Patent Application
20130072041
The present application is based on Japanese patent application Nos.2011-203521 and 2012-174052 filed on Sep. 16, 2011 and Aug. 6, 2012, respectively, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference,
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a non-drain differential signal transmission cable and a ground connection structure thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In devices to handle high-speed digital signals of several Gbit/s or more, such as a server, a router or a storage device, differential signal transmission is used for signal transmission between devices or substrates (circuit boards) in a device.
The differential signal transmission is conducted such that signals with 180° inverted phases are transmitted through two paired signal conductors and a difference between the signals received on the side of a receiver is synthesized and outputted. Since currents flowing in the pair of signal conductors flow in opposite directions to each other, electromagnetic wave radiated from a transmission line is small. In addition, since noise from outside is equally superposed on the pair of signal conductors, the effect of noise can be cancelled by synthesizing and outputting the difference on the side of the receiver. Due to these reasons, the differential signal transmission is often used for the high-speed digital signal transmission.
As shown in
The shield conductor 163 may be formed by winding a tape with a conductor (a shielding tape) or is formed by covering with a braided strand. In addition, the sheath 164 may be formed by winding an insulating tape or is formed by extrusion coating of resin.
The differential signal transmission cable 160 is a twinax cable which has a pair of signal conductors 161 aligned in parallel and in which a difference in physical length between the pair of signal conductors 161 and attenuation of signal at high frequency are less than a twisted pair cable formed by twisting a pair of signal conductors. In addition, since the shield conductor 163 is provided covering the pair of signal conductors 161, the characteristic impedance is not unstable even if a metal is placed near the cable, and the noise immunity is also high. Due to such advantages, twinax cables are often used for short-distance signal transmission at relatively high speed.
By the way, the differential signal transmission cable 160 does not have a drain wire. Therefore, for connecting the differential signal transmission cable 160 to a substrate 165, after peeling the differential signal transmission cable 160 in a tiered manner, each of the paired signal conductors 161 is connected to a signal line pad 166 on the substrate 165 using a solder 167 while the shield conductor 163 is directly connected, using the solder 167, to a ground pad 170 which is connected to an inner ground layer 168 in the substrate 165 via a through-hole 169.
The related art may include JP-A-2011-90959.
As described above, since the shield conductor 163 is directly soldered to the ground pad 170, heat can be necessarily conducted from the tip of a soldering iron to the shield conductor 163 and the insulation 162 during the soldering work.
Therefore, if the shield conductor 163 is melted or evaporated and the insulation 162 is deformed or melted by the heat applied during the soldering work (e.g., about 230 to 280° C.), the impedance mismatch may occur at a connecting portion between the differential signal transmission cable 160 and the substrate 165 (a cable connecting portion) to impair the electrical characteristics of the differential signal transmission cable 160.
In addition, since a solder fillet needs to be formed in a solder layer in order to ensure an appropriate (highly reliable) solder-connected state of the shield conductor 163, the ground pad 170 needs to have such a large width (or area) that the solder fillet can be formed therein.
Therefore, when the plural differential signal transmission cables 160 are mounted, the package density is limited since the arrangement interval between the plural differential signal transmission cables 160 depends on the width of the ground pad 170.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a non-drain differential signal transmission cable that can prevent the thermal load applied to the shield conductor/insulation during the soldering work and improve the package density, and a ground connection structure thereof.
(1) According to one embodiment of the invention, a non-drain differential signal transmission cable comprises:
In the above embodiment (1) of the invention, the following modifications and changes can be made.
(i) The pin portion is formed by twisting together both end portions of the wire.
(ii) The ground connecting pin comprises a pin member comprising a spiral portion formed by shaping a portion of the wire into a spiral shape and the pin portion formed by shaping the end portion of the wire into a pin shape, the pin member being preliminarily made, and wherein the spiral portion of the pin member is attached as the winding portion around the shield conductor to form the ground connecting pin.
(iii) The winding portion is formed by winding a portion of the wire twice or more around the shield conductor.
(iv) The winding portion is solder-connected to the shield conductor.
(v) The wire comprises a copper wire and silver- or tin-plating applied to the copper wire.
(vi) The pin portion is disposed parallel to the pair of signal conductors.
(vii) The pin portion is disposed so as to cross a center line that passes through a center of the pair of signal conductors.
(viii) Two of the pin portion are provided.
(ix) The two pin portions are provided line-symmetrically with respect to a line orthogonally passing the center of a line segment connecting the centers of the pair of signal conductors.
(2) According to one embodiment of the invention, a ground connection structure of a non-drain differential signal transmission cable comprises:
In the above embodiment (2) of the invention, the following modifications and changes can be made.
(x) The signal line pad is formed at an edge of the substrate so as to be orthogonal to one side of the edge at an interval equal to that of the signal conductors.
(xi) The ground pad is formed parallel to the signal line pad.
(xii) The signal line pad and the ground pad are formed at a distance from the edge of the substrate.
(xiii) The non-drain differential signal transmission cable is arranged at the edge of the substrate so that only the pair of signal conductors and the pin portion are located on the substrate.
