Electrical socket having optical module

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an electrical socket, and more particularly to an electrical socket having optical members for transmitting optical signal.

2. Description of the Prior Art

A conventional electrical connector for electrically connecting an IC package to a printed circuit board comprises an insulative housing and a plurality of contacts received therein to transmit signal and electrical current. The insulative housing comprises a bottom wall and sidewalls extending upwardly from the bottom wall. The bottom wall comprises a top surface and a bottom surface opposite to the top surface. The contacts are made of metal and each comprises a body portion, a contact portion extending beyond the top surface and a tail extending beyond the bottom surface. The body portion is positioned in the bottom wall to secure the contact in the insulative housing. The contact portion is used to contact with the pad of the IC package and the tail is used to contact with the pad of the printed circuit board. Thus, a good electrical connection is established between the IC package and the printed circuit board to transmit signal and electrical current.

The electrical connector becomes smaller and smaller and the number of the contacts becomes more and more. Thus, the heat produced by the electrical connector is increased accordingly. At the same time, the distance between the contacts becomes smaller which result in electromagnetic interference becomes more seriously.

Therefore, it is needed to find a new socket assembly to overcome the problems mentioned above.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical socket having optical module with plurality of optical members for transmitting optical signal.

In order to achieve the object set forth, an electrical socket comprises an insulative housing and an optical module received in the insulative housing, the insulative housing comprises a plurality of electrical contacts received therein to transmit electrical signal, the optical module comprises a plurality of optical members to transmit optical signal.

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the electrical socket according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the circle portion of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of the optical module shown in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 4 is an assembled view of the electrical socket shown in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the electrical socket shown in FIG. 4 ;

FIG. 6 is a sketch view showing the optical module connected to an IC package and a printed circuit board;

FIG. 7 is an isometric view of another embodiment of the optical module shown in FIG. 3 ; and

FIG. 8 is a bottom view of the optical module shown in FIG. 7 .

Reference will now be made to the drawings to describe the present invention in detail.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 , an electrical socket 100 is used to connecting an IC package 5 to a printed circuit board 6 . The electrical socket 100 comprises an insulative housing 1 , an optical module 3 and a plurality of electrical contacts 2 received in the insulative housing 1 . The electrical contacts 2 are made of metal to transmit electrical signals. The optical module 3 comprises a plurality of optical members 4 to transmit optical signals. The optical member 4 is made of material that can transmit light such as glass or fiber et al. In this embodiment, the optical module 3 is assembled to the insulative housing 1 . Alternative, the optical module 3 also could be integrated with the insulative housing 1 via insert molding.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 5 , the insulative housing 1 comprises a bottom wall 10 and four sidewalls 11 extending upwardly from the bottom wall 10 . The bottom wall 10 and the sidewalls 11 together form a receiving space 110 for receiving the IC package 5 . The bottom wall 10 comprises a top surface 101 , a bottom surface 102 opposite to the top surface 101 . The bottom wall 10 also comprises a plurality of passageways 1010 and a window 103 impenetrating the top surface 411 and the bottom surface 412 . The bottom wall 10 also comprises a plurality of recesses 104 depressed from the top surface 101 to the interior of the bottom wall 10 . The recesses 104 are communicated with the window 103 . The bottom wall 10 comprises a pair of blocks 105 extending to the recess 104 . The electrical contacts 2 are received in the passageways 1010 and each comprises a body portion 22 , a contact portion 21 extends upwardly from the body portion 22 and a tail 23 extends downwardly from the body portion 22 .

Referring to FIGS. 1 , 3 and 5 , the optical module 3 comprises an upper surface 31 , a lower surface 33 opposite to the upper surface 31 and four side surfaces 32 connecting the upper surface 31 and the lower surface 33 . The optical module 3 also comprises a first post 312 extending upwardly from the upper surface 31 , a positioning member 321 extending from the side surface 32 , a second post 332 and a protrusion 331 extending downwardly from the lower surface 33 . The optical module 3 comprises a plurality of upper lenses 310 extending upwardly from the upper surface 31 , and a plurality of lower lenses 3310 extending from the side of the protrusion 331 . Referring to FIG. 6 , the protrusion 331 of the optical module 3 locates in the hole 61 of the printed circuit board and thus laterally and horizontally overlapped with the printed circuit board, the upper lenses 310 aligning to the IC package 5 , the lower lenses 3310 aligning to the printed circuit board 6 , and the lower lens 3310 aligning to the upper lens 3310 to establish light path to transmit optical signal.

Referring to FIGS. 4-6 , the electrical contacts 2 are secured to the insulative housing 1 to transmit electrical signals. The body portion 22 is received in the passageways 1010 , the contact portion 21 locates in the receiving space 110 to connect with the IC package 5 , and the tail 23 locates beyond the bottom surface 102 to connect with the printed circuit board 6 . The optical module 3 is received in the window 103 of the insulative housing 1 . The positioning member 321 is received in the recess 104 of the insulative housing 1 and interlocks with the blocks 105 to position the optical module 3 in the insulative housing 1 . The first post 312 can project into the IC package 5 to ensure the upper lens 310 aligning with the IC package 5 . The second post 312 is inserted in the printed circuit board 6 to ensure the lower lens 3310 aligning with the printed circuit board 6 .

FIGS. 7-8 show another embodiment of the optical module 3 ′. The difference with the above embodiment is the lower lenses 3310 ′ are set on the lower surface 33 ′. The optical module 3 ′ is assembled to the upper surface of the printed circuit board 6 .

Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various alterations and modifications can be made to the embodiments without in any way departing from the scope or spirit of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.