US 6,186,823 B1Granted

Electrical connector

AssigneeThe Whitaker Corporation

InventorsHiroyuki Obata, Tsukasa Ito, Takashi Futatsugi, Yoshinori Watanabe

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

The present invention provides an electrical connector (1) which has a flexible printed circuit (FPC) and slider, in which the manufacturing cost is low, and the assembly work is simple. The electrical connector (1) is equipped with an insulating housing (10) having a plurality of electrical terminals (21, 22), an FPC (30) has a plurality of conductive pads formed on its surface and both sections (31, 32) of which are electrically connected to the terminals (21, 22), and a slider (50) is clamped within the FPC (30). A lower surface of second section (32) of the FPC (30) is folded back and fastened to a lower surface of the first section (31) of the FPC (30). Prescribed terminals (21) are electrically connected to conductive pads (35a) on an upper surface of the first section (31) of the FPC (30), while prescribed terminals (22) of the other terminals (22) are electrically connected to conductive pads (35b) on an upper surface of the second section (32) of the FPC (30). The housing (10) is a single integral member which is formed by molding from an insulating resin.

Claims9

Dependent claims

An electrical connector comprising:

an insulating housing having a plurality of electrical terminals protruding from a wall thereof;
a flexible printed circuit having a generally rectangular shape and divided at a center thereof into a first section and a second section;
conductive pads on an upper surface of the flexible printed circuit extending thereacross on each side of a center line of the flexible printed circuit so that first conductive pads are located on the first section and second conductive pads are located on the second section;
a slider member disposed on a lower surface of the second section and the first section is folded back and fastened to the second section so that lower surfaces of the first and second sections extend along each other with the slider member therebetween adjacent the center line;
and
wherein the first section is positioned between the wall and the second section along a portion of the wall and each end of the first section and the second section is electrically connected to the plurality of the electrical terminals with prescribed electrical terminals of the plurality of electrical terminals being electrically connected to the first conductive pads on the upper surface of the first section and prescribed electrical terminals of the plurality of electrical terminals being electrically connected to the second conductive pads on the upper surface of the second section.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.