Cable connector having cross-talk suppressing feature and method for making the connector

[00002] This application is a co-pending application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/112,922, entitled “ELECTRICAL CONNECTOR HAVING A LATCH MECHANISM”, invented by Jerry Wu and filed on Aug. 10, 2002, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/264,650, entitled “CABLE CONNECTOR HAVING IMPROVED CROSS-TALK SUPRESSING FEATURE”, invented by JERRY WU, YIN-TSE KAO, AN-JEN YANG, YUAN-CHIEH LIN and JIM ZHAO and filed on Oct. 3, 2002. Both the co-pending applications are assigned to the same assignee of this application. The disclosure of the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/112,922 is wholly incorporated herein by reference.

[00003] 1. Field of the Invention

[00004] The present invention relates to a cable connector, and particularly to a high speed cable connector for use in InfiniBand™ application.

[00005] 2. Description of Related Art

[00006] Following the popularity of the Internet, information access speed becomes an important issue. Although the information processing speed of a central process unit (CPU) of a data processing machine, i.e., a computer or a server, is increased enormously, information processing speed of I/O port devices of the machine is still relatively low, which results in that information still can not be accessed by the machine from the Internet with a speed as quickly as expected.

[00007] To solve this problem, an InfiniBand™ I/O port structure is proposed, which offers three levels of link performance —2.5 Gbits, 10 Gbits and 30 Gbits/sec. An electrical connector for use in such high speed application always confronts a problem of cross-talk. Cross-talk means interference of signals of neighboring signal lines.

[00008] U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,839 B2 (the '839 patent) disclosed a high speed cable connector which has two lines 12a, 12b each include a signal pair 20 and a ground conductor 18. The ground conductors 18 are connected to a shorting bar 50 which has a first portion 52 located between the signal pairs to improve the problem of cross-talk therebetween.

[00009] The structure disclosed by the '839 patent still cannot overcome the problem of cross-talk occurred in an electrical connector for InfiniBand™ architecture since it must transmit and process information and data at an even higher speed.

[00010] U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0081874 A1 (the '874 publication) disclosed a cable connector having ground contacts 26 separating pairs of signal lines 36a, 36b whereby cross-talk between adjacent pairs of signal lines can be suppressed. However, in the '874 publication to connect the signal lines 36a, 36b with corresponding signal contacts 38a, 38b together is very laborious. Furthermore, it is unreliable regarding the electrical connection between the ground lines 38 and the ground contacts 26 since they are not directly connected together but via an arrangement member 16.

[00011] Thus, an improved shielding structure which can be easily assembled and effectively reduce cross-talk between signal pairs of a cable connector for InfiniBand™ application is required.

[00012] Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a high speed cable connector wherein cross-talk between neighboring signal pairs at an end of a cable connecting with the connector can be effectively reduced and suppressed.

[00013] A further object of the present invention is to provide a high speed cable connector wherein grounding wires of a cable of the connector can be readily and reliably connected to shielding plates and signal lines can be easily electrically connected with signal contacts of the cable connector.

[00014] In order to achieve the objects set forth, a high speed cable connector for InfiniBand™ application includes a cover and a base both made by die casting of aluminum alloy, and a cable assembly mounted between the cover and the base. The cable assembly includes a cable consisting of a plurality of lines. Each line has a pair of signal wires and a grounding wire. The signal wires are soldered to signal circuitry on top and bottom faces of a rear end of a printed circuit bard. A spacer consisting of upper and lower halves is mounted to the rear end of the printed circuit board. The spacer defines a plurality of elliptical passageways therein. The lines of the cable extend through the elliptical passageways. A plurality of pairs of upper and lower shielding plates is secured to the upper and lower halves of the spacer, respectively. Each shielding plate has a forwardly extending arm soldered to grounding circuitry on the top or bottom face of the rear end of the printed circuit board. The pair of signal wires is located between two neighboring pairs of shielding plates, whereby noise interference between two neighboring lines of the cable at the ends soldered to the printed circuit board can be effectively reduced. The grounding wire of each of the lines is soldered to a corresponding upper shielding plate which is electrically connected with the lower shielding plate of the same pair of upper and lower shielding plates. The printed circuit board has a front end fixed to a rear end of an insulative body which has a forwardly extending tongue. Contacts are received in top and bottom faces of the tongue. The contacts are used for electrically engaging with a complementary connector. The contacts each have a rear end soldering to the front end of the printed circuit board. A pair of latches is mounted on lateral sides of the base near a front end thereof. The latches are used for latching with the complementary connector when it mates with the cable connector in accordance with the present invention. The cable connector further comprises a pull tab movably mounted therein. When the pull tab is pulled rearwards, driving blocks formed on the pull tab push the latches laterally outwardly to causes the lathes to release their latching from the complementary connector.

