TWI842241B - Cable end connector - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a cable end connector, which includes a front metal plate, a plurality of differential terminal pairs, a rear metal plate, a connecting plate, at least one cable, and an insulating layer. The front metal plate, the rear metal plate, and the connecting plate are one piece formed. The cable establishes a grounding circuit with the front metal plate via the rear metal plate and the connecting plate. The cable forms a moveable electrical connection with the rear metal plate. Compared with the traditional wire end connector, the present invention replaces the traditional front metal plate and the rear metal plate with one piece formed grounding plate, thereby simplifying the design. By connecting the grounding cable or the grounding foil to the rear metal plate, and there is no need to extend and weld the grounding cable to the front grounding piece, and there is no need to set a guiding groove at the top of each metal plate, which simplifies the product design and assembly process and effectively reduces the cost.

Description

Wire end connector

The present disclosure relates to a line-end connector, and in particular to a line-end high-frequency connector applicable to a server.

There are many types of high-frequency connectors used in servers, and one of them is the NEARSTACK PCIE connector. The Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee defines NEARSTACK PCIe as the standard SFF-TA-1026. For detailed design, please refer to its standard specification book, the file name is "Specification for Storage System High Speed Cable Interconnect Rev 1.0 November 22, 2021 (SFF-TA-1026 Rev 1.0), the link is https://members.snia.org/document/dl/35110.

See Figures 1A to 1D. Figure 1A shows a schematic diagram of the combination of the known NEARSTACK line-end connector and its board-end connector. As can be seen from the figure, the rear end of the line-end connector A has multiple cables 30 for transmitting signals. The line-end connector A is used to be plugged into the board-end connector B connected to the PCB.

FIG. 1B shows a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the line end connector of FIG. 1A after removing the outer shell. The line end connector A includes two sets of connection modules 1 arranged in front and back. In addition, please refer to FIG. 1C and FIG. 1D. FIG. 1C shows a schematic diagram of the back of the connection module in FIG. 1B. FIG. 1D is a schematic diagram of the combination of the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12 in FIG. 1C. As can be seen from the figure, the connection module 1 mainly includes the front metal plate 11, the rear metal plate 12, a plurality of intermediate partitions 14 arranged between the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12, a plurality of differential terminal pairs 20, a plurality of cables 30 and an insulating rubber layer 40. The core wire of the cable 30 passes through the rear metal plate 12 and each intermediate partition plate 14 through the rear wire hole 12A, and then passes through the front metal plate 11 and is welded to the first terminal 202 and the second terminal 204 of the differential terminal pair 20 located in the slot 112. Each cable 30 includes two grounding leads 34, which extend along the length of the cable and climb along the rear surface of the rear metal plate 12, and extend along the guide groove 114 that overlaps the top of the rear metal plate 12 and each intermediate partition plate 14 to electrically connect to the front metal plate 11, thereby grounding, and connected to the outside through the grounding terminal 111.

In addition, the upper and lower parts of the rear metal plate 12 are also provided with a plurality of wings 122 punched and folded from the rear metal plate 12. Each wing 122 extends forward through each middle partition 14, the insulating rubber layer 40 and the through hole 113 of the front metal plate 11, and is used to physically block each differential terminal pair 20 to prevent interference between the differential terminal pairs.

How to simplify the structure and reduce the cost of the aforementioned connector without affecting its performance is a problem that needs to be solved.

In view of this, the main purpose of the present invention is to provide a connector that achieves similar or the same performance as the previous NEARSTACK or other line-end connectors with a simpler design.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the main technical improvement compared to the traditional NEARSTACK wire end connector is to use a one-piece formed ground plate to replace the traditional front metal plate and rear metal plate, thereby simplifying the design and allowing the ground lead or ground foil to be connected only to the rear metal plate, without the need to pull and weld the ground lead to the front ground plate, and without the need to set a guide groove on the top of each metal plate, thereby simplifying the product design and assembly process and effectively reducing costs.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the main technical improvement compared to the traditional NEARSTACK wire end connector is that a conductive spring arm formed in one piece with the rear metal plate is used to abut the outer surface of the inserted cable, and a cable with the grounded conductive surface facing outward is used to effectively establish a grounding loop without the need to pull the ground lead.

