Abstract:
A patch cord connector for use in 110 style cross-connect systems includes a two piece housing with snaps located on the conductor housing, an angled wire housing front to simplify terminations and a double staggering arrangement of the conductors to achieve category 5 performance.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to an electrical connector and more particularly to a patch cord connector for a cross-connect system that achieves category 5 required performance and is more readily terminateable. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Cross-connect wiring systems are well-known and include panels or wiring blocks which terminate cables and have an end adapted to interconnect with patch cord connectors. These cross-connect systems are generally utilized for connecting between wiring blocks of incoming and outgoing wiring systems, such as can be found in wiring closets. The 110 system patch cord connector generally terminates a cable holding a plurality of wires and connects to a 110-style connector on a wiring block or panel. With the recent increase in the number of users on networks, as well as the higher data rates being utilized, it has become a necessity to design electrical connectors for use with the cross-connect system which will reduce the effect of the crosstalk to achieve category 5 performance. One example can be seen in the prior art patch cord connector of U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,835 to Baker, III et al. and assigned to AT&amp;T Bell Laboratories. AT&amp;T&#39;s patent utilizes a crossing over of adjacent contacts to help reduce crosstalk between adjacent pairs. The bending required.to achieve the proper crossover results in a more difficult manufacturing process of the conductors and a more complicated assembly operation. Additionally, the particular placement and extent of the bending of the conductors results in a higher susceptibility to buckling during connecting and disconnecting of the patch cord connector. 
     Therefore, improvement in the art of designing patch cord connectors for cross-connect systems is still desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved cross-connect system patch cord connector. 
     It is further an object of the present invention to provide an improved patch cord connector achieving category 5 performance. 
     It is still further an object of the present invention to provide a patch cord connector which is more readily both factory and field terminateable. 
     In general an electric connector of the present invention includes a dielectric housing and a plurality of conductors situated within the housing having a generally flat blade portion disposed at an output end of the housing, an intermediate portion and an insulation displacement contact (IDC) portion for receiving an individual wire, wherein the intermediate portions of adjacent conductors are alternately situated substantially in a lower or an upper plane and are alternately of a shorter or a longer length. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the patch cord connector of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a front end view of the patch cord connector of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the patch cord connector of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 is a plan view of the conductor housing of the patch cord connector of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 5 is a plan view of the arrangement of two conductor pairs of the patch cord connector according to the present invention; 
     FIG. 6 is a side view of the conductors of FIG. 5; 
     FIG. 7 is a plan view of the underside of the wiring housing of the patch cord connector of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a portion of the wiring channel taken along line  8 — 8  of FIG. 7; 
     FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along lines  9 — 9  of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 10 is a sectional side view taken along lines  10 — 10  of FIG. 1; and 
     FIG. 11 is a sectional side view taken along lines  11 — 11  of FIG.  1 . 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     A patch cord connector embodying the concept of the present invention is designated generally by the reference numeral  10  in the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, patch cord connector  10  is comprised of a pair of matable housing sections including a bottom conductor housing section  12  and a top wire housing section  14  formed for example, by a flame retardant polycarbonate resin. The patch cord connector  10  terminates a cable  70  at an input end  30  of the housing and includes conductors  16  with end portions positioned at an output end  32  of the housing that interconnect with insulation displacement contacts on a wiring block patch panel (not shown). 
     As best seen in FIG. 3, conductor housing section  12  includes a plurality of conductors  16  including a generally flat blade portion  18  disposed at the output end  32  of the housing, an intermediate portion  20  and an insulation displacement contact portion  22  for receiving a plurality of individual wires of cable  70 . The conductors  16  are factory inserted and firmly embedded in their respective conductor slots  24 . The conductor IDC  22  is supported against the forces from mating with a connecting block IDC (not shown) by front  26  and rear supports  28  formed on the conductor housing section. The intermediate portion  20  includes a small jog  34  near the IDC end  22  which is necessary in order to fit all of the conductors  16  within the spacial restraints of the conductor housing  14 . The conductor&#39;s blade portion  18  includes a coined area  36  formed into a 45° bevel which allows for easier insertion of the patch cord conductors  16  into the connector block IDC&#39;s (not shown). 
     As seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the conductors  16  alternate between a longer intermediate portion and a shorter intermediate portion and also between the intermediate portion substantially extending in a lower plane and an upper plane. The longer conductors extend rearwardly in the lower plane from a bottom side of the flat blade contact while the shorter conductors extend rearwardly in the upper plane from a top side of the blade portions  18 . The intermediate portions of the longer conductors include a conical impression  54  which helps hold the conductor tightly in the slot  24 . The shorter conductors are additionally fixed in the conductor slots  24  by retaining nubs  56  formed in the top front region of the slots of the plug  10 . 
