Patent Application
20170221604
Power and data may be provided from one electronic device to another using cable assemblies. These cable assemblies may include cables having one or more 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 electronic devices.
The conductors in the cable may connect to contacts in the connector inserts to convey high-speed signals along with power supplies and other signals. These high-speed signals may have fast rising and falling edges that contain high-frequency components. These high-frequency components may couple to other high-speed signals, power supplies, and other signals in the cable assembly. These high-frequency components may also radiate away from the cable assemblies and interfere with wired and wireless signals of nearby or associated devices. Further, other wired or wireless signals from nearby or associated devices may couple onto the conductors conveying the high-speed signals. Using a conductor that is susceptible to interference may cause the high-speed signal to be degraded and may make data transfers less reliable.
Various electronic devices may generate a large demand by consumers. Yield problems may impair a manufacturer's ability to deliver the electronic devices to fill this demand. Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide cable assemblies that may be readily manufactured even while meeting the above reductions in radiation and susceptibility to interference.
The electronic devices that these cable assemblies connect to have been becoming thinner with each succeeding generation. Some are becoming so thin that they may be thinner in at least one dimension than their corresponding cable. Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide a thinner cable having the above attributes.
Thus, what is needed are cable assemblies that may convey high speed signals while providing a reduction in radiation and susceptibility to interference, while also being readily manufactured and having a reduced thickness.
Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may provide cable assemblies that may convey high speed signals while providing a reduction in radiation and susceptibility to interference, while also being readily manufactured and having a reduced thickness.
An illustrative embodiment of the present invention may provide cable assemblies that may convey high speed signals while providing a reduction in radiation and susceptibility to interference. These and other embodiments of the present invention may provide improved shielding for connector inserts of a cable assembly. This shielding may substantially surround a rear, top, bottom, and sides of the connector inserts of the cable assembly, leaving a front opening unshielded for mating with a connector receptacle. The shielding may also include seams having reduced straight-line segment lengths and limited gaps to reduce electromagnetic emissions. This shielding may reduce radiation from high-speed signals conveyed by the cable assembly that may interfere with wired and wireless signals of nearby or associated devices. This shielding may also reduce the cable assembly's susceptibility to interference from wired and wireless signals of nearby or associated devices. The shielding may also absorb stress placed on the connector insert during insertion into and extraction from a connector receptacle, thereby protecting internal solder connections.
These and other embodiments of the present invention may reduce interference and cross-talk among high-speed signals in a cable assembly by using micro-coaxial wires as conductors. The micro-coaxial wires may include signal wires that are individually shielded and the shielding may be terminated in each connector insert in the cable assembly. The terminations may reduce insertion losses for the signals conveyed by the micro-coaxial wires. To reduce skew, particularly in differential pair signals, the micro-coaxial wires may be trimmed to be the same length and may be manufactured to have the matched impedances. In an HDMI connector, eight micro-coaxial wires may be used to convey four differential signal pairs. These or other types of conductors may be used to convey power, ground, and other signals.
An illustrative embodiment of the present invention may provide cable assemblies that may be readily manufactured by providing a ground bar that may be used to terminate the shields of the micro-coaxial wires to ground. These terminations may reduce insertion losses for the signals conveyed by these micro-coaxial wires. The ground bar may be located in a connector insert between the cable and an internal housing that supports contacts for mating with a connector receptacle. The ground bar may include alignment features that may align the ground bar to the internal housing. The shields of the micro-coaxial wires may be hot-bar soldered to the ground bar while the signal wires may be hot-bar soldered to contact tails of the contacts in the internal housing. A height of the ground bar may be varied such that the micro-coaxial wires do not need to be bent or angled for the connections to the shields and signal wires to be made. The ground bar may include one or more openings to act as heat breaks to prevent heat from dissipating too quickly during soldering.
An illustrative embodiment of the present invention may provide cable assemblies having a reduced thickness by providing an internal strain relief for the cable. This may eliminate the need for a conventional strain relief that typically wraps around an outside jacket of a cable. These and other embodiments of the present invention may provide a cable having hollow tube in or near its center. The hollow tube may have one of a number of different cross-sections. For example, the hollow tube may have a star-shaped cross section, a circular cross-section, or other shaped cross-section. Stiffening rods may be inserted into the ends of hollow tube. The stiffening rods may prevent the cables from being bent at a localized point and may instead distribute the bend radius over the length of rod. In these and other embodiments of the present invention, the hollow tube and rod may be replaced by a plastic or nylon rod. In these and other embodiments of the present invention, these hollow tubes and rods may be in or near a center of the cable or elsewhere in or on the cable.
