Electrical connectors – With circuit component or comprising connector which fully... – Connector includes or covers additional component
Patent
1992-01-22
1993-11-02
Paumen, Gary F.
Electrical connectors
With circuit component or comprising connector which fully...
Connector includes or covers additional component
439608, 439750, 333185, H01R 1366
Patent
active
052579492
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Connectors designed for avionics, military, and other high performance applications, have recently included contacts with circuit components. For example, contacts have been used which include Zener diodes or metal oxide varistors (MOV'S) for dissipating to ground, high energy pulses that may be induced on the contact. Other contacts have been designed with filters such as pi filters (an inductor between two capacitors) that block signals above a predetermined frequency such as high frequency noise. Although a connector user can specify to the manufacturer the particular type of connector he requires, specifying which type of component contacts lie at particular locations, this makes it difficult for the user to try different configurations and requires the manufacture to custom make each different type of connector. If the customer, or user, could easily produce his own connector from supplied parts, this could reduce the manufacturing costs and increase the ability of the user to modify his own connector.
Ground planes currently used in connectors to ground some of the contacts, can include a thin plating on an insulator or a sheet metal ground plane. The plated ground plane cannot carry high current surges and the plating cost is considerable. Current sheet metal ground planes are bonded to insulators to assure that the spring fingers at the outer edge of the ground plane will lie stably within a connector shell. The cost of bonding the sheet metal ground plane to an insulator adds to the cost of the connector. A ground plane and insulator assembly which could be constructed at low cost would be of value.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a connector is provided of the type that has at least one component contact which includes a component mounted on a conductive element, which is versatile and of low cost. The connector is of the type that includes a ground plane with contact-passing apertures through which a contact can be inserted so a middle portion of the contact is connected to the ground plane. A first group of contacts comprise component contacts, each including a circuit component mounted on the middle of the conductive element and a cylindrical conductor of a diameter to engage ground plane fingers in the ground plane aperture. A second group of contacts comprise feed through contacts, each including insulation surrounding the middle of the element, with the insulation having a largely cylindrical exterior of a diameter great enough to engage fingers of the ground plane. A third group of contacts comprises ground contacts, each including an enlarged conductive element middle diameter great enough to engage fingers of the ground plane. The feed through and ground contacts are interchangeable with the component contacts.
The ground plane is stamped or otherwise formed of a sheet of metal and has slots. Forward and rearward insulators lie facewise against opposite faces of the ground plane, with one insulator having tabs that project through the slots in the ground plane and into slots in the other insulator where the tabs are tightly captured to hold the assembly together.
A pair of connectors with interchangeable contact can be connected in tandem, with each contact of one connector lying in tandem with a contact of the other connector. This enables each pair of tandem contacts to provide a more complicated circuit, as where one provides a diode for dissipating most of the energy of a pulse, and the other provides a filter for further dissipating the pulse energy at certain frequencies.
The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a front isometric view of a connector constructed in accordance with the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the connector of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a vie
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ITT Corporation
Paumen Gary F.
Peterson Thomas L.
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