Patent Grant
11367978
The present disclosure relates to a coupling connector for an electronic device. More specifically, the disclosure exemplifies self-aligning and self-assembling connectors for connecting electronic devices, in particular for electronic medical devices.
Electronic devices use data cables and/or power cables attached to a connector to establish a connection to other electronic devices or to a power source. Temporary electrical connection between two electronic devices or between an electronic device and a power source is typically carried out by friction fitting a connector to a connection port. In clinical settings, despite strict requirements for sterility and cleanliness, cables connecting medical equipment are frequently an afterthought, and are left lying across the floor or other surfaces. This situation places the connecting cables in a position to be stepped-on, kicked, tugged or snagged, potentially damaging the connectors, and also creating potentially hazardous conditions. These conditions could cause errors and/or delays in medical operations, as replacement cables have to be located and installed at the expense of increasing operational times and costs.
In other fields of technology, the state of the art for connectors which prevent damage by self-disconnecting when tugged is known. For example, Apple Inc. (Apple) manufactures and sells a magnetic connector cable by the trade name of MagSafe. Apple was granted U.S. Pat. No. 7,311,526 on a cable connect sold under the MagSafe name. According to this technology, the connector is held in place magnetically so that if it is tugged—for example, by someone tripping over the cord—the tugging will pull the connector out of the socket without damaging the connector or the power socket of the electronic device, and without pulling the electronic device off the surface on which it is located.
Also U.S. Pat. No. 9,160,102 B1 (Magnetic, self-retracting, auto-aligning electrical connector) describes an electrical coupling connector which when two outer ring magnets come into contact, they attach, and this causes two inner magnets to make a magnetic and electrical connection.
In the medical field, U.S. Pat. No. 9,306,322 B2 discloses a connector for a patient support apparatus. According to this patent, the patient support apparatus (e.g., a bed) is provided with a magnet-based electrical connector adapted to releasably couple to a complementary connector in order to transfer electrical power therebetween. The magnet is adapted to releasably hold the electrical connector and the complementary connector together and to assist in aligning the connector with the complementary connector. An indicator provides a visual indication when the electrical connector and the complementary connector are electrically coupled together.
While the foregoing state of the art shows an improvement in connectors, these connectors are generally limited by the need of user intervention to reconnect and/or reassemble the disrupted connection after a disconnection event takes place. That is, a user has to manually recouple the connection, and/or reassemble the connector parts, which is an issue if there are a multitude of cables and/or the connection port is difficult to access. In addition, the above-described magnet-based connectors rely on the condition that both connecting portions of a given connector (i.e., a connection port of a first device and a connector of a second device) must include a magnet in order to facilitate a disconnection without damage and in order to facilitate appropriate alignment. Moreover, the magnetic connection and re-alignment is limited to the short distances in which the magnetic field is effective as it is well known that the strength of a magnetic field varies inversely with the third power of distance.
However, when a magnet-based connector must be connected to a non-magnetic connection port of an existing device, the magnet-based connector may not be useful in preventing damage, preventing disconnection, or providing alignment. Moreover, in clinical settings, where there are strict requirements for sterility and cleanliness, cables connecting medical equipment are desired to be securely connected to avoid disconnection and to maintain sterility throughout a procedure. And, if the situation places the connecting cables of medical devices in a position to be stepped-on, kicked, tugged or snagged, it is desired that those cables be immediately reconnected and reassembled to avoid errors and/or delays in medical operations. Moreover, due to the strict requirements for sterility and cleanliness, it is desired that cables of medical devices be reconnected and reassembled preferably without manual intervention of a user.
According to at least one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a connector apparatus (100) configured to connect to a connection port (201) in order to transfer a digital signal and/or electrical power between two electronic devices or between an electronic device and an electrical outlet, the connector apparatus (100) comprising: a first part (107a) configured to connect to the connection port (201) by friction; two or more coupling portions (106, 104) which can engage or disengage when a force is applied to at least one of the coupling portions; and a retracting mechanism (105) which pulls the two or more coupling portions (106, 104) towards each other when the coupling portions are separated by a separating force (F2) larger than a threshold force (F1); wherein the first part (107a) remains connected to the connection port (201), while the two or more coupling portions (106, 104) engage or disengage when the force is applied and/or while the retracting mechanism (105) pulls the two or more coupling portions (106, 104) towards each other.
