Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-17
2001-10-30
Patel, Tulsidas (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
C439S060000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309254
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is related to electrical connectors and more particularly to a high-speed card edge receiving electrical connector.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With the ever-increasing need for high-speed data signal processing and higher clock speed microprocessors, comes a need to pass high-speed signals through electrical connectors in a system. Also, because of electrical performance concerns and the desire to make devices smaller, comes a need to pass a greater number of high-speed signals through the electrical connectors in a system.
To address these needs, electrical connectors have been developed for connecting peripheral devices on substrates such as printed circuit boards to a system through a card edge receiving electrical connector. These connectors have been developed for connecting to conductive pads disposed along an edge of the printed circuit board. Because of the need for higher density interconnections in these systems, pads are sometimes disposed along the printed circuit board edge in a plurality of rows. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,371 shows a card edge connector for contacting two parallel rows of pads along a printed circuit board. U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,237 shows a variation of a card edge connector for contacting three parallel rows of contact pads along an edge of a printed circuit board.
A problem exists with these connectors in systems where it is desirable to have a large number of signals passing through such a connector in a minimum space. In order to reduce the space occupied by the connector, it is necessary to have an extremely narrow pitch for the contacts. This translates into less space between each adjacent contact and causes degradation of the electrical signals passing through the connector. The degradation is caused by a cross talk effect between adjacent contacts. As the contacts are moved closer to each other, each contact may be effected by an electromagnetic field emanating from an adjacent contact. The contact receiving the electromagnetic field will have a degraded electrical signal. This is known as cross talk. in order to reduce this effect, ground contacts are typically strategically positioned throughout the connector so that cross talking signals couple to ground instead of coupling to adjacent signals. Since the addition of more ground contact increases the size of the electrical connector it is desirable to select an optimum minimum number of ground contacts and strategically place these contacts to reduce the cross talk effect.
It is therefore desirable to form a dense electrical interconnection between a card edge and a second substrate, which allows passage of many high-speed signals.
SUMMARY
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector which maximizes the number of high-speed signals which can be passed there through while minimizing the space occupied by the connector.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a card receiving electrical connector capable of connecting to a card edge having a plurality of conductive pads disposed in a plurality of rows along an edge.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an electrical connector having a plurality of signal contacts strategically located in proximity to a plurality of ground contacts such that signal coupling to ground is maximized while signal coupling to other signals is minimized.
These and other objects have been achieved by providing an electrical connector wherein a plurality of ground contacts are disposed in cavities of a housing and a plurality of signal contacts are also disposed in cavity of the housing. The plurality of signal contacts are grouped into two sets. A ground contact is positioned in the housing such that it is adjacent to a signal contact from the first set and also adjacent to a signal contact from the second set along one side of a board-receiving slot. The ground contact is profiled to overlap both sets of adjacent signals contacts when in a deflective state. Also, the contacts are arranged along the board-receiving slot in a staggered pitch such that each signal contact is disposed closer to an adjacent ground than to an adjacent signal contact.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4298237 (1981-11-01), Griffith et al.
patent: 4993972 (1991-02-01), Lin
patent: 5071371 (1991-12-01), Harwath et al.
patent: 5580257 (1996-12-01), Harwarth
patent: 6095821 (2000-08-01), Panella et al.
patent: 6099328 (2000-08-01), Nelson et al.
Patel Tulsidas
Tyco Electronics Corportion
Zarroli Michael C.
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