TWM653846U - Electrical connector module - Google Patents

Abstract

An electrical connecter module includes a connector, a carrier, and at least one bundle cable. The connector has an insulating housing and plural terminals. Each of the terminals is fixed in a predetermined position of the insulating housing and has a connection section. The terminals include plural high speed terminals for transmitting high speed electronic signals and plural low speed terminals for transmitting non-high speed electronic signals. The carrier has an electronic circuit electrically connected to plural first circuit contacts and plural second circuit contacts. At least a portion of the first circuit contacts of the electronic circuit remain in contact with the connection sections of a portion of the low speed terminals. The bundle cable has plural high speed signal conductors and plural low speed signal conductors. The high speed signal conductors respectively connect the connection sections of the high speed terminals, and the low speed signal conductors respectively connect the second circuit contacts of the carrier.

Description

Electrical connector module

This invention relates to a connector module, in particular to a connector module installed on a bundle of cables.

Electrical connectors are mainly used to provide electrical connections between different electronic devices or systems, thereby realizing the transmission or exchange of electronic signals between different electronic devices or systems. Taking the PCIe electrical connector as an example, since the PCIe Association specification has defined the pins, the electrical connector still has several low-speed signals in the high-speed signal transmission that require passive components to determine the signal. In other words, in the electrical connector, the low-speed signal terminal will be connected back to the circuit board (PCB) of the electrical connector through wires.

Generally speaking, the circuit board of the electrical connector needs to connect both the high-speed signal terminal and the low-speed signal terminal, and a processing chip is provided on the circuit board. Due to the small size of the circuit board of the electrical connector, the contacts, wires and chips on the circuit board may occupy too much area, which limits the design.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, an electrical connector module has a connector, a carrier and at least one bundle of cables. The connector has an insulating shell and a plurality of terminals. The connector includes a main circuit board, and the insulating shell is located on the main circuit board. The carrier includes a sub-circuit board with an area smaller than the main circuit board. Each terminal is fixed at a predetermined position of the insulating shell and has a connecting section respectively. These terminals include a plurality of first terminals and a plurality of second terminals. The carrier has an electronic circuit, and the electronic circuit electrically connects a plurality of first circuit contacts and a plurality of second circuit contacts. At least some of the first circuit contacts of the electronic circuit maintain contact with the connecting sections of some of the second terminals. The bundle of cables has a plurality of first signal conductors and a plurality of second signal conductors. The first signal conductors are respectively connected to the connection sections of the first terminals, and the second signal conductors are respectively connected to the second circuit contacts of the carrier, and the connector is electrically connected to the matching interface outside the connector by means of a harness cable.

In some embodiments, a portion of the second signal conductor of the cable is used to transmit DC power.

In some embodiments, the carrier is a flexible printed circuit (FPC) board having two layers of insulating material bonded to opposite surfaces of an electronic circuit through a lamination process.

In some implementations, the differential electronic signal is a non-return to zero differential electronic signal (NRZ differential signal), and the insertion loss of the differential electronic signal is less than 28 dB at a frequency of 16 GHz.

In some implementations, the differential electronic signal is a 4 level pulse amplitude modulation differential electronic signal (PAM4 differential signal), and the insertion loss of the differential electronic signal is less than 36 dB at a frequency of 16 GHz.

In some implementations, the projection surface of the carrier is rectangular, the edge of the rectangular carrier has a protrusion, the protrusion has a receiving groove, and the second terminal is inserted into the receiving groove to be conductive with the carrier.

In some embodiments, the connecting section of at least one of the second terminals extends in a direction away from the insulating housing of the connector, and the connecting section of the second terminal contacts the corresponding first circuit contact with elastic restoring force.

In some embodiments, at least a portion of the second circuit contacts of the carrier are electrically connected to the first connector, and at least a portion of the second signal conductors of the cable harness are electrically connected to the second connector, and each second circuit contact is electrically connected to the corresponding second signal conductor through the cooperation between the first connector and the second connector.

