Abstract:
A fast electric connector plug that produces noise within the median value of the category 6 (CAT-6) standard. Through an insertion element installed inside an electric connector plug, four twisted pairs of a CAT-6 cable are configured in four directions from the same central point. At the same time, the first twisted pair is kept twisted and the other three twisted pairs are parallel before reaching the contacts of the plug. The first wire and the eighth wire are kept close to the third wire and the sixth wire in order to produce a compensation effect and achieve more reliable fast data transmissions.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of Invention  
           [0002]    The invention relates to an electric connector plug and, in particular, to a fast electric connector plug that generates noise within the median value of the category 6 standard.  
           [0003]    2. Related Art  
           [0004]    In response to future network applications in the Ethernet, the U.S. Telecommunications industry Associations (TIA) released a CAT-6 standard (ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1) in June 2000. The CAT-6 standard is expanded from 100 MHz of the CAT-5 standard to 200 MHz. Its capacity is also higher than that of CAT-5 by 25%. Therefore, the test frequency for CAT-6 cables may even reach 250 MHz. The biggest difference between CAT-6 and CAT-5 is the improvement in cross-talks and return losses. For new generation full duplex fast network applications, fewer return losses are very important. The cross-talk is a key factor for the best bandwidth. Although 100 Mbps is still the mainstream in current network setups, the CAT-6 standard will be more suitable for future needs.  
           [0005]    The above-mentioned standard does not only apply to fast communication cables. To maintain the same fast transmission speed in fast communication network systems, related peripheral devices of fast communication cables, particularly electric connectors (such as RJ-45 plugs and jacks), have to have corresponding designs. The connector commonly used in fast communication networks is the RJ-45 connector (including plugs and jacks). The normal RJ-45 connector is 8P8C, where 8P means 8 positions and 8C means 8 gold-plated contacts. In practice, only two pairs are really used and the other two pairs are saved for telephone lines or fax machines. The pins in EIA/TIA-568B, from 1 to 8, are covered by the following colors: white-orange, orange, white-green, blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, and brown, respectively.  
           [0006]    In pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/216,215 a fast electric connector plug with the category 6 (CAT-6) standard is disclosed. Through an insertion element installed inside an electric connector plug, the invention configures four twisted pairs of a CAT-6 cable in four directions from the same central point. At the same time, the position of each twisted pair is kept non-twisted and parallel before it reaches the contacts of the plug. The wire positions can be kept close to one another, producing compensation effects to achieve more reliable fast data transmissions. After production and testing, this can satisfy the category 6 standard. However, the noise produced is near the critical values of the standard ranges. It is hard to control its quality due to the inaccuracy of manufacturing.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    An objective of the invention is to improve the structure of conventional plugs and provide a fast transmission electric connector plug that produces noise within the median value of the category 6 standard.  
           [0008]    The invention uses an insertion element that can be put into an electric connector plug. This insertion element has several guide channels, which are distributed in four directions relative to the same central point. Each twisted pair of the fast communication cable is connected to the contacts at the front end of the plug under the guidance of the corresponding guide channel. The cross section of each guide channel is a long hole for a first twisted pair to pass through twisting and the other three twisted pairs to pass through in parallel. In this manner, the wire positions can be readily controlled. Besides, by closing the first wire to the eighth wire and the third wire to the sixth wire for creating compensation, the noise between the wires is kept within the median value of the category 6 standard.  
