Patent Grant
7481679
The present invention relates generally to electronics enclosures and electrical connector assemblies. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly for electrically and physically coupling disk drives to a midplane within a disk array enclosure.
Some disk array enclosures use hard disk drives that require 12 volts DC only, and the midplane (or backplane) to which such disk drives are electrically connected provides the requisite voltage (i.e., 12 volts only). Additionally, some disk array enclosures use hard disk drives with customized features that enhance their suitability within a product. These features include, but are not limited to, on/off control, soft-start control, current-limit protection, and logic signal conditioning. To reduce the cost of disk array enclosures, one trend is to use commodity (i.e., off-the-shelf) disk drives. Commodity disk drives, however, can require more than a single voltage level, such as 12 volts DC and 5 volts DC. These disk drives may also lack the prerequisite enhanced features needed to make them suitable in a particular application or product. To use such commodity disk drives in these disk array enclosures therefore requires means, external to the disk drive, for converting the 12 volts supplied by the midplane into each required voltage level, for producing certain system functionality (e.g., the enhanced features), or both.
To perform this voltage conversion (and various system functionality, such as previously described), an external, small circuit card (also called a paddle card or an adapter board) is disposed between the midplane and the disk drive. This circuit card includes electrical signal paths and circuitry, e.g., for delivering a 5-volt and 12-volt supply to the disk drive based on the 12-volt supply provided by the midplane, for passing through the 12 volts from the midplane to meet the 12-volts requirements of the disk drive, and for providing the various enhanced functionality.
In one aspect, the invention features an electrical connector assembly an electrical connector having a connector body with a receptacle connector portion at a first end and a plug connector portion at a second end opposite the first end. The receptacle connector portion has electrical contacts within an opening for mating with a plug electrical connector at the first end of the connector body. The plug connector portion has electrical contacts within an opening for mating with a receptacle electrical connector at the second end of the connector body. The connector body has an electrical conductor that is in electrical communication with at least one of the electrical contacts and extends from one side of the connector body. A circuit card is disposed adjacent to that one side of the connector body and is in electrical communication with the at least one electrical contact through the electrical conductor extending from the side of the connector body.
In another aspect, the invention features an electronics enclosure comprising a disk drive assembly having a disk drive and a disk drive connector extending from one end of the disk drive. A midplane has a midplane connector extending from one side thereof. An electrical connector assembly electrically couples the disk drive assembly to the midplane. The electrical connector assembly includes an electrical connector having a connector body with a receptacle connector portion at a first end and a plug connector portion at a second end opposite the first end. The receptacle connector portion has electrical contacts within an opening for mating with a plug electrical connector at the first end of the connector body. The plug connector portion has electrical contacts within an opening for mating with a receptacle electrical connector at the second end of the connector body.
The connector body has an electrical conductor that is in electrical communication with at least one of the electrical contacts and extends from one side of the connector body. A circuit card is disposed adjacent to that one side of the connector body and is in electrical communication with the at least one electrical contact through the electrical conductor extending from the side of the connector body.
In another aspect, the invention features an electrical connector assembly having an electrical connector body with a first electrical connector at a first end and with a second electrical connector at a second end opposite the first end. Each electrical connector has a plurality of electrical contacts. The electrical connector body has an electrical conductor that is in electrical communication with at least one of the electrical contacts and extends from one side of the connector body. A circuit card is disposed adjacent to that one side of the connector body and is in electrical communication with the at least one electrical contact through the electrical conductor extending from the side of the connector body. The electrical connector assembly has means for holding the circuit card adjacent to the connector body.
The above and further advantages of this invention may be better understood by referring to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals indicate like structural elements and features in the various figures. The drawings are not meant to limit the scope of the invention. For clarity, not every element may be labeled in every figure. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention.
Electrical connector assemblies of the present invention have a connector body with back-to-back first and second electrical connector portions. Extending from one side of the connector body are electrically conductive pins. A circuit board disposed adjacent to this side of the connector body couples to these electrical conductors and is thereby in electrical communication with the first and second electrical connector portions. In some embodiments, the electrical connector assembly includes a cardholder for holding the circuit card adjacent to the one side of the connector body.
Various types of electrical signal paths pass through the connector body. Some electrical signal paths pass directly through from the first electrical connector portion to the second electrical connector portion. Other electrical signal paths pass from the connector body to the circuit card, where such signal paths may terminate or propagate and return to connector body. For those signal paths passing through the circuit card, the circuit card has circuitry for responding to or operating upon the signals carried by the paths, e.g., to provide enhanced functionality or to perform signal conversions, such as converting a 12-volt power supply signal into a 5-volt power supply signal.
One exemplary use for the electrical connector assembly is to connect a disk drive to a midplane or backplane of a disk array enclosure. The first connector portion of the electrical connector assembly connects to an electrical connector of the disk drive and the second connector portion of the electrical connector assembly connects to an electrical connector on the midplane.
In one embodiment, the plug and receptacle connector portions 50, 54 conform to SCA-2 industry standards for SCA connectors. In general, SCA-2 standards, e.g., SFF (Small Form Factor) Committee standard SFF-8045 for 40-pin SCA-2 Connector w/ Parallel Selection, SFF-8451 for 40- and 80-pin SCA connectors, and draft standard SFF-8053i for 20-pin SCA connectors, specify the size, length, width, height, board mounting, pin location, and specific mating features. Other embodiments of the plug and receptacle connector portions 50, 54 include, but are not limited to, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) connectors and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) connectors. The housing of the plug and receptacle connector portions 50, 54 can be made of plastic.
