Foxconn International, Inc.

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.

Vincent Chen

Haw-Chan Tan

Nobbert N Yu

Yuan C Lin

Yuan-Chieh Lin

Frank C Ma

An I/O card (1) includes a rectangular frame (10) sandwiched between a top cover (11) and a bottom cover (13). Connector means (16, 18) are positioned at the ends of the I/O card (1) to form an in-and-out interface, and is mounted on a PC board (28) in the I/O card (1). A pair of top and bottom grounding clips (40, 30) are respectively attached on two opposite sides of the frame (10) and electrically and mechanically engage the top surface (29) and the bottom surface (27) of the inner PC board (28), respectively, wherein both grounding clips (30, 40) can be pre-assembled with the frame (10) and the bottom cover (13) as a semi-finished product which is delivered to an I/O card manufacturer who assembles the internal PC board (28) and the associated interface connectors (16, 18) to such pre-assembly without any interference from either of the grounding clips (30, 40) and successively places a top cover (11) thereon to complete the final product. In this situation, the top grounding clip (40) can be deformably depressed downward by the top cover (11) to electrically and mechanically contact the top surface (29) of the internal PC board (28) for grounding.

Grounding clip structure of I/O card

A 'through-hole mounting' boardlock fixture is adapted to secure an electrical connector to a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) employing a Surface Mounting Technology (SMT) procedure. In one aspect, the boardlock fixture comprises a rim defining an opening therethrough and a solder block dimensioned to be insertable within the opening. Furthermore, a plurality of fingers flexibly mounted to the rim extend, generally, downward therefrom. Each respective finger is dimensioned to support the boardlock when inserted in the opening. SMT is applied to melt the solder block to mount the connector to the PCB. In another aspect of the present invention, an electrical connector including a housing is mounted to a PCB. Further, the housing defines a row of apertures each of which a respective pin contact is positioned therein. Each pin contact includes a downward extension extending along a housing back region which terminates at a corresponding PCB circuit. A spacer, including an engagement region, engages the back region of the housing which collectively define a plurality of extension supports that support the respective downward extensions. A method for mounting an electrical component to a PCB comprises the steps of securing a through-hole mounting fixture to the component and inserting the fixture a mounting aperture defined by the PCB. The next step includes supporting a solder block to the fixture and applying a SMT reflow soldering procedure to melt the solder block and solder the fixture to the PCB.

Electrical connector with improved connector pin support and improved

A housing has a hollow portion to receive a ferrule, and a support member is positioned between the housing and the ferrule. A plurality of electrical elements are selectively positioned within the housing in electrically conductive contact with the support member. A detachable shell is closely positioned on the housing in circumscribing relation with the support member and in electrically conductive relation with the electrical elements to completely shield and enclose the electrical elements. Removing the electrical elements, the rest parts of the assembly is deemed as a semi-finished product and can be stored as inventory for a later time use according to the customer's requirements.

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Walnut, CA, United States of America

Vincent Chen