Connector

Details Connector Connector

2000-03-09

2001-08-14

Donovan, Lincoln (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

Including or for use with tape cable

With shield, ground conductor or ground commoning means

C439S579000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06273749

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector that includes a common ground connection means to have all ground wires connected thereto and therefore effectively reduces noise interference and protects good data transmission.
Connectors that are widely used with computers and video products generally include a steel case and a plastic body. The steel case covers a front part of the plastic body. The plastic body is provided at rear outer surfaces with two rows of connection terminals, rear ends of which are connected to a flat cable via a link plate. Connectors with such type of structure are large and occupy increased space, and are usually used with general desktop computers. The use of the link plate to connect the signal wires to the connection terminals also reduces the transmission speed. Another problem with the conventional connectors is they have separate ground wires that form multiple noise interference sources.
To solve these problems, there is developed a connector having a link plate for transferring signals.
FIG. 1
is an exploded perspective of such conventional connector. As shown, the connector includes a steel case
1
, a plastic body
2
, and a link plate
3
. The steel case
1
covers a front part of the plastic body
2
and the link plate
3
is connected to a rear part of the plastic body
2
.
The plastic body
2
is provided at the rear part with upper and lower staggered connection terminals
21
that extend rearward from the plastic body
2
. Two side walls of the plastic body
2
extend rearward and have a guide groove
23
provided at their respective inner wall surface. Each guide groove
23
is provided with a retaining hole
24
.
The link plate
3
is provided at two lateral sides with retaining projections
31
corresponding to the retaining holes
24
in the guide grooves
23
of the plastic body
2
, so that the link plate
3
may be slid into the guide grooves
23
to locate therebetween and be retained in place by engagement of the retaining projections
31
into the retaining holes
24
. The link plate
3
is provided at upper and lower front surfaces with contacts
32
corresponding to the connection terminals
21
on the plastic body
2
, and at a rear side with a bus-bar socket
33
for a plug
41
of a bus bar
4
to insert thereinto. When the link plate
3
is inserted to the rear part of the plastic body
2
, some of the contacts
32
on the link plate
3
electrically contact with the connection terminals
21
on the plastic body
2
.
Bus wires in the bus bar
4
are arranged corresponding to positions provided in the bus-bar plug
41
. The bus-bar plug
41
is plugged into the bus-bar socket
33
, such that bus wires of the bus bar
4
separately correspond to the contacts
32
at the front side of the link plate
3
while the contacts
32
are electrically connected to the connection terminals
21
on the plastic body
2
. Since the bus-bar plug
41
may be freely unplugged from the socket
33
, the bus bar
4
could be replaced when necessary to permit repeated use of the connector.
Although the above-described conventional connector can be advantageously used, it still has the following drawbacks and therefore requires improvement:
1. Bus wires of the bus bar
4
are very thin and tend to break or bend when the bus-bar plug
41
is frequently plugged and unplugged in and from the socket
33
. Any broken or bent bus wire in the bus bar
4
would cause poor electrical connection and necessitates replacement of the whole expensive bus bar
4
and that is apparently not economical.
2. The use of the link plate
3
as a signal communication interface in the connector for all data to be transmitted via the link plate
3
on the one hand prevents the whole connector from being miniaturized and on the other hand increases the data transmission distance to cause attenuation of signal and slowed transmission of data.
3. The existence of the link plate
3
contributes to increased possibilities of noise interference to cause confused system and troubles in use of the connector.
It is therefore desirable to develop a connector in which the link plate is omitted and replaced with an insertion plate and a common ground connection means, so that the connector has reduced volume and manufacture cost and is capable of providing increased transmission speed and isolating noise interference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved connector that includes a common ground connection means which is electrically connected to some connection terminals on the plastic body of the connector via an insertion plate, such that the connector has reduced volume and manufacture cost and is capable of providing increased transmission speed and isolating noise interference.
To achieve the above and other objects, the connector of the present invention mainly includes a plastic body, a front part of which being covered with a steel case and a rear part of which having an insertion plate connected thereto. The plastic body has two rearward extended side walls that are provided at an inner surface with a guide groove each, so that the insertion plate is connected to the plastic body by engaging two lateral sides into the two guide grooves. The insertion plate is provided at a front side with an upper and a lower row of multiple terminal slots in each of which a rear end of a connection terminal provided on the rear part of the plastic body is seated. The insertion plate is provided at a rear side with an upper and a lower receiving recess transversely extending across the insertion plate. The upper and the lower receiving recesses are electrically connected with rear ends of some of the terminal slots at the front side of the insertion plate. The connector of the present invention is characterized in that a common ground connection means is associated with the upper and the lower receiving recesses provided at the rear side of the insertion plate. The common ground connection means is provided at a front side with staggered upper and lower common ground terminals that are separately located in some of the terminal slots of the insertion plate to electrically contact with rear ends of the connection terminals correspondingly seated in those some terminal slots. The connector is also characterized in that a plurality of multiple-core cables are separately connected to the insertion plate in such a manner that a ground wire in each of the multiple-core cables is connected to those terminal slots that each has one common ground terminal and one connection terminal seated therein and other information wires in each of the multiple-core cables are connected to those terminal slots that each has only the connection terminal seated therein. Whereby all the ground wires are electrically connected to the common ground connection means to form a common ground that effectively reduces noises and prevents noise interference with the connector.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4679868 (1987-07-01), Hasircoglu
patent: 5967832 (1999-10-01), Ploehn
patent: 5993247 (1999-11-01), Kidd
patent: 6007371 (1999-12-01), Hickox

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