The main technical feature of another embodiment of the present invention is that the wing of the rear metal plate does not penetrate the front metal plate, but the wing and the metal plate are mutually supported or slightly separated, thereby reducing the alignment time during assembly while achieving the same or similar anti-interference effect.

The above is only used to explain the problems that the present invention intends to solve, the technical means for solving the problems, and the effects produced, etc. The specific details of the present invention will be introduced in detail in the following implementation method and related drawings.

A: Wire-end connector

1: Connection module

10: Ground plate

B: Board-side connector

11:Front metal plate

110: Base

111: Ground terminal

112: Slotting

113:Piercing

114: Guide groove

12: Rear metal plate

121: Conductive bomb arm

122: Wings

12A: Rear threading hole

13: Connecting plate

14: Middle partition

20: Differential terminal pair

202: First terminal

202A: First line hole

202B: Head

202C: Extension

202D: Contact part

204: Second terminal

204A: Second line hole

30: Cables

31: Core wire

32: Insulation layer

33: Anti-interference film

331: Insulating carrier layer

332:Metal foil

34: Ground lead

40: Insulation rubber layer

402: Wire hole

404: Wing hole

The following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings will provide a better understanding of the present disclosure. It should be noted that, in accordance with standard industry practice, the features are not drawn to scale. In fact, the dimensions of the features may be increased or decreased arbitrarily to facilitate discussion.

FIG. 1A shows a schematic diagram of a combination of a wire-end connector and a board-end connector of a known NEARSTACK.

FIG1B shows a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the wire end connector in FIG1A after removing the outer shell.

FIG. 1C shows a schematic diagram of the rear side of the connection module in FIG. 1B .

Figure 1D is a schematic diagram of the combination of the front metal plate and the rear metal plate in Figure 1C.

Figure 2 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the rear side of one of the connection modules in the line-end connector according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3A is a schematic diagram of the front and back sides of Figure 2 after omitting the insulating rubber layer.

Figure 3B is a side view of Figure 3A.

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a partial cross section taken along line X-X of Figure 2.

The following is a detailed discussion of the implementation methods of the present disclosure. However, it is understood that the implementation methods provide many applicable concepts that can be implemented in a variety of specific contents. The implementation methods discussed and disclosed are for illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. All implementation methods of the present disclosure disclose a variety of different features, but these features can be implemented separately or in combination as needed.

In addition, the terms "first", "second", etc. used in this article do not specifically refer to order or sequence, but are only used to distinguish between elements or operations described with the same technical terms. In addition, the spatial relationship between two elements described in this disclosure applies not only to the orientation shown in the diagram, but also to the orientation not shown in the diagram, such as the inverted orientation.

A specific embodiment of the wire end connector of the present invention is a NEARSTACK wire end connector A, whose design is roughly consistent with that shown in FIG. 1B. Unless otherwise specified, the detailed structure of the wire end connector A in this example is basically the same as the wire end connector mentioned in "4.1.1 Configuration 1: With Free-Side Horizontal (0°) Cable Exit with Pull-Tab" in the "SFF-TA-1026 Rev 1.0" document mentioned in the prior art. In addition, the applicant incorporates the entire content of the "SFF-TA-1026 Rev 1.0" document into the specification of this case in the form of an incorporated by reference document. The absolute dimensions, internal structure design, and relative relationships of various components in the document should all be regarded as part of this specification. However, the wire end connector of the present invention is not limited to the NEARSTACK connector, and it can be used in other forms of wire end connectors when necessary.

Please refer to Figure 1B. The design of the line end connector A of one embodiment of the present invention adopts the same layout as the design of Figure 1B, both of which have two connection modules 1 (or plug-in modules) arranged in front and back. The following only describes the design of one of them.

