Patent Publication Number: US-6709295-B2

Title: Connector assembly

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention is related to a connector assembly of modular jacks, especially to a connector assembly having a conditioning unit including a circuit board with magnetic filter/conditioning components mounted on it to condition the signals passing through them. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     The communication between computers becomes more and more important because of the prevalence of the Internet. People use the Internet or an internal network everyday for their daily work, entertainment, and other personal affairs. However, for each of personal computers or end-user terminals, a mutual intermediary like cables or wires is necessary to connect these computers into a network. The signal transmission speed in such a network depends on the conductivity of the cables, the operation speed of the workstations or servers signal transmitting, and the condition of the environment in which computers and cables are located. Usually the signals transmitted by cables are easily affected because of the diversity and unpredictability of the environment cables meet. Therefore, if signals can be conditioned before they are transmitted, received or used by any electronic device, the performance and working speed of this device will be better and faster. The best way to avoid any noise interference is shielding the cable and device all the time. However, in high frequency and speed situation, any necessary connection is always a deficiency to cause signals interfered by an outer noise source and failing to achieve the perfect transmission. And the cost for a perfect electrical shield is expensive too. Besides, crosstalk always happens between two parallel signal-transmitting conductors. Thus, the signals transmitted by cables or wires should be conditioned first before they are used in any electrical device like computers due to their noise problem. Especially, to mount a conditioning component, such as a common mode choke coil, filter circuit or transformer, into any I/O connector of these devices is a good way because the I/O connector is always the last or important one of the necessary connections should be well shielded for a perfect transmission. Sakamoto et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,442 introduces such a modular jack connector having a built-in common-mode choke coil. However, to use wires of the coil as contactors of the modular jack connector cause more complicated assembling process always costs high and is time-consuming. Therefore U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,233 issued to Loudermilk et al. discloses a built-in printed board containing a noise suppressing electronic element like transformer is received in the modular jack connector. It is obviously laborsaving because the contactors of the connector are mounted to the printed board after the filter circuit and related electronic elements are mounted onto the printed board in advance. And more signal contactors can be used and assembled at the same time by increasing necessary number of the electronic elements and their corresponding circuits on the board beforehand. 
     The method adopted in Loudermilk et al. needs to be improved due to the expensive cost to produce its built-in printed board and still complicated process to assemble the printed board and the connector housing. Especially the isolated contactors of the connector should be well sustained when they are assembled into the connector housing together with the printed board. And in the multi-port application, the increasing contactors need to be mounted onto the motherboard will make it much more difficult to dispose or assemble the built-in printed board. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,587,884 and 5,647,767 disclose a subassembly inserted into the housing of the modular jack connector. The subassembly includes a front insert member having contact terminals and a rear insert member having a printed board with conditioning components mounted thereon. Better support from these two insert members will effectively sustain the terminals and other components when the subassembly is inserted into the connector housing and fastened therein during the assembling process. However, much more procedures are needed to manufacture the subassembly and most of them like insert-molded parts cost expensively. Besides, new parts are needed in the multi-port application. Minich U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,245 shows a modular connector having two stack plug receiving ports. Two retainers holding terminals in the connector housing and a printed board having filter components and an edge connector to connect the printed board to the motherboard where the modular connector is seated. After the retainers and terminals are properly installed into the housing, the printed circuit board is installed into the housing and ends of terminals make resilient contact to the printed board. Installing support to every terminal is enough again and the simplified process will be adopted to produce each of necessary parts. However, in this case, too many parts are needed and the assembling process is still complicated and labor consuming. And more fixture mechanism in the housing is needed to put each of these parts in position. 
     In conclusion, it is understandable that most of methods adopted by these prior arts mentioned above have a complicated process, especially when assembling. Meanwhile, it is difficult to dismantle parts if some of them fail to work. Some of parts disclosed in prior art are vulnerable when removing from the housing. That means it is impossible to rework or repair on them if some of them need to change. Furthermore, no parts in prior art can be used in another product applications having a different number of mating ports. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a connector assembly having simplified parts to assemble to each other and be detachable easily. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a connector assembly that can be fitted together very conveniently and quickly to shorten and simplify the manufacturing process for timesaving and costdown. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide-a-connector assembly with a large number of necessary integrated components which are accessible to rework or repair by detaching them easily rather than costly disposal of the whole connector assembly. 
     The other object of the present invention is to provide a multi-port connector assembly with each mating port having their own integral components. These components can be integrated to assemble and affix to the connector assembly by easily fixing attachment. 
     A further object of the present invention is to provide same parts which can be used for at least two kinds of the connector assembly having a different number of mating ports from others and is not in need of producing any additional new parts for another new port-numbered application. 
     To obtain the above objects, a connector assembly including a housing configured to form two mating ports for receiving their own complementary connectors is formed. A conditioning unit is mounted into the housing and disposed between the mating ports. The conditioning unit includes a circuit board having conditioning components and two terminal modules surface mounted thereon. Each of the terminal modules has terminals insert-molded therein and is mounted on one side of the circuit board to make one end of their terminals being exposed inside one of the corresponding mating ports separately. 