In some embodiments, the electronic circuit of the carrier is electrically connected to at least one resistor.

In some implementations, the main circuit board surrounds the long sides and short sides of the sub-circuit board.

In the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure, since the electrical connector module includes a connector and a carrier, and the first circuit contact of the electronic circuit of the carrier and the connecting section of the second terminal (such as the low-speed terminal) of the connector are kept in contact, the second terminal can be connected to the wire through the carrier, and then electrically connected to the connector through the wire, instead of directly connecting to the connector. In this way, the electrical connector module can not only allow the signal of the second terminal to be transmitted to the connector, but the carrier can also provide the function and area of the traditional circuit board part, so that the connector and the carrier can be matched with each other, which is conducive to design flexibility.

The embodiments disclosed below provide many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing the different features of the subject matter provided. Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the present invention. Of course, these examples are only examples and are not intended to be limiting. In addition, the present invention may repeat component symbols and/or letters in each example. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity, and does not itself specify the relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.

Spatially relative terms such as "below," "beneath," "lower," "above," "upper," and the like may be used herein for descriptive purposes to describe the relationship of one element or feature to another element or feature as illustrated in the accompanying figures. Spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the accompanying figures. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.

FIG. 1 shows a front view of an electrical connector module 100 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 2A shows a partial three-dimensional view of the electrical connector module 100 of FIG. 1 as viewed from below. FIG. 2B shows a partial enlarged view of FIG. 2A. Referring to FIG. 1 to FIG. 2B simultaneously, the electrical connector module 100 includes a connector 110, a carrier 140, and at least one bundle of cables 180. The connector 110 has an insulating shell 120 and a plurality of terminals 130. Each terminal 130 is fixed at a predetermined position of the insulating shell 120 and has a connection section (e.g., a contact area). These terminals 130 include a plurality of high-speed terminals 132 (i.e., first terminals) for transmitting high-speed electronic signals and a plurality of low-speed terminals 134 (i.e., second terminals) for transmitting non-high-speed electronic signals. The carrier 140 has an electronic circuit, which electrically connects a plurality of first circuit contacts 144, at least one resistor 141, and a plurality of second circuit contacts 145. At least a portion of the first circuit contacts 144 of the electronic circuit maintains contact with a portion of the connection section of the low-speed terminal 134. The harness cable 180 has a plurality of high-speed signal conductors 182 (i.e., first signal conductors) and a plurality of low-speed signal conductors 184 (i.e., second signal conductors). The high-speed signal conductors 182 are respectively connected to the connection sections of the high-speed terminal 132, and the low-speed signal conductors 184 are respectively connected to the second circuit contacts 145 of the carrier 140, and the harness cable 180 electrically connects the connector 110 to a matching interface outside the connector 110.

In some embodiments, the connector 110 has a matching interface that complies with the PCIe industry standard specification definition. The matching interface of the connector 110 may comply with the Gen-Z industry standard. The single high-speed terminal 132 of the connector 110 is used to transmit a high-speed single-ended electronic signal (single end signal) with a frequency exceeding 800MHz. A pair of adjacent high-speed terminals 132 in the connector 110 jointly transmit a set of high-speed differential electronic signals (differential signal) with a frequency exceeding 2.5GHz. The differential electronic signal is a non-return to zero differential electronic signal (NRZ differential signal), and the insertion loss of the differential electronic signal is less than 28dB at a frequency of 16GHz. The differential electronic signal is a 4 level pulse amplitude modulation differential electronic signal (PAM4 differential signal), and the insertion loss of the differential electronic signal is less than 36dB at a frequency of 16GHz.

In addition, some low-speed signal conductors 184 of the cable harness 180 are used to transmit direct current power. The carrier 140 is a material on which electronic circuits are arranged. In some embodiments, the carrier 140 is a flexible printed circuit (FPC) board with two layers of insulating material bonded to opposite surfaces of the electronic circuits through a lamination process.

