Amp LLC

The Whitaker Corporation

Amp Incroporated

John W Kaufman

Warren C Hillbish

John A Root

Donald J Summers

John A Woratyla

John L Broschard, Iii

James L Schroeder

Douglas C Rubendall

Robert H Frantz

William J Stape

John Edward Knaub

Patrick F Yeager

Thomas J Lynch

Jeffrey J Brown

Robert J Hnatuck

Adam Douglas Cunningham

Robert Wayne Elicker

Donald T Biechler

Richard A Burgit

Grover A Zwieg

Emad K Ibrahim

Jonathan E Buck

Brian P Costello

Brian J Vogl

Gregory R Pratt

Edgar Charles Gorman

Donald E Driver

An electrical assembly including an electrical connector and a complementary test module configured for diagnostic testing of a circuit board connected to the connector when a test module is positioned within a receiving mouth of the connector. The connector includes a connector housing having opposed first and second sides and end sides defining a module receiving mouth, and a plurality of conductive electrical terminals disposed in the connector housing and having portions extending into the module receiving mouth. The electrical connector advantageously includes one or more recessed contacts located on the second side of the connector within the module receiving mouth. The recessed contacts have a portion extending within the connector housing and are adapted for electrical connection with a protruding contact on the complementary test module and are adapted to remain spaced from a conventional module. The electrical assembly further includes a conductive shroud encircling the electrical connector housing.

Test card receptacle and header

A card reader 20 includes a dielectric housing 22, a plurality of resilient connector elements 70 disposed along the bottom wall 28 of the housing 22 and adapted to establish electrical connection between contact pads 104 of a circuit board 102 and contact pads 96 of a card 90 inserted into a card-receiving slot 40 of the reader 20, a horizontal plate 42 slidably mounted within the housing 22, and an actuator 54 for moving the plate 42. The horizontal plate 42 is proximate the top surface of the housing 22 and is movable upon actuation toward a card 90 inserted into the card receiving slot 40 beneath the plate 42 to exert pressure on and moving the card 90 toward said bottom wall 28 to effect electrical engagement between the contact pads 96 of the card 90 and the resilient connector elements 70 that, in turn, engage the contact pads 104 of the board 102.

Card reader

A memory card connector (50) is disclosed having an upper card receiving cavity (164) and a lower card receiving cavity (170). Upper and lower pin headers (56, 60) are attached to upper and lower ejectors (110, 112) to form the two cavities (164, 170). Each cavity is defined by right and left side walls (118, 120, 158, 160) interconnected by a lateral member (122, 162) extending along a major side (168, 174) of the cavity. The upper cavity (164) has one major side (166), opposite the lateral member (122), that is open so that a Type III memory card (200), when inserted into the cavity in mated engagement with the connector, can project through the open major side (166).

Memory card connector

An electrical connector assembly 20 for a card reader including a housing 24 having opposed major and minor sides 26,30 defining a card receiving mouth 32, a plurality of conductive electrical terminals 36 disposed in the housing 24 and having portions 38 thereof extending into the mouth 32, and a conductive shroud 50 encircling the housing 24, the shroud 24 having inwardly spaced contact portions extending into the mouth 32 along at least one of the major sides 26 of the housing 24, the shroud contact portions being spaced from the electrical terminal portions 38 when the shroud 50 is assembled to the housing 24. The inwardly spaced contact portions can be spring fingers 54 extending into the mouth 32 from an edge 53 of the shroud 50 or dimples 254 expressed into the mouth from an outer surface of the shroud 250. At least one of the major walls 26 of the housing 24 includes a plurality of shroud contact receiving recesses 28 adapted to receive the shroud contact portions such that the shroud contact portions are closely adjacent a card receiving space 34 thereby being positioned to be either electrically engaged by corresponding raised conductive surfaces 84 on an outwardly facing conductive surface 82 of a shielded card 70 upon insertion of the shielded card into the mouth 32, or to remain spaced from surfaces of an unshielded card 170 upon inserting the unshielded card into the mouth 32.

