Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R13/00—Details of coupling devices of the kinds covered by groups H01R12/70 or H01R24/00 - H01R33/00
  • H01R13/648—Protective earth or shield arrangements on coupling devices, e.g. anti-static shielding  
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R13/00—Details of coupling devices of the kinds covered by groups H01R12/70 or H01R24/00 - H01R33/00
  • H01R13/648—Protective earth or shield arrangements on coupling devices, e.g. anti-static shielding  
  • H01R13/658—High frequency shielding arrangements, e.g. against EMI [Electro-Magnetic Interference] or EMP [Electro-Magnetic Pulse]
  • H01R13/6581—Shield structure
  • H01R13/6582—Shield structure with resilient means for engaging mating connector
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R12/00—Structural associations of a plurality of mutually-insulated electrical connecting elements, specially adapted for printed circuits, e.g. printed circuit boards [PCB], flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures, e.g. terminal strips, terminal blocks; Coupling devices specially adapted for printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures; Terminals specially adapted for contact with, or insertion into, printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures
  • H01R12/70—Coupling devices
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R12/00—Structural associations of a plurality of mutually-insulated electrical connecting elements, specially adapted for printed circuits, e.g. printed circuit boards [PCB], flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures, e.g. terminal strips, terminal blocks; Coupling devices specially adapted for printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures; Terminals specially adapted for contact with, or insertion into, printed circuits, flat or ribbon cables, or like generally planar structures
  • H01R12/50—Fixed connections
  • H01R12/51—Fixed connections for rigid printed circuits or like structures
  • H01R12/55—Fixed connections for rigid printed circuits or like structures characterised by the terminals
  • H01R12/57—Fixed connections for rigid printed circuits or like structures characterised by the terminals surface mounting terminals