[00015] Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[00027] Reference will now be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail.

[00028] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a cable connector 1 for use in an InfiniBand™ application in accordance the present invention comprises a cover 3 (FIGS. 4, 7 and 8), a cable assembly 30 and a base 80. Both the cover 3 and base 80 are formed by die casting of metal such as aluminum alloy. The cover 3 is provided with screws (not shown) for screwing into screw holes 831 defined in studs 83 formed in the base 80 after the cable assembly 30 is put in the base 80 to thereby assemble the cover 3, the cable assembly 30 and the base 80 together. To mount the cover 3 to the base 80, firstly protrusions (not shown) formed on a front end of the cover 3 are positioned below side flanges 85 formed on a front end of the base 80, respectively. Then a rear end of the cover 3 on which the screws are located is pivoted downwardly about the flanges 85 toward the base 80 until the rear end of the cover 3 is in contact with a rear end of the base 80. The cable connector 1 is further provided with a pull tab 82 movably mounted between the cover 3 and base 80 for releasing a latch between the cable connector 1 and a complementary connector. Regarding this detailed illustrations are given below.

[00029] Also referring to FIGS. 9, 10 and 11, the cable assembly 30 includes a cable 42 accommodating eight lines 44 therein, a spacer 46 fixedly connecting front ends of the eight lines 44 in an equally spaced relationship, nine upper shielding plates 50, nine lower shielding plates 52, a printed circuit board (PCB) 62, an insulative body 64 having a rear end to which a front end of the PCB 62 is secured and a tongue 66 extending forwardly. The front ends of the lines 44 extend in the spacer 46. A plurality of contacts 662 is received in top and bottom faces (not labeled) of the tongue 66 for electrically connecting with the complementary connector. Each contact 662 has a rear end soldering to the front end of the PCB 62. The spacer 46 has a cuboidal configuration and consists of an upper half 462 and a lower half 464.

[00030] Each of the upper and lower halves 462, 464 of the spacer 46 has a generally U-shaped configuration. Eight partitions 466 are formed between two lateral sidewalls 474 of the half 462 (464), whereby eight passageways 472 are defined in the half 462 (464). A rectangular recess (not shown) is defined in a bottom face of one of the sidewalls 474 of the upper half 462 and a rectangular post 476 is formed on a bottom face of the other one of the sidewalls 474 of the upper half 462. A rectangular recess 470 is defined in a top face of one of the sidewalls 474 of the lower half 464 and a rectangular post 476 is formed on a top face of the other one of the sidewalls 474 of the lower half 464. The upper and lower halves 462, 464 are assembled together to form the spacer 46 by inserting the post 476 of the upper half 462 into the recess 470 in the lower half 464 and the post 476 of the lower half 464 into the recess in the upper half 462. Particularly referring to FIGS. 2 and 11, the lower half 464 defines eight grooves 480 in a top face thereof, and, correspondingly, the upper half 462 defines eight grooves (not shown) in a bottom face thereof. When the upper and lower halves 462, 464 are assembled together, these grooves cooperatively forms passageways 482 for the spacer 46, wherein each passageway 482 has an elliptical profile. Front ends of the lines 44 of the cable 42 are respectively fitted in the elliptical passageways 482. Since the passageways 482 each have an elliptical profile, when the front ends of the lines 44 are received in the passageways 484 they can be more securely located in position.