Grounding for electrical connectors

A conductive ground shroud (50) for use with an electrical connector (22) having a plurality of electrical terminals (36) with surface mountable contact sections (42) for electrically engaging circuitry (84) on a circuit board (80). The shroud (50) provides ground reference for the terminals (36). Shroud 50 includes an electrically conductive plate-like body 52 having first and second portions, (54, 62) the first portion (54) adapted to be disposed on a board remote surface (26) of the connector housing. The second portion is configured to extend over the surface mountable contact sections (42) when the shroud (50) is disposed on housing (24). The second portion (62) includes at least one second contact section (70) extending outwardly therefrom for engagement to ground circuitry of circuit board (80). The second portion further includes at least one elongated aperture (64) extending therethrough proximate the surface mountable contact sections (40). Upon disposing the shroud (50) on connector (22 ), mounting the connector (22) and shroud (50) to circuit board (80) and soldering the surface mountable contact sections (42) to corresponding circuit pads (84) on board, aperture (64) permits sufficient heat generated during the soldering process to reach contact pads (84) to melt the solder thereby assuring electrical engagement of contact sections (42) with corresponding pads (84).

Grounding shroud for surface mounted electrical connector

A card securing mechanism for retaining a card 90 in a reader includes a cam 66 pivotally mounted to a guide arm 20 associated with a side edge 94 of a card 90. The cam 66 is mounted at the entrance 34 of a card-receiving channel 30 proximate and beside a push button 36 slidably mounted along the guide arm 20 such that a first cam portion 74 can be rotated into and out of the channel 30. The first cam portion 74 has a notch 76 dimensioned to receive and secure a corner 96 of a card 90 when the card 90 is fully within a reader and the first portion 74 is rotated into the channel 30. A second cam portion 78 is adapted to be engaged by an actuator activated by the card ejection mechanism 50. The cam 66 is pivoted to a card engaging position upon insertion of a card 90 into the card reader. Upon activating the card ejection mechanism, the actuator permits cam 66 to be pivoted from a card engaging position to a card releasing position as the card 90 is urged outwardly of the channel 30 by a card ejection mechanism 50.

Retention mechanism for memory cards

A connector array (10) for mounting to a circuit board is disclosed including a conductive shroud (16) and two electrical connectors (12, 14). The shroud includes a conductive first plate (60) that separates the two connectors (12, 14) and the leads (34) of one connector from the leads (38) of the other connector. The shroud includes solder tails (68) that electrically engage ground circuitry on the circuit board (18). A conductive second plate (64) is spaced from and parallel to the first plate (60). Contacts (72, 80) extend from edges of each of the first and second plates and are arranged so that when memory cards (28, 30) are mated with the two connectors the contacts electrically engage outer conductive surfaces of the two memory cards. The two connectors are secured in a vertically stacked position by means of a pair of clips (50) that are in interfering engagement with openings (52) formed in outer walls of the housings of the two connectors.

Conductive shroud for electrical connectors

An electrical connector (1) comprises; a housing (2), a card receiving mouth (3), electrical contacts (4), prong receiving sockets (26) on the housing, (2) card guide arms (5, 6), a prong (25) on each of the guide arms (5, 6) for locking engagement with any one of the sockets (26), and a mounting bracket (64) engaging a ground plane (74) on a memory card (73) and being shunted to a ground plane on a circuit board (9).

Mounting bracket with ESD protection for an electrical connector

An electrical connector (1) comprises; a housing (2), a card receiving mouth (3), electrical contacts (4), prong receiving sockets (26) on the housing (2) card guide arms (5, 6), a prong (25) on each of the guide arms (5, 6) for locking engagement with any one of the sockets (26), and each of the sockets (26) lockingly engage one of the guide arms (5, 6) only with a card receiving groove (22) of one guide arm (5, 6) being oriented to face toward another guide arm (5, 6).

Electrical connector for a card reader

Grounding shroud for an electrical connector

A surface mounted connector (25) for interconnecting closely centered circuits such as those carried by circuit boards (12, 18) includes plug and receptacle housings (24, 90) which internest to interconnect edge mounted, thin stamped contacts (50, 116) on centers complementary those of said circuits which include a contact configuration producing a series of point contacts (70, 128) and solder wells (70, 130) to provide an improved solder joint between respective contacts and boards. The contacts extend outside the side walls of the housings (64, 164) to facilitate heat application for solder reflow and inspection of solder joints. The contacts further have barbs (66, 126) engaging the said housings to hold the contacts against displacement upon separation of the plug from the receptacle. Solder pads (76) are provided on each housing to mechanically hold the housing to a board, and the plug housings include bevels (34) and polarizing and aligning plastic posts (44) which fit in recesses (96) in the receptacle to facilitate blind mating with latching surfaces (48, 100) latching the plug and receptacle together. A method is taught which features a tapering of beam lengths of the plug contact (50) to reduce stress and optimize force and/or deflection characteristics.

