Electrical connector having an improved annular wall

1. Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector for lowering the height.

2. Description of Related Arts

As the mobile phone becomes thinner and thinner, and the height of the product becomes more and more critical, the thickness of the iron shell of the Type C connector is generally 0.2 mm to 0.3 mm. With the development of metal integrated/injection molding technology, the thickness of the iron shell can now be 0.15 mm. With further development of technology, the thickness of the iron shell can be thinner.

An improved electrical connector is desired.

Accordingly, an object of the present disclosure is to provide an electrical connector of a low profile.

To achieve the above object, an electrical connector includes an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive terminals affixed to the insulative housing, and a shielding shell enclosing the insulative housing for forming a receiving room. The insulative housing includes a base portion and a tongue portion extending forwardly from the base portion. Each conductive terminal has a contacting portion disposed in the tongue portion. The shielding shell has a first wall, a second wall opposite to the first wall, and a pair of lateral walls connecting the first wall and the second wall. The thickness of the first wall is smaller than that of the lateral walls. The invention can reduce the height by reducing the thickness of the first wall and/or the second wall of the shielding shell. The thickness of the sidewall is greater than the thickness of the first wall or the second wall, thereby ensuring the strength of the electrical connector while meeting the requirement of product miniaturization.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective, assembled view of an electrical connector;

FIG. 2 is another perspective, assembled view of the electrical connector taken from FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a partial exploded view of the electrical connector;

FIG. 4 is another partial exploded view of the electrical connector taken from FIG. 3 ;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of a contact module of the electrical connector;

FIG. 6 is another exploded view of the contact module of the electrical connector taken from FIG. 5 ;

FIG. 7 is an exploded view of the electrical connector;

FIG. 8 is another view of the electrical connector taken from FIG. 7 ;

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector taken along line 9 - 9 in FIG. 1 ; and

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector taken along line 10 - 10 in FIG. 1 .

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment will be shown in FIGS. 1 to 10 . The insert direction of the electrical connector 100 is a front-to-rear direction.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 10 , the electrical connector 100 includes a contact module 1 , a pair of ground plates 2 affixed to the contact module 1 , a metallic shielding shell 3 enclosing the contact module 1 for forming a receiving room 10 along the front-to-back direction, and a sealer 4 sealing a rear end of the electrical connector 100 .

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 8 , the contact module 1 includes an insulative housing 11 , a number of conductive terminals or contacts 12 affixed to the insulative housing 11 via insert molding, and a shielding plate 13 affixed to the insulative housing 11 . Referring to FIGS. 1 to 8 , the insulative housing 11 includes a base portion 111 affixed to the shielding shell 3 , a tongue portion 112 extending forwardly from the base portion 111 and forming a mating room 30 with the shielding shell 3 and an insulator 113 . The base portion 111 includes a pair of resisting recesses 1111 located at a front end, a mounting portion 1112 located at a rear end, and a fixing slot 1115 extending laterally to the resisting recesses 1111 and communicating with the resisting recesses 111 with its front end. The mounting portion 1112 includes a fixing groove 1113 with an opening extending upwardly and a pair of resisting tubers 1114 located in symmetry of the fixing groove 1113 . The tongue portion 112 includes a stepped portion 1121 abutting with the base portion 111 , a flat portion 1122 extending forwardly from the stepped portion 1121 and a pair of mating grooves 1123 mated with a corresponding electrical connector. The thickness of the stepped portion 1121 is larger than that of the flat portion 1122 .

Referring to FIGS. 5 to 6 , the conductive terminals 12 include a number of upper terminals 121 and lower terminals 122 both affixed to the insulative housing 1 . Each conductive terminal 12 includes a contacting portion 123 exposed to the tongue portion 112 , a fixing portion 124 affixed to the base portion 111 and a soldering portion 125 extending rearward from the fixing portion 124 .

Referring to FIGS. 5 to 6 , the shielding plate 13 includes an arm 131 sandwiched between the upper terminals 121 and the lower terminals 122 , a locating hole 133 located at a front end of the arm 131 and communicating a top surface and a bottom surface of the arm 131 , and a hook 132 extending rearward from the arm 131 . The arm 131 includes a locking side 1311 protruding laterally from the fixing groove 1113 .