Please refer to Figure 2, which is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of the rear side of one of the connection modules in the line end connector according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the line end connector A includes a ground plate 10, a plurality of differential terminal pairs 20, a cable 30 and an insulating rubber layer 40.

The grounding plate 10 is a folded metal sheet and is one-piece formed. The grounding plate 10 can be divided into three parts according to its position: a front metal plate 11, a rear metal plate 12, and a connecting plate 13. The connecting plate 13 can be omitted according to the situation, so that the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12 are independent components.

See Figure 3A, which is a front and rear three-dimensional schematic diagram after omitting the insulating glue layer of Figure 2. The front metal plate 11 includes a base 110 and a plurality of grounding terminals 111 extending downward from the base 110. In this case, a strip-shaped slot 112 extending from top to bottom is provided between each two grounding terminals 111.

As shown in FIG2 , the rear metal plate 12 is provided with a conductive elastic arm 121 located at the upper part of the figure and a wing 122 located at the lower part. The conductive elastic arm 121 and the wing 122 are respectively formed by punching/bending the rear metal plate 12 and are formed as one piece with the rear metal plate 12 (ONE PIECE FORMED). The conductive elastic arm 121 is formed at the edge of the rear threading hole 12A and gradually converges inward. Please refer to FIG3B , where the conductive elastic arm 121 is located inside the rear threading hole 12A and bends and extends forward (to the left side in the figure), which is an example. In addition, in another embodiment, the wings 122 can also be provided between each rear threading hole 12A in accordance with the design of FIG1D . In addition, as shown in FIG. 3B , the wing 122 extends toward the front metal plate 11 .

The connecting plate 13 is formed on the top of the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12, and is integrally formed with the two.

Please refer to FIG. 3A , as can be seen from the figure, the differential terminal pair 20 includes two signal transmission terminals, namely the first terminal 202 and the second terminal 204. The first terminal 202 is a long metal sheet, which mainly includes a head 202B with a circular outer contour, an extension 202C extending downward from the circular head, and a contact portion 202D slightly bent outward. The head 202B includes a circular through hole for the core wire 31 to pass through. The contact portion 202D is used to contact with the terminal/contact pad of the external connector and establish an electrical connection. The extension portion 202C is used to connect the head 202B and the contact portion 202D. The design of the first terminal 202 and the second terminal 204 is basically symmetrical, so the second terminal 204 will not be described in detail.

As shown in FIG2 , the cable 30 includes two wires, each wire including a core wire 31 and an insulating layer 32 from the inside to the outside; and the two wires are wrapped in an anti-interference film 33 in a straight or winding manner. The anti-interference film 33 may at least include an insulating carrier layer 331 disposed inwardly and a metal foil 332 disposed outwardly. The metal foil 332 is, for example, a copper or aluminum foil film, which is used to absorb electromagnetic radiation (EMI), and the insulating carrier layer 331 is, for example, a polyester (Mylar) film, which is used as a carrier of the metal foil 332. In this example, the cable 30 is not provided with a grounding lead 34 as shown in FIG1C , but when necessary, it can also be added and connected to the metal foil 332. In addition, the metal foil 332 of the anti-interference film 33 is not limited to being designed to face outwards. When necessary, it can also be set inwards and electrically connected to the rear metal plate 12 by welding or other methods.

See Figure 2. In this example, the insulating rubber layer 40 can be selectively a molded part made by an insert molding process.

During manufacturing, a metal sheet (or strip) is prepared. At this time, the metal sheet includes a ground plate 10 and a differential terminal pair 20 and is flat/unbent. The differential terminal pair 20 is located in each slot 112 of the front metal plate 11 of the ground plate 10 and is partially connected. Subsequently, the metal sheet is placed in the mold cavity of the embedded injection molding. After the ground plate 10 and the differential terminal pair 20 are partially fixed by a fixture, an insulating glue is injected by the embedded injection molding process to form an insulating glue layer 40 on at least the inner surface of the front metal plate 11 relative to the rear metal plate 12 to fill the slot 112 and fix the ground plate 10 and the differential terminal pair 20. After cooling, the insulating glue layer 40 corresponding to the first wire hole 202A is left empty and forms a through hole aligned with the first wire hole 202A; similarly, the insulating glue layer 40 corresponding to the wing 122 is also left with an empty hole for the wing 122 to be embedded. Then, the connection between the differential terminal pair 20 and the grounding plate 10 is removed by punching with a tool to ensure that the two are not conductive.

