Abstract:
An electrical connector includes an insulative housing, a contact module, and a magnetic module. The inslulative housing defines a receiving cavity forwardly communicating with an exterior plug and a mounting cavity located behind the receiving cavity. The contact module includes a set of mating contacts each having a contacting portion exposed within the receiving cavity and a set of mounting contacts for connecting to an exterior substrate. The magnetic module is received in the mounting cavity and electrically connecting the mating contacts to corresponding mounting contacts. The magnetic module includes a printed circuit board (PCB) and four isolated transformers surface mounted on a same face thereof. The four discrete transformers are arranged on a limited space of the PCB.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to an electrical connector having four surface mount transformers mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB), especially relating to arrangement of the transformers for saving space. 
         [0003]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0004]    U.S. Pat. No. 8,093,980, issued to Asou et al. on Jan. 10, 2012, discloses a surface mount pulse transformer for being used for an electrical connector. 
         [0005]    Taiwan Patent No. M437561U1 issued on Sep. 11, 2012 discloses an electrical connector having a printed circuit board (PCB) mounted with two surface mount transformers and two common mode chokes thereon. The PCB used in this electrical connector has a large area where the transformers and the common mode chokes can be mounted. There is a trend of miniaturization in connector size and it is always a difficulty to reconcile between small size and good electrical performance. 
         [0006]    An electrical connector having differently arranged surface mount transformers on an internal PCB is desired. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector comprising an inslulative housing, a contact module, and a magnetic module. The inslulative housing defines a receiving cavity forwardly communicating with an exterior plug and a mounting cavity located behind the receiving cavity. The contact module includes a set of mating contacts each having a contacting portion exposed within the receiving cavity and a set of mounting contacts for connecting to an exterior substrate. The magnetic module is received in the mounting cavity and electrically connecting the mating contacts to corresponding mounting contacts. The magnetic module includes a printed circuit board (PCB) and four isolated transformers surface mounted on a same face of the PCB. The PCB includes a front portion connecting with the mating contacts, a rear portion connecting with the mounting contacts, a first side edge and a second side edge located between the front and back portions. The transformers include a first transformer disposed adjacent to the first side edge, a fourth transformer disposed adjacent to the second side edge, a second transformer and a third transformer. The first transformer is aligned with the fourth transformer in a transverse direction. The second transformer has a section located in front of the first transformer and another section overlapped with the first transformer along the transverse direction. The third transformer has a section located behind the first transformer and another section overlapped with the first transformer along the transverse direction. 
         [0008]    Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an electrical connector according to the invention mounted on an external substrate; 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is another exploded view of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0012]      FIG. 4(A)  is a top view of a magnetic module shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0013]      FIG. 4(B)  is a schematic diagram of conductive pads of transformers connecting with conductive pads of a PCB shown in  FIG. 4(A) ; 
           [0014]      FIG. 5(A)  is a bottom view of the magnetic module shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
           [0015]      FIG. 5(B)  is a schematic diagram of conductive pads of another electrical elements connecting with conductive pads of the PCB shown in  FIG. 5(A) ; and 
           [0016]      FIG. 6  is a circuit diagram of the electrical connector shown in  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0017]    Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
         [0018]    Referring to  FIGS. 1-6 , an electrical connector  100  according to the present invention is used to mount on an exterior substrate  200 . 
         [0019]    Referring to  FIGS. 2-3 , the electrical connector  100  includes an insulative housing  1 , a contact module  2  assembled to the insulative housing  1  along a back-to-front direction, a magnetic module  3  mounted to the contact module  2  along a top-to-bottom direction, two light emitting diodes (LEDs)  4  each having an end connecting with the contact module  2  and an opposite end mounted to the insulative housing  1 , and a metallic shielding shell  5  surrounding the insulative housing  1 . 
         [0020]    The insulative housing  1  includes a front wall  11  extending vertically, a rear wall  12  extending parallel to the front wall  11 , a top wall  14  extending horizontally, and two side walls  13  extending perpendicular to the front wall  11  and the top wall  14 . The insulative housing  1  defines a receiving cavity  15  forwardly communicating with an exterior plug along a front-to-back direction through a front face of the insulative housing  1  and a mounting cavity  16  for the contact module  2  mounting therein. The receiving cavity  15  is divided from the mounting cavity  16  by the rear wall  12 . The insulative housing  1  also defines two lateral passageways  17  for mounting the LEDs  4  respectively. 
         [0021]    The contact module  2  includes an insulative carrier  20 , a set of mating contacts  21  hold by a front section of the insulative carrier  20 , and a set of mounting contacts  22  hold by the a rear section of the insulative carrier  20 . The mating contacts  21  are inserted molding with the insulative carrier  20 . Each mating contact  2  has a contacting portion  211  exposed within the receiving cavity  15 , a soldering portion  212  extending upwardly from a top section of the insulative carrier  20 , and a middle portion (not labeled) buried in the insulative carrier  20 . Each mounting contact  22  has a lower portion  221  for surface mounted to the exterior substrate  200 , an upper portion  222  for connecting with the magnetic module  2 , and a middle portion (not labeled) retention of the insulative carrier  20 . The insulative carrier  20  defines a receiving slot  201  recessed downwardly along the top-to-bottom direction. 
