Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R12/00—Structural associations of a plurality of mutually-insulated electrical connecting elements, specially adapted for printed circuits, e.g. printed circuit boards [PCB], flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures, e.g. terminal strips, terminal blocks; Coupling devices specially adapted for printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures; Terminals specially adapted for contact with, or insertion into, printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures
  • H01R12/70—Coupling devices
  • H01R12/71—Coupling devices for rigid printing circuits or like structures
  • H01R12/72—Coupling devices for rigid printing circuits or like structures coupling with the edge of the rigid printed circuits or like structures
  • H01R12/73—Coupling devices for rigid printing circuits or like structures coupling with the edge of the rigid printed circuits or like structures connecting to other rigid printed circuits or like structures
  • H01R12/732—Printed circuits being in the same plane
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R35/00—Flexible or turnable line connectors, i.e. the rotation angle being limited
  • H01R35/04—Turnable line connectors with limited rotation angle with frictional contact members
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R24/00—Two-part coupling devices, or either of their cooperating parts, characterised by their overall structure
  • H01R24/84—Hermaphroditic coupling devices

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, comprising two connectors which are
• the invention also pertains to the individual connectors of such an assembly, including a header connector, a receptacle
• circuit board with another component, such as a further circuit board or one or more cables, in such a way that the circuit board and the connected component are rotatably moveable with respect to each other while they remain to be electrically and mechanically connected during such rotation.
• an electrical connector assembly comprising a first connector and a second connector which are pivotable with respect to each other about a pivoting axis in an assembled condition, the first connector being provided with at least one header contact and the second
• spherical concave and convex surface sections in line with the pivoting axis.
• the spherical recesses can for instance be coined holes in the contact blades.
• the header contacts are each provided with a spherical recess and wherein the receptacle contacts are provided with a spherical surface.
• the first and second connectors can be joint by a latch of one connector cooperating with a counter surface on the mating connector, the latch and the counter surface being provided with matching spherical recesses and bulges in line with the pivoting axis.
• the spherical radius of the bulges can be made smaller than the spherical radius of the recesses. This results in a point contact. Although such a point contact requires less accurate positioning, it can also be combined with the aforementioned bulged latch joint.
• an electrical connector assembly comprising a first connector and a second
• the connector being provided with at least one header contact and the second connector having at least one receptacle contact.
• the contacts have a surface mounting end for connection to a circuit board and a mating end contacting a matching contact.
• the surface mounting ends of the first connector are positioned at a side opposite to the side of the second connector exposing the surface mount ends of the second connector. This way, circuit boards connected by the connector assembly are at a different level when positioned in a parallel orientation, being spaced by the connector assembly. This makes it possible to pivot a circuit board between a +90 degrees position and a -90 degrees position relative to the other circuit board.
• an electrical connector assembly comprising a first connector and a second connector which are pivotable with respect to each other about a main pivoting axis in an assembled condition, the first
• the connector being provided with at least one header contact and the second connector having at least one receptacle contact.
• the contacts have a surface mounting end for connection to a circuit board and a mating end contacting a matching contact.
• the first and second connectors are provided with respective connector housings with a surface mount side exposing the surface mounting ends of the contacts, and a mating side exposing the mating ends of the contacts.
• the connector housings have a lower side
• the ridge increases the creep distance between the mating ends of the contacts one the one hand and the circuit board on the other.
• the first connector comprises at least one cylindrical surface with an axis parallel to the main pivoting axis, the cylindrical surface engaging a counter surface of the second connector during hinging.
• the cylindrical surface and the counter surface are provided with mutually matching profiles, such as ribs extending parallel to the hinging axis, to enable stepwise relative rotation of the connectors .
• the first connector of the connector assembly can be a header connector while the second connector is a receptacle connector.
• both connectors can be hermaphroditic connectors, e.g., showing identical configurations.
• Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of an electrical connector assembly.
• Fig. 2 shows in perspective view an exemplary embodiment of a connector.
• FIG. 3 shows in perspective view a receptacle contact of the connector of Figure 2.
• Fig. 4 shows in cross section two mating hermaphroditic connectors of the type shown in Figure 2.
• Fig. 5 shows schematically in detail a mating end of a receptacle contact engaging a mating end of a header contact of an exemplary embodiment of a connector assembly.
• Fig. 6 shows schematically in detail a mating end of a receptacle contact engaging a mating end of a header contact of an alternative exemplary embodiment of a connector assembly.
• Fig. 7 shows in perspective view a further exemplary embodiment of a connector.
• Figs. 8A-C show different positions of two pivoting connectors .