While embodiments of the present invention may be useful in High-Definition Multimedia Interface® (HDMI) cable assemblies, these and other embodiments of the present invention may be used in other types of cable assemblies for different interfaces.
In various embodiments of the present invention, contacts, shells, ground bars, and other conductive portions of a cable assembly 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, 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 external housings, internal housings, and other structures 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, rubber, hard rubber, plastic, nylon, liquid-crystal polymers (LCPs), ceramics, or other nonconductive material or combination of materials.
Embodiments of the present invention may provide cable assemblies and connector inserts that may connect 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, portable media players, navigation systems, monitors, power supplies, video delivery systems, adapters, remote control devices, chargers, and other devices. These cable assemblies may provide pathways for signals that are compliant with various standards such as one of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standards including USB Type-C, one of the HDMI standards, such as 1.4 or 2.0, 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. Other embodiments of the present invention may provide cable assemblies that may be used to provide a reduced set of functions for one or more of these standards. In various embodiments of the present invention, these interconnect paths provided by these cable assemblies may be used to convey power, ground, signals, test points, and other voltage, current, data, or other information.
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.
This example illustrates a monitor 130 that may be driven by one of two sources, specifically computer 110 or set-top box 140. Computer 110 may provide video data over cable 120 to monitor 130. Video data may be displayed on the video screen 132 of monitor 130. Computer 110 may similarly include screen 112. Set-top box 140 may provide video data over cable 150 to monitor 130. Again, this video data may be displayed on screen 132 of monitor 130. In other embodiments the present invention, other types of devices may be included, and other types of data may be shared or transferred among the devices. For example, monitor 130 may be a monitor, an all-in-one computer, tablet computer, or other device having screen 132. In these and other embodiments of the present invention, power may be shared among computer 110, monitor 130, and set-top box 140 over cable assemblies 120 and 150.
Cable assemblies 120 and 150 may be HDMI cable assemblies. These cable assemblies may include HDMI connector inserts (not shown) that plug into HDMI connector receptacles (not shown) on the computer 110, monitor 130, and set-top box 140. An example of a cable assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in the following figures.
Ground bar 320 may be located between internal housing 310 and cable 220. Shields 372 of conductors 370 may be hot-bar soldered to ground bar 320. Similarly, signal wires 374 may be hot-bar soldered to contact tails 252 of contacts 250. These hot-bar soldering processes may occur at the same time, or they may be separate steps that occur in either order. Terminating shields 372 of conductors 370 with ground bar 320 may reduce insertion losses for the signals conveyed by conductors 370. Shields 372 may reduce cross-talk among signals conveyed by conductors 370 and may reduce the electromagnetic radiation generated by connector insert 210.
These soldered connections may be shielded by an internal shell. This internal shell may reduce radiation emitted from connector insert 210. The internal shell may also decrease the susceptibility of interference for the signals conveyed by this connector insert 210 from wired and wireless signals from nearby or associated devices. The internal shell may include a first shell portion 330 around a first side of ground bar 320 and wire comb 360 and a second shell portion 340 around a second side of ground bar 320 and wire comb 360. The internal shell may further include a rear shell portion 350. Rear shell portion 350 may include crimped portion 352 around cable 220. A front edge 332 of first and second shell portions 330 and 340 may fit over (or under) a rear portion of front shell 240 and be spot or laser welded along the resulting overlapping portion or otherwise fixed in place. A rear edge 334 of first and second shell portions 330 and 340 may fit under (or over) a front portion of rear shell 350 and be spot or laser welded along the resulting overlapping portion or otherwise fixed in place. First and second shell portions 330 and 340 may include slots 346 to reduce stiffness. Cable 220 may include an outside shield or braiding, which may be folded back and optionally secured with Mylar tape or other material as portion 380.
First shell portion 330 may include tabs 339. Tabs 339 may be spot or laser welded to the second shell portion 340. The presence of tabs 339 may reduce the length of a straight line segment of edges 337, thereby further reducing emissions generated by connector insert 210.
Conductors 370 may be secured in place using wire comb 360. Conductors 370 may have an external jacket removed exposing shielding 372. Shielding 372 may be removed exposing internal insulation 373. Internal insulation 373 may be removed exposing signal wire 374. These layers may be removed by laser cutting or other technique. As shown before, shields 372 may be hot-bar soldered or otherwise fixed to ground bar 320, while signal wires 374 may be hot-bar soldered or otherwise fixed to contact tails 252 of contacts 250.
