CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/108,633, filed Aug. 22, 2018 and entitled “Assembly Method for a Printed Circuit Board Electrical Connector,” the content of which is relied upon and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Manufacture and assembly of electrical connectors, such as those configured for use with a printed circuit board, like micro D and D-shaped connectors, is often time consuming and cumbersome. That is because when assembling a standard micro D electrical connector, for example, numerous steps are required. Those steps can include removing the individual contacts from a reel, crimping each of those contacts, installing each of the crimped contacts into a holder, inserting the holder with the crimped contacts into a shell, adding thin potting layer to the shell, arranging and managing the contact terminations, and then adding thicker potting layer to the shell. The terminations are arranged and managed to provide the correct termination position for installation onto the printed circuit board. The thin and thick potting layers are added to secure the contacts in position and prevent shorts after termination management. The steps of adding the thin potting layer, adding the thicker potting layer, and contact termination management, in particular, make the manufacturing and assembly process inefficient and burdensome.

Therefore, a need exists for a method of assembling an electrical connector to be installed on a printed circuit board, that is efficient and eliminates time consuming and cumbersome steps.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure may provide a method of assembling an electrical connector, the electrical connector being configured for mounting to a printed circuit board, that comprises the steps of providing a plurality of contact wafers, each contact wafer including a plurality of contacts supported by a housing, wherein each of the plurality of contacts includes a mating end for engaging a mating connector and a tail end for electrically connecting to the printed circuit board, the mating and tail ends being exposed outside of the housing; bending the tail ends of each contact wafer; interleaving the contact wafers to form one or more contact wafer assemblies; loading the one or more contact wafer assemblies into an insert of the electrical connector, such that the one or more contact wafer assemblies form a predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts at a mating interface of the electrical connector; and inserting the insert, with the one or more contact wafer assemblies, into a shell of the electrical connector.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises the step of installing a contact support member at the tail ends of the contact wafers and the contact support member may include a plurality of conductive springs corresponding to each of the plurality of contacts. In some embodiments, the method may further comprise the step of coupling the insert, the shell, and the contact support together or the step of testing the electrical connector for electrical conductivity therethrough after the step of coupling the insert, the shell, and the contact support together; the step of coupling may include inserting at least one fastener through each of the insert, the shell, and the contact support member, the fastener being configured to engage the printed circuit board for mounting the electrical connector thereto; and/or the fastener may be configured to engage the printed circuit board for mounting the electrical connector thereto such that the one or more contact wafer assemblies are electrically connected to the printed circuit board via the tail ends of the plurality of contacts.

In certain embodiments, the method further comprised the step of soldering the tail ends of the plurality of contacts to the printed circuit board; no potting material or layer is added to the electrical connector; neither the step of loading the one or more contact wafer assemblies in the insert nor the step of inserting the insert into the shell, includes the step of managing the plurality of terminations; the method further comprises the step of combining at least two contact wafer assemblies to form the predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts; the contact wafers of one of the two contact wafer assemblies may have a different or the same number of plurality of contacts from one another; the contact wafers of the other of the two contact wafer assemblies may have a different or the same number of plurality of contacts from one another.

In other embodiments, the method may further comprise the step of selecting from the plurality of contact wafers at least two contact wafers that may have a different or the same number of the plurality of contacts from one another to form at least one of the contact wafer assemblies; each of the contact wafers has a different number of contacts from the other contact wafers; and/or the method may further comprise the step of combining at least two of the contact wafer assemblies to form the predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts.

The present disclosure may also provide a method of assembling an electrical connector, the electrical connector being configured for mounting to a printed circuit board, that comprises the steps of providing a plurality of contact wafers, each contact wafer including a plurality of contacts supported by a housing, wherein each of the plurality of contacts includes a mating end for engaging a mating connector and a tail end for electrically connecting to the printed circuit board, the mating and tail ends being exposed outside of the housing, and wherein at least one contact wafer is formed with four contacts, at least one contact wafer is formed with five contacts, and at least one contact wafer is formed with six contacts; interleaving the contact wafers to form one or more contact wafer assemblies; loading the one or more contact wafer assemblies into an insert of the electrical connector, such that the one or more contact wafer assemblies form a predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts at a mating interface of the electrical connector; and inserting the insert, with the one or more contact wafer assemblies, into a shell of the electrical connector.

