Electrical connector adapted for plural different mating connectors

An electrical connector adapted for at least two different mating connectors, comprising:

• an insulative housing having a base and a tongue forwardly extending from the base;
• a plurality of contacts retained in the insulative housing, the contacts comprising two pairs of outer contacts at two sides thereof and at least one middle contact between said two pairs of outer contacts, and each contact having a contact portion extending to the tongue;
• and
• a metal shell covering the insulative housing and having a top wall, a bottom wall and a pair of side walls, the side walls connecting the top wall and the bottom wall, the bottom wall having an protruding portion upwardly protruding from a middle thereof toward the tongue to form a first mating opening together with the top wall and the side walls, and two downward recessed portions on two opposite sides of the protruding portion to form a second mating opening together with the top wall, two side walls and the protruding portion;
• wherein the contour of the first mating opening corresponds to that of a standard Micro USB 2.0 receptacle connector, wherein the outer contacts and the at least one middle contact are all common mating conductors for both the two different mating connectors;
• wherein the tongue is located in a shared space of the first mating opening and the second mating opening, one of the two different mating connectors is a micro USB plug;
• and
• wherein the electrical connector comprises two said middle contacts, and the contact portions of said middle contacts define a distance therebetween along a transverse direction perpendicular to an up to down direction, and the distance is smaller than that between the contact portions of each pair of outer contacts.

An electrical connector system among a first receptacle connector and a corresponding mating first plug connector, and a second receptacle connector and a corresponding mating second plug connector for allowing the first receptacle connector to mutually exclusively mate with both the first and second plug connectors, said first receptacle connector including:

• an insulative housing including a mating tongue;
• a plurality of contacts disposed in the housing with contacting sections exposed upon the mating tongue;
• a shell enclosing the mating tongue and defining a pair of opposite longitudinal sides spaced from each other in a first direction, and a pair of opposite transverse sides spaced from each other in a second direction perpendicular to said first direction, said longitudinal sides and said transverse sides linked to one another alternately;
• and
• a first one of the longitudinal sides extending in a straight manner along a longitudinal direction, which is same with the second direction, while a second one of the longitudinal sides extending in a double-offset manner along said longitudinal direction and having a middle sections closer to the first one of the longitudinal sides and a pair of side sections relatively farther from the first one of the longitudinal sides;
• wherein
• during mating with the first plug connector, both the middle section and the pair of side sections are configured to be engaged with the first plug connector;
• during mating with the second plug connector, only the middle section is configured to be engaged with the second plug connector while the side sections are not, under condition that second receptacle connector, which is configured to be snugly compliantly mated with the second plug connector, is not configured to be allowed to be mated with the first plug connector;
• wherein
• the contacts of the first receptacle connector includes two pairs of outer contacts commonly sandwiching at least one middle contact which is essentially aligned with the middle section in a vertical direction which is same with the first direction;
• wherein
• a pair of oblique sections are located between the middle section and the pair of side sections, and the dimension of the mating tongue in the longitudinal direction is essentially same to a sum of the middle section and the pair of oblique sections;
• and wherein
• a pair of chamfered structures are respectively formed on the corresponding pair of transverse sides and located between the corresponding pair of longitudinal sides.