Shielded modular connector

Details Shielded modular connector Shielded modular connector

2000-05-09

2001-10-09

Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

Electromagnetic or electrostatic shield

Shielding individually surrounding or interposed between...

Reexamination Certificate

active

06299480

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to a shielded modular receptacle connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modular connectors are widely used to provide electrical connections between devices, for example, connections between the telephones and the telephone switch at the central office and connections between computer equipment. Computer connections, however, are susceptible to noise due to the high frequency signal transmission involved. The susceptibility to noise (or electromagnetic interference (EMI)) is particularly severe at the connecting portion since shielding continuity for the signal path is interrupted at that site. It is for this reason that modular connectors are constructed with shields encasing the housing of the modular connector.
However, the external shield encasing the housing of the modular receptacle connector conventionally covers a very small portion at a bottom surface of the housing which abuts against the printed circuit board the modular receptacle connector is mounted to, therefore, reliable EMI shielding can not be ensured. In addition, the portion of the external shield covering the bottom surface of the housing is prone to warp and the gaps at connecting joints of the conventional external shield are too large to prevent EMI from entering the connector via these gaps, thereby further decreasing the EMI shielding effectiveness of the modular connector. On the other hand, the conventional external shield provides only a few grounding pins depending downwardly from a periphery of the bottom thereof, which do not reliably meet the demand for grounding the shielding of the modular connector to effectively dissipate the noise received by the shielding.
Therefore, an improved modular connector is desired to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The major object of the present invention is to provide a modular receptacle connector which is provided with reliable EMI shielding;
Another object of the present invention is to provide a modular receptacle connector which comprises more grounding pins than the prior art.
A modular receptacle connector in accordance with the present invention comprises a dielectric housing, a plurality of contact pin arrays assembled in the dielectric housing, a plurality of contact pins mounted in each contact pin array and a shield encasing the dielectric housing and the contact pin arrays to shield the contact pins therein.
The shield of the modular connector comprises a front wall, a rear wall, a top wall, a bottom wall and a pair of side walls for covering the front surface, the rear surface, the top surface, the bottom surface and the side surfaces of the dielectric housing, respectively. The bottom wall of the shield depends rearwardly from the front wall and forms one row of additional grounding pins depending perpendicularly at the rear edge thereof. The bottom wall of the shield comprises a rear edge having an irregular contour. The irregular contour comprises a plurality of convex portions thereon to be received by corresponding cavities formed on the bottom surface of the housing, thereby preventing warping of the shield and increasing the reliability of the EMI shielding of the modular receptacle connector. Each of the side walls of the external shield comprises a front bending portion depending perpendicularly rearward from the front wall, a rear bending portion depending perpendicularly forward from the rear wall, and a main portion overlapping the rear bending portion and a part of the front bending portion.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5378172 (1995-01-01), Roberts

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