     As best seen in FIG. 7, the patch cord connector  10  is either factory or field terminated by first stripping the cable  70  end of its jacket and snapping the cable  70  into the securement ribs  38  and retaining clips  40  formed on the wire housing section  14 . The individual wires  42  are then fed into their respective wire slots  44  which temporarily secure the wires  42 . As can be seen in FIG. 8, the excess wire is then trimmed flush against the angled front  46  of the wire housing  12 . This angled face  46  assures that if the wires  42  are trimmed slightly proud of the face  46 , they do not interfere with the conductor housing  14  upon assembly. Once the wires  42  are trimmed, the conductor housing  14  is snapped together with the wire housing  12 . This action causes the IDC portions  22  to pierce the wire insulation establishing continuity. The strain relief feature  48  pinches the cable, eliminating stress on wires  42  during connection and disconnection. 
     The patch cord connector  10  of the present invention utilizes a unique conductor configuration specifically designed to use the parallel runs and relative distances between conductor pairs to reduce the effect of cross-talk. Generally, cross-talk is increased when conductors run parallel to each other in close proximity. Additionally, the larger the surface area of the adjacent conductor portions, the greater the cross-talk which is heard by nearby conductor portions. 
     A standard patch cord connector contains a plurality of conductors comprising a plurality of pairs of adjacent conductors. Generally, one pair of conductors is used as a transmitting pair and a second pair of conductors is a receiving pair. Each of the conductors within the transmitting pair emits noise, while each conductors of the receiving pair hears the noise from each of the transmitting conductors. The cross-talk between pairs can be minimized by increasing the distance between the conductors, or by balancing the amount of noise heard by each of the receiving conductors from the transmitting conductors. When you have a balanced pair, the receiving conductors hear the same amount of noise from each of the transmitting conductors. This reduces the cross-talk between the pairs since the noise is cancelled out with the same amount being heard by both receiving conductors. 
     As can best be seen with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 which shows two pairs of conductors without the housing, the proposed conductor configuration has been specifically designed to reduce the effect of the cross-talk by balancing the cross-talk between the transmitting and the receiving pair. The transmitting pair of conductors is indicated by conductors T- 1  and T- 2  and the receiving pair of conductors are shown as conductors R- 3  and R- 4  in the drawings. As can be seen in FIG. 6, the intermediate portions  20  of adjacent conductors run substantially in two different planes with the shorter conductors extending rearwardly from a top end of the flat blade portion  18  so as to be primarily disposed in an upper plane and the longer conductors extending rearwardly from a bottom end of the flat blade portion  18  so as to be primarily disposed in a lower plane in order to reduce the overall noise between immediately adjacent pairs. This separation of adjacent conductors reduces the noise heard by adjacent conductors. 
     Therefore, making the alternating conductors longer results in a reduced cross-talk effect by balancing the noise heard by conductors R- 3  and R- 4  from conductor T- 2 . That is, the flat blade portion  18  of R- 3  and the small intermediate portion near the IDC end of conductor R- 3  is in closer proximity to the adjacent portions of conductor T- 2  than the similar portions of R- 4 . Therefore without modifying receiving conductor R- 4  the noise heard by R- 3  from T- 2  would be substantially higher than that of R- 4  from T- 2 . However, the extra length of a parallel run between conductors T- 2  and R- 4  increases the noise between T- 2  and R- 4  to approximate the noise which is heard by conductor R- 3  from conductor T- 2 . Therefore, by having the intermediate portions of adjacent transmitting and receiving conductors in spaced apart planes the total cross-talk effect of the immediately adjacent conductors T- 2  and R- 3  is minimized. Crosstalk is increased between T- 2  and R- 4  by having the intermediate portions  20  of the T- 2  and R- 4  run together for a longer parallel run to achieve balance. 
     The length of the shorter conductors in the preferred embodiment as indicated by “B” in FIG. 5 is 0.447 inches. Therefore, in order to properly balance the crosstalk, it has been learned through testing that the longer conductors should be 0.30 inches longer as indicated by “C” to have a length indicated by “A” of 0.747 inches. 
     This conductor arrangement to achieve cross-talk reduction by balancing the noise heard by the receiving conductors is effective regardless of which pair in the patch cord is the transmitting pair and which is the receiving pair. 
     Also, as can be seen in FIG. 3, located in the rear of the patch cord connector is a strain relief feature  48  and the cavities  60  which accepts the snaps  62  of the wire housing section  14 . Front snaps  62  located between the conductors secure the front of the patch cord assembly together. It is important to note the snaps  62  are located on the conductor housing  12  and not on the wire housing  14  as in previous patch cord connectors. This positioning allows for rapid wire installation in the wire housing without any interference with the snaps. The rear snaps  64  including their guide posts  66  secure the rear of the plug assembly together by engaging with corresponding opening  68  on the conductor housing  12 . 
     While the particular preferred embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the teachings of the invention. The matter set forth in the foregoing description and accompanying drawings is offered by way of illustration only and not as a limitation. The actual scope of the invention is intended to be defined in the following claims when viewed in their proper perspective based on the prior art.