     Specifically, at least one flexible latch is formed on the middle portion of one sidewall of the housing. At one edge of the circuit board, a notch is formed corresponding to the latch of the housing. When assembling, the conditioning unit is inserted into the housing and the edge of the circuit board is snug in a guiding groove formed on the inward side of the sidewall and the latch is then engaged with its corresponding notch to fix the unit in position. For such an arrangement, the conditional unit is easily secured to the housing and finally settled between two mating ports to ease the assembly of two terminal modules for each mating port. And the latch is easily detached from the notch of the circuit board by hands or a tool to simplify any rework or repair process. 
     Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a connector assembly in accordance with the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is an assembled perspective view of the connector assembly of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the connector assembly showing a conditioning unit including surface mount filter components and terminal modules along the  3 — 3  line in FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the connector assembly showing a conditioning unit fixed by latches formed on the housing along the  4 — 4  line in FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 5 is a side view of a subassembly of the housing and conditioning unit by dismantling the outer shell off; 
     FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the subassembly shown in FIG. 5 along the  6 — 6  line showing guiding grooves in the housing to receive the conditioning unit; 
     FIG. 7 is an exploded view of the conditioning unit shown in FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the conditioning unit shown in FIG. 1 along the  8 — 8  line showing the terminal modules mounted onto the circuit board of the conditioning unit; 
     FIG. 9 is an explosive view of a subassembly of a multi-port connector assembly in accordance with the present invention, showing an integral conditioning unit to be inserted into the housing. 
     FIG  10  is an explosive view of a subassembly of a single-port connector assembly in accordance with the present invention, showing the conditioning unit to be inserted into the housing. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the present invention is related to a connector assembly  1  and is shown to include at least two stacked and mirror-arranged modular jack mating ports  10  each connecting to a network cable (not shown) and transmitting signals between the cable and a printed circuit board (PCB, not shown) where the connector assembly  1  is seated and mounted. A housing  12  is configured to provide these two mating ports and define two vertically arranged spaces each of which is next to one of the ports to receive a mating plug of the corresponding network cable. Another receiving space  14  is formed within the rear portion of the housing  12  and communicating with each space of two mating ports  10  by channels formed on a partition wall (not shown) between them. At the front wall  13  of the housing  12 , four holes  15 ,  16  are disposed at each comer of the front wall  13 . Each of two lower holes  15 , near the PCB mounting side of the front wall  13 , extends into the housing  12  from the front wall  13  for a suitable depth to receive a standard single LED  20  inside it. Each LED  20  is inserted into the corresponding lower hole  15  by first having its right-angled legs crossing and moving along slits  17  formed on the bottom sidewall of every lower hole  15 . Each of two upper holes  16  is perforated into the housing  12  from the front wall  13  of the housing  12  to the receiving space  14 . A flexible latch  18  is formed on the middle portion of every sidewall of the housing  12 . 
     Referring to FIGS. 1 and 7, a conditioning unit  2  is mounted into the receiving space  14  and located in a plane defined perpendicular to the front wall  13  and the sidewalls of the housing  12 . The conditioning unit  2  includes a circuit board  21  with conductive traces (not shown) on it. At least two sets of magnetic filtering/conditioning components  22  corresponding to the mating ports  10  are surface mounted on the circuit board  21  to condition the signals passing through them. Two sets of terminals  25  are respectively insert-molded into an upper and lower terminal module  23 ,  24  and are separately surface mounted on the two sides of the circuit board  21  near a leading edge (not labeled) thereof. Two posts  231 ,  241  are extended from the mounting side of each terminal module  23 ,  24  and are staggered for their positions by two imaginary midlines along both of the longitudinal and transverse directions of these two terminal modules  23 ,  24  respectively. Every post  231  of the upper terminal module  23  are alternately aligned with one post  241  of the lower terminal module  24  when these posts  231 ,  241  are inserted into four corresponding hole  211  formed on the circuit board  21  respectively for guiding and temporarily fixing terminal modules  23 ,  24  when they are surface mounted onto the circuit board  21  (referring to FIG.  8 ). At least two tail modules  26  corresponding to the terminal modules  23 ,  24  respectively are formed and surface mounted on the lower side of the circuit board  21 . One end of every tail module  26  has tails being surface mounted on the circuit board  21  and the other end has tails connecting to the PCB the connector assembly  1  is seated. At each of two opposite side edges adjacent to the leading edge of the circuit board  21 , a notch  28  is formed corresponding to every latch  18  of the housing  12 . 