Blind mating miniature connector

An electrical connector assembly includes a receptacle member (14) and a pin shroud member (16) adapted to be mounted to opposite sides of a printed circuit board. Each receptacle member (14) is adapted to mate with a pin shroud member (16) mounted to another circuit board so that a parallel stack of circuit boards may be interconnected and supported. Each pin shroud member (16) has ground shields (60) which engage terminals (42) in the mating receptacle member (14). The ground shield (60) and the engaged terminal members (42) have pin portions (62, 64) extending through apertures of the respective circuit boards for connection to ground planes on the circuit boards. Each receptacle member (14) is also provided with further terminal members (36) having portions (38) which extend through respective apertures (35) in the circuit board and through the pin shroud member (16) mounted to the opposite side of the circuit board for engagement with corresponding terminal members (36) of a receptacle member (14) mounted to another circuit board, which latter receptacle member (14) is mated with the pin shroud member (16).

Shielded stacking electrical connector assembly

Improved means for securing an externally mounted ground plate to an electrical connector, the ground plate being secured along one of the sides of the connector and having a leading edge thereof exposed at the mating face of the connector and adapted to be received within the housing of a complementary connector upon the connector being mated thereto. The improved means includes a pair of tabs extending from the ground plate proximate the leading edge thereof and engagable with and latchingly securable in cooperating slots on end walls of the connector housing and an inwardly directed rolled portion extending substantially along the entire length of the leading edge of the ground plate, the rolled portion being received within a cooperating recess of the associated housing side wall. The recess is configured to receive rolled edge of the ground plate such that the ground plate lies securely against the side wall and the overall dimensions of the mating face are not substantially increased thereby.

Electrical connector having externally mounted ground plates

An electrical connector assembly 10 includes a housing 12 having a plurality of terminal members 40 disposed within configured terminal-receiving passageways 82 thereof. Each terminal member 40 includes first and second contact portions 42, 62 and a body portion 46 having retaining means 52 for holding the terminal member 40 within the housing passageway 82 and a plurality of push means horizontally and vertically staggered about the longitudinal axis of the terminal member 40 and adapted to cooperate with corresponding push ledges 86, 88, 90 within the passageway 82. The push means includes a latch 54 extending outwardly from a first side 49 of the body portion 46 and first and second pairs of formed tabs 56, 58 extending from opposed second and third sides 50, 51 of the body portion 46 at first, second and third axially selected locations respectively. The leading ends 57 of the first pair of tabs 56 substantially abut each other proximate to and spaced outwardly from a fourth side 48 of the body portion 46, and a second pair of tabs 58 face in the same direction as the first body side 49 with the leading ends 59 thereof spaced from one another. When axial insertion force is applied to the connector housing 12, the plurality of staggered terminal push means cooperate with the corresponding passageway push surfaces to distribute the force around the terminal members 40 such that the terminal members 40 are inserted into the board 92 without the need of an insertion tool that applies force directly to individual terminal members 40.

Electrical connector assembly

Improved means for securing an externally mounted ground plate to an electrical connector, the ground plate being secured along one of the sides of the connector and having a leading edge thereof exposed at the mating face of the connector and adapted to be received within the housing of a complementary connector upon the connector being mated thereto. The improved means includes a pair of tabs extending from the ground plate proximate the leading edge thereof and engagable with and latchingly securable in cooperating slots on end walls of the connector housing and a plurality of ground plate flared apertures lockingly secured within corresponding slots of the connector sidewalls proximate the leading edges thereof. The secured ground plate lies against the side wall and the overall dimensions of the mating face are not substantially increased thereby.

Growing community of inventors

Hershey, PA, United States of America

John W Kaufman