Specifically, since the electrical connector module 100 includes the connector 110 and the carrier 140, and the first circuit contact 144 of the electronic circuit of the carrier 140 and the connection section of the low-speed terminal 134 of the connector 110 are kept in contact, the low-speed terminal 134 can be connected to the wire 150 via the carrier 140, and then electrically connected to the connector 110 via the wire 150, instead of directly connecting to the connector 110. In this way, the electrical connector module 100 can not only allow the signal of the low-speed terminal 134 to be transmitted to the connector 110, but the carrier 140 can also provide the function and area of the traditional circuit board part, so that the connector 110 and the carrier 140 can be matched with each other, which is conducive to design flexibility.

In this embodiment, the projection surface of the carrier 140 is rectangular, and the edge of the rectangular carrier 140 has a protrusion 142, and the protrusion 142 has a receiving groove 143, and the low-speed terminal 134 is inserted into the receiving groove 143 and is connected to the carrier 140. The wire 150 can transmit the low-speed signal of the low-speed terminal 134 back to the connector 110, so that the passive element can determine the signal.

In some embodiments, the connector 110 may include a main circuit board (i.e., at 110), and the insulating shell 120 is located on the main circuit board. The carrier 140 may include a sub-circuit board (i.e., at 140) having an area smaller than that of the main circuit board. The main circuit board surrounds the long side and the short side of the sub-circuit board. The area of the carrier 140 is smaller than that of the connector 110. The carrier 140 is arranged along the length direction D1 of the insulating shell 120. In this embodiment, the normal direction N1 of the carrier 140 is parallel to the opening direction D2 of the insulating shell 120, and the carrier 140 is arranged parallel to the connector 110.

In addition, the electrical connector module 100 further includes at least one wire to board (WTB) connector 160. In this embodiment, the electrical connector module 100 includes two wire to board connectors 160. As shown in FIG. 2A, one of the two wire to board connectors 160 is located on the connector 110, and the other is located on the carrier 140, and the two ends of the wire 150 are respectively connected to the two wire to board connectors 160.

It should be understood that the connection relationship, materials and functions of the components described above will not be repeated, and the description is given first. In the following description, other forms of electrical connector modules will be described.

FIG. 3 shows a partial bottom view of an electrical connector module 100a according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The electrical connector module 100a includes a connector 110, a carrier 140, a cable harness 180, a wire 150, and a wire-to-board connector 160. The difference between this embodiment and the embodiment of FIG. 2A is that the wire-to-board connector 160 is only located on the carrier 140, and there is no wire-to-board connector 160 on the connector 110. One end of the wire 150 is connected to the wire-to-board connector 160, and the other end is directly welded to the contact of the connector 110.

FIG. 4 shows a partial bottom view of an electrical connector module 100b according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The electrical connector module 100b includes a connector 110, a carrier 140, at least one bundle of cables 180, at least one wire 150, and a wire-to-board connector 160. The difference between this embodiment and the embodiment of FIG. 2A is that the wire-to-board connector 160 is only located on the connector 110, and there is no wire-to-board connector 160 on the carrier 140. One end of the wire 150 is connected to the wire-to-board connector 160, and the other end is directly welded to the contact of the carrier 140.

FIG. 5 shows a partial bottom view of an electrical connector module 100c according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The electrical connector module 100c includes a connector 110, a carrier 140, at least one bundle of cables 180, and at least one wire 150. The difference between this embodiment and the embodiment of FIG. 2A is that the electrical connector module 100c has a wireless board-to-board connector 160. The two ends of the wire 150 are directly welded to the contacts of the carrier 140 and the contacts of the connector 110, respectively.

