JP3076499B2 - Electrical connector for PC card - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electrical connector for a PC card.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electrical connector for a PC card, measures are taken for shielding and grounding.

In the connector disclosed in JP-A-6-162282, a protrusion is provided on a metal plate for inserting and removing a PC card in the connector, and a ground terminal is attached to an insulating guide member. By providing a tongue on the terminal and bringing the tongue into contact with a metal plate, the protrusion is brought into contact with shields formed on both sides of the PC card, and the ground of the circuit board to which the ground terminal contacts through the ground terminal. It is connected to a circuit.

[0004] Recently, many PC cards have a contact piece for contacting the ground terminal on the side surface, instead of contacting the ground terminal at the shield portions on both sides. Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 6-38180 is suitable for such a PC card, and the ground terminal corresponding to the tongue piece comes into contact with a grounding contact piece provided on a side surface of the PC card.

[0005] Further, there is known an apparatus in which a shield is grounded through a housing of an apparatus in which a connector is used. For example, a ground terminal on which a plurality of elastic tongues are arranged is provided on the connector side, and these elastic tongues are brought into contact with the housing of the device when the connector is attached to the device, and are also in contact with the PC card. Grounding is also performed from the housing through the ground terminal.

[0006]

The above-mentioned three types of grounding in the connector exert their effects in their respective applications. However, once the type is determined and the connector is designed and manufactured, the type cannot be changed.

Further, there are times when it is desired to ground both from the circuit board and the housing, but neither type can cope with this.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem and to provide an extremely easy-to-use electrical connector for a PC card which can be selectively grounded from either a circuit board or a housing or from both.

[0009]

According to the present invention, an object of the present invention is to provide a PC having at least a side surface provided with a contact piece for grounding.
For a PC card having a guide member made of an insulator for guiding and receiving a card in the direction of the side surface of the PC card, and a ground terminal attached to the guide member and in contact with the contact piece of the PC card when insertion is completed. In the electrical connector, the guide member has a concave portion formed at least in a side portion to be opened upward, a conductive intermediate member is housed in the concave portion, and a support portion below the concave portion and the intermediate member are coaxial. The ground terminal has a contact portion that resiliently contacts the side surface of the intermediate member, and the intermediate member and the guide member are formed by a screw member that penetrates both holes. This is achieved by being able to be fixed to

[0010]

According to the present invention having such a configuration, the PC card contacts the contact portion of the ground terminal at the contact piece, and is grounded to the ground circuit of the circuit board via the ground terminal, or together with this grounding, the ground terminal. Through the intermediate member to the housing of the apparatus. The selection of the grounding is determined by the size of the intermediate member, and when the upper surface of the intermediate member housed in the recess matches the upper surface of the guide member,
The ground member attached to the housing attached to the guide surface and the intermediate member are connected, so that the housing can be grounded. When the intermediate member is immersed in the concave portion, the intermediate member functions only as a nut for fixing the screw member, and the ground is grounded to the circuit board through the ground terminal.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a PC in a connector.
A guide member for guiding the card and holding the card at the side, and is made of an insulating material. The guide member 1 includes:
Guide grooves 2 and 3 for inserting a PC card (not shown) in the direction of arrow A are formed in parallel. The guide member 1 is provided with other guide members symmetrically so as to oppose each other on the side of the guide grooves 2 and 3 so as to guide both sides of the PC card.

The guide member 1 has an outwardly swelling portion 4 at a position corresponding to a grounding contact piece provided on a side surface of the PC card when the PC card is inserted to a predetermined position. Here, a concave portion 5 opened upward and laterally is formed.

A supporting portion 5A formed on the bottom surface of the concave portion 5
A cylindrical hole 6 penetrating downward is formed substantially at the center of the guide member 1, and a slit 7 penetrating downward at a position below the side surface 5B extending in the longitudinal direction of the guide member 1 so as to form an extension of the side surface 5B. Are formed. The slit 7 is formed to be longer than the concave portion 5 in the longitudinal direction of the guide member 1 and has holding portions 7A and 7B for holding a part of a ground terminal described later inserted into the slit 7. I have. At the center of the slit 7, a groove 7C whose width is partially increased is formed. The slit 7 is formed as an extension slit 7D in a portion below the upper surface 1A of the guide member 1 in a direction ahead of the side surface 5D in the direction of the arrow A.