Definitions

• the present invention generally relates to electric connectors, and more particularly, to connectors having enhanced grounding characteristics, which are appropriate for use in high-frequency circuits.
• Electric connectors are often used in connecting printed circuit boards together.
• a metal shield to surround the insulative housing in order to preventing the leakage of high- frequency signals from the joint(s) at which the printed circuits boards or associated electric parts are connected together. Examples of high-frequency connectors using metal shields are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 4-255678 and 5-217630.
• These high-frequency connectors use an insulative housing with a plurality of terminals fixed in the interior of the housing and a metal shield fixed to the exterior of the housing, and are designed so as to ground any high-frequency signals appearing on any terminals by way of the metal shield.
• the inner terminals, the exterior shield and the intervening insulative housing combine to act as a capacitor and capacitive coupling occurs which passes the high-frequency signals of the terminals to the grounding shield.
• the increased size of the connector and increased number of terminals increases the likelihood of inducing undesired signals because the grounded ends of the connector move farther away from the high-frequency terminals and because the high-frequency signals seek a low impedance path to ground, they tend to propagate through a nearby terminal and through the circuitry of the printed circuit board rather than the groundpaths at the ends of the connector.
• the present invention is directed to an improved connector which avoids the aforementioned shortcomings and reduces the likelihood of an antenna effect from occurring that will lead to radiation of high-frequency signals by increasing the number of groundpaths along the length of the connector.
• One object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector with an enhanced grounding capability for high-frequency signals.
• Another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having an insulative housing, an interior recess which accommodates a plurality of electrically conductive terminals disposed therealong and an exterior metal grounding shield, the grounding shield having a plurality of ground connections extending into contact with selected terminals of the connector, thereby increasing the number of groundpaths along the length of the connector.
• Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having a connector body formed from an insulating material, a longitudinal recess disposed in the connector body, a plurality of terminals disposed in spaced-apart order within the recess and having solder tail portions that extend exterior of the connector body portion, a metal grounding shield disposed exterior of the connector body, the grounding shield having a plurality of grounding terminals spaced along the length of the connector which extend inwardly through the connector body into electrical contact with selected ones of the connector terminals to thereby define a series of groundpaths disposed along the length of the connector.
• an electrical connector of a ground enhancement type comprises an insulating housing having a plurality of terminals mounted inside and a metal shield covering at least one portion of the insulating housing.
• the metal shield has one or more leads integrally connected thereto and extending outwardly therefrom, the leads being stamped and formed so that they extend inwardly through aligned apertures of the insulating housing into contact with selected terminals inside of the connector.
• the present invention can be equally applied to any surface mount connectors, such as plug or receptacle type connector components as well as circuit card connectors, such as edge card connectors.
• the selected terminal(s) that contact the shield leads can be used as grounding terminals, thereby permitting any high-frequency current induced in the metal shield to propagate along the shortest possible path to an associated grounding circuit.
• any antenna effect that may occur locally in the metal shield when a high-frequency current is induced therein can be substantially reduced so that transmission of undesired high- frequency signals via other terminals may be prevented.
• FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a connector component, such as a plug connector, constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention
• FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional of another connector component, such as a receptacle connector, constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention
• FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of an electrical connector assembly utilizing two interengaging connector components wherein one connector component is a plug connector constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention and the other connector component is a conventional receptacle connector;
• FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the plug connector component of the electrical connector assembly of FIG. 3;
• FIG. 5 is an elevational view of the receptacle connector of the electrical connector assembly of FIG. 3;
• FIG. 6 is a schematic view of prior art grounded connector
• FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the connector of FIG. 3.
• a plug connector 1 with enhanced grounding characteristics constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention is shown as comprising an elongated insulative housing 2 having an interior recess 50 defined by a pair of housing sidewalls 5.
• the recess 50 is dimensioned to receive an opposing interengaging connector component and in other embodiments, may receive a circuit card therein.
• a plurality of terminals 3 are longitudinally arranged on opposing inner surfaces 54 of the connector sidewalls 5 at regular intervals.
• a conductive shield 4, preferably a metal shield, covers the sidewalls 5 of the connector housing 2.
• the terminals 3 each comprise a contact portion 3b which is located in the recess 50 and which extends vertically from intermediate body portions 3a of the terminals 3 to near the top of the recess 50.
• Solder tail portion 3c extend away from the intermediate portions 3a in a horizontal manner and out of the connector 1 in order to permit the connector 1 to be mounted in an associated stationary plane, such as to a circuit board 60, wherein the solder tail portions 3c oppose and engage contact pads 62 of circuits of the circuit board 60.
• the connector housing 2 has a series of apertures 7 formed therein, preferably in the form of slots. These apertures 7 may be located in either the connector sidewalls or in the base or body portion of the connector housing 2 and are aligned with specific ones of the terminals 3, for example, every 5th or 10th terminal.
• the metal grounding shield 4 has a series of corresponding grounding leads 9 formed along the horizontal extent 8 of the shield, and each such grounding lead 9 is preferably formed by stamping a window-like opening 61 (having an U-shape as illustrated in FIG. 4) into the horizontal body portion 8 of the shield 4.
• the openings 61 define opposing free ends 64 and tail ends 66 for each grounding lead 9.
• grounding leads 9 are integrally attached to the grounding shield 4 while their free ends 64 are not, so that they may be easily formed, such as by bending inwardly, and placed into contact with the selected associated terminals 3, the contact being illustrated in FIGS. 1 & 2 as occurring between the body portions 3a of the terminals 3 and contact portion 68 of the grounding leads 9 formed on their free ends 64.