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 4 and FIGS. 7 to 10 , the ground plates 2 are exposed to the tongue portion 112 . Each ground plate 2 includes a front covering portion 21 exposed to the tongue portion 112 , a rear covering portion 22 affixed to the fixing slot 1115 , a pair of connecting portions 23 connecting the front covering portion 21 and the rear covering portion 22 , and a pair of lateral fixed portions 24 bending downwardly from the front covering portion 21 and embedded in the tongue portion 24 . The corresponding electrical connector contacts the ground plates 2 to realize grounding when the electrical connector mated.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 4 and FIGS. 7 to 10 , the shielding shell 3 made by metal injection molding or die casting, includes a first/top wall 31 , a second/bottom wall 32 opposite to the first wall 31 in the vertical direction, and a pair of opposite lateral walls 33 , along the transverse direction, connecting the first wall 31 and the second wall 32 . The shielding shell 3 includes a pair of fixing legs 34 bending downwardly from a rear end of the lateral walls 33 . A pair of locating posts (not labeled) downwardly extend from the second wall 32 between the pair of fixing legs 34 . The first wall 31 includes a pair of tubers 311 formed on an interior surface thereof to resist against the resisting recesses 1111 . The tubers 311 resist against the rear covering portion 22 extending to the fixing slot 1115 preventing the ground plates 2 moving forwardly. The first wall 31 includes a pair of resisting protrusions 312 extending obliquely and resisting against the fixing groove 1113 and the resisting tubers 1114 . The thickness of the first wall 31 is smaller than that of the lateral walls 33 . In the preferred embodiment, the thickness of the first wall 31 and the second wall is 0.15 mm. The thickness of the lateral wall 33 is a certain thickness between 0.2 mm and 0.3 mm. Since the thickness of the first wall 31 or the second wall 32 becomes thinner, the height of the electrical connector 100 is reduced, and the miniaturization of the electrical connector is achieved. In addition, because the thickness of the sidewall 33 is greater than the thickness of the first wall 31 or the second wall 32 , the total strength of the whole structure is compensated for the weakened structure due to the thinned first wall 31 or the second wall 32 .

In this embodiment, on one hand the immovable tuber 311 extends into the corresponding resisting recess 1111 while still keeping a flat exterior surface of the first wall 31 , thus assuring waterproofing thereabouts, compared with the stamping type shielding shell requiring to split the tuber 311 therefrom that jeopardizing the waterproof function thereof. On the other hand, because the first wall 31 and the second wall 32 are intentionally thinned to own flexibility thereof, compared with the side walls 33 , the deflectable resisting protrusion 312 on the first wall 31 , which is originally located in a horizontal/original position (not shown) to allow the contact module 1 to be forwardly assembled into the receiving room 10 , is deflected to extend into the fixing groove 1113 at the second/final position after the contact module 1 has been forwardly assembled into the receiving room 10 formed by the shielding shell 3 to prevent the backward movement of the contact module 1 . Differently, the traditional or typical shielding shell made by metal injection molding lacks capability of deflection so as to be soldered or welded to the corresponding metal piece of the contact module for preventing backward movement of the contact module after the contact module is forwardly inserted into the receiving room from the rear side of the shielding shell. Such an additional soldering/welding increases the manufacturing cost, compared with the traditional shielding shell made by stamping sheet metal which has superior flexibility and inferior rigidity thereof. In brief, the instant invention essentially uses the hybrid method, i.e., metal injection molding and stamping, to have the relatively better both rigidity on the side walls and flexibility on the resisting protrusion thereof for not only enduring the possible significant forces during mating with the complementary plug connector but also easily retaining the contact module in position with regard to the metallic shielding shell after assembling the contact module into the metallic shielding shell, advantageously.

While a preferred embodiment in accordance with the present disclosure has been shown and described, equivalent modifications and changes known to persons skilled in the art according to the spirit of the present disclosure are considered within the scope of the present disclosure as described in the appended claims.