trace on said circuitboard, said terminal comprising;

a box-shaped conductive body having a first pair of laterally spaced arms to engage a trace surface of a circuitboard;

a second pair of laterally spaced arms to engage a second circuitboard surface opposite said trace surface, at least one of said second pair of arms having a detent portion integrally depending from a distal end thereof toward an arm of said first pair such that the detent fits into said slot;

said pair of first arms being spaced apart from said second pair of arms to define a circuitboard receiving volume; and

a spring contact extending from at least one of the first pair of arms toward the second pair of arms and into said volume to engage said trace surface when a circuitboard is inserted into said volume between the first and second pairs of arms wherein the body further includes integral means for receiving, gripping and making electrical contact with a wire conductor.

7. The combination as defined in claim 6 wherein the arms of said second pair substantially directly overlie the arms of said first pair.