Patent Application
20220013934
The present application claims priority from and the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 202010648743.5, filed Jul. 8, 2020, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirely.
The present disclosure relates to the technical field of cable connection. More specifically, the disclosure relates to a cable connector for a coaxial cable, a coaxial cable assembly including the same, and a method for manufacturing the coaxial cable assembly.
A cable connector for a coaxial cable is generally known. Typically, a known cable connector may have an inner conductor, an outer conductor and an insulator for insulating the inner conductor from the outer conductor. The inner conductor may have a proximal section which may have a receiving hole or bore configured to receive a free end of an inner conductor of a coaxial cable. Typically, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector is provided with a plurality of slots, so that the proximal section has a plurality of elastic fingers which, like springs, clamp the free end of the inner conductor of the coaxial cable received in the receiving hole. U.S. Pat. No. 7,249,969B2 provides an example of such a configuration.
In order to ensure sufficient elasticity and clamping force of the elastic fingers, the inner conductor of the cable connector is usually made of an expensive material such as phosphor bronze or beryllium bronze. According to the current knowledge level in cable connector technology, lead brass is typically deemed unsuitable as a material of a solder-free inner conductor of a cable connector, since lead brass has poorer elastic properties and lower yield strength than phosphor bronze or beryllium bronze.
An object of the disclosure is to provide a cable connector for a coaxial cable, in which lead brass may be surprisingly used as a material for a solder-free inner conductor of the cable connector, and reliable connection between the coaxial cable and the cable connector may be ensured.
It is also an object of the disclosure to provide a coaxial cable assembly including such a cable connector and a method for manufacturing the coaxial cable assembly.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is proposed a cable connector for a coaxial cable including: an inner conductor having a proximal section with a receiving hole configured to receive a free end of an inner conductor of a coaxial cable; an outer conductor having a distal chamber and a proximal chamber configured to receive an end section of the coaxial cable; and an insulator for insulating the inner conductor from the outer conductor of the cable connector, the insulator being received in the distal chamber wherein at least the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector comprises lead brass, and the proximal section is configured to be crimped onto the free end of the inner conductor of the coaxial cable.
The invention surprisingly achieves a cable connector that may be manufactured more cheaply, and a reliable connection between the coaxial cable and the cable connector may be ensured, and the PIM (Passive Intermodulation) performance of a jumper line may also be ensured.
In some embodiments, the entire inner conductor of the cable connector may be made of lead brass.
In some embodiments, the inner conductor of the cable connector may be integral or in multi-parts. For example, it may be composed of two parts, one of which constitutes a distal section of the inner conductor and the other constitutes a proximal section of the inner conductor, and the two parts may be screwed or may be connected by a press fit.
In some embodiments, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector may be configured to be pressed with a crimping tool with the receiving hole receiving the free end of the inner conductor of the coaxial cable, so that after crimping the receiving hole is in interference fit with the free end of the inner conductor of the coaxial cable. The receiving hole can be in clearance fit with the free end of the inner conductor of the coaxial cable before the crimping operation.
Because of the poor elasticity of lead brass, the inner conductor of the cable connector may not be easy to deform and loosen after a crimping operation, so the connection between the inner conductor of the coaxial cable and the inner conductor of the cable connector may be more reliable, which can ensure the PIM (Passive Intermodulation) performance of a juniper line, for example.
In some embodiments, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector may have a circular cross-section after a crimping operation. This may be beneficial to the stabilization and improvement of the radio frequency (RF) performance of the cable connector.
In some embodiments, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector may not be slotted, or may be provided with one or more slots.
In some embodiments, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector may be slotted, and the proximal section may be pressed by the insulator when the inner conductor of the cable connector is inserted into the insulator.
In some embodiments, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector may be provided with a plurality of slots, which may be distributed in a circumferential direction of the inner conductor of the cable connector, for example in a uniform manner.
In some embodiments, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector may have a protrusion on an outer circumferential surface.
In some embodiments, as the protrusion, the proximal section of the inner conductor of the cable connector may have at least one annular rib, such as a plurality of ribs spaced apart from each other in an axial direction.
In some embodiments, the rib may have a height of 0.1 to 0.4 mm, such as 0.2 mm or 0.3 mm.
In some embodiments, the inner conductor of the cable connector may have a proximal flange, which may define an axial position of the inner conductor relative to the insulator of the cable connector.
