|Publication number||US6857912 B2|
|Application number||US 10/607,421|
|Publication date||Feb 22, 2005|
|Filing date||Jun 25, 2003|
|Priority date||Jun 25, 2003|
|Also published as||CN2667719Y, US20040266273|
|Publication number||10607421, 607421, US 6857912 B2, US 6857912B2, US-B2-6857912, US6857912 B2, US6857912B2|
|Original Assignee||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (10), Referenced by (14), Classifications (10), Legal Events (5)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
Subject matter of this patent application is related to pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/316,547, entitled “CABLE ASSEMBLY”, filed on Dec. 10, 2002, Ser. No. 10/278,520, filed on Oct. 22, 2002 and entitled “ELECTRICAL CABLE CONNECTOR”, and an unknown application entitled “CABLE ASSEMBLY WITH IMPROVED GROUNDING MEANS” filed Jun. 19, 2003, all of which are invented by Jerry Wu and assigned to the same assignee as this application.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cable assembly, and particularly to a cable assembly having a plurality of circuit boards for high speed signal transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of communication and computer technology, high density electrical connectors are desired to construct a plurality of signal transmitting paths between two electronic devices. Each of these electrical connectors provides a plurality of circuit boards to thereby achieve improved signal transmission of different electrical characteristics through the connector. Such high density electrical connectors, such as cable assemblies, are widely used in internal connecting systems of severs, routers and the like requiring high speed data processing and communication.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,364, issued to Miskin et al., discloses a cable assembly including an insulating housing formed by a pair of substantially identical housing halves and an electrical cable with a plurality of wires terminated to conductive terminals overmolded in a plurality of thin flat wafers. The housing halves combine to define an interior cavity having a front opening and a rear opening. The wafers are closely juxtaposed in a parallel array and are positioned within the interior cavity of one of the housing halves such that the cable projects out of the rear opening of the cavity. The other housing half is then to completely enclose the cable and wafer subassembly. However, the cable and wafer subassembly are retained in the housing by securing the housing halves together through bolts and nuts, thereby complicating the assemblage of the cable assembly. Furthermore, an engagement of the housing halves is easy to become loose due to vibration during the transportation and other matters, whereby the cable and the wafer subassembly cannot be stably retained in the housing. Thus, an electrical connection is adversely affected between the cable assembly and a complementary connector.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,924,899 (the '899 patent) and 6,102,747 (the '747 patent), both issued to Paagman, each disclose a cable assembly. Referring to
There also exists a need of transmitting different signals from a connector to a server or the like. The patents mentioned above do not satisfy this demand. Hence, an improved cable assembly is highly desired to overcome the disadvantages of the related art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cable assembly having strain relief means for substantially resisting a pulling force exerted on a cable thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cable assembly transmitting different signals therethrough.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, a cable assembly in accordance with the present invention for engaging with a complementary connector, comprises an insulating housing, a plurality of circuit modules received in the housing, and a two-piece cover cooperating with the housing for retaining the circuit modules. Each circuit module includes a circuit board accommodated in the housing, a number of first cables and a number of second single-ended coaxial cables mechanically and electrically connecting with the circuit board, a grounding plate attached to the circuit board, and a cable clamp for clamping the cables. Each single-ended coaxial cable comprises a second conductive core soldered to the circuit board and a braid surrounding the conductive core and soldering with the grounding plate.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail.
With reference to
The circuit modules 20 are identical with each other in structure thereof and an exemplary one is shown in
The cables 23 of each circuit module 20 comprise a plurality of first cables 231 and a plurality of second cables 232. Each first cable 231 consists of a differential pair of wires 2310 and a grounding core 2312 located beside the differential pair 2310. Each wire 2310 of the differential pair comprises a first conductive core 2314 surrounded by a first dielectric layer (not labeled). Each second cable 231 is a single-ended coaxial cable and comprises a second conductive core 2320 surrounded by a second dielectric layer (not labeled), a metal braid 2322 outside the dielectric layer, and a second insulated jacket 2324 at the outmost side of the second cable 232. At a distal end of each cable 231, 232, a length of dielectric layer is stripped to expose a corresponding length of conductive core 2314, 2320. The bare conductive cores 2314, 2320 of the first and the second cables 231, 232 are respectively soldered to the first and the second signal traces 221, 225 on the circuit board 22 from one side thereof. The grounding cores 2312 of the first cables 231 are respectively soldered to the grounding traces 223 on the circuit board from one side thereof. As can be best seen in
With reference to
The cable clamp 25 includes a first section 251 and a second section 252 both are stamped and formed from metal tapes. The first section 251 defines a plurality of rooms 253 and forms a plurality of bridges 254 between adjacent rooms 253. Each bridge 254 defines a pair of openings 255 at opposite ends thereof. The second section 252 includes a body portion 256 and two rows of tails 257 upwardly extending from two opposite sides of the body portion 256. The first and second sections 251, 252 clamp ends of the cables 23 from opposite sides with the tails 257 of the second section 252 being locked in corresponding openings 255 of the first section 251. The ends of the cables 23 are depressed by the body portion 256 of the second section 252 such that they are partially pressed into corresponding rooms 253 of the first section 251. The first and second sections 251, 252 further define a plurality of through holes 266 which are aligned with corresponding gaps 27 between adjacent pairs of cables 23 of a same group.