           [0009]    To achieve the above objectives, the insertion element of the invention has two parts, including a carrier and a cover. The carrier and the cover tightly hold the fast communication cable before each twisted pair and the insertion element are installed inside the plug. This can prevent the end of any cable from being displaced due to friction in the assembly process, resulting in incorrect connections with the contacts.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the structure of the invention;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 demonstrates the structure of the invention, showing how the carrier and the cover are combined, and the direction in which the combined insertion element are plugged into the plug shell;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the disclosed structure, showing the cross section of the electric connector plug, the assembly of the fast communication cable and the insertion element;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 3 at the IV-IV position, showing the contact relation between the metal electrodes and the twisted pairs;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 at the V-V position, showing the positions of the guide channels after the cover and the carrier are combined together;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing how the fast communication cable and the insertion element are assembled;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing the position of the wire of each twisted pair in the wire slots after the fast communication cable and the insertion element are combined;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 at the V-V position, showing the positions of each wire in the guide channels;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 9 is another embodiment of the guide channel configuration;  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a single guide slot providing three wire positions;  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the disclosed guide slots. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0021]    Please refer to FIG. 1. The disclosed electric connector plug has a plug shell  10  and an insertion element. The plug shell  10  is the same size as an RJ-45 electric connector plug. It is a hollow element with an upper wall  11   a , a lower wall  11   b , a left wall  12   a , a right wall  12   b , and an elastic chip  13  located at the bottom of the lower wall  11   b  and extending downwards. The elastic chip  13  is used to hold and connect with an electric connector jack (not shown). The front end in the insertion direction toward the electric connector jack is a closed front wall  14 . The other end is an opening  15  to the exterior. The front end of the plug shell  10  has eight metal electrodes  21 ˜ 28 . The metal electrodes  21 ˜ 28  are inserted from the insertion holes  110  at the front end of the upper wall  11   a  downward into the plug shell  10 . They are connected with the twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  of the fast communication cable  30  through the sharp front ends of the metal electrode  21 ˜ 28 . The metal electrodes  21 ˜ 28  are of the same length (see FIG. 4).  
         [0022]    The insertion element is inserted into the plug shell  10  through the opening  15  along the same installation direction of the plug shell  10 . It has a carrier  40  and a cover  60 . The carrier  40  is a narrow and long element. It has a bottom part  41 , a left wall  42   a , and a right wall  42   b . Several wire slots  51 ˜ 58  at the bottom part  41  near the front end of the plug shell  10  extend forward. These wire slots  51 ˜ 58  are underneath eight metal electrodes  21 ˜ 28  for supporting different twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38 . The front end of each metal electrode  21 ˜ 28  can prick through the insulating coat of the corresponding wires  31 ˜ 38 , resulting in electrical communication with the wires.  
         [0023]    The cover  60  is also a narrow and long element. It can be installed in the space enclosed by the bottom part  41 , the left wall  42   a , and the right wall  42   b  of the carrier  40  (see FIG. 2). The cover  60  can be divided into a front section  6 A and a rear section  6 B along its axial direction. Four guide channels  61 ˜ 64  penetrate through the front section  6 A for guiding the four twisted pairs (Pair  1 ˜ 4 ) of the fast communication cable  30 . The forth wire  34  and the fifth wire  35  form pair  1 , the first wire  31  and the second wire  32  form pair  2 , the third wire  33  and the sixth wire  36  form pair  3 , and the seventh wire  37  and the eighth wire  38  form pair  4 . The guide channels  61 ˜ 64  are long holes (with a rectangular or circular cross section). The four twisted pairs  31 &amp; 32 ,  33 &amp; 36 ,  34 &amp; 35 ,  37 &amp; 38  (Pair  1 ˜ 4 ) go through the guide channels  61 ˜ 64  and the first twisted pair  34 &amp; 35  passes through twisting and the other three twisted pairs  31 &amp; 32 ,  34 &amp; 35 ,  37 &amp; 38  pass through in parallel. The rear section  6 B has several connecting elements  65  (such as hooks) installed on the two walls  42   a ,  42   b  for connecting with the connecting parts  43  (such as hook holes) formed on the left wall  42   a  and the right wall  42   b  of the carrier  40 , thereby combining the cover  60  and the carrier  40 . The cover also has several protruding wire holding saws  66  on the surface facing the carrier  40 . A wire holding surface  44  is formed at the corresponding position on the bottom part  41  of the carrier  40 . After the cover  60  and the carrier  40  are combined together, the fast communication cable  30  is tightly held between the cover  60  and the carrier  40  (see FIG. 3).  
         [0024]    In principle, the guide channels  61 ˜ 64  are long holes and have to be formed in four directions around the same central point. As shown in FIG. 5, the guide channels  61  and  63  are on the left and right sides, whereas the guide channels  62  and  64  are on the upper and lower sides. The four twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  then go through the guide channels  61 ˜ 64 . The first twisted pair  34 &amp; 35  passes through twisting and the other three twisted pairs  31 &amp; 32 ,  34 &amp; 35 ,  37 &amp; 38  pass through in parallel (see FIG. 6). It is preferable that the first twisted pair  34 &amp; 35  twists exactly one time. Since the twisted pairs  31 ˜ 33  and  36 ˜ 38  in this section are parallel with each other and non-twisted, the wire positions after the guide channels  61 ˜ 64  can be properly controlled to obtain compensation for the TT and TR effects. As shown in FIG. 8, the first wire  31  is designed to be closer to the third wire  33 , and the eighth wire  38  is designed to be closer to the sixth wire  36  in order to produce the TR compensation effect.  