         [0022]    Referring to  FIGS. 2-5(B) , the magnetic module  3  includes a PCB  31  and four isolated transformers  32  and four common mode chokes  331 ,  332  mounted thereon. The PCB  31  has a front section  313 , a rear section  314 , a first side edge  315  and a second side edge  316  located therebetween. The transformers  32  include a first transformer  321  disposed adjacent to the first edge  315 , a fourth transformer  324  disposed adjacent to the second edge  316 , a second transformer  322  and a third transformer  323  disposed between the first transformer  321  and the fourth transformer  324 . Each of the second transformer  322  and the third transformer  323  at least has a section overlapped with the first transformer  321  and the fourth transformer  324  along a transverse direction perpendicular to the front-to-back direction. The second transformer  322  has a section positioned in front of the second transformer  322  and another section overlapped with the first transformer  321  along the transverse direction. The third transformer  323  has a section positioned behind the fourth transformer  324  and another section overlapped with the fourth transformer  324  along the transverse direction. The second transformer  322  and the third transformer  323  at least have an overlapped section along the front-to-back direction. If arranging the four transformers in a row at the transverse direction, the width of the PCB  31  are too long to mount to the mounting cavity  16 . If arranging the four transformers in two rows at the transverse direction, the length of the PCB  31  are too long to mount to the mounting cavity  16 . In the present invention, the PCB  32  could be made smallest by the shown arrangement of the transformers  32 . 
         [0023]    The PCB  31  has a top face  311  mounted with four isolated transformers  32  and a lower face  312  facing to the receiving slot  201 . As a depth limitation of the receiving slot  201 , the isolated transformers  32  could not be mounted on the lower face  312  of the PCB  31 . As four isolated transformers  32  are disposed on the top face  311 , thus there is only a tiny room for mounting other electrical elements. If mounting four common mode chokes on the lower face  312 , the PCB  31  would not expect to have a plurality of conductive through holes for electrically connecting the transformers  32  to corresponding common mode chokes. The common mode chokes include two common mode chokes  331  mounted on the top face  311  and other two common mode chokes  332  mounted on the lower face  312  so that full using room and decreasing numbers of conductive through holes. The common mode chokes are disposed along the front-to-back direction so that shortening conductive traces connecting between the common mode chokes and the transformers  32 . The magnetic module  3  also includes four resistors  34  and a capacitor  35  mounted on the lower face  312  and received in the receiving slot  201  of the insulative carrier  20 . 
         [0024]    Referring to  FIG. 4(A)-5(B) , The front section  313  defines a row of front conductive holes  3131  connecting with soldering portions  212  of the mating contacts  21 . The rear section  314  defines a row of rear conductive holes  3142  connecting with the upper portion  222  of the mounting contacts  22 . Each LED  4  includes a light emitting portion  41  and two terminal portions  42  extending backwardly therefrom (show in  FIG. 2 ). The terminal portions  42  of LED  4  are electrically connected to corresponding mounting contacts  22 . The rear section  314  defines two pairs of middle conductive holes  3141  for connecting with the terminal portions  42 . A pair of middle conductive holes  3141  are disposed between the first transformer  321  and the rear conductive holes  3142 . Another pair of middle conductive holes  3141  are disposed between the fourth transformer  323  and the rear conductive holes  3142 . The middle conductive holes  314  are disposed behind the third transformer  323  so that the conductive traces electrically linking the terminal portions and the mounting contacts  22  are short. The first edge  315  defines a first conductive recess  3151  for physically and electrically connecting with a tab  511  (show in  FIG. 3 ) of the shielding shell  5 . The second edge  316  defines a second conductive recess  3161  for physically and electrically connecting with another tab  511  of the shielding shell  5 . 
         [0025]    Referring to FIGS.  2  and  4 (A)- 6 , each transformer  32  has a primary coil  55  electrically connects with corresponding mating contact  21 , a secondary coil  56  electrically connects with corresponding mounting contact  22 , a drum core  325  (show in  FIG. 2 ) for the primary and secondary coils  21 ,  22  winding around, and a plate core  326  attached to the drum core  325 . The drum core  325  has a plurality of primary pads  551  connected with corresponding ends of the primary coil  55  and a plurality of secondary pads  561  connected with corresponding ends of the secondary coil  56 . The drum core  325  is disposed along the front-to-back direction. The primary pads  551  and the secondary pads  561  are disposed along the transverse direction. 
         [0026]    The secondary pads  561  of the first transformer  321  are disposed near to the first edge  315  and the secondary pads  561  of the fourth transformer  324  are disposed near to the second edge  316 . The primary pads  551  of the second and third transformer  322 ,  323  face toward to the primary pads  551  of the first transformer  321 . The receiving cavity  15  is used for mating with a modular plug (not shown) with an ethernet network wire exposed outdoors. The mating contacts  21  connect with a high voltage end of the ethernet network wire and the mounting contacts  22  connect with the lower voltage end of the substrate. The conductive pads connect with high voltage end are marked with a tilt line with a rectangle shown in  FIG. 4(B) . The conductive pads connect with lower voltage end are marked only with a rectangle shown in  FIG. 4(B)  and  FIG. 5(B) . The primary coils  551  of the transformers  32  electrically connect with the high voltage end of the mating contacts  21 . The secondary coils  561  of the transformers  32  electrically connect with the lower voltage end of the mating mounting contacts  22 . The shielding shell  5  connects with a ground line of the lower voltage end. The secondary pads  561  of the first transformer  321  are disposed near to the first edge  315  so that lower voltage ends adjacent with each other. The secondary pads  561  of the fourth transformer  324  are disposed near to the second edge  316  so that lower voltage ends are disposed adjacent with each other. The electrical connector  100  has a good and safe electric performance by above arrangement. 
         [0027]    It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the members in which the appended claims are expressed.