KR19990072040A - Electrical connector with improved grounding characteristics - Google Patents

Abstract

Electrical connectors with improved grounding characteristics that reduce the possibility of signal transmission errors include a connector housing (2) formed of an electrically insulating material and a plurality of conductive terminals (3) mounted on the connector housing. It has a tail portion 7 extending outward from the connector housing for attachment to a printed circuit board. The conductive ground plate 4 in the form of a metallic shield is mounted to the outside of the connector housing. The ground plane comprises one or more ground terminals integrally formed therewith and extending outwardly therefrom at the level of the connector conductive terminals in the space between the two regulating conductive terminals.

Description

Electrical connector with improved grounding characteristics

When an electrical connector is used to connect high frequency coral circuits of a printed circuit board together or to connect a printed circuit board and a conducting wire together, a metal ground plate is used as part of the connector to prevent external leakage of the high frequency circuit from the connector. The ground plate is located outside of the insulated housing of the connector, as described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-217630 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-84568. This type of connector uses an insulating housing, a plurality of terminals installed within the insulating housing, and a conductive metal ground plate attached to the outside of the insulating housing. The cross-sectional view of such a connector essentially shows that the insulating housing is a "sandwich" type structure fixed, ie sandwiched between the connector terminal and the ground plate. In such a structure, the terminal tends to act as a capacitor, and when a high frequency signal is applied to a particular terminal, the signal “jumps” into the metal ground plane through or across any adjacent air gap as well as the insulating housing. tends to "jump" This phenomenon is commonly referred to in the art as capacitive coupling. The ground plane is connected to the ground circuit at the opposite end of the connector so that any signal connected to the ground plane passes through the ground path and not through any other terminal in the connector.

However, when a high frequency signal jumps to the ground plane and goes to the ground circuit coupled to the ground plane at the end of the connector, especially when the connector is lengthened, the high frequency signal spreads radially as if moving the length of the connector to the ground circuit. There is a possibility to go out. This is known as the "antenna effect" because the ground plane acts like an antenna, and high-frequency signals jump or return to other terminals of the connector, causing transmission and signal errors that are harmful to circuit and connector operation.

In the above-described connector, the ground terminal is formed integrally with the ground plate and is located in the longitudinal direction at the opposite end of the connector, so as not to interfere with the solder tail portion of the connector terminal. As the length of the connector increases, the number of terminals also increases and the length of the antenna formed locally at the ground plane as described above also increases, which in turn increases the likelihood that a high frequency signal will be mistransmitted to another terminal of the connector.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to electrical connectors for providing reliable connections between printed circuits, and more particularly, to electrical connectors having improved grounding properties that increase the suitability of the connector for use in high speed and high frequency signal applications. It is about.

The following detailed description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts.

1 is a plan view showing a detachable electrical connector constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view taken along line 2-2 of the electrical connector of FIG. 1;

3 is a rear elevational view of the electrical connector of FIG. 1 taken along line 3-3;

4 is a plan view showing a pluggable electrical connector with improved grounding characteristics constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention;

5 is a front elevational view of the connector of FIG. 4 taken along line 5-5;

6 is a side elevation view of the connector of FIG. 5 along line 6-6, and

7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view showing a removable and pluggable connector applied together in FIGS. 1 and 4.

The present invention provides a solution to the problem posed above. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector with an improved grounding capability to reduce the likelihood of harmful leakage of high frequency signals.

To achieve this and other objects, an improved ground connector constructed in accordance with one aspect of the present invention is a soldered tail of an insulating housing, a plurality of terminals installed within the insulating housing, a terminal extending outwardly from the connector near the bottom surface of the housing. A terminal having a portion, a conductive ground plate provided outside of the housing, and a ground plate having at least one ground terminal disposed near the high frequency signal circuit and between the solder tail portions of the terminal.

The tail portion of the terminal and the ground terminal of the ground plate are preferably aligned together so that they are coplanar in essentially the same horizontal plane and the joining surface of each circuit board is coplanar. The ground plane may be provided at both ends as well as along the middle portion of the ground plane where the ground terminal is aligned between the plurality of connector conductive terminals.

The ground terminal is formed in the ground plate by a suitable method such as drawing and molding, which does not need to provide the ground terminal in the conductive terminal of the connector, thereby the present invention provides a connector having a large number of circuits. In addition, by forming a ground terminal in the ground blank, the ground terminal can be made to lie essentially flush with the connector circuit terminals to keep all terminals of the connector in the same plane, thus attaching the connector to the printed circuit board. This reduces the joining error that occurs when you do this.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be clearly understood in view of the following detailed description.