Next, fold the ground plate 10 to form the state shown in FIG. 3A and embed the wing 122 into the reserved hole of the insulating rubber layer 40 and abut against the front metal plate. Next, insert the cable 30 into the rear threading hole 12A and electrically connect the conductive spring arm 121 to the metal foil 332 of the cable 30, and ensure that the core wire 31 passes through the holes of the insulating rubber layer 40 and passes through the first wire hole 202A of the first terminal 202. Next, use laser to melt the core wire 31 passing through each wire hole to connect and fix the core wire 31 to the first terminal 202. The second terminal 204 is processed in the same way. In this way, the process shown in FIG. 4 is completed, which is a partial cross-sectional schematic diagram along the X-X line of FIG. 2.

Subsequently, the finished product can be selectively injection molded to fill the gap between the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12 or selectively wrap most of the outer surface of the connection module 1, and the newly formed injection layer can be called an outer mold, and if the outer mold and the insulating rubber layer 40 are made of the same material, the outer mold can also be regarded as a part of the insulating rubber layer 40. It should be noted that in this example, the connection module 1 is not provided with the middle partition 14 described in FIG. 1C of the previous case. However, if necessary, the middle partition 14 can also be added between the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12. The middle partition can be a conductive metal material that is conductive with the rear metal plate 12 or an insulating material. When it is an insulating material, it can provide the effect of stabilizing each component. If it is a conductor, it must further provide anti-noise function.

When the manufacturing of this example is completed, the wing 122 penetrates the insulating glue layer 40, extends toward the front metal plate 11 and is located between the first terminal 202 of a differential terminal pair 20 and the second terminal 204 of another differential terminal pair to isolate at least a portion of each differential terminal pair 20 and reduce signal interference therebetween.

In addition, in addition to adopting the design of FIG. 1D, the length of the wing 122 can also be adjusted as shown in FIG. 3B of this example so that it only contacts and abuts against the inner surface of the front metal plate 11, but does not penetrate the front metal plate 11. That is, the portion of the front metal plate 11 corresponding to the wing 122 is a complete surface so that the wing 122 does not penetrate the front metal plate 11. In another example, the wing 122 and the inner surface of the front metal plate 11 can be slightly separated and not in contact.

On the other hand, in this example, the metal foil 332 of the anti-interference film 33 of the cable 30 serves as the grounding layer of the cable 30, and can abut against and be electrically connected to the conductive spring arm 121, thereby the cable 30 can establish a grounding loop through the rear metal plate 12, the connecting plate 13 and the front metal plate 11, without the need to provide a grounding wire. When a grounding wire is provided in the cable 30, the grounding wire can also be directly welded to the rear metal plate 12, without the need to lead the grounding wire to the front metal plate 11 as shown in FIG. 1C. For this purpose, the tops of the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12 can be flat surfaces and do not need to be provided with the guide groove 114 as shown in FIG. 1C. In addition, in this example, the front metal plate 11 and the rear metal plate 12 are connected by integrally forming the connecting plate 13, but in application, the two are not limited to being integrally formed. When necessary, the two can be separately arranged and electrically connected by other components such as wires.

The above disclosure has outlined the features of several implementation methods, so those skilled in the art can better understand the state of this disclosure. Those skilled in the art should understand that they can easily use this disclosure as a basis to design or embellish other processes and structures to achieve the same purpose and/or achieve the same advantages as the implementation methods introduced herein. Those skilled in the art should also understand that such equivalent architectures do not deviate from the spirit and scope of this disclosure, and those skilled in the art can make various changes, substitutions, and modifications here without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure.

