CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This non-provisional application claims priority to and the benefit of, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119(a), patent application Serial No. CN201911024579.4 filed in China on Oct. 25, 2019. The disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

Some references, which may include patents, patent applications and various publications, are cited and discussed in the description of this disclosure. The citation and/or discussion of such references is provided merely to clarify the description of the present disclosure and is not an admission that any such reference is “prior art” to the disclosure described herein. All references cited and discussed in this specification are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties and to the same extent as if each reference were individually incorporated by reference.

FIELD

The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector used to transmit high frequency signals.

BACKGROUND

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

With the current development of electronic technology, electrical connectors play an important role in the electronic technology field. With the velocity of the signal transmission becoming faster, the requirements for the electrical connectors become higher, which require the electrical connector assembly to support rapid transmission velocity and to enhance the stability of the signal transmission of the electrical connectors.

An existing electrical connector is used to be electrically connected to a mating member, and includes an insulating body and a plurality of terminals provided in the insulating body. The insulating body has an insertion slot used to be inserted by the mating member. The insertion slot is formed by being concavely provided downward from a top surface of the insulating body. The insulating body is provided with two side walls at two opposite sides of the insertion slot. Each side wall has a plurality of accommodating slots. The terminals include a plurality of signal terminals and a plurality of ground terminals. The signal terminals and the ground terminals are correspondingly assembled upwardly into the accommodating slots. Each terminal is a thin and long structure. Each terminal has a fixing portion retained to the corresponding accommodating slot, and an elastic arm formed by obliquely extending upward from the fixing portion. The elastic arm has a contact portion protruding into the insertion slot. The contact portion is used to be in contact with the mating member to form electrical connection therebetween. A soldering portion is formed by extending downward from the fixing portion. The soldering portion is used to be soldered to a circuit board.

For convenience of assembly of the terminals, the accommodating slots are provided to be larger, thus resulting in air being filled in the space surrounding each of the terminals, and the dielectric coefficient of the surrounding environment of each signal terminal is small. Further, each signal terminal is a thin and long structure, which has a large inductive resistance and a small capacitive resistance, thus not satisfying the matching impedance of the signal terminal required for transmission of high frequency signals.

Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need to design a novel electrical connector exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

SUMMARY

In view of the deficiency of the background, the present invention is directed to an electrical connector, which is additionally provided with an insulating plug member close to the signal terminal, thus enhancing the dielectric coefficient of the surrounding environment of the signal terminal, adjusting the impedance of the signal terminal, and satisfying the matching impedance of the signal terminal required for transmission of high frequency signals.

To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention adopts the following technical solutions.

An electrical connector is configured to be inserted with a mating member. The electrical connector includes: an insulating body, having a mating surface, wherein an insertion slot is concavely provided on the mating surface, a slot bottom surface is formed on a concave direction of the insertion slot, the insertion slot is configured to accommodate the mating member, the insulating body has two side walls located at two sides of the insertion slot, one of the two side walls is provided with at least one ground accommodating slot and at least one signal accommodating slot, and the signal accommodating slot and the ground accommodating slot are respectively in communication to the insertion slot; a plurality of terminals, provided on at least one of the two side walls, wherein each of the terminals has a contact portion protruding into the insertion slot and configured to be electrically connected to the mating member, the terminals comprise at least one signal terminal and at least one ground terminal, the signal terminal is correspondingly accommodated in the signal accommodating slot, and the ground terminal is correspondingly accommodated in the ground accommodating slot; and an insulating plug member, mounted to the insulating body, wherein a side of the insulating plug member facing the mating surface is provided with a first portion corresponding to each of the at least one signal accommodating slot, and a second portion corresponding to each of the at least one ground accommodating slot, the first portion is provided closer to the mating surface than the second portion, and the first portion is accommodated in the corresponding signal accommodating slot and is provided closer to the mating surface than the slot bottom surface.

In certain embodiments, each of the at least one signal terminal has a fixing portion retained to the corresponding signal accommodating slot, the first portion abuts the corresponding fixing portion in a direction away from the insertion slot, an elastic arm is formed by extending from the fixing portion toward the mating surface, and the contact portion is located on the elastic arm.

In certain embodiments, the first portion is provided with a protruding rib formed by protruding toward the corresponding fixing portion, and the protruding rib and the corresponding fixing portion are in interference fit.

In certain embodiments, each of the two side walls is provided with at least one signal accommodating slot and at least one ground accommodating slot arranged in a row, the terminals are provided in two rows on the two side walls respectively, each row of the terminals comprises at least one signal terminal and at least one ground terminal, the insulating plug member is provided with a plurality of first portions, and the first portions of the insulating plug member abut the fixing portions of the signal terminals in two rows to fix the insulating plug member.

In certain embodiments, each of the at least one signal terminal has a fixing portion retained to the corresponding signal accommodating slot, an elastic arm is formed by extending obliquely from the fixing portion toward the mating surface and the insertion slot, the contact portion is located on the elastic arm, the first portion has a first oblique surface, and the first oblique surface extends obliquely toward the mating surface and the insertion slot and is provided facing the corresponding elastic arm.

In certain embodiments, the insulating body is provided with a second oblique surface corresponding to each of the at least one signal accommodating slot, the second oblique surface extends obliquely toward the mating surface and the insertion slot, the elastic arm is located between the corresponding first oblique surface and the corresponding second oblique surface, and gaps exist respectively between the elastic arm and the corresponding first oblique surface and between the elastic arm and the corresponding second oblique surface.