[00031] Particularly referring to FIGS. 10 and 11, each of the upper and lower shielding plates 50, 52 is configured to have an L-shaped body 502 with a vertical flap 504 and a horizontal flap 506. An engaging arm 508 extends forwardly from the vertical flap 504 with a protrusion 510 at a free end thereof. A mounting arm 512, which has barbs (not labeled) thereon, extends rearwards from the vertical flap 504. The upper shielding plates 50 are assembled to the upper half 462 by interferentially inserting the mounting arms 512 into the upper half 462 with the horizontal flaps 506 positioned on top faces (not labeled) of the partitions 466, respectively, wherein the protrusions 510 of the engaging arms 508 are directed downwards. The lower shielding plates 50 are assembled to the lower half 464 by interferentially inserting the mounting arms 512 into the lower half 464 with the horizontal flaps 506 positioned on bottom faces of the partitions 466, respectively, wherein the protrusions 510 of the engaging arms 508 are directed upwardly.

[00032] Still referring to FIG. 10, each line 44 of the cable 42 has a differential pair of signal wires 442, 444 and a grounding wire 446.

[00033] Referring to FIGS. 3-9, in assembling the cable connector 1 in accordance with the present invention, the front end of the PCB 62 is soldered to the rear ends of the contacts 662. The signal wires 442, 444 are soldered to signal circuitry (not labeled) on top and bottom faces of the rear end the PCB 62, respectively. The upper half 462 together with the upper shielding plates 50 and the lower half 464 together with the lower shielding plates 52 are assembled to the rear end of the PCB 62 by inserting the posts 470 into the recesses 476 so that the rear end of PCB 62 is sandwiched between the engaging arms 508 of the upper and lower shielding plates 50, 52. The protrusions 510 are soldered to grounding circuitry (not labeled) on the top and bottom faces of the rear end of the PCB 62, respectively. Finally, the grounding wires 446 are soldered to the horizontal flaps 506 of the upper shielding plates 50, respectively, whereby the cable assembly 30 as shown in FIG. 9 is completed.

[00034] Particularly referring to FIGS. 5-9, after the completion of the cable assembly 30, the upper and lower shielding plates 50, 52 are electrically connected together so that grounding circuitry on the bottom face of the PCB 62 is also electrically connected with the grounding wires 446 which are soldered to the upper shielding plates 50. Furthermore, the front ends of the upper and lower signal wires 442, 444 of neighboring lines 44 soldered to the PCB 62 are separated by the engaging arms 508 of the upper and lower shielding plates 50, 52 between the two neighboring lines 44. Accordingly, cross-talk between the two neighboring lines 44 at the ends soldered to the PCB 62 can be effectively suppressed by the engaging arms 508 of the upper and lower shielding plates 50, 52.

[00035] Referring to FIGS. 1, 2, the pull tab 82 has two arms 822 extending forwardly, each arm 822 forming a mounting block 824 at an inner side of a rear portion thereof and a driving block 86 at the inner side of a front end thereof. A pair of latches 88 is mounted on a front portion of lateral walls of the base 80. Each latch 88 has a hooked front end 884 for latching with the complementary connector when the cable connector 1 in accordance with the present invention mates with the complementary connector, a rear end 882 fixedly secured to the base 80, and a cam portion 886 formed between the hooked front end 884 and the rear end 882. The cam portion 886 has an inner face abutting against the driving block 86 of a corresponding arm 822 of the pull tab 82. The cam portion 886 has an inwardly, rearwards stepped configuration, whereby when the driving block 86 moves rearwards as the pull tab 82 is pulled rearwards, the driving block 86 causes the cam portion 886 and thus the hooked front end 884 to move laterally outwardly, thereby to release the latch between the cable connector 1 in accordance with the present invention and the complementary connector. A pair of leaf springs 84 is provided with the cable connector 1 wherein each spring 84 has a front end fixed in the mounting block 824 of a corresponding arm 822 of the pull tab 82, and a rear end fixed to the base 80. When the pull tab 82 is pulled rearwards, the springs 84 are compressed. When the pulling force is released, the springs 84 return to their original configurations, thereby motivating the pull tab 82 to return to is original position prior to being pulled. Thus, the latches 80 return to their original position as shown in FIG. 5. Concerning more detailed information of the structure, mounting and action of the pull tab 82, the leaf springs 84 and the latches 88, one can refer to the disclosure of the co-pending patent application, i.e., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/112,922, mentioned in the CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS.

[00036] The cable assembly 30, pull tab 82, latches 88 and springs 84 are mounted to the base 80 in a manner as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Thereafter, the cover 3 is mounted to the base 80 in a manner as disclosed before thereby to complete the assembly of the cable connector 1.

[00037] It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.