In one embodiment, the cardholder portion 58 holds a circuit card 62 adjacent to one side of the connector body 56. Electrically conductive pins (not shown) emerge from the side of the connector body 56 and enter through-holes in the circuit card 62, to couple the circuit card 62 electrically to the plug and receptacle connector portions 50, 54. Soldering may be used to join the electrically conductive pins to the circuit card 62. Although only one circuit card is shown in
Exemplary implementations of the circuit card 62 include, but are not limited to, a printed circuit board (PCB) and a flex circuit. In general, the circuit card 62 includes circuitry for achieving special-purpose functionality. To achieve this functionality, the circuitry can include a variety of components, e.g., active and passive devices, integrated circuit chips or devices, and light-emitting diodes. These components can be disposed on either or both sides of the circuit card 62. On the side of the circuit board 62 facing the connector body 56, the circuit card 62 can have mechanical standoffs that come against and may couple to the connector body 56. In addition to providing structural support, such standoffs ensure a certain amount of spacing between components on that side of the circuit card 62 and the connector body 56. The spacing may be useful in allowing cooling air to flow over the devices on the circuit card 62.
In one embodiment, the circuitry of the circuit card 62 converts a 12-volts supply signal into a 5-volts supply. In other embodiments, the circuitry of the circuit card 62 provides certain disk drive functionality, e.g., on/off control, soft-start control, current-limit protection, logic signal conditioning, or combinations thereof. The circuitry can achieve other types of functionality without departing from the principles of the invention.
Another embodiment of a cardholder 58′ includes sidewalls (140-1, 140-2) with cardholding grooves (144-1, 144-2) formed therein, as shown in
Other electrical traces 149 are discontinuous, i.e., there is a gap in the electrical trace between an electrical contact 76 at the plug member 74 and an electrical contact 110 at the receptacle member 104. Instead of being direct pass-through electrical signal paths, these electrical traces 149 provide electrical signal paths that pass to the circuit card 62 (not shown) by way of electrically conductive pins. Such electrical signal paths may terminate at the circuit card 62 or return to an electrical trace 149 (e.g., on the other side of the gap).
In another embodiment, the connector body 56 encapsulates electrically conductive pins that provide the electrical signal paths between the electrical contacts of the plug member 74 and receptacle member 104 (i.e., straight-through pins) and between the electrical contacts of either member 74, 104 and the circuit card 62 (i.e., pins that bend approximately perpendicularly from the plane of the connector body and project from the side thereof).
Other electrical signal paths pass between an electrical contact 76 of the plug member 74 and an electrical contact 110 of the receptacle member 104 through the circuit card 62 (as typified by the electrical signal path 154). Circuitry 152 on the circuit card 62 can receive and operate upon electrical signals traversing this signal path 154 (e.g., to convert a 12-volt voltage supply signal from the midplane 32 into a 5-volt supply signal for the disk drive 14).
Some of the electrical paths can terminate at the circuit card 62 and provide “test” nodes at which a signal probe from external electronic equipment can analyze the signals passing therethrough. For example, an electrical signal path 156 passes through from the receptacle member 104 of the receptacle connector portion 54 and has a tap 157 (i.e., an electrical conductor) that extends perpendicularly therefrom and terminates at the circuit card 62. As another example, an electrical signal path 158 includes an electrical conductor that extends from the plug member 74 of the plug connector portion 50, bends approximately perpendicularly therefrom, and terminates at the circuit card 62. Electrical signal path 160 exemplifies yet another type of signal path that terminates at the circuit card 62, this path originating from an electrical contact of the receptacle member 104.
In this exemplary embodiment, the signal names are associated with Fibre Channel signals. At each numbered pin location is a symbol (O, X, T, *, or D) indicating the type of electrical signal path with which that pin (i.e., electrical contact) is coupled. Pin locations marked with an “X” or with an asterisk (*) are coupled to electrical paths that pass directly (i.e., straight) through the connector portions 50, 54, as exemplified by electrical signal path 150 in
Pin locations identified by an “O” are “interrupted” electrical paths that pass between the connector portions 50, 54 through circuitry 152 of the circuit card 62, as exemplified by electrical signal path 154 in
While the invention has been shown and described with reference to specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims. For example, other embodiments of electrical connector assemblies constructed in accordance with the invention can have two plug connector portions at opposite ends of the connector body, instead of a plug connector portion and a receptacle connector portion. Alternatively, the connector body can be comprised of two receptacle connector portions. As other examples, the circuit card can be disposed adjacent to the other side of the connector body, or circuit cards can be disposed adjacent both sides of the connector body (which, in this embodiment, has electrically conductive pins emerging from both sides thereof).
Further, although described herein with reference to disk array enclosures, electrical connector assemblies of the invention can find application within other types of electronics enclosures, i.e., wherever an external adapter board or circuitry is employed to provide an interface to an electronics assembly, e.g., to enhance its functionality or to perform signal conversions.
This utility application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/863,905, filed on Nov. 1, 2006, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4686506 | Farago | Aug 1987 | A |
| 5148354 | Roth | Sep 1992 | A |
| 6614652 | White et al. | Sep 2003 | B2 |
| 20020173188 | Follingstad et al. | Nov 2002 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60863905 | Nov 2006 | US |
