Transition cable assembly

Details Transition cable assembly Transition cable assembly

1999-02-19

2001-01-23

Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

Including or for use with tape cable

For connection to rigid preformed panel circuit arrangement,...

C439S067000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06176734

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cable assembly, and more particularly to a cable assembly having a strain relief.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Conventionally, I/O connectors used with hard disk drives have 26 pins while control cards used therewith have 28 pins. In order to establish an electrical connection therebetween, a transitional printed circuit board is introduced. The printed circuit board is assembled to the hard disk drive and includes an array of 28 pins header on one edge for connection with a 28 pin header socket attached to a flat flexible cable and a 26 pins FFC connector on another edge for connection with a built-in FFC connector by means of a FFC cable generally called jumper. The header pins are electrically connected to corresponding contacts of the FFC connector by means of leads formed on the printed circuit board whereby two header pins are bypassed. Since both the FFC connector and the header pins are soldered to the printed circuit board, the manufacturing cost increases accordingly.
A solution addressed to this issue provides a flexible circuit having a connecting portion at one end and a socket connector at another end. The flexible circuit has two holes adjacent to the connecting portion for extension of locking screws retained to the hard disk drive. Even the soldering process is eliminated, the flexible circuit is vulnerable to break around the rim of the holes because a stress concentration will be raised when the locking screws are assembled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An objective of this invention is to provide a transition cable assembly having a strain relief thereby preventing a flexible circuit from breaking.
In order to achieve the objective, a transition cable assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises a flexible circuit having a connecting portion at one end and a socket connector at another end for mating with a complimentary connector. The flexible circuit defines at least a hole adjacent to the connecting portion. A strain relief is assembled to the flexible circuit adjacent to the hole thereby preventing the flexible circuit from breaking around the hole.
These and additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the appended drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3701964 (1972-10-01), Cronin
patent: 3772776 (1973-11-01), Wiesenburger
patent: 4602840 (1986-07-01), Romatzick
patent: 5007856 (1991-04-01), Puerner
patent: 5389741 (1995-02-01), Ueno
patent: 5669775 (1997-09-01), Campbell et al.

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