1 to 3 generally show a removable electrical connector component, generally designated as 1, having improved grounding characteristics, constructed in accordance with the present invention. The connector component 1 comprises an extended connector housing 2, which is preferably formed of an electrically insulating material. A plurality of conductive terminals 3 are arranged in the insulating housing 2, preferably recesses extending longitudinally with the housing 2 between the opposing ends 36, 38 of the connector component 1. Within 34 are arranged in two aligned rows parallel. The recess 34 is sealed by the peripheral wall 5 of the connector component. The conductive ground plate 4 is mounted on the outside of the housing 2 in the form of a shield, the shield 4 surrounding the outer surface of the housing 2.

The terminals 3 of the connector component 1 lie along the inner surface of the wall 42 of the pedestal 44 in the recess 34 and along the housing side wall 5. It is shown to include an engagement or connection portion 40, extending further down towards the bottom 6 of 2). (FIG. 7) The soldered tail portion 7 of the terminal is connected to the connection portion 40. And extend outwardly along opposite sides of the connector component 1 along the bottom surface 6, generally horizontal plane from the connector, past the side of the housing 2.

The terminals 3 in each row are kept at given intervals in the predetermined space "8". A wider spacing 8 is provided between adjacent terminals at their respective positions, corresponding to all Nth terminals in the preferred embodiment shown. This second spacing 8 separates the conductive terminals 3 of the connector 1 into separate groups consisting of terminals (and solder tail 7). In accordance with this spacing 8, the ground plate 4 is provided with a ground terminal 9 (FIG. 2) which is formed along the lower edge portion 4a at the level of the conductive terminal solder tail portion 7. The ground terminal 9 has a general L-shaped arrangement and takes the form of a horizontal projection that fits into a wider spaced gap 8 between conductive terminal groups. Each said ground terminal 9 or projection also has a circuit board engaging portion 9a extending outwardly, preferably arranged flat, and lying in the same plane as the soldering tail portion 7 of the connector conductive terminal 3. Include. Thus, the bottom surface of the conductive terminal solder tail portion 7 and the ground terminal 9 are preferably planar so that the connector can be mounted on the combination printed circuit board 46 by conventional surface soldering.

The connector component ground blank 4 also has a second ground terminal 10 having a width greater than the ground terminal 9 so that the terminal 10 solders the connector component 1 to the printed circuit board. Can help to firmly mount by. As shown in the preferred embodiment of FIGS. 1 to 7, the grounding shield 4 is preferably folded up and down to securely engage with the connector component housing 2 so as to face the flat body portion 50. Retention flanges 52 disposed at the ends are cast or formed from sheet metal material to define two opposing essentially planar body portions 50. The body portion 50 may comprise a series of engagement tabs 54 formed extending slightly inward for frictional engagement with the connector component housing 2.

4 to 6 show a preferred embodiment of a pluggable electrical connector 11 having improved grounding properties that can engage the removable connector 1 described above. Similar to the connector component 1, the pluggable connector 11 has an extended connector housing 12 formed of an insulating material and a soldered tail portion 17 extending from the bottom 16 of the connector component 11. And a plurality of terminals 13 arranged on the housing. The pluggable connector 11 further comprises an external conductive ground plate 14 in the form of a metallic grounding shield. The terminals 13 are arranged in two separate rows along the long range of the housing 12 for counter and mating, corresponding to the opposing terminals 3 of the detachable connector component 1. The terminals 13 in each row are spaced apart from each other in the predetermined first space " 8 " and include a predetermined second space or spacing 18 that is wider than the first space. The ground plate 14 is provided with a plurality of ground terminals 19 in a number corresponding to the number of the second space intervals and disposed at positions corresponding to the wider space intervals 18.

The ground terminal 19 extends into the wide gap 18 and is also preferably located in both vertical and horizontal directions so that the mating surfaces 19a of their bottom planes are planar mating of the connector component conductive terminals 13. It lies on the same horizontal plane as surface 17a to maintain coplanarity of both the ground and conductive terminals of the connector component as well as maintain alignment with the opposing contact pads of the ground circuit of the combination circuit board. At the opposite end of the connector component 11, a larger ground terminal 20 is provided than the ground terminal 19 for the purpose described above.

