Battery connector

Tuesday, 09 January 2007

Batteries are used as a mobile source of power for a wide variety of devices and equipment. Batteries are used to power portable electronic equipment for consumer and business use, such as, digital cameras, camcorders, personal digital assistant (PDA), cellular phones and laptop computers. Such devices typically include a main circuit board for controlling the device's operations, and a battery for providing power to the circuit board. The battery is typically removable either for recharging or replacement. The battery is electrically connected to the electronic circuitry of the portable electronic device by way of a connection apparatus. The connection apparatus includes a housing enclosing the battery and a housing enclosing the electronic circuitry. The housings employ reciprocal mating features for attachment and detachment of the battery to and from the electronic circuitry. Batteries are also used in many vehicles and other types of equipment to ignite a combustion engine. For those devices in which a battery is used, the terminals of the battery are electrically connected to the electrical system in that device equipment or vehicle. Thus, battery terminal connectors are required for connecting the battery to an electrical system in, for example, an automobile, water craft, recreational vehicle, tractor, truck, lawn mower, etc. In many applications, batteries are coupled together in series to obtain the desired voltage to provide stand alone or emergency power. Battery connectors serve as media between the electronic products and power. Accordingly, many different types of electrical connectors have been developed for interconnecting the terminals of batteries so that the batteries can be electrically coupled together in series to provide the appropriate voltage to power the electrical device. A battery connector is generally used by being connected to a subject substrate incorporated in an electronic device mounted on a printed wiring board (PWB). Terminal ends are exposed from a housing of the battery connector, and soldering portions project therefrom in flat form.

A battery connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive terminals assembled on the insulative housing and soldered to a circuit board. Each conductive terminal includes a contact portion for contacting a charging terminal of the electronic products, and a soldering portion for soldering to the circuit board. Batteries typically are constructed with a set of anode plates and a set of interleafing cathode plates, which are spaced apart by separators infused with an electrolyte. The anode plates must be electrically connected to the battery anode terminal, and the cathode plates must be electrically connected to the battery cathode terminal. A conventional electrical connector for a rechargeable battery includes a dielectric housing, a metallic pin and a screwy spring. The pin and the spring are received in the housing. The pin has a contact portion at an end thereof projecting from the housing for electrical contact with the chargeable battery, and a press portion at the other end thereof for pressing the spring and electrical contact with the spring. When the electrical connector is connected with the rechargeable battery, the contact portion of the pin is pressed by the battery and thus the press portion of the pin is moved to press the spring. The spring is electrically connected with a printed circuit board (PCB). Thus, the rechargeable battery is connected with the PCB via the connector. Electrical connections which rely on surface contact are subject to corrosion caused by airborne chemical reactions. Corrosion is especially common in the electrical connection between a battery terminal and the battery contact area, which is part of the battery connector that electrically connects to the battery terminal. A battery connector used in a mobile phone or other portable electronics typically comprises resilient electrical terminals that protrude beyond a mating face of a housing of the connector within which they are mounted. These terminals are biased into the housing when a battery is mounted in the apparatus and electrically connecting with the battery connector. Generally, batteries contained in cell phones consist of one of two types of configurations. These configurations consist of battery packs in which batteries are contained in the back cover of portable telephones, and batteries that are separately disposed on the side of the back cover of portable telephones. The batteries are connected to a circuit board disposed inside the main body of the portable telephone by engaging and connecting a battery connector connected to the batteries to a mating connector mounted on the circuit board. The battery of a notebook computer is installed in inside space of the notebook computer by a battery connecting apparatus. The battery connecting apparatus commonly includes a battery housing, a base and a battery connector. The battery housing is used for receiving the battery therein. The base seals the housing. The battery connector is assembled with the base for electrically connecting the battery to a power supply circuit of the notebook computer. As the electrical or electronic appliances are becoming more and more compact, the battery connectors used therein have a reduced size, which results in that the terminals of these battery connectors have a reduced size accordingly.

Automobile batteries and battery connections are well known. Storage batteries used in automobiles, trucks, tractors, other vehicles, etc. have a pair of terminal posts generally made of lead alloy material. Typical connections from the battery to the vehicle electrical system are a pair of cables respectively attached at either a top post connection or a side screw connection. The battery is interconnected to the vehicle electrical system by a battery cable assembly having connectors which clamp to the battery posts to provide an electrical and mechanical connection thereto. There are several types of connecting terminals for automobile storage batteries, but most of them have a structure of connecting terminals, through which a wire connector is fixed to the post terminal of the storage battery. Coin batteries that have a disk-shape are often employed in electronic equipments as additional power source or back up power source. They're often referred to as "button cell batteries". The cell has a positive electrode extending along a major surface and the edge and a negative electrode extending over the other major surface and isolated from the positive electrode. The positive electrode also extends to a circumferential edge of the disk-shape. The coin battery is mounted to a circuit board by a "battery connector". The battery connector comprises a housing defining a central cavity for receiving the coin battery. Conductive terminals for positive and negative electrodes of the battery are fixed to the housing and electrically connected to the circuit board.

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