Patent Application
20170070019
The number of types of electronic devices that are commercially available has increased tremendously the past few years and the rate of introduction of new devices shows no signs of abating. Devices, such as tablet, laptop, netbook, desktop, and all-in-one computers, cell, smart, and media phones, storage devices, portable media players, wearable computing devices, navigation systems, monitors, and others, have become ubiquitous.
Power and data may be provided from one device to another over cables that may include one or more wire conductors, fiber optic cables, or other conductors. Connector inserts may be located at each end of these cables and may be inserted into connector receptacles in the communicating or power transferring devices.
Some devices may include a connector insert on the device itself, in place of a connector receptacle. The motivation for including a connector insert may be size or other reasons. That is, a connector insert may be smaller than a connector receptacle and may be included on a device in place of a connector receptacle for this reason. In such a situation, it may not be possible to connect a connector insert on a cable directly to a connector insert on a device.
In such cases an adapter may be of use. For example, a “female-to-female” adapter may be used. Such an adapter may have a connector receptacle on each end of a housing. A first connector receptacle at a first end of the adapter may accept a connector insert at an end of a cable and a second connector receptacle at a second end of the adapter may accept a connector insert on the device. In this way, the device may be able to communicate and share power with a second device at the far end of the cable.
Unfortunately, these adapters may be large and bulky. Also, they may be complicated and made of many individual parts. This complexity may make the adapters expensive to manufacture and difficult to assemble.
Thus, what is needed are adapters that may be small in size and may be readily assembled.
Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may provide adapters that are small in size and may be readily assembled.
An illustrated embodiment of the present invention may provide an adapter having a first receptacle connected to a second receptacle. The second receptacle may be configured to interoperate with a device having a connector insert or plug emerging from it. This connector insert may be longer than a conventional connector insert of the same type and the second receptacle may be longer or deeper to accept the longer connector insert. This may prevent conventional connector inserts from being inserted into the second receptacle. A conventional connector insert, for example on a cable, may be inserted into the first receptacle.
An illustrated embodiment of the present invention may provide an adapter having smaller size by providing contacts that have first contacting portions in the first receptacle and second contacting portions in the second receptacle. That is, contacts extending into each receptacle may be stamped or otherwise formed as a single piece. This eliminates the need to join separate contacts in each connector receptacle to each other, a simplification which may allow the adapter to have a short length. Similarly, shared side ground contacts may be used where each side ground contact has a first contacting portion in the first receptacle and a second contacting portion in the second receptacle. A first retention force provided by the first contacting portion may be greater than a second retention force provided by the second contacting portion. For example, the side ground contact may not extend as far into the second receptacle as it does in the first receptacle. In these and other embodiments, the shape of the side ground contacts may be different in the second receptacle, for example it may have less curvature. This may prevent the adapter from remaining attached to the device when the cable is disconnected from the device. That is, the adapter may tend to remain fixed to the cable connector insert when the cable is pulled away from the device.
The adapter may include a first housing for the first receptacle and a second housing for the second receptacle. These housings may mechanically lock or snap together. A compressible or otherwise adjustable region may exist between them. This may help in positioning edges of the first housing and the second housing with edges of an outer housing that may surround the first and second housing. The side ground contacts may be attached to a boss on one of the first or second housings using heat staking. The contacts may include features such as crush ribs to mechanically lock the contacts to the housings.
In various embodiments of the present invention, components of the adapters may be formed in various ways of various materials. For example, conductive portions may be formed by stamping, metal-injection molding, machining, micro-machining, 3-D printing, or other manufacturing process. The conductive portions may be formed of stainless steel, steel, copper, copper titanium, phosphor bronze, palladium, palladium silver, or other material or combination of materials. They may be plated or coated with nickel, gold, or other material. The nonconductive portions, such as the housings and other portions, may be formed using injection or other molding, 3-D printing, machining, or other manufacturing process. The nonconductive portions may be formed of silicon or silicone, Mylar, Mylar tape, rubber, hard rubber, plastic, nylon, elastomers, liquid-crystal polymers (LCPs), ceramics, or other nonconductive material or combination of materials.
Embodiments of the present invention may provide adapters that may be connected to various types of devices, such as portable computing devices, tablet computers, desktop computers, laptops, all-in-one computers, wearable computing devices, cell phones, smart phones, media phones, storage devices, cases, covers, keyboards, pens, styluses, portable media players, navigation systems, monitors, power supplies, adapters, remote control devices, chargers, and other devices. These adapters may include connector receptacles or connector inserts that may provide pathways for signals and power compliant with various standards such as one of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standards including USB Type-C, High-Definition Multimedia Interface® (HDMI), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), Ethernet, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt™, Lightning™, Joint Test Action Group (JTAG), test-access-port (TAP), Directed Automated Random Testing (DART), universal asynchronous receiver/transmitters (UARTs), clock signals, power signals, and other types of standard, non-standard, and proprietary interfaces and combinations thereof that have been developed, are being developed, or will be developed in the future.