In some embodiments, the step of interleaving includes interleaving one of the contact wafers with four, five, or six contacts with another of the contact wafers with four, five, or six contacts to form at least a first contact wafer assembly of the contact wafer assemblies; the step of interleaving includes interleaving one of the contact wafers with four, five, or six contacts with another of the contact wafers with four, five, or six contacts to form at least a second contact wafer assembly of the contact wafer assemblies; the method may further comprise the step of combining the first and the second contact wafer assemblies to form the predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts; the step of loading the contact assemblies into the insert includes loading the combined first and second contact wafer assemblies; each of the contact wafers with four, five, and six contacts includes at least one weakened area between the contacts; the method may further comprise the step of breaking at least one of the contact wafers with four, five, and six contacts at the at least one weakened area, thereby forming multiple contact wafers therefrom; and/or the method may further comprise the step of bending the tail ends of each contact wafer prior to the step of interleaving the contact wafers. In one embodiment, the predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality contacts at the mating interface of the electrical connector is one of a 9-position, a 15-position, a 21-position, a 25-position, a 31-position, a 37-position, a 41-position, a 51-position, a 69-position, or a 100-position or any other varying number of contacts as desired.

The present disclosure may further provide a method of assembling an electrical connector, the electrical connector being configured for mounting to a printed circuit board, that comprises the steps of bending the tail ends of each of a plurality of contact wafers, each contact wafer including a plurality of contacts supported by a housing, wherein each of the plurality of contacts includes a mating end for engaging a mating connector and a tail end for electrically connecting to the printed circuit board, the mating and tail ends being exposed outside of the housing; interleaving the contact wafers such that the mating ends thereof are substantially aligned with one another to form one or more contact wafer assemblies; loading the one or more contact wafer assemblies into an insert of the electrical connector, such that the one or more contact wafer assemblies form a predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts at a mating interface of the electrical connector; and inserting the insert, with the one or more contact wafer assemblies, into a shell of the electrical connector.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises the step of installing a contact support member at the tail ends of the contact wafers, wherein the contact support member includes a plurality of conductive springs corresponding to each of the plurality of contacts; further comprises the step of coupling the insert, the shell, and the contact support together; and/or further comprises the step of combining at least two contact wafer assemblies to form the predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts.

In other embodiments of the method, the step of coupling includes inserting at least one fastener through each of the insert, the shell, and the contact support member, and the fastener is configured to engage the printed circuit board for mounting the electrical connector thereto; the contact wafers of at least one of the two contact wafer assemblies have a different number of plurality of contacts from one another; and/or each of the contact wafers has a different number of contacts from the other contact wafers.

The present disclosure may further provide an electrical connector for a printed circuit board that comprises a mating interface for interfacing with a mating connector and one or more contact wafer assemblies. Each contact wafer assembly includes two interleaved contact wafers. Each contact wafer has a plurality of contacts supported by a housing and each of the plurality of contacts includes a mating end for engaging the mating connector and a tail end for electrically connecting to the printed circuit board wherein the mating and tail ends are exposed outside of the housing. The mating ends of the contact wafers of each contact wafer assembly are substantially aligned with one another. The one or more contact wafer assemblies form a predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts at the mating interface.

In certain embodiments, one or more of the contact wafer assemblies are combined to form the predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts; the combined contact wafer assemblies are supported by an insert; a contact support member is provided at the tail ends of plurality of contacts; the contact support member includes a plurality of conductive springs corresponding to each tail end of each of the plurality of contacts; and/or the insert is received in a shell, and the insert, the shell, and the contact support member are coupled together.

In other embodiments, each of the contact wafers is formed with four, five, or six contacts; each of the contact wafers has a different number of contacts from the other contact wafers; the contact wafers of at least one of the one or more contact wafer assemblies have a different number of plurality of contacts from one another; the contact wafers of the other of the two contact wafer assemblies have a different number of plurality of contacts from one another; each of the contact wafers has a weakened area between two adjacent contacts of the plurality of contacts for breaking the respective contact wafer; the predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality contacts at the mating interface of the electrical connector is one of a 9-position, a 15-position, a 21-position, a 25-position, a 31-position, a 37-position, a 41-position, a 51-position, a 69-position, or a 100-position; and/or the electrical connector is devoid of potting material.

The present disclosure may yet further provide an electrical connector for a printed circuit board that comprises a mating interface for interfacing with a mating connector and a plurality of contact wafer assemblies. Each contact wafer assembly includes two interleaved contact wafers. Each contact wafer has a plurality of contacts supported by a housing. Each of the plurality of contacts includes a mating end for engaging the mating connector and a tail end for electrically connecting to the printed circuit board, and the mating and tail ends are exposed outside of the housing. The mating ends of the contact wafers of each contact wafer assembly are substantially aligned with one another. The plurality of contact wafer assemblies form a predetermined arrangement of the mating ends of the plurality of contacts at the mating interface. A contact support member is provided at the tail ends of plurality of contacts and the contact support member includes a plurality of conductive springs corresponding to each tail end of each of the plurality of contacts.

This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and are intended to provide an overview or framework to understand the nature and character of the disclosure.