In certain embodiments, the insulating body has a protruding portion protruding correspondingly toward each of the at least one signal accommodating slot, the protruding portion is formed by protruding toward the insertion slot, the protruding portion is provided closer to the mating surface than the corresponding first portion, and the protruding portion has the second oblique surface.

In certain embodiments, the second oblique surface and the corresponding first oblique surface are parallel to each other.

In certain embodiments, the first portion has a first surface facing the insertion slot, and the first surface is provided to be recessed relative to a slot wall of the insertion slot.

In certain embodiments, the terminals on the one of the side walls are arranged along a longitudinal direction, each of the at least one signal accommodating slot has two slot walls provided opposite to each other in the longitudinal direction, and a gap exists between each of the two slot walls of the signal accommodating slot and the corresponding first portion in the longitudinal direction.

In certain embodiments, the one of the two side walls is provided with two adjacent signal accommodating slots and two ground accommodating slots, the two adjacent signal accommodating slots are located between the two ground accommodating slots, two signal terminals accommodated in the two adjacent signal accommodating slots are configured to transmit differential signals.

In certain embodiments, each of the two side walls is provided with at least one signal accommodating slot and at least one ground accommodating slot arranged in a row, the insulating body has a partition extending from the slot bottom surface toward a direction away from the mating surface, the partition separates the two rows of the signal accommodating slot and the ground accommodating slot on the two side walls from each other, and a gap exists between the first portion and the partition.

In certain embodiments, the second portion is provided farther away from the mating surface than the slot bottom surface.

In certain embodiments, the second portion is completely located at an outer side of one end of the corresponding ground accommodating slot away from the mating surface.

In certain embodiments, the insulating body has a protruding portion protruding correspondingly toward each of the at least one signal accommodating slot, the protruding portion is formed by protruding toward the insertion slot, the protruding portion is provided closer to the mating surface than the corresponding first portion, each of the at least one signal terminal has a fixing portion retained to the corresponding signal accommodating slot, an elastic arm is formed by extending obliquely from the fixing portion toward the mating surface and the insertion slot, the contact portion is located on the elastic arm, and the protruding portion is provided to be close to the mating surface relative to the corresponding elastic arm.

In certain embodiments, the at least one signal accommodating slot and the at least one ground accommodating slot on the one of the side walls are arranged along a longitudinal direction, each of the at least one signal accommodating slot has two slot walls provided opposite to each other in the longitudinal direction, and the protruding portion connects the two slot walls of the corresponding signal accommodating slot.

In certain embodiments, each of the at least one signal accommodating slot runs through the mating surface, the insulating body is provided with a pre-pressurized block in each of the at least one signal accommodating slot, the pre-pressurized block is provided closer to the mating surface relative to the corresponding protruding portion and adjacent to the insertion slot, the protruding portion extends toward the insertion slot and does not pass beyond a side edge of the corresponding pre-pressurized block away from the insertion slot, each of the at least one signal terminal is provided with a pre-pressurized arm formed by extending from the contact portion toward the mating surface, and the pre-pressurized arm abuts the corresponding pre-pressurized block prior to the mating member being inserted into the insertion slot.

In certain embodiments, the insulating body has a foolproof portion located in the insertion slot, the foolproof portion is formed by extending from the slot bottom surface toward the mating surface, the foolproof portion divides the insertion slot into a long slot and a short slot having different lengths in a longitudinal direction, and the insulating plug member is mounted on a side of the insulating body corresponding to the long slot and away from the mating surface.

In certain embodiments, each of the terminals has a fixing portion and an elastic arm formed by extending from the fixing portion, the contact portion is provided on the elastic arm, the fixing portion of each of the at least one ground terminal retains to the corresponding ground accommodating slot, the fixing portion of each of the at least one signal terminal retains to the corresponding signal accommodating slot, the one of the two side walls is provided with a plurality of notches corresponding to the fixing portions of the terminals, each of the notches is connected to a corresponding one of the fixing portions of the terminals and runs outward through the corresponding side wall in a direction away from the insertion slot, a side of the one of the two side walls away from the insertion slot is covered by a metal member, the metal member is provided with at least one abutting arm extending toward a direction away from the mating surface, and the abutting arm passes through the notch corresponding to the fixing portion of the ground terminal and abuts the fixing portion of the ground terminal.

In certain embodiments, the metal member has a strengthening portion, the strengthening portion is a protrusion formed on the metal member toward the direction away from the insertion slot, and the strengthening portion is provided closer to the mating surface relative to the abutting arm.

In certain embodiments, the metal member shields the notches corresponding to the fixing portions of the signal terminals on the corresponding side wall.

Compared with the related art, the electrical connector according to certain embodiments of the present invention has the following beneficial effects.

By additionally providing the insulating plug member, the insulating plug member is provided with a first portion corresponding to the signal accommodating slot and a second portion corresponding to the ground accommodating slot. The first portion is provided closer to the mating surface of the insulating body than the second portion. That is, the change to the dielectric coefficient of the surrounding environment of the signal terminal by the insulating plug member is greater than the change to the dielectric coefficient of the surrounding environment of the ground terminal. Such configuration may be used to adjust the impedance of the signal terminal, and to satisfy the matching impedance of the signal terminal required for transmission of high frequency signals.

These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the following drawings, although variations and modifications therein may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the disclosure.