Various embodiments of the present invention may incorporate one or more of these and the other features described herein. A better understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be gained by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
In this electronic system, electronic device 110 may include connector insert 112. Connector insert 112 may emerge from a surface of device 110, or connector insert 112 may be connected to electronic device 110 through a cable or other conductor. Adapter 120 may include a first receptacle 122 to accept connector insert 112. In various embodiments of the present invention, connector insert 112 may be longer than a conventional connector insert of its type. Accordingly, connector receptacle 122 may be correspondingly longer as well. This may prevent conventional connector inserts of the same type from being inserted into connector receptacle 122. Instead, by providing connector receptacle 122 with a greater depth, connector receptacle 122 may be reserved for use with devices 110 and their connector inserts 112.
Adapter 120 may include a second connector receptacle 124. Connector receptacle 124 may accept a connector insert or plug 132 on cable 130. Cable 130 may terminate in connector insert 134. In various embodiments the present invention, connector insert 132 and connector insert 134 may be the same different types of connector inserts.
In a specific embodiment of the present invention, connector inserts 112 and 132 may be Lightning connector inserts, or they may have form factors that are compatible with Lightning connector receptacles. Connector receptacles 122124 may also be Lightning connector receptacles, or they may have form factors that are compatible with Lightning connector inserts. Connector insert 134 may be a different type of connector insert, such as a USB Type-C connector.
In various embodiments of the present invention, it may be desirable to align an outside of second housing 240 to an outside edge of housing 250. A may also be desirable to align an outside edge of first housing 230 with an outside edge of outer housing 250. Accordingly, a compressible or otherwise adjustable or compliant region may be placed or located between first housing 230 and second housing 240. In this way, the spacing between first housing 230 and second housing 240 may be adjusted thereby allowing the outside edges of housings 230 and 240 to be aligned to the outside edges of outer housing 250.
In various embodiments of the present invention, side ground contacts 220 may be fastened to one of the first or second housings 230 and 240. In this example, a central opening in side ground contact 30 may be aligned with post 232 on first housing 230. Heat staking may be used to melt posts or boss 232 such that it becomes attached to side ground contacts 220.
The first and second housings 230 and 240 may snap or otherwise be mechanically connected together during assembly. For example, tabs 234 on housing 230 may fit in slots 244 in housing 240. Notch 236 in housing 230 may fit over raised portion 246 on housing 240. Housing 230 may be lowered to snap together with housing 240 such that a rear 235 of housing 230 is adjacent to rear 245 of housing 240.
Overhang 710 may extend a depth of receptacle 122 and may further simplify the manufacturing of the adapter. Again, in various embodiments of the present invention, it may be desirable to align an outside of second housing 240 to an outside edge of housing 250. A may also be desirable to align an outside edge of first housing 230 with an outside edge of outer housing 250. Accordingly, a compressible or otherwise adjustable or compliant region may be placed or located between first housing 230 and second housing 240. In this way, the spacing between first housing 230 and second housing 240 may be adjusted thereby allowing the outside edges of housings 230 and 240 to be aligned to the outside edges of outer housing 250. By using overhang 710, first housing 230 may be assembled to second housing 240. The two housings may be inserted into outer housing 250, or outer housing 250 may be formed around first housing 230 and second housing 240. The outside edge of second housing 240 may be aligned with a corresponding edge of outer housing 250. Any errors in the dimensions of the lengths of first housing 230 and second housing 240 may be compensated for, or masked by, the presence of overhang 710. In this way, the presence of a compressible or otherwise adjustable or compliant region may be obviated.
In various embodiments of the present invention, components of the adapters may be formed in various ways of various materials. For example, conductive portions may be formed by stamping, metal-injection molding, machining, micro-machining, 3-D printing, or other manufacturing process. The conductive portions may be formed of stainless steel, steel, copper, copper titanium, phosphor bronze, palladium, palladium silver, or other material or combination of materials. They may be plated or coated with nickel, gold, or other material. The nonconductive portions, such as the housings and other portions, may be formed using injection or other molding, 3-D printing, machining, or other manufacturing process. The nonconductive portions may be formed of silicon or silicone, Mylar, Mylar tape, rubber, hard rubber, plastic, nylon, elastomers, liquid-crystal polymers (LCPs), ceramics, or other nonconductive material or combination of materials.
Embodiments of the present invention may provide adapters that may be connected to various types of devices, such as portable computing devices, tablet computers, desktop computers, laptops, all-in-one computers, wearable computing devices, cell phones, smart phones, media phones, storage devices, cases, covers, keyboards, pens, styluses, portable media players, navigation systems, monitors, power supplies, adapters, remote control devices, chargers, and other devices. These adapters may include connector receptacles or connector inserts that may provide pathways for signals and power compliant with various standards such as one of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standards including USB Type-C, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), Ethernet, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, Lightning, Joint Test Action Group (JTAG), test-access-port (TAP), Directed Automated Random Testing (DART), universal asynchronous receiver/transmitters (UARTs), clock signals, power signals, and other types of standard, non-standard, and proprietary interfaces and combinations thereof that have been developed, are being developed, or will be developed in the future.
The above description of embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form described, and many modifications and variations are possible in light of the teaching above. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Thus, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims.
This application is a nonprovisional of U.S. provisional application Nos. 62/215,721, filed Sep. 8, 2015, and 62/254,074, filed Nov. 11, 2015, which are incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62215721 | Sep 2015 | US | |
| 62254074 | Nov 2015 | US |