In one embodiment, the plurality of coupling portions includes a first coupling portion (106) having one or more first magnets and a second coupling portion (104) having one or more second magnets, wherein the first and second coupling portions are magnetically coupled to each other by the one or more first magnets and the one or more second magnets. In one embodiment connector apparatus further comprises a cord (103) attached to at least one of the first and second coupling portions, wherein the cord (103) transmits the digital signal and/or electrical power between two electronic devices or between an electronic device and an electrical outlet regardless of whether the first and second coupling portions are engaged or disengaged (
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, when taken in conjunction with the appended drawings, and provided claims.
Further objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures showing illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure.
Throughout the figures, the same reference numerals and characters, unless otherwise stated, are used to denote like features, elements, components or portions of the illustrated embodiments. Moreover, while the subject disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the figures, it is done so in connection with the illustrative exemplary embodiments. It is intended that changes and modifications can be made to the described exemplary embodiments without departing from the true scope and spirit of the subject disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
When a feature or element is herein referred to as being “on” another feature or element, it can be directly on the other feature or element or intervening features and/or elements may also be present. In contrast, when a feature or element is referred to as being “directly on” another feature or element, there are no intervening features or elements present. It will also be understood that, when a feature or element is referred to as being “connected”, “attached”, “coupled” or the like to another feature or element, it can be directly connected, attached or coupled to the other feature or element or intervening features or elements may be present. In contrast, when a feature or element is referred to as being “directly connected”, “directly attached” or “directly coupled” to another feature or element, there are no intervening features or elements present. Although described or shown with respect to one embodiment, the features and elements so described or shown in one embodiment can apply to other embodiments. It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent” to another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature.
The embodiments are based on an object of providing a self-aligning and self-assembling electronic connector to transfer data and/or electrical power between two electronic devices or between an electronic device and an electrical outlet. According to the various embodiments, it is provided a connector for electronic devices, wherein the connector includes at least two coupling portions which can be reconnected and reassembled preferably without manual intervention of a user.
A first exemplary embodiment is described by referring to
The connector port 201 is a connector port of an electronic device or a port of an electrical outlet. For example, the connector port 201 is a universal serial bus (USB) port or similar for data transfer. Alternatively the connector port 201 could also be a port to transfer electrical power between a wall socket and a piece of equipment or electronic device, e.g., for battery recharging. The connector port 201 can be a combination of a port for data transfer and a port for electrical power transfer. Accordingly, the connector 100 is a USB connector configured to electronically connect to connector port 201. The connector apparatus (100) configured to connect to a connection port (201) in order to transfer data and/or electrical power between two electronic devices or between an electronic device and an electrical outlet.
In an embodiment, the first and second coupling portions (106, 104) may be engaged or coupled to each other by the friction force between the pins 109 engaging recessed connector terminals 109b (holes). Then, if the decoupling force F2 is larger than the coupling force F1, the second coupling portion 104 becomes separated from the first coupling portion 106. Therefore, in this scenario, the decoupling force F2 causes the protruding connector pins 109a in the first coupling portion 106 to disconnect from the corresponding recessed connector terminals 109b in the second coupling portion 104. Accordingly, the disconnection of pins 109a from connector terminals 109b would cause a momentary electrical disconnection (stops the flow of electrical power or data) between the two coupling portions 106 and 104. However, according to the present embodiment, the two coupling portions 106 and 104 still remain physically attached to each other by a tether 105 which can retract and re-establish electrical connection. Therefore, even if an electrical connection is momentarily lost (interrupted) by an accidental pull of the cord 103, the spring reel 112 will pull back the tether 105 and cause the second coupling portion 104 to reconnect to the first coupling portion 106.
More specifically, the first coupling portion 106 has the internal retracting mechanism, such as a spring reel 112, to apply a tension force upon the tether 105. In this manner, when the force F2 acting on the cord 103 is released (when the force F2 ceases to act), the tether 105 retracts, bringing the first coupling portion 106 and second coupling portion 104 into close proximity so that the pin/hole pairs are reconnected to each other. To facilitate self-alignment and ensure fast re-assembling of the connector 100, the two coupling portions may include the magnets 108a and 108b of opposite polarity, as shown in
To avoid damage of the connector and/or its associated port, the present disclosure provides a mechanism which causes the first coupling portion 106 and the second coupling portion 104 to disengage from each other at a certain force (F2) larger than a threshold force F1, but lower than an engaging force F3 which keeps the connector 100 attached to connection port 201. The force F2 is lower than the engaging force F3 (e.g., friction force) keeping the part 107a of connector 100 engaged with connector port 201. The disengagement force (F2) is also less than a damaging force Fd, if such force Fd is applied to the connector 100, which would damage the part 107a or the port 201.