The recess 5 has cut grooves 8A, 8B extending laterally at lower portions of side surfaces 5C, 5D facing the guide member 1 in the longitudinal direction.

The intermediate member 10 shown is accommodated in the concave portion 5. In this embodiment, the intermediate member 10 is formed as a block made of a substantially rectangular parallelepiped conductive material, and has a bottom surface 5A and a side surface 5A of the concave portion 5.
B, 5C, 5D, and the upper surface 10A of the intermediate member 10 when housed in the recess 5.
Have a height dimension such that they are substantially flush with the upper surface 1A of the guide member 1. Also, the rectangular parallelepiped intermediate member 10
A projection 10C is provided at a lower portion of both end faces of the projection. The protruding portion 10C is shaped and dimensioned so as to be guided by the cut grooves 8A and 8B and not to come out upward when the intermediate member 10 is housed in the recess 5 from the side. or,
The intermediate member 10 is formed at its center with a cylindrical hole 10B penetrating vertically. The protrusion 10C is not essential in the present invention, and may be omitted and the intermediate member 10 may be inserted into the recess 5 from above.

A ground terminal 11 formed by punching and bending a plate member made of a conductive material is inserted into the slit 7 of the guide member 1. The ground terminal 11 has a flat portion 11A, a tongue-shaped contact portion 11C contoured by a U-shaped window 11B stamped and formed at the center of the flat portion 11A, and a lower end of the flat portion 11A. And an arm-shaped contact piece 11E extending from a side edge of the flat plate-shaped portion 11A. The lower end of the contact portion 11C is slightly inclined toward the leg portion 11D. When the flat plate portion 11A is inserted into the slit 7 from below, the lower end of the contact portion 11C has a groove 7C of the slit 7. It fits in.

The leg 11D of the ground terminal 11 has
Projection 11F embossed so as to project downward
Are formed. Further, a part of the contact piece 11E has a curved contact portion 11G that projects into the guide grooves 2 and 3 when the contact piece 11E is inserted into the extension slit 7D.
Are formed.

On the other hand, a grounding member 12 is disposed above the guide member 10 so as to come into contact with a housing (conductor) of the apparatus to which the connector of the present embodiment is mounted. The grounding member 12 is made of a metal plate having a length extending over two guide members 1, 1 forming a pair, and a hole 14 for a screw 13 is formed at an end portion. The grounding member 12 is provided with a plurality of resilient contact tongues 15 cut and raised from one edge, and is bent in the shape of a "H".

Next, the assembling procedure and principle of the connector of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

When assembling, first, the ground terminal 1
1 is inserted into the slit 7 of the guide member 1 from below. After passing through the slit 7, the flat portion 11A of the ground terminal 11 is located in contact with the side surface 5B of the concave portion 5, and the contact portion 11C
Is accommodated in a groove 7C of the slit 7. The arm-shaped contact piece 11E is positioned so as to be in contact with the bottom surfaces of the guide grooves 2 and 3 via the extension slit 7D. Insertion of the ground terminal 11 into the slit 7 is performed by the leg 11D.
Abuts against the lower surface of the guide member 1 and is positioned.

Next, the intermediate member 10 is housed in the recess 5 from the side. At this time, the protrusion 10C of the intermediate member 10 is
The intermediate member 10 is not guided upward by the projections 10C.

Thereafter, the ground member 12 is placed so as to extend over the two guide members 1 and 1, and the screw 13 is screwed into the hole 14 of the ground member 12, the cylindrical hole 10B of the intermediate member 10, and the cylindrical hole of the guide member 1. 6 and is fixed by a nut N on the lower surface of the circuit board P (see FIG. 2). In this state, the contact portion 11C of the ground terminal 11 is
Therefore, the grounding member 12 comes into contact with the intermediate member 10, the intermediate member 10 comes into contact with the ground terminal 11, and the ground terminal 11 comes into contact with the projection 11 </ b> F of the leg 11 </ b> D of the circuit board P. Since the ground terminal 11 comes into contact with the ground circuit, the ground terminal 11 is grounded to both the housing S side and the circuit board P side.