1: Connection module

10: Ground plate

11:Front metal plate

111: Ground terminal

12: Rear metal plate

12A: Rear threading hole

121: Conductive bomb arm

122: Wings

13: Connecting plate

20: Differential terminal pair

202: First terminal

204: Second terminal

30: Cables

31: Core wire

32: Insulation layer

33: Anti-interference film

331: Insulating carrier layer

332:Metal foil

40: Insulation rubber layer

Claims (9)

A wire end connector includes: a front metal plate including a base and a plurality of grounding terminals extending downward from the base, wherein a slot is provided between each two of the plurality of grounding terminals; a plurality of differential terminal pairs including a first terminal and a second terminal arranged in parallel, wherein each differential terminal pair is provided in the corresponding slot; a rear metal plate having a rear threading hole; a connecting plate connecting the front metal plate and the rear metal plate; and a cable including a plurality of core wires, wherein each core wire passes through the rear threading hole and passes through an insulating layer and out of the slot, wherein each core wire is connected to a first terminal or a second terminal; wherein the front metal plate, the rear metal plate and the connecting plate are integrally formed. A wire end connector as described in claim 1, wherein the cable establishes a grounding loop with the front metal plate through the rear metal plate and the connecting plate. A wire end connector as described in claim 2, wherein the cable is electrically connected to the rear metal plate in an active manner. A wire end connector as described in claim 2, wherein the rear metal plate is provided with a wing portion, the wing portion is integrally formed with the rear metal plate and extends toward the front metal plate and blocks at least a portion of the plurality of differential terminal pairs. The line end connector as described in claim 4 further includes an insulating adhesive layer, which fixes the front metal plate and the plurality of differential terminal pairs. A wire end connector as described in claim 5, wherein the wing penetrates the insulating rubber layer but does not penetrate the front metal plate. A wire end connector includes: a front metal plate including a base and a plurality of grounding terminals extending downward from the base, wherein a slot is provided between each two of the plurality of grounding terminals; a plurality of differential terminal pairs including a first terminal and a second terminal arranged in parallel, wherein each of the differential terminal pairs is provided in the corresponding slot; a rear metal plate having a rear threading hole, wherein a plurality of conductive elastic arms are provided at the threading hole; a cable including two signal lines and an anti-interference film covering the two signal lines, wherein the two signal lines include at least one core wire. , each core wire passes through the rear threading hole and passes through an insulating layer from the slot, each core wire is connected to a first terminal or a second terminal respectively, the conductive elastic arm abuts against the anti-interference film and is electrically connected to it, the cable establishes a grounding loop with the front metal plate through the rear metal plate, wherein the anti-interference film is provided with a metal foil and an insulating carrier layer, the metal foil is provided on the relatively outer side of the insulating carrier layer, and the core wire is located on the relatively inner side of the insulating carrier layer; and an insulating glue layer is provided to fix the front metal plate and the plurality of differential terminal pairs. A wire end connector as described in claim 7, wherein the metal foil contacts the spring arm to establish a grounding loop with the rear metal plate, and the top of the front metal plate is a flat surface without a guide groove. A wire end connector comprises: a front metal plate, comprising a base and a plurality of grounding terminals extending downward from the base, wherein a slot is provided between each two of the plurality of grounding terminals; a plurality of differential terminal pairs, comprising a first terminal and a second terminal arranged in parallel, wherein each differential terminal pair is provided in a corresponding slot; a rear metal plate, comprising a rear wire threading hole and a wing, wherein the wing is integrally formed with the rear metal plate and is inserted into the front metal plate. The metal plate extends and blocks at least a portion of the plurality of differential terminal pairs, and the portion of the front metal plate corresponding to the wing portion is a complete surface so that the wing portion does not penetrate the front metal plate; a cable, including a plurality of core wires, each of which passes through the rear threading hole and passes through the slot through an insulating layer, and each of which is respectively connected to a first terminal or a second terminal; and an insulating glue layer, fixing the front metal plate and the plurality of differential terminal pairs.