This disclosure relates to field of connectors, more specifically to connectors intended to be used in higher data rate applications.
Connectors are widely used to connect various devices together, either between components within a device or between devices. One type of connector that can be used for both is an input/output (IO) connector. IO connectors are available in a number of configurations but some of the most common IO connectors are provided in configurations intended to comply with standards. For example, the SAS/SATA standard, which is just one of a number of standards, in its various versions defines a number of different IO connector configurations. Each IO connector configuration is intended to fulfill a particular function and therefore different connector configurations are designed so that each intended function can be performed in an efficient and cost effective manner. Internal connectors, for example, tend to be formed of insulative plastic (because there is less need for EMI shielding) and external connectors tend to be formed with a shield (e.g., a cage) surrounding a housing because of the desire for EMI shielding.
As can he appreciated, once a standard with several connector configurations is promulgated, it is desirable to continue to use the same connector configurations in future versions of the standard. This allows for backward compatibility between different versions, even if the older versions cannot support all the features of the new version. Therefore, while a new connector configuration may be added or an old one removed, there is resistance to radically changing the connector configurations. This is, at least in part, because familiarity with the configuration allows the developers of boxes and servers and the like to efficiently design new products based on the same (or similar) physical constraints. A miniSAS HD connector, for example, has four transmit and four receive channels and has a predetermined physical size, thus individuals using this connector would prefer that it he consistent between versions of the SAS standard (e.g., as the SAS standard move from version 2.0 to 3.0 to 4.0). This has created somewhat of an issue, however, as the performance of the next version of a standard will increases compared to the previous version. A given configuration can often accommodate one increase in performance but sometimes the second performance increase will be more problematic. The SAS standard, for example, has a miniSAS HD connector that has gone from 6 Gbps per channel to 12 Gbps per channel in version 3.0 (soon to be released) and version 4.0 is expected to be 20-24 Gbps per channel. Similarly, the PCIe standard is moving to 8 Gbps in Version III and is expected to go to 16 Gbps in Version IV. The increase to around or more than 20+ Gbps creates substantial issues with connector designs as many previously irrelevant details become significant to the design of a successful connector. However, the users of these connectors still desire to have a connector that can work with legacy designs while also supporting the higher data rates. Therefore, certain individuals would appreciate further improvements to a connector system.
A connector includes a housing with a card slot. The housing supports a plurality of terminals that each have a contact positioned in a card slot. Each of the contacts has a deflecting portion and an interface portion. The deflecting portion includes a dual-beam structure and a single-beam structure.
The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limited in the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which:
The detailed description that follows describes exemplary embodiments and is not intended to be limited to the expressly disclosed combination(s). Therefore, unless otherwise noted, features disclosed herein may be combined together to form additional combinations that were not otherwise shown for purposes of brevity.
As can be appreciated from
As depicted, the housing 122 includes a front portion 122a and a rear portion 122b so as to allow for ease of assembly and for structural reasons but one piece housings are also suitable. The depicted housing 120 includes two card slots 123 and 124 that each have a plurality of terminal grooves 125. In operation, a plug (not shown) with the appropriate number of paddle cards 112 that include pads 115 that are configured to mate with the terminals would be mated with the connector 120 so that an electrical connection could be provided. As can be appreciated, while the connector 120 is in a right angle configuration it should be understood that any desirable housing configuration can be provided, including angled and vertical configurations, and thus the depicted configuration is not intended to be limiting. In addition, while two card slots 123, 124 are depicted, the terminals depicted herein are also suitable for connectors with some other number of card slots such as one or three or more card slots. Furthermore, it should be noted that the depicted terminals are primarily used for signal channels configured to high data rates. For certain connectors it may be suitable to use conventional terminal for some of the terminals that are intended to operate at lower data rates and to only use the improved terminals for the channels that benefit from the improved impedance profile.
As can be appreciated from a review of the Figs., the housing, which has a rear wall 140, supports a wafer set 150 that includes signal wafers 151, 152 and ground wafer 153 and the wafers support terminals 160 with a frame 154a, 154b, 154c, respectively. More specifically, wafer 151 includes terminals 160a, 161a, 162a and 162a while wafer 152 includes terminals 160b, 161b, 162b and 162b and while wafer 153 includes terminals 160c, 161c, 162c and 163c. Unlike the prior art terminal of
As depicted, the tails 172a-172c of the respective wafers 151-153 are each offset from each other so as to improve performance in the footprint (which is expected to reduce insertion loss as well as return loss). Alternatively the tails could have a different configuration (for example they could be SMT style tails). SMT style tails tend to performance better than press fit tails but are difficult and undesirable to use in a stacked connector configuration as many of the tails will be soldered blindly.
As can be appreciated, the terminals can be provided so that the terminals have their contacts arranged in rows and with a connector that includes more than one card slot, a separate row of contacts can be provided on each side of each card slot. For example, the depicted connector configuration provides four rows R1-R4 of contacts.
As can be appreciated from
The performance of the connector 120 is illustrated in
It should be noted that insertion loss would also typically be subtracted from the usable signal and the insertion loss is expected to be less than 3 dB out to 12 GHz. Thus the depicted testing illustrates a connector with a stamped terminal that can support a 12 GHz signaling frequency or 2.4 Gbps using NRZ encoding.
It should be noted that the depicted configuration has the dual beam portion C′ with a first length that is greater than a second length of the single beam portion B′. While not required, it has been determined that such a construction provides further benefits for higher signaling frequencies. Thus it is generally desirable that a length of C′ be greater than a length of B′.
As noted above, the contact configuration depicted herein can be used to a wide range of terminal configurations, including press fit style terminals and SMT style terminals. In addition, a connector can be configured so that at least one row of terminals have the improved contact (with the combination dual beam/single beam configuration). Furthermore, if desired the terminals can be different along the row such that only the signal terminals and the adjacent ground terminal are so configured. However, as the improved construction is amendable to being stamped it is expected that it would be reasonably cost effective (even if not required) to have all the terminals with the improved contact configuration.
The disclosure provided herein describes features in terms of preferred and exemplary embodiments thereof. Numerous other embodiments, modifications and variations within the scope and spirit of the appended claims will occur to persons of ordinary skill in the art from a review of this disclosure.
This application is a national phase of PCT Application No. PCT/US2014/071905, filed Dec. 20, 2014, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/919,278, filed Dec. 20, 2013.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2014/071905 | 12/22/2014 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2015/095869 | 6/25/2015 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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61919278 | Dec 2013 | US |