Patent Publication Number: US-9419365-B2

Title: Cable connector assembly having an improved spacer

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a cable connector assembly, and more particularly to a cable connector assembly for high speed signal transmission. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     At present, Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a widely used input/output interface adapted for many electronic devices, such as personal computer and related peripherals. In 1994, USB-IF was founded to define a spec of USB. Nowadays, USB-IF has published several editions for USB, and transmission rate of USB has become higher and higher. As development of electronic industry, higher transmitting rate of USB based connection accessory is needed. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 7,695,318, issued to Wang et al. on Apr. 13, 2010, discloses a cable connector assembly in accordance with USB 3.0 standard. The cable connector assembly comprises an insulative housing, five first contacts for transmitting high speed signal and four second contacts compatible to the version USB 2.0 standard, a spacer assembled to the insulative housing, and a metallic shell enclosing on the insulative housing. Tail portions of the first and second contacts extend beyond a back end of the insulative housing to be supported in grooves of the spacer. The tail portions in the grooves are not positively restrained. 
     Hence, an improved cable connector assembly with an improved spacer is desired to overcome the above problems. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to one aspect of the present invention, a cable connector assembly comprises: an insulative housing defining a cavity; a plurality of contacts retained in the insulative housing and comprising a number of first and second contacts, each contact having a contacting portion and a tail portion, the tail portions extending beyond a back end of the insulative housing; a cable electrically connected with the contacts; a spacer assembled to the back end of the insulative housing and having a plurality of grooves for receiving the tail portions of the contacts; and a metallic shell enclosing the insulative housing; wherein a T-shaped separator is disposed between every two neighboring grooves, and the tail portions of the contacts are restrained in corresponding grooves by corresponding separators. 
     The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is an assembled, perspective view of a cable connector assembly according to the present invention; 
         FIGS. 2-3  are exploded views of the cable connector assembly shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a spacer of the cable connector assembly shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 5  is an assembled, perspective view of contacts inserted into the spacer of the cable connector assembly shown in  FIG. 2 ; and 
         FIG. 6  is a view similar to  FIG. 5 , but viewed from another aspect. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without such specific details. In other instances, well-known circuits have been shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For the most part, details concerning timing considerations and the like have been omitted inasmuch as such details are not necessary to obtain a complete understanding of the present invention and are within the skills of persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-4 , a cable connector assembly  100  according to the present invention is disclosed. The cable connector assembly  100  is a B-type USB 3.0 plug. The cable connector assembly  100  comprises an insulative housing  1 , a plurality of first and second contacts  2 ,  3  retained in the insulative housing  1 , a spacer  4  assembled to the insulative housing  1  for retaining the first and second contacts  2 ,  3 , a metallic shell  5  enclosing on the insulative housing  1 , a cable  6  including wires electrically connected with, e.g., soldered to the first and second contacts  2 ,  3 , and a plastic case  7  surrounding on the metal shell  5 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2-6 , the insulative housing  1  is molded of dielectric material such as plastic or the like, and comprises a main portion  11  and a pair of latch arms  12  extending backwards from lateral sides of the main portion  11 . The main portion  11  defines a top surface  110 , and five passages  112  are defined on the top surface  110 . The main portion  11  has a projecting portion  113  on a back section thereof, the projecting portion  113  is extruding upwards from the top surface  110  of the main portion  11 . The projecting portion  113  has five channels  114  communicated with corresponding passages  112 . The main portion  11  has a front end surface  115 , and a cavity  1150  is recessed backwards from the front end surface  115 . A plurality of slots  1151  are arranged on an upper wall and a lower wall of the cavity  1150 , and each slot  1151  defines a stopper  1152  therein, the stopper  1152  is neighboring to the front end surface  115 . The main portion  11  also defines a plurality of through holes  1153  recessed forwardly from a back surface thereof, and the through holes  1153  are communicated with corresponding slots  1151 . 