Conductors 370 may include shielding 372, internal insulation layer 373, and signal wires 374. An outer jacket may be removed from conductor 370 to expose shielding 372. Shielding 372 may be removed to expose internal insulation 373. Internal insulation 373 may be removed to expose signal wires 374. As each of these layers is removed, the conductor may have a reduced width. Accordingly, rear portion 312 of internal housing 310 and ground bar 320 may include or form steps 610 and 620. Steps 610 and 620 may be arranged such that the signal wire 374 of conductors 370 may lay relatively flat, thereby simplifying assembly and improving reliability. Specifically, step 610 between ground bar 320 and a rear 312 of internal housing 310 may compensate for a step between internal insulation 373 and shielding 372 of conductor 370. Similarly, rear portion 312 of internal housing 310 may include steps 620. Step 620 may compensate for a step between internal insulation 373 and signal wire 374.
In these and other embodiments of the present invention, conductors 370 may be coaxial wires, such as micro-coaxial wires. Use of these cables may provide a high level of isolation between high-speed signals conveyed using cable assemblies according to the present invention. The use of micro-coaxial wires may also reduce the susceptibility of these high-speed signals to noise from external sources, from either within the cable assembly or from wired or wireless signals for devices near or associated with the cable assembly.
In these and other embodiments of the present invention, it may be desirable to provide a thin cable. One feature that may generally increase a thickness of the cable is a strain relief. A strain relief in general prevents a cable from being bent at a single point and instead distributes the radius of the bend along a greater length of the cable. Distributing the bend radius in this way reduces local stress and improves reliability of the cable. Conventional strain reliefs may be located around an outside of a cable, which again may make the cable undesirably thick.
Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may provide an internal strain relief for a cable. An example is shown in the following figures.
In this example, cable 220 may include a hollow tube 910. Hollow tube 910 may be located at least approximately at a center of cable 220, though it may be located at other positions in cable 220 in these and other embodiments of the present invention. A rod or spike 920 may be inserted into an end of hollow tube 920. Rod 920 may be less flexible than hollow tube 910. This arrangement may distribute a bend radius along the length of rod 920, thereby protecting cable 220. Hollow tube 910 may further protect conductors 370 from rod 920. Rod 920 may be made of stainless steel, spring tempered steel, nickel titanium (nitinol), or other metal or other material. Hollow tube 910 may be made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), nylon, plastic, or other material. Hollow tube 910 may be extruded and bundled along with conductors 370 when cable 220 is manufactured. Rods 920 may be inserted into ends of hollow tube 910 using a tool or assembly fixture.
During assembly, rod 920 may be inserted into hollow tube 910. Wire comb 360 may be molded around rod 920 and ends of conductors 370. Rod 920 may include a wider front portion 922, which may help secure rod 920 in place in wire comb 360. A front surface 924 of rod 920 may be deburred to avoid abrasion of conductors 370.
In this example, hollow tube 910 may have a star shaped cross-section. In these and other embodiments of the present invention, hollow tube 910 may have a circular or other shaped cross-section. In these and other embodiments of the present invention, hollow tube 910 and rods 920 may be replaced by a plastic or nylon rod (not shown), which may run the length or a portion or portions of the length of the cable. For example, the plastic or nylon rod portions may be located near ends of cable 220.
While embodiments of the present invention may be useful in HDMI cable assemblies, these and other embodiments of the present invention may be used in other types of cable assemblies for different interfaces.
In various embodiments of the present invention, contacts, shells, ground bars, and other conductive portions of a cable assembly 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, 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, internal housings, and other structures 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, rubber, hard rubber, plastic, nylon, liquid-crystal polymers (LCPs), ceramics, or other nonconductive material or combination of materials.
Embodiments of the present invention may provide cable assemblies and connector inserts that may connect 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, portable media players, navigation systems, monitors, power supplies, video delivery systems, adapters, remote control devices, chargers, and other devices. These cable assemblies may provide pathways for signals that are compliant with various standards such as one of the Universal Serial Bus standards including USB Type-C, one of the HDMI standards, such as 1.4 or 2.0, Digital Visual Interface, Ethernet, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, Lightning, Joint Test Action Group, test-access-port, Directed Automated Random Testing, universal asynchronous receiver/transmitters, 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. Other embodiments of the present invention may provide cable assemblies that may be used to provide a reduced set of functions for one or more of these standards. In various embodiments of the present invention, these interconnect paths provided by these cable assemblies may be used to convey power, ground, signals, test points, and other voltage, current, data, or other information.
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.