         [0025]    The first twisted pair  34 &amp; 35  is set higher than the third twisted pair  33 &amp; 36 , though this can be reversed. On the other hand, the guide channels  61 ˜ 63  are on the same level, but the guide channel  64  is at a different level (see FIG. 9). The guide channels  61 ˜ 64  are still long, oval-shaped holes in the cross-section. With reference to FIG. 11, the guide channel  64  can be also formed using a lower guide slot  64   a  in the middle section of the bottom part  41  of the carrier and an upper guide slot  64   b  at the center of the bottom surface of the front section  6 A of the cover  60 .  
         [0026]    With further reference to FIG. 6, when the electronic connector plug and the fast communication cable  30  are connected together, the cover layer of the fast communication cable  30  is first peeled. The four twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  (Pair  1 ˜ 4 ) inside the fast communication cable are taken out and the twisted wires are untangled. Afterwards, the first twisted pair  34 &amp; 35  is inserted twisting and the other three twisted pairs  31 ˜ 33 ,  36 ˜ 38  are inserted in parallel through the guide channels  61 ˜ 64  of the insertion element (see FIG. 3). As shown in the drawing, the first and third twisted pairs  33 ˜ 36  are in parallel on the same horizontal plane and the second and fourth twisted pairs  31 ,  32 ,  37 ,  38  are in parallel on the same vertical plane. The insulating cover layer of the fast communication cable  30  is placed as close as possible between the wire holding saws  66  of the cover  60  and the wire holding surface  44  of the carrier  40 . The cover  60  and the carrier  40  are combined in such a way that the connecting elements  65  on both sides of the cover  60  and the connecting parts  43  of the carrier  40  are coupled. At the same time, the fact communication cable is tightly held between the cover  60  and the carrier  40 .  
         [0027]    It should be emphasized that one has to make sure that the four twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  have to extend out a certain length after penetrating through the four guide channels  61 ˜ 64  before the cover  60  and the carrier  40  are combined. The ends of the four twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  extend into the wire slots  51 ˜ 58 . The insertion element holding the fast communication cable  30  is then inserted into the plug shell  10  from its rear opening  15  (see FIG. 7), until a hook  67  on the top surface of the rear section  6 B of the cover  60  catches a hook hole  111  on the top wall  11   a  of the plug shell  10 . Finally, the metal electrodes  21 ˜ 28  are plugged into the insertion holes  110  at the front end of the plug shell  10 . In this way, the sharp tips of the metal electrodes  21 ˜ 28  can make electrical contact with the twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  of the fast communication cable  30 .  
         [0028]    The wire slots  51 ˜ 58  on the carrier  40  have a cross section with an upward opening. The width of the opening can be slightly smaller than the outer diameter of a single wire of the twisted pair  31 ˜ 38 . When the cover  60  and the carrier  40  are combined together, one can directly put the four twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  through along the axial direction of the wire slots  51 ˜ 58 . Alternatively, one can also straighten these twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  and push them downward through the narrow opening of the wire slots  51 ˜ 58 .  
         [0029]    On the other hand, some fast communication cables have different specifications for the communication connectors on both ends, such as 568A and 568B. In some special cases, one may need to have jumps. To satisfy such needs and to further enhance the compensation effect, the two guide channels  61 ˜ 64  can have at least three position holes. With reference to FIG. 10, the guide channels  61  and  63  on the left and right sides have three position holes for the twisted pairs  31 ˜ 38  to pass through. As shown in the drawing, three connected circular holes are formed to further limit the wire positions and their relative distances. This puts the first wire  31  closer to the third wire  33 , and the eighth wire  38  closer to the sixth wire  36 .  
         [0030]    The two-piece design for the insertion element can tightly hold the fast communication cable before the twisted pairs and the insertion element are plugged into the plug shell, preventing improper connections between the cable and the metal electrodes during assembly.  
         [0031]    The embodiments in the previous paragraphs are only examples of the disclosed technique. They should not be used to constrain the scope of the invention. Any person skilled in the art can readily make modifications and changes without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the two components of the insertion can be changed into a left-right combination.