FIG. 6 shows a partial stereoscopic view of an electrical connector module 100d according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 shows a partial enlarged view of the electrical connector module 100d of FIG. 6. Referring to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 simultaneously, the electrical connector module 100d includes a connector 110, a carrier 140a, at least one bundle of cables 180, and at least one wire 150. This embodiment differs from the embodiment of FIG. 2A in that the normal direction N2 of the carrier 140a of the electrical connector module 100d is perpendicular to the opening direction D2 of the insulating shell 120, and the shape of the low-speed terminal 134a of the electrical connector module 100d is different from the shape of the high-speed terminal 132. The connection section of at least one of the low-speed terminals 134a extends in a direction away from the insulating housing 120 of the connector 110, and the connection section of the low-speed terminal 134a contacts the corresponding first circuit contact 144a (such as a gold finger) with elastic restoring force.

In this embodiment, the carrier 140a is vertically arranged relative to the connector 110. The carrier 140a has a first circuit contact 144a. The low-speed terminal 134a extends to the carrier 140a and abuts against the first circuit contact 144a of the carrier 140a, so that the low-speed terminal 134a and the carrier 140a are electrically connected. In addition, the low-speed terminal 134a has an inclined portion 135 inclined relative to the carrier 140a, and the inclined portion 135 and the carrier 140a have an acute angle θ.

FIG. 8 shows a three-dimensional view of an electrical connector module 100e according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 9 shows a partially enlarged view of the electrical connector module 100e of FIG. 8. Referring to FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 simultaneously, the electrical connector module 100e includes a connector 110, a carrier 140b, at least one bundle of cables 180, a first connector 170, a wire-to-board connector 160 (which is a second connector), and at least one wire 150. At least a portion of the second circuit contacts 145a of the carrier 140b are electrically connected to the first connector 170, and at least a portion of the low-speed signal conductors 184 of the bundle of cables 180 are electrically connected to the wire-to-board connector 160 (such as other wires above the wire 150 connected to the first connector 170 in FIG. 8). Each second circuit contact 145, 145a is electrically connected to the corresponding low-speed signal conductor 184 through the cooperation between the first connector 170 and the wire-to-board connector 160. The first connector 170 can be a riveted terminal that can be clamped on the second circuit contact 145a. One end of the wire 150 is also clamped by the first connector 170, and the wire 150 extends to the wire-to-board connector 160 on the connector 110. FIG. 8 only shows a single first connector 170 connected to a single wire 150. In actual application, each second circuit contact 145a can be provided with a first connector 170, and these first connectors 170 can be connected to multiple wires 150 respectively.

Specifically, the electrical connector module 100e utilizes the first connector 170 to be clamped on the second circuit contact 145a, and the wire 150 extending to the connector 110 is also clamped by the first connector 170, so that the second circuit contact 145a can be connected to the wire 150 via the first connector 170, and then electrically connected to the connector 110 via the wire 150, rather than directly connected to the connector 110. In this way, the electrical connector module 100e can not only allow the signal of the second circuit contact 145a to be transmitted to the connector 110, but also the first connector 170 can omit the function and area of the traditional circuit board part, so that the connector 110 and the first connector 170 can be matched with each other, which is conducive to design flexibility.

FIG. 10 shows another view of the electrical connector module 100e of FIG. 9. Referring to FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 at the same time, the length of the second circuit contact 145a is greater than the length of the second circuit contact 145 and the length of the high-speed terminal 132. This design allows the second circuit contact 145a to be conveniently clamped by the first connector 170.

The foregoing summarizes the features of several embodiments so that those skilled in the art can better understand the aspects of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art should understand that they can easily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifying other processes and structures to achieve the same purpose and/or achieve the same advantages as the embodiments described herein. Those skilled in the art should also recognize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, and that they can make various changes, substitutions and modifications here without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

100,100a,100b,100c,100d,100e: electrical connector module 110: connector 120: insulating housing 130: terminal 132: high-speed terminal 134,134a: low-speed terminal 135: inclined portion 140,140a,140b: carrier 141: resistor 142: protrusion 143: receiving groove 144,144a: first circuit contact 145,145a: second circuit contact 150: wire 160: wire-to-board connector 170: first connector 180: cable harness 182: high-speed signal conductor 184: low-speed signal conductor D1: length direction D2: opening direction N1, N2: normal direction θ: sharp angle

