Electrical connectors – Including or for use with tape cable – With shield – ground conductor or ground commoning means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-14
2001-10-30
Bradley, Paula (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
Including or for use with tape cable
With shield, ground conductor or ground commoning means
C439S101000, C439S108000, C439S947000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309243
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a high density cable assembly, and especially to a cable assembly connected to a computer motherboard and other peripheral elements, wherein the grounding way and the grounding piece of the connector in the cable assembly serves to simplify the assembling process of the cable assembly and the cost is reduced greatly.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In general, the signal transformation structure of a computer motherboard and computer peripheral devices (for example, hard disk drivers and optic disk drivers) is achieved by the matching between a cable (flat cable) and connectors. The matching between the flat cable and connectors are widely used in the technology. In general, a cable assembly is formed by a flat cable and three approximately identical connectors. The three connectors serve to be connected with the terminal connectors of for example a motherboard, a hard disk driver, and an optic disk driver so that the signals in the three active devices may be communicate d through the flat cable. Conventionally, the connector matching with this flat cable generally has a positioning cover, an insulating body, terminals (signal terminals and grounding terminals) and others. In assembly, the positioning cover and the insulating body are combined firstly for forming a space, and then the flat cable is inserted into the space. Then, a fixture serves to press the positioning cover downwards so as to be combined with the insulating body. As the positioning cover is pressed downwards, a piercing terminal within the inserting hole of the insulating body terminal will pierce the insulated skin of the flat cable so as to contact with the central wire of the conductor within the flat cable. In some prior art, in order to avoid the flat cable contacting with the terminal is pulled to form an ill contact. Therefore, a pressing cover is further provided. The function of the pressing cover is that when the flat cable bends upwards from below the positioning cover to above the positioning cover, the pressing cover presses the positioning cover combined with the insulating body for avoiding loosening between the flat cable and the terminals.
The aforesaid flat cable connector has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,359,257, 5,104,336, 5,417,584, and 5,509,195 and Taiwan Patent Nos. 82200254, 81105296, 86213505, 85218513 and 86214200.
Recently, with the increase of the amount of signal transfer and transferring speed, the flat cable tends to a high density design. Namely, the gaps in the slender lines of the flat cable are reduced and the number of the slender lines are increased. Since the high density of the flat cable, in order to insure that no noise interruption will occur in the process of signal transformations between the three active devices, the signal wires and the grounding wires are arranged alternatively for being connected to the signal terminals and the grounding terminals, respectively. In some applications, some specific signal wires of the flat cable must be further connected to the grounding terminals for filtering noises. In some cases, one specific signal wire must be connected to the grounding terminal (for example first connector connected to the motherboard) in the cable assembly but not electrically connected to any connector (for example the second connector and third connector for being connected respectively to a hard disk driver and an optic disk driver) of the cable assembly. In other words, the specific signal wire must be connected with the grounding piece of the first connector, and signals will be transferred between the second connector and the third connector but not transferred to the first connector.
For the aforesaid special case, a specific conductive wire is connected to the signal terminal and grounding terminal of the first connector and then a small notch is formed in the signal wire (i.e. forming an open circuit) so that the portion of the conductive wire after the notch is still in contact with the second connector and third connector, but not conductively connected with the first connector.
However, in the prior art for the special case, the grounding piece of the first connector must have some difference from the second connector and the third connector. Therefore, in manufacturing the grounding piece, at least two grounding piece punching molds are necessary, one for manufacturing the grounding piece having grounding terminal (for first connector) with respect to the No. 34 signal wire, and another for the grounding piece without grounding terminal (for second connector and third connector) with respect to the No. 34 signal wire. This increases cost, and, since the differences between the two grounding pieces are very slight, some improper assembly risks are incurred. Moreover, the notch in the specific signal wire causes difficulty in assembly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a cable assembly, whereby, the plurality of connectors uses identical grounding pieces to reduce cost and the processes of the assembling.
Besides, another object of the present invention is to provide a cable assembly, wherein a guiding positioning device is provided between the grounding piece slot and the grounding piece of the connector insulating body so that the grounding piece is precisely positioned in the slot.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a grounding method for a cable assembly. Thereby, when at least one specific signal wire is not connected to the signal terminal with respect to one specific connector in the cable assembly, by the grounding piece of the connector, signals may be grounded. Therefore, all the grounding pieces in the connectors of the cable assembly are identical.
According to the features of the present invention, a cable assembly is provided, which comprises: a flat cable formed by alternatively arranging a plurality of signal wires and a plurality of grounding wires; and a plurality of connectors connected to the flat cable and arranged at specific positions at and between two ends of the flat cable; comprising: a plurality of signal terminals for being electrically communicated to the signal wires of the flat cable; at least one grounding piece including a base and a plurality of grounding terminals at the base, wherein the grounding terminals are electrically connected to the grounding wires of the flat cable, and at least one specific position of the base is punched grounding device; an insulating body installed with a plurality of signal terminal slots, each slot serving to be inserted the plurality of signal terminals, and at least one grounding piece slot for being inserted by the grounding piece being installed, wherein at the spacing wall of the at least one grounding piece slot and the signal terminal slot, the portion of the specific grounding device with the base of the grounding piece are hollowed so that when the grounding piece is inserted into the slot, by the at least one specific grounding device to pass through the hollow portion so as to contact directly with the at least one specific signal terminal with respect to the adjacent signal terminal slot, the signal transferred by the at least one specific signal terminal will be grounded without passing the through the flat cable; and a positioning cover including a body, a receiving portion for receiving the flat cable being installed at the body, the receiving portion being matched with the insulating body for clamping and fixing the flat cable.
According to the design of the grounding piece in the present invention, the grounding of some specific signal can be achieved by a specific grounding device to contact with the specific signal terminal. Thus, all the connectors of the cable assembly use identical grounding pieces.
According to another feature, a method for grounding a cable assembly is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of: providing a flat cable formed by alternatively arranging a plurality of signal wires and a plurali
Lin Rong-Huei
Tu Ching Liang
Bradley Paula
Dougherty & Troxell
Nguyen Truc
Starlink Electronics Corp.
LandOfFree
High density cable assembly and grounding pieces of... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with High density cable assembly and grounding pieces of..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and High density cable assembly and grounding pieces of... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2571930