7 is a partial view of the detachable connector component 1 and the pluggable connector component 11 engaged together. In this engagement, the terminals 3 and 13 of the two connector components 1, 11 are connected to each other in an electrically conductive form. The ground plate 14 of the pluggable connector 11 engages with the inside of the ground plate 4 of the detachable connector component 1 at the engaging end 15. The conductive engagement protrusion 21 formed inside the ground plate 4 meshes with the ground plate 14 so that the two ground plates 4 and 14 are electrically connected together.

In the illustrated embodiment, when a high frequency voltage is applied to either of the terminals 3 and 13, it is induced along the connector components 1, 11 by a charging coupling with the external ground plates 4, 14 or The jumping high frequency current flows toward the nearest ground path. The nearest ground path is provided by the integrally formed ground terminals 9 and 19 and can be supplied to the ground circuit of the circuit board through the ground terminals 9 and 19. Therefore, the distance at which the high frequency current signal is locally formed in the ground plates 4 and 14 is made as short as possible. When a certain number N of ground terminals 9, 19 are used and the ground terminals 9, 19 are arranged at equal intervals along the length of the connectors 1, 11, the distance for grounding the signal is determined by the connector ( Not greater than 1 / N + 1 times the length of 1, 11). Therefore, similar to the antenna effect occurring at the conductive terminals 3, 13 is inherently reduced and not actually eliminated. As a result, the transmission of error signals to the other terminals 3, 13 is likewise essentially reduced, increasing the reliability of the connectors 1, 11 with improved grounding capability of the present invention.

It will be appreciated that the position and number of ground terminals 9 and 19 provided on each ground plate 4, 14 is not limited to that shown in the preferred embodiment shown. When the number of terminals 3 and 13 applied to the high frequency current is small, the antenna effect can be avoided by providing the ground terminals 9 and 18 near the connector conductive terminals 3 and 13 to which the high frequency current is applied, The number of ground terminals 9 and 19 may also be small.

By arranging at least one ground terminal 9, 19 located between any conductive terminal 3, 13, which carries a high frequency signal, it is possible to avoid the antenna effect from occurring. On the other hand, when the number of terminals 3 and 13 to which high frequency current is applied is large, the number of ground terminals 9 and 19 can thus be increased from that shown in the preferred embodiment.

Although the solder tail portions 7, 17 and ground terminals 9, 19 shown in the preferred embodiment extend parallel to the bottom surfaces 6, 16 of the connector housings 2, 12 for surface soldering, The tail portions 7, 17 and ground terminals 9, 19 extend from the housing perpendicular to the bottom surface 6, 16 to enable deep solder joints by inserting into the terminals through openings formed in the printed circuit board. It will be understood.

As described above, in the electrical connector with improved grounding capability of the present invention, the high frequency current induced in the metallic ground plane can be supplied to the ground circuit through a short path to improve the grounding function of the metallic ground plane. Therefore, the error signal is never transmitted to improve the reliability of the electrical connector. Moreover, since the ground terminal is directly connected to the contact pads on the printed circuit board, the need for connecting the ground terminal to a specific conductive terminal of the connector, inside or outside the connector housing, eliminates the cost of manufacturing the connector.

Although the present invention has been shown and described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, omissions, and additions from the above can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is to be understood that the present invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments described above but includes all possible embodiments that may be practiced within the included scope and equivalents in view of the features described in the appended claims. Should be.

Claims (22)