Further, the disengagement force (F2) is high enough such that first coupling portion 106 and the second coupling portion 104 stay engaged until a certain threshold force is reached. Specifically, the disengagement force F2 is high enough such that the connector remains engaged and unaffected by the weight of the cord 103 and/or even if minor incidental forces are applied to the connector during normal operations of maneuvering electronic equipment.
Conventional basic connectors (e.g., USB connectors) use friction force in a push/pull interface for connecting/disconnecting a cable connector to a receptacle or port. These connectors are prone to easy disconnection as outlined above. Since the inadvertent separation of a cable is a serious concern due to loss of data or loss of power when the mated interface is accidentally broken, a proposed solution is to provide a locking mechanism (e.g., a latch) within the receptacle or port (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,128,595) or within the connector (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,432 or 7,878,865) for releasably locking the connector to its connection port (or receptacle). Although this type of locking mechanism provides improved mating retention between the connector and its port, it increases the possibility of damage when an accidental tug or pull occurs, and it also requires a user to actively maneuver the locking mechanism for connection and/or disconnection. In contrast, according to the present disclosure, the connector has one or more coupling portions (106, 104) which can engage or disengage when a separating force is applied to at least one of the coupling portions; this can prevent any damage to the connector and/or its receptacle even if the connection is secured with a locking mechanism. More specifically, since the retracting mechanism (105) pulls the two or more coupling portions (106, 104) towards each other when the coupling portions are separated by a separating force (F2) larger than a threshold force (F1), the connector disclosed herein can advantageously prevent damage of the connector and/or its port even when a locking or detent mechanism is provided between the connector and its port. In this case, the force necessary to overcome the locking mechanism (e.g., necessary to disengage the connector from its port) can be considered the disengaging force F3. In conventionally locked connectors, when the force F3 is much larger than separating force F2 (if F3>>F2), the connector or its port could be permanently damaged. However, when the connector is provided with at least one coupling portion that can engage and disengage in response to a separating force (tugging force), both damage and disconnection can be prevented. To that end, the first part (107a) of connector 100 can remain connected to the connection port (201), even while the two or more coupling portions (106, 104) disengage from each other when the force F2 is applied and/or while the retracting mechanism (105) pulls the two or more coupling portions (106, 104) towards each other with a force F1.
In the second embodiment, similar to the first embodiment, the first coupling portion 106 has an internal retracting mechanism, such as a spring reel 112 for each tether, to apply tension upon the tethers 105a, 105b. In this manner, when a force on the cord 103 is released (when the force F2 ceases to act), the tethers 105a and 105b retract, bringing the first coupling portion 106 and second coupling portion 104 back to their coupled position, e.g., as shown in
Another embodiment of connector 100 is to forgo the magnets in embodiment 1, and have the first coupling portion 106 and second coupling portion 104 brought together and held together only by the retraction force of the tether 105. In this case, magnetic coupling may be obviated, but it is recommended to provide some type of complementary guiding elements to facilitate realignment and self-assembling of the coupling portions. This is discussed below with respect to
Another variation of embodiment 1 is to align the poles of the magnets in the connector 100 such that the magnetic force of the magnetic pieces (magnets) in the first coupling portion 106 is predisposed to a preferred alignment with the magnetic pieces (magnets) in the second coupling portion 104. See, for example,
The concept described in present disclosure is related primarily to a connector having two or more coupling portions configured to engage or disengage in response to a force applied to at least one of said portions. Advantageously, the coupling portions are self-aligning and self-assembling particularly after the coupling between the two portions is disconnected. This offers a significant advantage over conventional connectors, particularly in a clinical setting, where multiple cords and the associated ports may be inaccessible for manual reconnection. In a sterile clinical setting, even when a reconnection is possible, a sterile user would have to break sterility to be able to manually realign and reassemble a disconnected connector.
The various embodiments described in the present disclosure address the issues of lack of accessibility for reconnection in that, as soon as the disconnection force (e.g., a tugging force) is removed, the connector self-aligns and re-assembles without interaction from the user.