(xiv) The signal line pad and the ground pad are formed on both sides of the substrate, and the non-drain differential signal transmission cables are attached to the both sides of the substrate.
(xv) The ground pad is formed symmetrically on both sides of the signal line pads.
According to one embodiment of the invention, provided are a non-drain differential signal transmission cable that can prevent the thermal load applied to the shield conductor/ insulation during the soldering work and improve the package density, and a ground connection structure thereof.
Next, the present invention will be explained in more detail in conjunction with appended drawings, wherein:
Preferred embodiments of the invention will be described below in conjunction with the appended drawings.
Firstly, a non-drain differential signal transmission cable in a first embodiment will be described.
As shown in
The non-drain differential signal transmission cable means a differential signal transmission cable which does not have a drain wire.
For making the ground connecting pin 14, the wire 15 is wound around the shield conductor 13 and an end portion of the wound wire 15 is formed into a pin shape.
For forming the winding portion 14a, a portion of the wire 15 is wound twice or more around the shield conductor 13. This allows the winding portion 14a to be tightly in contact throughout the entire circumference of the shield conductor 13, and accordingly, effect on electric field distribution in the vicinity of the wound portion of the wire 15 caused by a gap generated between the shield conductor 13 and the winding portion 14a is eliminated and impedance mismatch caused thereby can be eliminated.
The winding portion 14a is soldered to the shield conductor 13. As a result, it is possible to reliably ensure a contact state between the shield conductor 13 and the winding portion 14a.
Since the shield conductor 13 is connected to a ground via the pin portion 14b, heat is applied to the shield conductor 13 only at the time of soldering the winding portion 14a to the shield conductor 13. In addition, an amount of solder used for soldering the winding portion 14a to the shield conductor 13 is smaller than an amount of solder used for soldering the shield conductor 13 directly to the ground. This is because the latter requires only a small area for solder connection. Therefore, an amount of heat applied at the time of soldering the winding portion 14a to the shield conductor 13 is smaller than an amount of heat applied when soldering the shield conductor 13 directly to the ground, and does not cause melting or evaporation of the shield conductor 13 and deformation or melting of the insulation 12.
The wire 15 is composed of a copper wire and silver- or tin-plating applied to the copper wire. The copper wire is excellent in conductivity and is also cheap, hence, it is possible to reduce the price of the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 10. In addition, it is possible to improve solder wettability by applying silver- or tin-plating, which allows a good connecting condition to be ensured when the winding portion 14a formed of a portion of the wire 15 is soldered to the shield conductor 13 and when the pin portion 14b formed of a portion of the wire 15 is soldered to a ground.
The pin portion 14b is provided in parallel to the pair of signal conductors 11. Accordingly, a distance between the pair of signal conductors 11 and the pin portion 14b can be kept constant, and thus, impedance mismatch caused by variation in the distance between the pair of signal conductors 11 and the pin portion 14b can be reduced.
The pin portion 14b is provided so as to cross a center line X which passes through the centers of the paired signal conductors 11. Therefore, it is not necessary to bend the pair of signal conductors 11 or the pin portion 14b at the time of connecting the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 10 to the substrate (the detail will be described later) and it is possible to respectively solder the pair of signal conductors 11 and the pin portion 14b to the ground in a state of being arranged in parallel to each other and in a state that a distance therebetween is kept constant, hence impedance mismatch is less likely to occur.
Two pin portions 14b may be provided as is in a non-drain differential signal transmission cable 10′ shown in
Cable structures to which the invention is applicable include a cable structure 30 having a pair of signal conductors 11, the insulation 12 covering around the pair of signal conductors 11 all together, the shield conductor 13 provided on an outer periphery of the insulation 12 and a sheath 17 provided on an outer periphery of the shield conductor 13, as shown in
The invention is also applicable to any cable structures as long as a drain wire is not included, e.g., applicable to LAN cable, etc. Referring to
Next, a non-drain differential signal transmission cable in a second embodiment will be described.
As shown in
In addition, two pin portions 14b may be provided as is in a non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70′ shown in
It should be noted that other structures are the same as those of the non-drain differential signal transmission cables 10 and 10′ and the explanation thereof will be omitted.
Although it has been explained that the ground connecting pin 14 in the non-drain differential signal transmission cables 10, 10′, 70 and 70′ is formed by winding the wire 15 around the shield conductor 13 and then forming the end portion of the wound wire 15 into a pin shape, it is not limited thereto.
For example, to form the ground connecting pin 14, a pre-made pin member 90 provided with a spiral portion 91 formed by shaping a portion of the wire 15 into a spiral shape and the pin portion 14b formed by shaping the end portion of the wire 15 into a pin shape as shown in
At this time, the spiral portion 91 is formed to have an inner diameter which is about several μm larger than the outer diameter of the shield conductor 13 so as to facilitate attachment to the shield conductor 13.
When attaching the pin member 90 to the shield conductor 13, the spiral portion 91 is attached around the shield conductor 13 by soldered connection.
