Electrical connectors – With insulation other than conductor sheath – Plural-contact coupling part
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-23
2001-02-06
Abrams, Neil (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With insulation other than conductor sheath
Plural-contact coupling part
C439S941000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06183306
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to reducing electrical signal interference in modular electrical connectors which have closely spaced contacts. More particularly, the present invention relates to the reduction of near-end crosstalk between closely spaced contacts in modular jacks via unique contact shape and configuration.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in cooperation with the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) developed a proposed standard for Category 5 components, wherein the transmission requirements of such components are characterized up to 100 MHZ and are typically intended for energizing applications with transmission rates up to 100 Mbps. Furthermore, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted certain architectural standards with respect to electrical connectors utilized in the telecommunications industry so as to provide standard intermatability. The connectors that are most commonly utilized are FCC type modular plugs and jacks. The plug is commonly terminated to a plurality of wires which may be connected to a telephone handset or other communication device. The corresponding jack is commonly mounted to a panel or printed circuit board which in turn is connected to a telecommunication network.
Two important test parameters for high performance data transmission, i.e., Category 5, are Attenuation and Near-End Cross-Talk (NEXT) Loss. Near-end crosstalk loss may be defined as a measure of signal coupling from one circuit to another within a connector and it is derived from swept frequency voltage measurements on short lengths of 100-ohm twisted pair wire test leads terminated to the connector under text. NEXT loss is the way of describing the effects of signal coupling causing portions of the signal on one pair to appear on another pair as unwanted noise.
There have been numerous modular jacks meeting FCC architectural standards which have been proposed to reduce crosstalk within a modular jack. One of the latest is U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,093 to Vaden, which is incorporated herein by reference. While the approaches forwarded by Vaden and others to reduce crosstalk have significantly reduced signal coupling, and have met with some commercial success, there remains a need to further reduce the capacitance and mutual inductance between the pairs, thereby enhancing the performance of standardized modular connectors as frequencies increase, while still reducing costs and increasing reliability and ease of manufacture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is an electrical connector primarily used in the telecommunications or data transfer fields and which exceeds the current industry NEXT standards.
This new, unique contact design minimizes the crosstalk loss in the plug/jack interface area of the jack by minimizing the amount of parallel run between adjacent contacts. Additionally, the bend points of adjacent contacts are offset to further minimize the amount of parallel run between adjacent contacts.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved electrical jack connector which mates with standardized FCC modular plugs.
It is further object of this invention to provide a low crosstalk electrical signal transmission system.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide an electrical connector which is designed to reduce crosstalk between signal pairs.
It is another further object of this invention to provide a reduced crosstalk electrical connector where the resiliency of the contacts are not compromised.
The invention, in an illustrated embodiment thereof, has a housing for receiving a plurality of elongated contacts, which are adapted to receive electrical signals. The plurality of contacts includes first and second contacts, which are adjacent each other. The first contact has a first bend which defines the end of lower section, a second bend which defines the end of a plug contact section, and a substantially horizontally disposed end section. Furthermore, the second contact has a first bend which defines an end of the lower section, a second bend which defines an end of the vertical riser section, a third bend which defines the end of the inclined section, and a plug contact area associated with the free end.
Preferably, all of the bends in each contact are generally associated with some degree of clockwise inclination. It is also preferred that the plug contact sections remain parallel only so long as to promote adequate plug contact and considerable reduction in near-end crosstalk.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4274691 (1981-06-01), Abernethy et al.
patent: 4648678 (1987-03-01), Archer
patent: 5061209 (1991-10-01), Bolick, Jr. et al.
patent: 5399107 (1995-03-01), Gentry et al.
patent: 5599209 (1997-02-01), Belopolsky
patent: 5639266 (1997-06-01), Patel
patent: 5674093 (1997-10-01), Vaden
patent: WO 95/19056 (1995-07-01), None
Abrams Neil
McCann Robert A.
Nasri Javaid
Panduit Corp.
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