Patent Application
20220336975
The present application claims priority from and the benefit of Chinese Application No. 202110422127.2, filed Apr. 20, 2021, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in full.
The present disclosure relates to a cable connector for coaxial cables, a cable assembly comprising the cable connector, a circuit board assembly comprising the cable assembly, and a method for manufacturing the cable connector. The cable connector may be applied to communication technology, especially to base station antennas.
Coaxial cables are widely used in radio frequency communication systems. A typical coaxial cable may include an inner conductor, an outer conductor, a dielectric layer insulating the inner conductor from the outer conductor, and a jacket covering the outer conductor. Cable connectors may be applied to both end sections of coaxial cable, and be mechanically and electrically connected with the outer conductor of coaxial cable. Typically, cable connectors known in practice can be manufactured by die casting and subsequent machining, which is expensive.
An object of the present disclosure is to propose a cable connector which can be manufactured cost-effectively. Another object of the present disclosure is to propose a cable assembly including such a cable connector and a method for manufacturing such a cable connector.
A first aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for manufacturing a cable connector having a cylindrical base body and a plurality of pins protruding from a first end of the base body, which is constructed to be sleeved on and mechanically and electrically connected with the outer conductor of a coaxial cable from a second end opposite to the first end. The method comprises:
providing a connector blank having a face for forming the base body, wherein the face has a first edge and a second edge, and the second edge is used to form the second end; and
constructing a complete cable connector by forming the connector blank, or constructing the main body portion of the cable connector except the pins and then forming the pins by subsequent processing of the main body portion.
In some embodiments, a complete cable connector may be constructed by forming the connector blank, wherein the connector blank has pins protruding from the first edge.
In some embodiments, the processing of the main body portion can be realized by stamping or other processing methods.
In some embodiments, the method may comprise:
providing a connector blank having a torus for forming the base body, wherein the torus has an outer edge as a first edge and an inner edge as a second edge; and
forming the cable connector or the main body portion by stamping the connector blank.
In some embodiments, the connector blank may have slots that extend radially in the torus and are open toward the inner edge. The number of slots may be one or two, for example. The slot may completely penetrate the entire thickness of the torus, or may have a depth that is part of the thickness of the torus.
In some embodiments, the method may comprise:
providing a connector blank having a rectangular face for forming the base body, wherein the rectangular face has a first longitudinal edge as a first edge and a second longitudinal edge as a second edge, and a first transverse edge and a second transverse edge opposite to each other; and
constructing the cable connector or the main body portion by rolling the connector blank, wherein the first transverse edge and the second transverse edge form the longitudinal slot of the base body.
In some embodiments, the number of pins may be 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.
In some embodiments, the pins are uniformly distributed in the circumferential direction on the first end of the base body.
A second aspect of the present disclosure relates to a cable connector having a cylindrical base body and a plurality of pins protruding from the first end of the base body, wherein the cable connector is configured to be sleeved on an outer conductor of a coaxial cable having an inner conductor and the outer conductor from a second end opposite to the first end, and be mechanically and electrically connected with the outer conductor, and is characterized in that the complete cable connector is made from a connector blank by a forming process, or a main body portion of the cable connector except pins is formed from the connector blank by a forming process, and the pins are formed by subsequent processing of the main body portion: the connector blank has a face for forming the base body, the face has a first edge and a second edge, and the second edge is used for forming the second end.
In some embodiments, a complete cable connector can be constructed by forming the connector blank, wherein the connector blank has pins protruding from the first edge.
In some embodiments, the connector blank may have a torus for forming the base body, the torus has an outer edge as a first edge and an inner edge as a second edge, and the cable connector is made by stamping the connector blank.
In some embodiments, the connector blank may have a rectangular face for forming the base body, the rectangular face having a first longitudinal edge as a first edge and a second longitudinal edge as a second edge, and a first transverse edge and a second transverse edge opposite to each other: the cable connector or the main body portion part is made by rolling the connector blank, wherein the first transverse edge and the second transverse edge form the longitudinal slot of the base body.
A third aspect of the present disclosure relates to a cable assembly comprising:
In some embodiments, the cable connector may be connected to the outer conductor section by at least one of crimping and welding.
A fourth aspect of the present disclosure relates to a circuit board assembly comprising a circuit board and a cable assembly according to the third aspect of the present disclosure, wherein the cable connector and the inner conductor are attached to, in particular welded to, the circuit board. In particular the circuit board assembly may be used in a base station antenna.
A fifth aspect of the present disclosure relates to a board assembly for a base station antenna, wherein the board assembly comprises a first circuit board and a second circuit board spaced apart from each other, and the first and second circuit boards are electrically connected by at least one cable assembly according to the third aspect of the present disclosure.
It should be pointed out here that the above-mentioned technical features, the technical features to be mentioned below and the technical features shown separately in the drawings can be arbitrarily combined with each other as long as the combined technical features are not contradictory. All technically feasible feature combinations are technical contents included in the specification.
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described below with reference to the drawings. Of them:
Referring now to
As shown in
The cable connector 1 can be made of the connector blank 10 as shown in
In an embodiment of another connector blank not shown, it differs from the connector blank 10 only in that the other connector blank does not have the pins 14, and forms a main body portion of a cable connector without pins 4 after stamping, and that the pins 4 can be subsequently produced in the first end of the main body portion by blanking, machining, or other processing methods.
The cable connector 1 and the cable connector 1a can be manufactured with the help of the stamping die commonly used in practice as shown in
The cable connector 21 may be made of a connector blank 30 as shown in
In an embodiment of another connector blank not shown, it differs from the connector blank 30 only in that the other connector blank does not have the pins 34, and forms a main body portion of a cable connector without pins 24 after stamping, and that the pins 24 can be subsequently produced in the first end of the main body portion by blanking, machining, or other processing methods.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202110422127.2 | Apr 2021 | CN | national |