     The first contacts  2  are retained in the corresponding slots  1151  and adapted for B type USB 2.0 protocol, and each first contact  2  includes a flat contacting portion  21 , a retaining portion  22  extending rearwards from the contacting portion  21  and a rear tail portion  23 . The contacting portion  21  defines a slant tip portion on a front end thereof, and a bending portion  24  is connected with the retaining portion  22  and the tail portion  23 . Four contacting portions  21  of the first contacts  2  are arranged on two different horizontal levels, and the four tail portions  23  of the first contacts  2  are located in a first row along a transverse direction. The first contacts  2  are exposed in the cavity  1150  and accommodated in the corresponding slots  1151  of the insulative housing  1 . 
     The second contacts  3  are retained in the passages  112  of the insulative housing  1  for transmitting high sped signal, and include a first pair of differential contacts for transmitting high speed signal, a second pair of differential contacts for receiving high speed signal, and a grounding contact located between the first and second pairs of differential contacts for preventing cross-talk in high speed signal transmission. Each second contact  3  comprises a resilient contacting portion  31 , a tail portion  33  and a connecting portion  32  connected the contacting portion  31  and the tail portion  33 . The tail portions  33  of the second contacts  3  are arranged in a second row along the transverse direction. 
     The spacer  4  is assembled to a back end of the insulative housing  1 , and has a pair of tabs  41  on both sides thereof to engage with corresponding latch arms  12  of the insulative housing  1 . A plurality of first grooves  42  are defined on a bottom surface of the spacer  4  for receiving the tail portions  23  of the first contacts  2 , and the first grooves  42  are communicated with an exterior in an up-to-down direction. A plurality of second grooves  43  are defined in a middle section of the spacer  4  in the up-to-down direction, and disposed in a horizontal row. A first separator  44  is defined between every two neighboring first grooves  42 , and the first separator  44  is configured with T-shape, thus each first groove  42  is divided into two segments along the up-to-down direction, and the two segments of the first groove  42  have different width, the upper segment having a larger width is served as a contact receiving groove  421 , the lower segment with a smaller width is served as a wire receiving groove  422 , therefore the first contacts  2  are restricted by the first separator  44  for preventing being warped. 
     A second separator  45  is disposed between every two neighboring second grooves  43 , in preferred embodiment of the invention, each second separator  45  has a similar cross-section view to the first separator  44  and is of T-shaped. In other embodiment of the invention, two side walls of the second separator  45  are symmetrical and of arc shaped. The spacing of lower section of every two neighboring second separator  45  is larger than a width of the second contact  3 , and the spacing of upper section of every two neighboring second separator  45  is smaller than the width of the second contact  3 . Each second separator  45  defines a board portion  451  on a top end thereof, and the board portion  451  is parallel to tail portions  33  of the second contacts  3 , a pair of rounded breaches  452  being defined on lateral sides of the board portion  451  in order to be able to receive a coarse wire of the cable  6  while ensuring sufficient solder fillets on both sides of the wire. 
     The first contacts  2  and the second contacts  3  are assembled to the insulative housing  1 , and the tail portions  23 ,  33  are extending beyond the back surface of the insualtive housing  1 , then inserted into the corresponding first and second grooves  42 ,  43  of the spacer  4 . 
     The metallic shell  5  is made of metallic material, and comprises a first shielding member  51  and a second shielding member  52  assembled each other along an up-to-down direction. The second shielding member  52  comprises a front tube portion  520  and a rear U-shaped extension portion  521  extending rearwards from the tube portion  520 . 
     The cable  6  is electrically connected with the first contacts  2  and the second contacts  3 . 
     The first contacts  2  are assembled to the slots  1151  of the insulative housing  1 , and the second contacts  3  are inserted into the passages  112  of the insulative housing  1 . The spacer  4  is assembled to the back surface of the insulative housing  1 , and the latch arms  12  of the insulative housing  1  are cooperated with corresponding tabs  41  of the spacer  4  to combine the spacer  4  and the insulative housing  1 . Then the insulative housing  1  is assembled to the second shielding member  52 , a receiving space is formed by the top surface  110  of the insulative housing  1  and the second shielding member  52 , and the receiving space is located above the cavity  1150 , the second contacts  3  are accommodated in the receiving space with the first contacts  2  located in the cavity  1150 . The first shielding member  51  is assembled to the second shielding member  52 , and the plastic case  7  is molded on the metallic shell and the cable  6 . Thus, the cable connector assembly  100  is assembled. 
     It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous, characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set fourth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosed is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of number, shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.