Card edge connector having improved terminals

A card edge connector, used for connecting an electronic card to a printed circuit board and comprising:

• an insulative housing defining a central slot extending along a longitudinal direction, a plurality of first and second terminal slots located in opposite sides of the central slot and communicating with the central slot in a vertical direction perpendicular to said longitudinal direction;
• a plurality of first terminals retained in the first terminal slots, each of said first terminals defining a first retaining portion fixed in the insulative housing, a first contacting portion obliquely extending into the central slot and a first soldering portion extending out of the insulative housing;
• and
• a plurality of second terminals retained in the second terminal slots, each of said second terminals defining a second retaining portion fixed in the insulative housing, a second contacting portion upwardly and obliquely extending from the retaining portion into the central slot, and a second soldering portion extending out of the insulative housing;
• wherein
• each of the first and second retaining portions defines a pair of positioning portions interfering with the insulative housing in the longitudinal direction and being thinner than main part of the corresponding first and second retaining portion in the vertical direction, and each positioning portion defines an inclined portion adjacent to the corresponding first and second contacting portion so as to guide the conductive terminal to be inserted into the insulative housing easily along the mating direction.

An electrical connector comprising:

• an insulative housing defining a mating slot and at least one terminal slot communicating with said mating slot, said terminal slot extending along a front-to-back direction, and forming, on two opposite lateral sides along a transverese direction perpendicular to said front-to-back direction, a pair of step structures in a vertical direction perpendicular to both said front-to-back direction and said transverse direction;
• at least one terminal disposed within the housing and forming a contacting section exposed within the mating slot, a tail section exposed outside of the housing for mounting upon a printed circuit board, and a retaining section located between said contacting section and said tail section in the front-to-back direction, said retaining section further including a front pair of barb structures and rear pair of barb structures spaced from each other in the front-to-back direction and both located under said step structures;
• wherein
• each of the front pair of barb structures is equipped with a forwardly wedged structure along the front-to-back direction to form a guiding surface thereof for easing insertion of the terminal into the terminal slot.