Although the pin member 90 to be the ground connecting pin 14 of the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 10 in the first embodiment is illustrated as an example in
Next, a ground connection structure of a non-drain differential signal transmission cable in the present embodiment will be described. An example using the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70 will be described here.
As shown in
The signal line pads 23 are formed at an edge of the substrate 25 so as to be perpendicular to a side 26 of the edge at an interval equal to that of the signal conductors 11. Accordingly, it is possible to respectively solder the signal conductors 11 to the signal line pads 23 in a state that a distance therebetween is kept constant, and impedance mismatch at a cable connecting portion is thus less likely to occur.
In addition, the signal line pads 23 are connected to signal lines 27 formed on the substrate 25 and signals are transmitted through the signal lines 27.
The ground pad 24 is formed on one side of the signal line pad 23 so as to be parallel thereto. This is to align with the pin portion 14b which is provided in parallel to the signal conductors 11. As a result, the distance between the signal conductors 11 and the pin portion 14b can be kept constant and it is thus possible to reduce impedance mismatch at the cable connecting portion.
In addition, the ground pad 24 is connected to an inner ground layer 29 in the substrate 25 via a through-hole 28. Alternatively, the ground layer may be formed as a surface layer. A technique such as coplanar wiring is used when formed as a surface layer.
The signal line pads 23, the ground pad 24 and the inner ground layer 29 are formed at a distance d from the edge of the substrate 25. As a result, it is possible to prevent the shield conductor 13 of the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70 from contacting with the signal line pads 23, the ground pad 24 and the inner ground layer 29 when the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70 is connected to the substrate 25. Contact of the shield conductor 13 with the ground pad 24 or the inner ground layer 29 does not cause a problem of signal transmission even though there is a problem of impedance mismatch. However, when the shield conductor 13 contacts with the signal line pads 23, a short circuit occurs and signals cannot be transmitted. The structure described above is to avoid such a problem.
The signal line pads 23, the signal lines 27, the ground pad 24 and a non-illustrated circuit pattern are simultaneously formed on the substrate 25.
The non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70 is arranged at the edge of the substrate 25 so that only the pair of signal conductors 11 and the pin portion 14b are located on the substrate 25. The reason is as follows.
Conventionally, a terminal portion of the differential signal transmission cable 160 is placed on the substrate 165 such that the shield conductor 163 is connected to the ground pad 170 and, in this state, the signal conductors 161 are soldered to the signal line pads 166. Therefore, the signal conductors 161 need to be bent by a size equivalent to about half of the height of the insulation 162 so that the signal conductors 161 come into contact with the signal line pads 166 (see
On the other hand, due to the arrangement in which only the pair of signal conductors 11 and the pin portion 14b are located on the substrate 25, the pair of signal conductors 11 and the pin portion 14b can be soldered to the signal line pads 23 and the ground pad 24 without being bent. As a result, impedance mismatch caused by deformation of the insulation 12 can be prevented and it is also possible to prevent deterioration in electrical characteristics of the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70. Furthermore, the height of the ground connection structure 100 per se can be reduced by the size equivalent to about half of the height of the insulation 12 and it is thus possible to downsize the ground connection structure 100.
As shown in
In the ground connection structure 100, since the shield conductor 13 and the ground pad 24 are connected via the pin portion 14b, the ground pad 24 only needs to have a width (or area) which allows solder connection of the pin portion 14b. In other words, the width (or area) of the ground pad 24 of the ground connection structure 100 can be smaller than the case of directly soldering the shield conductor 13. Therefore, in the ground connection structure 100, since a width (or area) on the substrate occupied by the ground pad 24 is smaller than a conventional art, it is possible to improve a package density of the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70 compared to the conventional art.
Alternatively, the signal line pads 23 and the ground pads 24 may be formed at the same positions on both sides of the substrate 25 as shown in
Alternatively, the ground pads 24 may be formed symmetrically with respect to a longitudinal extension line E of the non-drain differential signal transmission cable 70 so as to sandwich two signal line pad 23 from both sides, as is in a ground connection structure 100′ shown in
When a sample is actually made based on the ground connection structure 100′ shown in
According to the result, impedance at the cable connecting portion in the ground connection structure 100′ is 95 to 102 Ω and it is understood that characteristics sufficient for a system with impedance of 100 Ω is obtained. A strict technical specification of about 100±5 Ω is required especially for high-speed application, and the ground connection structure 100′ meets this requirement.
As described above, according to the invention, it is possible to prevent thermal load from being applied to the shield conductor/the insulation during soldering work, i.e., to prevent melting or evaporation of the shield conductor and deformation or melting of the insulation during the soldering work, and also possible to improve a package density.
Although the invention has been described with respect to the specific embodiments for complete and clear disclosure, the appended claims are not to be therefore limited but are to be construed as embodying all modifications and alternative constructions that may occur to one skilled in the art which fairly fall within the basic teaching herein set forth.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-203521 | Sep 2011 | JP | national |
| 2012-174052 | Aug 2012 | JP | national |