Thereafter, the connector of this embodiment is connected to a PC.
Insert the card. The PC card 20 is inserted into one or both of the guide grooves 2 and 3 of the guide member 1. In FIG. 2, the contact piece 21 of the inserted PC card 20 comes into contact with the contact portion 11G of the ground terminal 11, and as a result, the shield of the PC card 20 is grounded to the circuit board P side and the housing S side. You.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment is characterized in that a plate nut 25 made of a metal plate as shown in FIG. 3 is used as an intermediate member instead of the block member of the previous embodiment. This plate nut 2
5 has substantially the same planar shape as that of the block body of the previous embodiment, but has a screw hole 26 in which a female screw is formed in the center instead of a cylindrical hole.

This embodiment is suitable when the grounding to the housing side is not necessary. As shown in FIG. 4, the screw is passed through the lower surface of the circuit board P and is screwed into the screw hole 26 of the plate nut 25. Are fixed here.

Therefore, the PC card 20 is grounded to the circuit board P via the ground terminal 11.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to ground both the circuit board and the housing by selecting whether the intermediate member is a block body or a plate nut.
Alternatively, grounding only the circuit board can be used for both of them even with the same connector.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to ground the shield of the PC card not only to the circuit board but also to the housing by selectively using only the intermediate member, even though the connectors have the same configuration. Alternatively, only the ground to the circuit board may be used. In the former case, the grounding performance can be improved, and in the latter case, since there is no protrusion of the member for fixing the screw member upward, the connector can be made compact, and both can be freely selected. Therefore, the effect that the usability is improved is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a main part of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows the state of FIG. 1 in an assembled state of FIG.
It is II-II sectional drawing.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an intermediate member used in another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 2 when the intermediate part of FIG. 3 is used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Guide member 1A Upper surface of guide member 5 Concave part 5A Support part 6 Cylindrical hole (hole part) 8A, 8B Cut groove 10 Block body (intermediate member) 10C Projection part 11 Ground terminal 11C Contact part 20 PC card 21 Contact piece 25 Plate Nut (intermediate member) 26 Screw hole

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01R 13/648-13/658

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A guide member comprising an insulator for guiding and receiving a PC card provided with a grounding contact piece on at least a side surface thereof in the direction of the side surface of the PC card, and a guide member attached to the guide member when the insertion is completed. In a PC card electrical connector having a ground terminal that comes into contact with the contact piece of a PC card, the guide member has a recess formed on at least a side thereof to be opened upward, and the recess accommodates a conductive intermediate member. A supporting portion having a bottom surface of the concave portion as a supporting surface, and the intermediate member has a hole vertically penetrating on the same axis, and the ground terminal has a contact portion that makes elastic contact with a side surface of the intermediate member, The electric connector for a PC card, wherein the intermediate member and the guide member can be fixed to the circuit board by a screw member penetrating into both holes. 2. The intermediate member according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate member is a block body whose upper surface is flush with the upper surface of the guide member when housed in the recess, and the hole is a cylindrical body. The electrical connector for a PC card as described in the above. 3. The PC card electric device according to claim 1, wherein the intermediate member is a plate nut which is recessed from the upper surface of the guide member when housed in the recess, and the hole is a screw hole. connector. 4. The PC card electrical connector according to claim 1, wherein the concave portion is also opened to the side so that the intermediate member can be housed in the concave portion from the side. 5. The electrical connector for a PC card according to claim 4, wherein a cut groove for inserting a plate nut into the concave portion from the side is formed on an inner side surface of the concave portion. 6. The electrical connector for a PC card according to claim 5, wherein a protrusion having a thickness corresponding to a height direction width of the cut groove is formed on an opposing surface of the block body.