Particularly referring to
In assembly, referring to
The first and second halves 31, 32 of the cover 30 are assembled to the housing 10 with the projections 3360 of the latches 336 mechanically engage the depressions 170 of the recesses 17. At the same time, the first and second halves 31, 32 are connected by an interference engagement between the dowel pins 337 and the corresponding recesses 338. A third fastening element 60 is inserted into the bore 300 of the cover 30 for retaining the circuit modules 20 in the cover 30.
It is noted that since the circuit modules 20 are stably retained by the front housing 10 and the rear cover 30 via the second and third fastening elements 50, 60, a reliable electrical engagement is ensured between the cable assembly 1 and the complementary connector. It is also noted that the cables 23 are clamped by the cable clamps 25, more importantly, the cable clamps 25 are locked together via the first fastening element 40, whereby a pulling force exerted on the cables 23 can be substantially released. Additionally, the cables 23 is composed of a plurality of first cables which transmits relatively high speed signals and a plurality of second cables which transmits relatively low speed signals via soldering to the signal and grounding traces 221, 225 and 223 of the circuit board 22. Thus, the cable assembly 1 can transmit different kinds of signals therethrough.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US5924899||Nov 19, 1997||Jul 20, 1999||Berg Technology, Inc.||Modular connectors|
|US6102747||Apr 27, 1999||Aug 15, 2000||Berg Technology, Inc.||Modular connectors|
|US6217364||Jul 9, 1999||Apr 17, 2001||Molex Incorporated||Electrical connector assembly with guide pin latching system|
|US6273753 *||Oct 19, 2000||Aug 14, 2001||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Twinax coaxial flat cable connector assembly|
|US6619985 *||Apr 11, 2002||Sep 16, 2003||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Micro coaxial cable connector|
|US6685510 *||Oct 22, 2002||Feb 3, 2004||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Electrical cable connector|
|US6685511 *||Sep 26, 2001||Feb 3, 2004||Fujitsu Takamisawa Component Ltd.||Balanced-transmission cable-and-connector unit|
|US6699072 *||Dec 10, 2002||Mar 2, 2004||Hon Hai Precisionind Co., Ltd.||Cable assembly|
|US6699074 *||Dec 24, 2002||Mar 2, 2004||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Cable connector assembly having improved grounding means|
|US6705894 *||Jan 2, 2003||Mar 16, 2004||Molex Incorporated||Shielded electrical connector|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US7189098||Dec 30, 2005||Mar 13, 2007||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Cable connector assembly and method of manufacturing the same|
|US7232329||Jul 5, 2006||Jun 19, 2007||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Cable connector assembly with unitary latch|
|US7291034||Dec 30, 2005||Nov 6, 2007||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Cable connector assembly with internal printed circuit board|
|US7410365||Dec 30, 2005||Aug 12, 2008||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Cable connector assembly with internal printed circuit board|
|US7470155 *||Jul 25, 2007||Dec 30, 2008||Samtec, Inc.||High-density connector|
|US8439704 *||Sep 9, 2009||May 14, 2013||Molex Incorporated||Horizontally configured connector with edge card mounting structure|
|US8475177 *||Jan 18, 2011||Jul 2, 2013||Ohio Associated Enterprises, Llc||Backplane cable interconnection|
|US8784122 *||Nov 13, 2012||Jul 22, 2014||Airborn, Inc.||Low-profile right-angle electrical connector assembly|
|US8915758 *||Dec 19, 2012||Dec 23, 2014||Tyco Electronics Japan G.K.||Electrical connector|
|US20070155217 *||Dec 30, 2005||Jul 5, 2007||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd||Cable connector assembly with internal printed circuit board|
|US20070155218 *||Dec 30, 2005||Jul 5, 2007||Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.||Cable connector assembly with internal printed circuit board|
|US20110177699 *||Jul 21, 2011||Crofoot Larry M||Backplane cable interconnection|
|US20130122745 *||May 16, 2013||Emad Soubh||Low-profile right-angle electrical connector assembly|
|US20130183842 *||Dec 19, 2012||Jul 18, 2013||Tyco Electronics Japan G.K.||Electrical Connector|
|International Classification||H01R12/16, H01R13/66, H01R13/514|
|Cooperative Classification||H01R13/6658, H01R23/688, H01R13/514|
|European Classification||H01R13/514, H01R13/66D2, H01R23/68D2|
|Jun 25, 2003||AS||Assignment|
|Aug 15, 2008||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|Oct 8, 2012||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|Feb 22, 2013||LAPS||Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees|
|Apr 16, 2013||FP||Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee|
Effective date: 20130222