     A LED module  3  having two standard LEDs insert-molded integrally is mounted to the connector assembly  1 . The LED module  3  has a base portion  32  with legs  31  of LEDs extending in it and two branch portions  34  right-angled extending from the base portion  32 . At the end of each branch portion  34  the light-emitting body  33  of the standard LED is disposed. Ribs  36  are formed on the middle section of every branch portion  34 . Each of branch portions  34  of the LED module  3  passes through the receiving space  14  of the housing  12  and is inserted into a corresponding upper hole  16  when assembling. The light-emitting body  33  of the LED is then visible at the front side  13  of the housing  12 . In addition, an outer shell  4  is disposed to enclose the housing  12 . Two mirror-shaped hollows  40  corresponding to the mating ports  10  are formed on the front plate of the outer shell  4  and a plurality of fingers  42  cut from the portions of the top plate and two opposite side plates abutting against the front plate are bent away from the plates and are extending rearward from edges of the front plate. Legs  44 , usually grounded, are formed on the bottom edges of two side plates. The rear plate, as an extending portion of the top plate before assembling, is bent downward after the housing  12  is positioned into a space formed inside the outer shell  4  and engaged with two side plates on their adjacent edges. Two recesses  47  on the rear plate are formed abutting against the top plate and each is aligned with one of the upper holes  16  after assembling. 
     Referring particularly to FIGS. 3 and 6, the conditioning unit  2 , when assembling, is first inserted into the receiving space  14  by having two opposite side edges of the circuit board  21  snug in guiding grooves  19  formed on the inward side of the sidewall of the housing  12  and sliding the whole unit  2  into the receiving space  14 . Each of the latches  18  of the housing  12  is then engaged with its corresponding notch  28  of the circuit board  21  to fix the unit  2  in position when the leading edge of the circuit board  21  reaches to the rearward side of the front wall  13 . A subassembly (not labeled) is formed then (referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 at the same time). After the LEDs  20  are engaged within the lower hole  15  of the housing  12 , the housing  12  is then enclosed by the outer shell  4 . The branch portions  34  of the LED module  3  are then penetrated into the recesses  47  of the outer shell  4  and mounted onto the connector assembly (as shown in FIG.  2 ). Furthermore, a flexible locking arm  11  is formed on the bottom sidewall of every upper hole  16  and is extending rearward into the receiving space  14 . An aperture  48  is formed on the top plate of the outer shell  4  corresponding to every locking arm  11  and is right above the locking end of every arm  11  to provide an accessible path toward the locking end. It is understandable that, when assembling, each of the branch portions  34  of the LED module  3  is moved along a passage automatically formed between the recess  47  on the outer shell  4  and the upper hole  16  by part of the receiving space  14  and is then latched when one of the ribs  36  on the branch portion  34  moves to be engaged with the locking end of the arm  11  in 
     Referring to FIGS. 4,  5  and  6 , it is understandable, the conditional unit  2  is easily secured to the housing  12  after sliding along the guiding grooves  19 . It is because the latches  18  are disposed along the same orientation as the sliding direction of the conditioning unit  2 . Besides, the circuit board  21  of the conditioning unit  2  is finally settled in the middle portion of receiving space  14  in the housing  12 . It is convenient to further dispose or assemble terminal modules  23 ,  24  for each mating port  10  in the housing  12  due to the symmetric arrangement. And upper and lower terminal module  23 ,  24  can be made the same due to such a symmetric arrangement too. Further electronic parts like filtering components  22  and tail modules  26  can be easily mounted onto the circuit board  21  if they can be symmetrically disposed onto the circuit board  21  too. That means the possibility of space saving for the connector assembly  1  and a compact size that the connector assembly  1  can be. The latches  18 , as shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, are easily detached from the notch  28  of the circuit board  21  by hands or a tool for a shell-unenclosed housing  12 . Any rework or repair process will be simplified and timesaving due to the fast-release design. 
     Referring to FIG. 9, an unshielded subassembly  6  of a connector assembly with multi ports is shown. An integral unshielded housing  60  is formed to put all ports together in two-rowed side-by-side arrangement. A conditioning unit  61  with a common circuit board  63  is inserted into a mutual receiving space (not shown) in the rear portion of the housing  60  by having two opposite side edges of the circuit board  61  snug in two guiding grooves (not shown) formed on the inward side of the sidewall of the housing  60 . A flexible latch  62  is formed on the middle portion of every sidewall of the housing  60  and can be engaged with a corresponding notch  65  formed on a side edge of the circuit board  63 . A magnetic filtering/conditioning component set  66  and tail module  67  corresponding to each of the mating ports are surface mounted on the upper and lower sides of the circuit board  63  respectively. Pairs of Terminal modules  68  each has two modules to be inversely surface mounted on the two sides of the circuit board  63  near a leading edge (not labeled) thereof are arranged in two side-by-side rows in accordance with the mating ports. Effective costdown will take place by sharing the same parts like terminal modules  68  to make different optional jack assembly. And fast and easily assembling process for this integral conditioning unit  61  fixed by the latch  62  is again very convenient to remove. It is understandable, however, to provide a multi-port connector assembly with pairs of upper and lower mating ports having their own separately conditioning unit that is same as the first embodiment in accordance with the present invention. More partition inner walls and latches formed on them should be available in such an application. 
     Referring to FIG. 10, a third embodiment in accordance with the present invention is suggested to provide a single mating port of a module jack  7 . Same parts used for the former embodiment can be adopted again to make the conditioning unit  71  of this modular jack  7 . Two latches  72  are formed on the unshielded housing  70  of this modular jack  7  and are engaged with a notch  73  formed on the edge of the conditioning unit  71  to position it. 
     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 terms in which the appended claims are expressed.