An electrical connector having an extended housing formed of an electrically insulating material and a plurality of electrically conductive terminals mounted on the connector housing, the conductive terminals having a soldered tail portion extending away from the connector housing, Wherein said solder tail portions are formed away from each other in a first predetermined space, said connector further comprising an electrically conductive ground plate mounted outside of said connector housing; One or more first ground terminals integrally formed in the ground plate at the level of the conductive terminal solder tail portion, and the conductive portions away from each other in a second predetermined space to define a ground space for receiving the first ground terminal And at least two terminal solder tail portions. 2. The connector of claim 1, wherein the conductive terminal solder tail portion and the first ground terminal lie in essentially the same plane. 2. The ground plate of claim 1, wherein the ground plate includes a second ground terminal at an opposite end of the connector housing, the first ground terminal being disposed on the ground plate between the second ground terminals. Connector. 2. The grounding conductor of claim 1 wherein the ground plane comprises a plurality of first ground terminals integrally formed in the ground plane at the level of the conductive terminal solder tail portion, the conductive terminal solder tail portions each having one first ground. And a same plurality of ground spaces for accommodating the terminals. 3. A connector according to claim 2, wherein each said conductive terminal solder tail portion and said first ground terminal have a corresponding planar circuit board engaging surface, said corresponding circuit board engaging surface lying essentially in the same horizontal plane. 2. The connector of claim 1, wherein the ground plate includes means for frictionally engaging the outer surface of the connector housing. 7. A connector according to claim 6, wherein the frictional engagement means comprises one or more engagement tabs formed in the body portion of the ground plate. 5. The connector according to claim 4, wherein the first ground terminals are arranged at equal intervals along the length of the connector. 5. The connector of claim 4, wherein the connector includes N first ground terminals disposed at equal intervals in the longitudinal direction along the ground plate to define N ground paths, wherein the connectors are carried by the connector conductive terminals. Characterized in that the distance that any signal must travel through the connector housing to reach one of the ground paths by capacitive coupling is not greater than 1 / N + 1 times the length of the connector. connector. 2. The ground plate of claim 1 wherein the ground plate is formed of sheet metal material having two parallel longitudinal side portions and two transverse end portions, the transverse end portions defining a hollow seal for receiving the connector housing. And fold in contact with said side portion. 11. The connector of claim 10, wherein the ground plate side and end portions are integrally formed together of a single sheet metal material. A connector having improved grounding characteristics, the connector having an extended housing formed of an electrically insulating material, the connector housing having an interior portion comprising a plurality of electrically conductive terminals, the conductive terminal Has a connecting portion disposed within the connector housing inner portion and a soldered tail portion extending away from the connector housing at a level for engaging the printed circuit board, the connector being electrically conductive disposed on the connector housing; A portion of the connector housing is placed between the ground plate and the conductive terminal, the ground plate extending away from the connector housing at the circuit board engagement level and between selected conductive terminal pairs. Posted in my And a plurality of ground terminals formed in the portion, wherein the ground terminals define a plurality of ground paths for signals connected from the conductive terminals to the ground plate. 13. The connector of claim 12, wherein the ground plate comprises a metallic ground shield, wherein the ground shield includes means for frictionally engaging the outer surface of the connector housing. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the conductive terminal solder tail portions are disposed in a series of preselected groups along the length of the connector in the first predetermined space portion, and the conductive terminal solder tail portion groups are arranged in the predetermined first space portion. Spaced apart from each other by a larger, predetermined second space portion, wherein the ground terminal is received in the second predetermined space portion and is inserted between two adjacent groups of the conductive terminals . 13. The connector of claim 12, wherein each said ground terminal extends away from said connector housing in the same plane as said conductive terminal solder tail portion. 13. The connector of claim 12, wherein the ground plate comprises a plurality of engagement tabs adapted to frictionally engage the outer surface of the connector housing. 13. The connector of claim 12, wherein an inner portion of the connector housing includes an extended recess, and the conductive terminal is disposed along two opposite sides of the recess. 13. The connector of claim 12, wherein the ground terminal is integrally formed in the ground plate at essentially the same level as the conductive terminal solder tail extends from the connector housing. 13. The connector of claim 12, wherein the connector inner portion is sealed by a plurality of connector housing wall portions and the ground plate comprises a hollow seal overlying the connector housing wall portion. An electrical connector, comprising: an extended connector housing formed of an electrically insulating material, the connector having a plurality of electrically conductive terminals disposed therein, the connector housing defining an outer surface of the connector And a plurality of wall portions defining the inner recess of the connector, wherein the conductive terminal has a connecting portion disposed in the recess and a circuit board attachment portion extending away from the connector outer surface, the connector having a The conductive ground shield and the conductive terminal group are separated by one of the connector housing wall portions, including an electrically conductive ground shield placed over one or more outer wall portions of the connector as opposed to the conductive terminals of the group; Conductive terminal attachment points provide Defining a separate arrangement along the length of the connector, the grounding shield comprising a plurality of grounding terminals integrally formed therewith and extending outwardly away from the outer surface of the connector housing, the grounding terminal being A connector received in the ground space and sandwiched between adjacent arrangements of the conductive terminal attachment portions. 21. The connector of claim 20, wherein the conductive terminal attachment portion and the ground terminal each comprise a circuit board attachment surface disposed essentially in the same plane. 21. The connector of claim 20, wherein the grounding shield includes two longitudinal body portions and two transverse end portions working together to define a hollow protective seal over the connector housing outer surface. .