According to the progress of size-reducing, thinning, multi-functioning, and weight-reducing of various electric/electronic apparatuses, a demand for size-reducing and thinning of parts mounted on circuit boards assembled to these apparatuses is increasing.
Then, regarding a connector structure which is a relay point for performing electrical connection between circuit boards or between parts, a demand for size-reducing (space saving) and thinning (height-reducing) thereof is increasing.
A female connector or a male connector, particularly, the female connector is conventionally manufactured by performing punching work to a thin metal plate material to a predetermined shape using a die. Then, a connector structure is formed by mounting the female connector on input/output terminals of a circuit board, for example, by soldering to assembling a male connector to the female connector.
However, in the case of the connector structure formed by such a method, it was difficult to reduce the height of a connection portion between both the connectors to 1.0 mm or less and it was difficult to reduce a pitch between terminals to 0.5 mm or less, so that limits of space saving and height reduction were reached.
In order to solve such a problem, the following connector structure was developed. This is a connector structure (an electric connection structure) obtained by assembling a female connector, the female connector being manufactured by using a flexible circuit board as a base material and applying plating technique, photolithography technique, and etching technique to the flexible circuit board and including the flexible circuit board which is the base material and female terminal portions utilizing resiliency of pad portions formed on the flexible circuit board, and a male connector having male terminal portions and manufactured separately from the female connector (see Patent Literature 1).
In the connector structure, since the height of a connection portion between the female connector and the male connector can easily be reduced to 0.5 mm or less and a pitch between terminals can be reduced to 0.5 mm or less, space saving can be realized. Further, by adopting a matrix configuration in arrangement of terminals, multi-pin configuration can be realized while space saving is ensured. In addition, repair treatment is made possible in the case of the connector structure.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent No 4059522