Connector with two-piece housing

[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/122,102, filed Dec. 12, 2008, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

[0002] The present invention relates generally to connector housings, and more particularly to connector housings used for connectors with terminals supported by wafers.

[0003] Connectors are well known in the art. As data rates have increased and stacked connectors have become more common, connectors have begun to utilize terminal assemblies that are inserted into a connector housing rather than single terminals stitched into the housing. These terminal assemblies often are formed as wafers that have a plastic frame that supports a plurality of conductive terminals. Thus, a connector may include a number of wafers supported by a housing. One problem encountered in the electronic industry is that the trend toward reducing the size of the electronic devices can lead to the use of connector housings that have reduced structural reliability.

[0004] Connector housings tend to be molded from a plastic resin and at present, care must be taken to ensure that the housing walls are made thick enough to prevent the walls from warping or bowing and either complicating, or preventing all together the insertion of all of the terminal assemblies into the housing at once. If the walls are too thin, they tend to bow and thus reduce the dimensions of the housing interior to a point where the terminal assemblies can not be inserted as a mass but need to be inserted individually with pressure applied to the housing walls to counteract their bow. If tolerances are provided to allow the wafers to be inserted, then the position of the wafers with respect to the housing is difficult to control. Therefore, further improvements in the connector housing would be appreciated be certain individuals.

[0005] A connector housing includes a first section and a second section that are configured to be joined together and provide a hollow interior cavity that can support a set of wafers. The first section includes a first and second card slot, the card slots configured to receive a paddle card from an opposing connector. Each wafer can be configured to provide a desired terminal configuration and the wafers can be positioned in a predetermined configuration. Each of the wafers includes a first and second terminal, the first terminal configured to extend to the first card slot and the second terminal configured to extend to the second card slot. The terminals each include a contact end that is received in terminal-receiving cavities formed in the card slots and a tail portion configured to be mounted on a circuit board. Each wafer can be configured to engage the first section so as to secure an orientation of a first portion of the wafer that supports the contact end. The second section is configured to be positioned around three sides of the set of wafers and helps support an orientation of a second portion of the wafers.

[0017] The detailed description that follows describes exemplary embodiments and is not intended to be limited to the expressly disclosed combination(s). The embodiments depicted below illustrate an embodiment of a connector housing with a first and second section that interlocks together. As can be appreciated, this can provide the benefit of reducing the occurrence of long, unsupported lengths in the housing so as to avoid bowing. Other benefits include the ability to facilitate mass production of the connectors by allowing the wafers in a connector to be inserted into the first section in a ganged manner (e.g., all at once) after being supported by the second section. Of course, the depicted design can provide various benefits, depending on its configuration and the selection of the partial features that are included will be based on design needs of the particular connector. Accordingly, the detailed description that follows is not intended to be limited to the illustrated embodiments but instead is intended to cover other combinations of features that are disclosed but might not be included in the particular combination for purposes of brevity.

[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates a connector 20 having a housing 22 formed in two pieces, a first section 24 and a second section 25. The connector 20, as best shown in FIG. 2, includes a plurality of wafers 26 (e.g., a set of wafers 29) that are arranged in side-by-side order. Each wafer 26 supports a plurality of conductive terminals 28 that each include a contact portion 30, a tail portion 31 and a body portion 32 interconnecting the contact and tail portions 30, 31 together. The terminals 28 are supported by a dielectric support 33. The support 33 may include openings shown in the form of slots 34 that follow the path of the terminals 28 through the wafer 33.

[0019] The connector housing 22 is shown with two slots 38 into which edge cards (not shown) may be inserted. The slots 38 may extend forwardly of a front wall 41 as shown. The receptacle portions have a plurality of terminal grooves 39 formed on each side of the slots 38. Each terminal groove 39 can receive a single contact portion 30 of a terminal 28. Thus, for a connector with two slots that are each two sided, a wafer 26 can include two pairs of terminals, each pair being associated with one of the two slots.

[0020] The terminals 28 in the set of wafers 29 can be configured so as to provide pairs of differential signal terminals with contact portions positioned in slots. This can be provided by having the terminals arranged in a ground, signal, signal arrangement with each terminal being position in a separate wafer and two or more pairs of signal terminals being positioned in each slot. In an embodiment, each wafer may be configured to only provide signal or ground terminals.