Certain notable aspects of the various embodiments include, without limitation, a connector attached to a cord which transmits electrical power and/or a digital signal (data) between two electronic devices or between an electronic device and an electrical outlet. The connector has two or more coupling portions which can disengage from each other when a threshold force is applied to at least one of the two coupling portions. The disengagement force is preferably lower than a force which might damage portions of the cord or connector which cannot disengage. The two coupling portions are tethered to each other with a retraction mechanism which pulls the coupling portions towards each other. The retraction mechanism may include a spring and a cord which maintains the two coupling portions engaged to each other in a normal (resting) state. Then, when coupling portions are separated, the retraction mechanism pulls the coupling portions towards each other. There can be one or a plurality of tethers used to join the coupling portions. In some embodiments, the coupling portions include magnets which are specifically aligned to pull the coupling portions towards each other when they are separated.
The two magnetically coupled portions are designed such that when they are close proximity to each other, they attract each other and self-align into a viable connection. Such designs include lead-in features to help self-alignment. One or more portions of the connector includes a connection status indicator which is light emitting element to indicate the connection status of the connection. The mating surfaces of the coupling portions may have protrusions (pins) and mating holes to aid the alignment of coupling portions. An alternate connection method forgoes the magnetic coupling and has the mating pieces assembled and held in connection purely by the force of the retracting tether or tethers. When using magnetically coupling portions, the poles of the connection magnets are aligned such that the magnetic force of the coupling portions are predisposed to a preferred alignment.
The retracting tether feature of the connector described in the present disclosure allows the two coupling portions to disengage from each other when a separating force is applied to the cord, and enables self-re-assembly upon separation of the coupling portions while maintaining a viable connection of the connector to a connection port. This is a notable feature which is absent in known electrical connectors.
While
In referring to the description, specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the examples disclosed. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily lengthen the present disclosure. Unless defined otherwise herein, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The breadth of the present invention is not to be limited by the subject specification, but rather only by the plain meaning of the claim terms employed herein. As used herein; a “digital signal” refers to a signal that is being used to represent data as a sequence of discrete values; “electrical power” refers to the rate, per unit time, e.g., watts or one joule per second, at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit.
It should be understood that if an element or part is referred herein as being “on”, “against”, “connected to”, or “coupled to” another element or part, then it can be directly on, against, connected or coupled to the other element or part, or intervening elements or parts may be present. In contrast, if an element is referred to as being “directly on”, “directly connected to”, or “directly coupled to” another element or part, then there are no intervening elements or parts present. When used, term “and/or”, may be abbreviated as “/”, and it includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items, if so provided.
Spatially relative terms, such as “under” “beneath”, “below”, “lower”, “above”, “upper”, “proximal”, “distal”, and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the various figures. It should be understood, however, that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, a relative spatial term such as “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein are to be interpreted accordingly. Similarly, the relative spatial terms “proximal” and “distal” may also be interchangeable, where applicable.
The term “about” or “approximately” as used herein means, for example, within 10%, within 5%, or less. In some embodiments, the term “about” may mean within measurement error. In this regard, where described or claimed, all numbers may be read as if prefaced by the word “about” or “approximately,” even if the term does not expressly appear. The phrase “about” or “approximately” may be used when describing magnitude and/or position to indicate that the value and/or position described is within a reasonable expected range of values and/or positions. For example, a numeric value may have a value that is +/−0.1% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−1% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−2% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−5% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−10% of the stated value (or range of values), etc. Any numerical range, if recited herein, is intended to include all sub-ranges subsumed therein.
The terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, parts and/or sections. It should be understood that these elements, components, regions, parts and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms have been used only to distinguish one element, component, region, part, or section from another region, part, or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, part, or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, part, or section without departing from the teachings herein.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, “said” and “the”, are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should be further understood that the terms “includes” and/or “including”, when used in the present specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof not explicitly stated. It is further noted that some claims may be drafted to exclude any optional element; such claims may use exclusive terminology as “solely,” “only” and the like in connection with the recitation of claim elements, or it may use of a “negative” limitation.
In describing example embodiments illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology is employed for the sake of clarity. However, the disclosure of this patent specification is not intended to be limited to the specific terminology so selected and it is to be understood that each specific element includes all technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner.
While the present disclosure has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
The present application claims priority to U.S. provisional application 62/826,564, filed Mar. 29, 2019, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
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| 62826564 | Mar 2019 | US |
