Electrical connector with enhanced grounding characteristics
AssigneeMolex Incorporated
InventorsMasanori Yagi, Atsuhito Noda
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrical connector having enhanced grounding characteristics utilizes an insulating housing with a plurality of conductive terminals mounted inside, and a metal grounding shield covering the connector housing. The grounding shield has at least one grounding lead piece formed integrally therewith and bent inwardly. The grounding lead extends into contact with a selected terminal inside of the connector to thereby function as a grounding terminal to provide a convenient grounding path in close proximity to the grounding circuit when high-frequency current signals are induced in the grounding shield.
Claims21
In an electrical connector having an elongated connector housing formed from an insulative material, the housing having a recess extending longitudinally therein between opposing ends, the housing recess being defined at least in part by a pair of connector sidewalls, a plurality of conductive terminals arranged along opposing interior surfaces of said connector sidewalls, and a metal grounding shield disposed on exterior surfaces of said connector and which is aligned with said terminals, the improvement comprising:
- at least one of said conductive terminals being a grounding terminal, and the grounding shield having at least one grounding lead formed therein and extending through corresponding openings formed in said connector housing and into electrical contact with said grounding terminal of said connector terminals to define a groundpath between said grounding shield and said grounding terminal.
An electrical connector with enhanced grounding characteristics, comprising:
- a connector housing formed from an insulative material, the connector housing having an elongated body portion, the connector housing having a circuit component-receiving recess defined in said connector body portion by two opposing sidewalls extending longitudinally along said connector body portion on opposite sides of said circuit component-receiving recess, said connector housing having two end portions joining said sidewalls together;
- a plurality of conductive terminals disposed in said circuit component-receiving recess and arranged in a predetermined order within said circuit component-receiving recess, said terminals being disposed adjacent opposite surfaces of said circuit component-receiving recess, the terminals having contact portions disposed within said circuit component-receiving recess, solder tail portions extending out of said connector housing and positioned for attachment to a plurality of associated circuit pads on an associated printed circuit board, and said terminals having body portions intermediate of said contact and solder tail portions thereof and extending within said connector housing body portion;
- a conductive grounding member disposed along exterior surfaces of said connector housing in alignment with said terminals such that said insulative housing separates said grounding member from said terminals, the grounding member having a plurality of individual grounding leads formed therein which extend from said grounding member through said housing into electrical contact with a like plurality of corresponding grounding terminals of said connector terminals to thereby establish a plurality of distinct groundpaths between said grounding member and said corresponding grounding terminals at selected intervals along the length of said connector to thereby shorten the distance from any non-grounding terminal to any of said groundpaths to a fractional value of said connector length.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.