• Fig. 9 shows in cross section a further exemplary embodiment of a connector.
• Fig. lOA-C show a further exemplary embodiment of a connector in perspective views and side view respectively.
• Figure 1 shows two circuit boards 1, 2 connected by a pivotable connector assembly 3 comprising two mating identical hermaphroditic connectors 4.
• An example of such a connector is shown in more detail in Figure 2, which is different from the connector in Figure 1 in that it does not have a ridge 34 at its lower side, as will be discussed hereinafter with reference to Figure 9.
• the connector 4 comprises a connector housing 5, with a mating side 6 with receptacle blocks 7 having a semi- cylindrical mating end 8. The distance between the receptacle blocks corresponds to the width of the receptacle blocks 7. This way, the receptacle blocks 7 fit between the receptacle blocks 7 of a mating connector .
• One of the ends of the connector comprises a terminal latch 9 with a contour following the semi-cylindrical contour of the receptacle blocks 7. On its side facing the closest
• the terminal latch 9 is provided with a spherical bulge 10.
• the receptacle block 7 at the opposite side comprises a recess 11 shaped to cooperate with the bulged terminal latch 9 of a mating connector 4 as a ball joint in a pivoting manner.
• the distance between the terminal latch 9 and the closest receptacle block 7 is the same as the distance between the receptacle blocks 7.
• the connectors 4 further comprises header contacts 12 with a mating end 13 and a surface mount end 14 (see Figure 4), and receptacle contacts 15 with a mating end 16 and a surface mount end 17 (see Figure 3) .
• the mating ends 12 of the header contacts 12 project from the connector housing in a position centrally between two receptacle blocks 7, the last header contact being between the terminal latch and the closest
• Both side faces of the header contacts 12 are provided with a spherical recess 18, which are in line with the spherical bulge 10 of the terminal latch 9 and with the recess 11 in the outer surface of the terminal receptacle block 7.
• the imaginary line through the spherical recesses and the bulge on the terminal latch forms a pivot axis 19 (see Fig. 4) .
• the receptacle blocks 7 are provided with a central slit 20 providing access for a header contact 12 of a mating connector 4 for engaging a respective receptacle contact 15.
• the connector side opposite to the mating side 6 is a surface mount side 21 provided with indentations 22 exposing the surface mount ends 14, 17 of the header contacts 12 and the receptacle contacts 15 to enable surface mounting of the
• Figure 3 shows a perspective view of a receptacle contact as a separate part.
• the receptacle contact 15 is
• the contact surfaces 27, 28 of the contact blades 25, 26 are convex. This way, the two opposite contact surfaces 27, 28 of the receptacle contact 15 converge towards each other along the full periphery of the semi-circular slits 20 of the respective receptacle block 7.
• the receptacle contact 15 comprises a surface mount end 17 for mounting the receptacle connector to a circuit board 1, 2, for instance by soldering.
• the spherical radius of the convex contact surfaces 27, 28 of the receptacle contact 15 can be equal to the spherical radius of the spherical recess 18 of the header contacts 12. However, it can be advantageous to make the radius of the contact surfaces 27, 28 smaller (see
• a point contact 29 is obtained near or at the location of the pivoting axis 19.
• accurate positioning is less critical. If the spherical radius of the convex contact surfaces 27, 28 is larger than the radius of the recess 18 in the header contact 12, a ring contact 30 is obtained. This has the advantage that a larger contact area can be realized. Such a large contact area can particularly be obtained by improving accurate positioning, for instance by use of the ball joint mechanism provided by the terminal latch 9 and the matching recess 11 in the outer surface of the cooperating receptacle block 7.
• Figure 7 shows an alternative embodiment of a connector
• circuit board 1 as shown in Figures 8A and 8C respectively.
• Figure 9 shows in cross section a further embodiment of a connector 32, similar to the connector 4 of Figure 2.
• the connector 32 is mounted on the edge of a circuit board 1.-
• the housing 33 of this connector 32 comprises a ridge 34 between the surface mount ends 14, 17 of the contacts 12, 15 and the semi- cylindrical mating side 8 of the housing 33.
• the ridge 34 enhances the creep distance between the electroconductive parts 35 of the circuit board and the electroconductive parts 12, 15 of the mating end of the connector 32.
• Figures lOA-C shows a further exemplary embodiment of a connector assembly 40 with a first connector 41 and a second connector 42 which are pivotable with respect to each other about a main pivoting axis 43 (see Figure IOC) in an assembled condition.
• Figures 10A and 10B show the assembly 40 in
• Figure IOC shows a cross section along line C-C in Figure 10B.
• the first and second connector 41, 42 are identical and
• the first and second connectors 41, 42 are provided with header contacts 44 and receptacle contacts 45 receiving the header contacts 44.
• the connectors 41, 42 comprises a connector housing 46 with receptacle blocks 47 having a semi-cylindrical mating end 48. The distance between the receptacle blocks 47 corresponds to the width of the receptacle blocks 47. This way, the receptacle blocks 47 of the first connector 41 fit between the receptacle blocks 47 of the second connector 42 and vice versa.
• the recessed surface 50 is provided with a single rib 51 (see Figure IOC) dimensioned to cooperate with the ribs 49 of the ribbed semi-cylindrical end

Landscapes

• Coupling Device And Connection With Printed Circuit (AREA)

Priority Applications (7)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=46514706

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (1)

Citations (4)

• 2012
  • 2012-05-08 WO PCT/IB2012/001164 patent/WO2013167931A1/fr not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (4)

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