The disclosure is best understood from the following embodiments when read in conjunction with the accompanying illustrations. Note that various features are not drawn to scale in accordance with standard practice in the industry. In fact, the dimensions of various features may be arbitrarily increased or decreased for clarity of discussion. FIG. 1 illustrates a front view of an electrical connector module according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 2A illustrates a partial perspective view of the electrical connector module of FIG. 1 as viewed from below. FIG. 2B illustrates an enlarged partial view of FIG. 2A. FIG. 3 illustrates a partial bottom view of an electrical connector module according to another embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 4 illustrates a partial bottom view of an electrical connector module according to yet another embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 5 illustrates a partial bottom view of an electrical connector module according to yet another embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 6 shows a partial stereoscopic view of an electrical connector module according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 7 shows a partial enlarged view of the electrical connector module of FIG. 6. FIG. 8 shows a stereoscopic view of an electrical connector module according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 9 shows a partial enlarged view of the electrical connector module of FIG. 8. FIG. 10 shows another perspective of the electrical connector module of FIG. 9.

100:Electrical connector module

110: Connector

120: Insulation shell

134: Low speed terminal

140: Carrier

141: Resistor

142: protrusion

143: Storage tank

144: First circuit contact

150: Conductor wire

160: Wire-to-board connector

180: Cable harness

D1: Length direction

D2: Opening direction

N1: Normal direction

Claims (10)

An electrical connector module comprises a connector, a carrier and at least one bundle of cables, wherein the connector comprises an insulating shell and a plurality of terminals, the connector comprises a main circuit board, the insulating shell is located on the main circuit board, the carrier comprises a sub-circuit board with an area smaller than the main circuit board, each of the terminals is fixed at a predetermined position of the insulating shell and has a connecting section respectively, the terminals comprise a plurality of first terminals and a plurality of second terminals; the carrier has an electronic circuit, the electronic circuit A plurality of first circuit contacts and a plurality of second circuit contacts are connected, and at least some of the first circuit contacts of the electronic circuit are in contact with some of the connecting sections of the second terminals; the harness cable has a plurality of first signal conductors and a plurality of second signal conductors, the first signal conductors are respectively connected to the connecting sections of the first terminals, and the second signal conductors are respectively connected to the second circuit contacts of the carrier, and the connector is electrically connected to a matching interface outside the connector by the harness cable. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein a portion of the second signal conductor of the cable is used to transmit DC power. The electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein the carrier is a flexible printed circuit (FPC) board having two layers of insulating material bonded to opposite surfaces of the electronic circuit through a lamination process. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein the differential electronic signal is a non-return to zero differential electronic signal (NRZ differential signal), and the insertion loss of the differential electronic signal is less than 28dB at a frequency of 16GHz. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein the differential electronic signal is a 4 level Pulse Amplitude Modulation differential signal (PAM4 differential signal), and the insertion loss of the differential electronic signal is less than 36 dB at a frequency of 16 GHz. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein a projection surface of the carrier is a rectangle, an edge of the rectangular carrier has a protrusion, the protrusion has a receiving groove, and the second terminal is inserted into the receiving groove to be conductive with the carrier. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein the connecting section of at least one of the second terminals extends in a direction away from the insulating shell of the connector, and the connecting section of the second terminal contacts the corresponding first circuit contact with elastic resilience. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the second circuit contacts of the carrier are electrically connected to a first connector, and at least a portion of the second signal conductors of the cable bundle are electrically connected to a second connector, and each of the second circuit contacts is electrically connected to the corresponding second signal conductor through the cooperation between the first connector and the second connector. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein the electronic circuit of the carrier is electrically connected to at least one resistor. An electrical connector module as described in claim 1, wherein the main circuit board surrounds the long sides and short sides of the sub-circuit board.

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