[0021] As illustrated, the connector housing has a width W, a height H and a depth D. Connectors that provide two card slots tend to utilize a housing with a depth that is greater than the height. Therefore, the housing tends to need to have long walls, which are prone to warping and other post molding damage. In order to mold such a housing effectively, the walls of the housing tend to be molded relatively thickly. The depicted configuration, however, allows for a deep connector without requiring thick walls.

[0022] The housing 21 can be seen to have a top wall 40, a front wall 41, two nose portions 42 that extend forwardly of the front wall 41. As shown in FIG. 2, the housing further has a rear wall 43 that closes off an interior cavity or space 44, that extends between the front and side walls 41, 43 and two opposing spaced apart side walls 45, 46.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 3, the engagement of the first and second section 24, 25 occurs along an irregular and non-linear engagement edge 53. One potential advantage of such a configuration is the ability to distribute forces over an area. A more regular engagement edge, however, may also be used if desired. The first section 24 has a pair of channels 54a, 54b formed in each of its two sidewalls. The channels 54a, 54b are spaced apart from each other in the vertical direction with one channel 54a being a lower or bottom channel and the other channel 54b being an upper channel.

[0024] The second section 25 has a pair of rails 55a, 55b that mate with corresponding channels 545a, 54b. The rails 55a, 55b preferably include grooves 56 formed in their upper surfaces 57 and these grooves 57 may receive raised ribs (not shown) formed in the upper surfaces of the two channels 54a, 54b. The rails 55a, 55b (and corresponding channels 54a, 54b) can have different lengths and need not be symmetrically located on both side walls 41,43. The bottom channel rails have a length L₁ while the top channel and rail each have a length L₂ which is greater than L₁. However, it is desirable that there is an intervening space, L_B interposed between the end of the upper channel 54b and the beginning of the lower channel 54a.

[0025] It should be noted, as can be appreciated from FIG. 10, if corresponding rails and channels are provided in a connector 120 that has a housing comprised of a first and second section 124, 125 and the first section 124 has two card receiving slots 138 that each have terminal grooves 129, the first section 124 could have a rail 155b and a channel 154a and the second section 125 could have a rail 155a and a channel 154b. Thus, placing either the rail and/or channel on a particular side is not critical and can be modified as desired. In general, however, it is beneficial for the second section to be able to wrap around three sides of the wafer set.

[0026] The depicted irregular nature of the mating edge is defined in part by a face 60 that extends (at an upward angle in the figures) between the two rails or channels. This face 60 intersects the axis of the rails or channels. The combination of the irregular shape of the mating face and the rails and channels helps allow the thickness of the housing to be reduced to between about 0.050 inches to 0.100 inches and in an embodiment can be 0.060 inch thick.

[0027] Furthermore, the irregular nature of the mating face projects one part of the rear housing piece 51 forward, i.e. the lower part while moving the remaining part, the top part with a short length. This configuration reduces the unsupported length of the lower part. This can best be understood with reference to FIG. 8. The dashed line at “G” represents the inner surface of the top wall 40 and it can be seen that the side wall and the upper channel 54b extend for a short height or along where they are joined to the top wall. So the top part 80 of the side wall of the housing front piece has a short unsupported dimension. This short unsupported height extends for a good part-almost half of the top length G₁. (FIG. 8.) That is, its height is small at the tailing edge of its mating edge. This short unsupported length is then not prone to bowing or warping of the molding. The leading edge of its mating edge that defines the lower part 81 of the housing front piece is also spaced closely to the inner surface R of the front wall 41 resulting in a short unsupported length G₂.

[0028] Similarly, as shown in FIG. 9, the second section also has an irregular mating face so that the side wall portions thereof have an unsupported length that is such that it does not bow or warp after molding. The rear wall 43 may have one or more registration lugs 90 disposed thereon and spaced apart from each other. These lugs can engage wafers with varying depth or can be configured to fit into notches 92 that are formed on the rear edges of selected terminal assembly wafers, such as wafers containing ground signals, in order to apply a pressure to the wafers and to control the set of wafer position with respect to the second section when the housing is assembled to ensure proper seating of the wafers in the connector housing.

[0029] The difference in lengths (in the depth direction) of the top and bottom channels or rails can provide the longer channel with a depth sufficient to initially guide the housing rear piece into place. In an embodiment, the upper channel 54b has a length in the depth direction that is between about 5 to about 10 times longer than the length of the lower channel 54a.

[0030] The disclosure provided herein describes features in terms of preferred and exemplary embodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications and variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occur to persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of this disclosure.