In recent years, a substrate in an electronic device has a large number of integrated circuits with many pins, and consequently, the total number of contacts of a matching connector having a two-piece-type bellows contact to electrically connect the substrates has been increasing. The female connector of the matching connector is comprised of a housing with a parallelepiped recess, which is provided with an array of plural contacts formed on the inner peripheral surface thereof. The male connector of the matching connector is comprised of a housing with a projection, which is provided with an array of plural contacts formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof and opposed to the corresponding contacts of the female connector.
In the matching connector, the male connector is fitted into the female connector to establish a connection. Miniaturization of the connector makes it difficult to correct a positional deviation between the contacts of the male and female connectors due to the restriction of the dimensional accuracy of the housings of the connectors. Moreover, in order to increase the number of contacts while miniaturizing the connector, attempts to reduce the contact pressure of the contacts of the male and female connectors have been made.
Reduced contact pressure makes it difficult to remove dust adhered to the female connector of the matching connector due to the mutual sliding contact of the small contacts. As one solutions for removing foreign matter adhered to the contacts, Japanese Unexamined Patent publication No. 5-026904 has proposed making each contact (each contact of a male connector) in contact with each pad (each contact of a female connector) at a plurality of contact points.
However, the solution disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-026904 can be applied to a spring contact, but cannot be applied to removal of foreign matter in a small matching connector to which the subject of the present invention is directed. Moreover, no solutions have been proposed to correct a positional deviation of the contacts of the male and female connectors in a matching connector, caused by the miniaturization of the connector.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds