Jack assembly having a unitary housing

A telephone jack assembly having a modular unitary housing, and jack field comprising a plurality of jack assemblies. Each jack assembly includes a plurality of jack contacts for engaging and receiving a telephone plug in a plurality of positions, wherein the jack contacts are retained by a unitary housing formed to maintain the jack contacts in physical alignment for electrical contact to the plugs when fully seated. The unitary housing includes recesses therein to accurately retain the jack contacts in precise height, width and depth positions relative to the plugs inserted therein, replacing the numerous elements and spacers heretofore used in a telephone jack assembly. The individual jack assemblies are then connected to external wiring connecting blocks by flexible printed circuits having constant impedance path pairs, which replace the individually hand-wired twisted-pair construction previously used.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to telephone jacks and, in particular, to 
modular telephone jacks configured to provide a jack field. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Jacks and jack fields used in patch panel interconnection systems for 
redirecting signal paths typically have hundreds of components which are 
tediously hand-wired and hand-assembled. Each jack assembly physically 
retains the plug, as well as making electrical contact to the plug tip, 
ring and sleeve circuits. Typically, each individual jack assembly has 
three positions in which to receive a plug. Furthermore, the individual 
jack often includes switch contacts which make or break circuits depending 
upon the presence of a plug in the particular jack position. The jack and 
switch contacts are separated by insulating spacers to form a laminar 
subassembly, which is mounted to a jack frame into which the plug is 
inserted, to form the jack assembly. The jack elements and the spacers are 
held together with screws extending through the assembly, and must be 
carefully adjusted to a predetermined torque to maintain the desired 
alignment and avoid unwanted short circuits to the screw or adjacent jack 
elements. 
The jack field comprises a large number of individual jack assemblies in a 
single enclosure. Heretofore, the jack field assembled from a plurality of 
individual jack assemblies, input/output and cross connect connector 
blocks, hand-wired twisted pair interconnections, and rack-mount 
enclosure, all hand assembled. Such patch panel systems are expensive and 
slow to manufacture and requiring precise control over assembly and 
component manufacture. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention comprises a multi-position jack assembly having a 
plurality of jack contacts and a lamp socket contained in a unitary molded 
jack module, having a left and a right complementary side piece to 
accurately retain the jack contacts in precise position. Moreover, the 
complementary molded housing pieces have recesses to receive each of the 
jack contact elements without requiring skill on the part of the 
assembler. Furthermore, the recesses in the complementary left and right 
housing pieces have a specifically staggered recess pattern, where a 
particular recess corresponds to a specific jack contact element, thereby 
precluding the assembly of the jack contact in erroneous sequence. 
The jack contact elements are further formed to engage a flexible printed 
circuit element having a plurality of constant impedance circuit pair 
traces to provide connection to the connecting blocks behind the jack 
field. The constant impedance is controlled by using coincident pair 
circuit traces on opposite sides of a two-layer flexible circuit board 
material to achieve a balanced pair of signal conductors. 
The resulting jack field of multi-position telephone jacks may be assembled 
rapidly with a reduced number of components to provide a more economical 
and reliable product.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
A three-position jack assembly 50 is shown in FIG. 1 wherein a unitary 
housing is formed by two complementary and mating side pieces 52 and 54. 
The side pieces 52 and 54 are preferably injection moulded from plastic 
which inherently includes all necessary constituent spacing and retaining 
components, without requiring any ancillary spacers or additional 
hardware. In particular, the housing elements 52 and 54 include a 
plurality of recesses 56, 58, 60 and 62 to receive the plurality of jack 
contacts 64 as well as the sleeve support or jack frame 66. The assembled 
unitary housing comprising complementary side pieces 52 and 54 also 
includes retain posts 68 which extend outward from the assembly to engage 
external supporting brackets to form the jack field discussed below. 
Moreover, the front 70 of each jack assembly is provided with shoulders 72 
so that the plurality of modules forming a jack field may be accurately 
aligned into an opening 172, (FIG. 3) in the front panel. 
The jack frame 66 having multiple plug receiving sleeves 67 for receiving 
the jack in one of three positions, is subjected to a bending moment at 
74, which may result in fatigue and fracture of the jack frame over a 
period of usage. Appreciating the forces exerted thereon, the 
complementary side pieces 52 and 54 include retaining ears 76 and 78 
thereon, to relieve the stresses from the jack frame at point 74. 
Therefore, the frame may be manufactured in a single, molded cast or 
welded assembly, wherein the stress is effectively transferred from the 
plug to the jack housing. 
The plurality of jack contacts 64 include the jack contacts of different 
types, and also include lamp lead springs 80, rider springs with a 
contact, 82; push springs with a contact, 84; a major spring, 86; a minor 
spring 88; a major spring with a contact, 90, and a minor spring with a 
contact, 92. A lamp socket is provided by recesses 71 in the left and 
right module side pieces 52,54 in combination with the lamp lead springs, 
80. These lamp and jack contacts are assembled to engage each jack 
position of the jack assembly 50 as desired. 
The left and right sides 52 and 54 of the complementary housing pieces are 
aligned by alignment pins 94 and retained together by spring clips 96 
which engage and secure the opposing side at 98. 
A rear view 100 of the assembled jack is shown in FIG. 2, showing the 
offset of the plurality of jack contacts extending from the rear of the 
assembled unitary housing according to the present invention. The contacts 
104 shown to the left of the center line 102 are the contacts inserted in 
the recesses 62 of FIG. 1 and; similarly, the contacts 106 disposed to the 
right of the center line 102 are the contacts received by recesses 58. The 
contact 108 of the jack frame 66 is typically somewhat larger in dimension 
than the contacts 104 and 102. 
An assembly drawing of the jack field 150 of the present invention 
according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 3. For simplicity, 
representative numbers of jack assemblies, flexible cables, and pin 
connectors have been shown in FIG. 3. The jack field 150 comprises a 
plurality of individual jack assemblies 50 mounted side by side, having 
metal shield elements 55 therebetween to provide electrical shielding from 
circuit crosstalk. The individual jack assemblies 50 have retain posts 68 
which are retained in holes 156 in upper and lower brackets 152 and 154. 
The circuit contacts 104, 106, 108 extending rearward from the individual 
jack assemblies 50 mate with a flexible circuit 160 having coincident 
paired conductors thereon providing a specified balance impedance, 
typically 100 ohms. The flexible printed circuit 160 terminates in wire 
wrap or other pin connectors, typically comprising an input-output 
connector 162 as well as a cross-connect pin connector 164. 
The above-described jack field is typically enclosed in a rack mount 
housing 170, which includes a front panel 174 having an opening 172 which 
permits the front surfaces of the individual jack modules 50 to extend 
through the opening 172, to be flush with the front panel 174. The 
above-mentioned pin connectors 162, 164 are accessible from the rear 176 
of the housing 170 for interconnection to other units or equipment, not 
shown. 
Other embodiments, substitutions or modifications made by one skilled in 
the art are within the scope of the invention which is not to be limited 
except by the claims which follow.