In some embodiments, the outer conductor of the cable connector may be made of lead brass.
In some embodiments, the proximal chamber of the outer conductor of the cable connector may be configured to receive a solder material for soldering the outer conductor of the coaxial cable in the proximal chamber.
In some embodiments, the cable connector may include a flexible sleeve that can be placed onto a proximal section of the outer conductor of the cable connector defining the proximal chamber and that is configured to cover a section of the coaxial cable. The sleeve may be beneficial to the performance of the coaxial cable resistant to a bending load.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is proposed a coaxial cable assembly including a coaxial cable and the cable connector for a coaxial cable according to the first aspect of the invention, the coaxial cable being connected with the cable connector.
In some embodiments, the coaxial cable may be a corrugated coaxial cable, wherein the outer conductor of the coaxial cable is a corrugated outer conductor.
In some embodiments, the proximal chamber of the outer conductor of the cable connector can receive a solder material in the form of a solder wire, a solder ring or a solder preform, which forms a soldering connection between the outer conductor of the cable connector and the outer conductor of the coaxial cable after melted and cured.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is proposed a method for manufacturing a coaxial cable assembly, said method including the following steps:
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is proposed a method for manufacturing a coaxial cable assembly, the method including the following steps:
Above-mentioned technical features, technical features to be mentioned below and technical features that can be obtained in the drawings can be arbitrarily combined with each other as long as they are not contradictory. All technically feasible feature combinations are technical contents contained in the disclosure.
The present invention will be described in detail by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings. Among them:
In the figures, identical or functionally identical components are provided with the same reference numerals.
The cable connector 10 may include an inner conductor 1, an outer conductor 2, and an insulator 3 for insulating the inner conductor 1 from the outer conductor 2. The inner conductor 1 has a proximal section with a receiving hole 6 which receives a free end of the inner conductor 11 of the coaxial cable 20. At least the proximal section of the inner conductor 1 may comprise lead brass, and in some embodiments the entire inner conductor 1 may be made of lead brass. The outer conductor 2 may be made of lead brass, stainless steel or other suitable materials. The outer conductor 2 may have a distal chamber 7 and a proximal chamber 8. The insulator 3 is received in the distal chamber 7. For example, the insulator 3 may be made of polytetrafluoroethylene, or may be made of TPX plastic which is inexpensive and can be injection-molded. The proximal chamber 8 receives an end section of the coaxial cable 20. As shown in
The proximal chamber 8 of the outer conductor 2 of the cable connector 10 may receive a solder material 5 in addition to the end section of the coaxial cable 20. In the embodiment shown in
The cable connector 10 may include a flexible sleeve 4 that is placed onto a proximal section of the outer conductor 2 of the cable connector 10 which defines the proximal chamber 8 and that covers a section of the coaxial cable. By means of the sleeve 4, the performance of the coaxial cable 20 resistant to a bending load in the region of the cable connector 10 may be improved. In order to firmly hold the sleeve 4 on the outer conductor 2, the outer conductor 2 may have an uneven structure on its proximal section.
A coaxial cable assembly as shown in
The inner conductor 1 shown in
The coaxial cable assembly as shown in
It will be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular aspects only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprise” and “include” (and variants thereof), when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. Like reference numbers signify like elements throughout the description of the figures.
The thicknesses of elements in the drawings may be exaggerated for the sake of clarity. Further, it will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “on,” “coupled to” or “connected to” another element, the element may be formed directly on, coupled to or connected to the other element, or there may be one or more intervening elements therebetween. In contrast, terms such as “directly on,” “directly coupled to” and “directly connected to,” when used herein, indicate that no intervening elements are present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (i.e., “between” versus “directly between”, “attached” versus “directly attached,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent”, etc.).
Terms such as “top,” “bottom,” “upper,” “lower,” “above,” “below,” and the like are used herein to describe the relationship of one element, layer or region to another element, layer or region as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that these terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures.
It will be understood that, although the terms “first,” “second,” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. Thus, a first element could be termed a second element without departing from the teachings of the inventive concept.
It will also be appreciated that all example embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in any way.
Finally, it is to be noted that, the above-described embodiments are merely for understanding the present invention but not constitute a limit on the protection scope of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, modifications may be made on the basis of the above-described embodiments, and these modifications do not depart from the protection scope of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202010648743.5 | Jul 2020 | CN | national |