• a receptacle connector 11 with enhanced ground characteristics and which is constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention comprises an elongated insulating housing 12 with a plurality of terminals 13 longitudinally arranged on the opposing interior surfaces 10 of the walls 15 of the housing 12 at regular intervals.
• a metal grounding shield 14 covers the walls 15 of the housing 12.
• the terminals 13 include contact portions 13b which extend vertically within the receptacle connector recess 70, body portions 13a which are embedded in the connector housing 12 and solder tail portions 13c which extend through the base
• the metal shield 14 has a plurality of grounding leads 19 stamped and bent inward so that they pass through the apertures 17 in order to resiliently contact the intermediate sections 13a of the connector terminals 13, the contact being made by the free ends 19a of the grounding leads 19. This contact establishes electrical connections between the metal grounding shield 14 and the selected terminals 13.
• the selected terminals 3, 13 of the connector components 1, 11 which are contacted by the associated grounding leads 9, 19 of the grounding shields 4, 14 act as grounding terminals. These terminals 3, 13 are connected to grounding circuits of the associated printed circuits boards 60 to which the connector components are mounted.
• capacitive coupling occurs between these terminals and the exterior metal shields 4, 14 spaced apart from the terminals and the signals, in essence, "jump" through the insulative housings 2, 12 to the metal shields 4, 14.
• These signals seek a ground and in the prior art connectors mentioned hereinabove, they traversed the length of the metal shield to the ends of the connector where these shields had ground leads located at their ends.
• the shield becomes longer in length and the impedance experienced by the high-frequency signals grows as the signals traverse the length of the shield.
• the long shield in these prior art applications therefore acts as a radiating antenna and the high-frequency signals are then likely to jump back through the insulative housing to adjoining terminals rather than traversing the length of the metal shield to the ground leads at the ends thereof. This may lead to errant transmission of high-frequency signals to wrong circuit terminals.
• the present invention advantageously defines a plurality of groundpaths spaced at predetermined intervals along the length of the connector components 1, 11 by way of the metal shield grounding leads 9, 19.
• the grounding leads 9, 19 therefore define segments of the grounding shields 4, 14 of predetermined length 1, which is less than the entire length L of the connector (FIG. 4) so that any high-frequency signals which are transmitted by the terminals 3, 13 and which become capacitively coupled to the metal shields 4, 14 travel the shortest possible length to a ground circuit, thereby substantially reducing, if not altogether eliminating any antenna effect which would transmit high-frequency signals to the wrong terminals of the connector components 1, 11.
• FIG. 6 a schematic of a prior art grounded connector is illustrated of length L which has two ground connections G located at its opposite ends.
• a connector terminal h carries a high-frequency signal and the signal jumps from the terminal to the exterior grounding shield, the signal must travel a distance of either 1 1 or 1 2 to reach either of the grounds G.
• These lengths may create an antenna effect as described above as the overall length L of the connector increases.
• FIG. 7 schematically illustrates a connector of the present invention with three grounding leads G formed in its grounding shield at equal distance intervals l ⁇ . These intervals l ⁇ serve to reduce the shortest distance from any high-frequency terminal h in this connector to a distance no greater than a fractional value of the length of the connector equal to
• N « the number of grounding leads used on any longitudinal extent of the connector.
• three grounding leads are used so that the shortest distance to any groundpath is approximately no greater than one-fourth, i.e.,
• grounding leads 9, 19 effect contact with their associated selected grounding terminals at a level above the solder tail portions 3c, 13c of the terminals 3, the grounding leads 9, 19 of the grounding shields 4, 14 will not affect the coplanarity of the solder tail portions 3c, 13c of the connectors l, 11.
• grounding lead 9, 19 of the grounding shields 4, 14 will be determined in advance upon due consideration of which terminals of the connector components 1, 11 high-frequency signals are applied. In instances where such high-frequency signals are applied to only one or two terminals, a single grounding lead may be used to contact one selected terminal in the close proximity to the high-frequency signal transmission terminals.
• FIG. 3 an electrical connector assembly 23 is illustrated wherein a plug connector component 21 similar in construction to that of FIG. 1 is in engagement with an ordinary receptacle connector component 22.
• FIG. 4 presents a front elevational view of the plug connector component 21 whereas
• FIG. 5 presents a frontal elevational view of the receptacle connector component 22.
• the same reference numerals as used in FIG. l are used to indicate similar parts and the descriptions are omitted.
• grounding terminals 24 of the plug connector component 21, which contact with the grounding leads 9 of the metal shield 4, are connected to grounding circuits on an associated circuit board (not shown) , and the counterterminals 25 of the opposing, interengaging receptacle connector component 22, which contact likewise the grounding terminals 24 of the plug connector component 21, are connected to the grounding circuit.
• the contact portions 68 of the grounding leads 9 make contact with the grounding terminals 24 of the plug connector component 21, while backbone portions 69 of the terminals 9 extend in the opposite directions i.e., exterior of the connector component 21,to contact the grounding shield 14 of the receptacle connector component 22.
• circuit card connectors wherein the recess of the connector receives a printed circuit card, such as an edge card, rather than an opposing interengaging connector component.

Landscapes

• Details Of Connecting Devices For Male And Female Coupling (AREA)
• Coupling Device And Connection With Printed Circuit (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=13462905

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (7)

Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (14)

Citations (4)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 1996
  • 1996-03-01 JP JP8071514A patent/JPH09237656A/ja active Pending
  • 1996-12-23 AU AU14278/97A patent/AU1427897A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1996-12-23 CN CN96180150A patent/CN1099738C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1996-12-23 WO PCT/US1996/020251 patent/WO1997032366A1/en active IP Right Grant
  • 1996-12-23 EP EP96944481A patent/EP0883914A4/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 1996-12-23 KR KR10-1998-0705805A patent/KR100421434B1/ko not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1997
  • 1997-01-29 TW TW086213791U patent/TW342145U/zh unknown

Patent Citations (4)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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