Patent Publication Number: US-9413122-B2

Title: Modular jack having middle metal plate shielding two adjacent ports

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a modular jack having a middle metal plate disposed between two adjacent internal modules, and more particularly to insulate the middle metal plate with the internal modules. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     One known modular jack comprises an insulative housing having a row of front openings each configured to receive a modular plug and a receptacle located behind the openings, a plurality of internal modules each inserted from the receptacle into one corresponding opening, and a plurality of middle shields each disposed between two adjacent internal modules. The internal module includes a plurality of mating contacts, a plurality of mounting contacts for mounting on an exterior mother board, and a horizontal printed circuit board (PCB) having a front section connecting with mating contacts and a rear section connecting with the mounting contacts. The PCB has a plurality of conductive filtering components such as transformers and common mode chokes mounted thereon. The internal shield has an insulative carrier and a metal plate insert molded in the insulative carrier. The insulative carrier isolates the metal plate from the filtering components. The insulative carrier is thick and thus occupies much space of the receptacle, resulting in the size of the modular jack being large. Furthermore, insert molding the metal plate with the insulative carrier adds cost. 
     Chinese Patent Application Publication No. CN103001071A, issued on Mar. 27, 2013, discloses a modular jack for transmitting 10 Gbit/s ethernet signals. The modular jack includes an insulative housing having two adjacent openings and a middle shield disposed between the openings, and a plurality of internal modules each corresponding to one of the openings. The middle shield is made of a metal plate. The metal plate and the conductive components of the internal module may undesirably cause shorting under high voltage transmission from a modular plug. 
     Hence, a modular jack having a simple and safe structure is desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a modular jack having an insulative housing, two adjacent internal modules, and a middle shield disposed between the adjacent internal modules. The insulative housing has a front wall and a plurality of openings therein configured as pairs of first and second aligned openings, and a receptacle located behind the openings. Each opening is configured to receive a plug connector therein in a front-to-back direction. The middle shield extends towards a front wall of the insulative to define two module receiving cavities each receiving one internal module. The middle shield includes a conductive plate and an insulative sheet affixed thereto. The insulative sheet faces to the internal modules for insulation the internal modules and the conductive plate. The insulative sheet is so thin as to occupy only a little space of the receptacle, thus reducing a size of the modular jack. The cost of the affixed insulative sheet is also lower than the insert molding part. 
     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 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a modular jack according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is another view of the modular jack shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an exploded view of the modular jack shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 4  is a further exploded view of the modular jack shown in  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a further exploded view of the modular jack shown in  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is an exploded view of an insert module shown in  FIG. 4 ; and 
         FIG. 7  is a side view of a mating contact shown in  FIG. 6 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-5 , a modular jack  100  according to the present invention is shown. The modular jack  100  could be mounted on a horizontal mother PCB (not shown). The modular jack  100  includes an insulative housing  1 , two internal modules  21  and  22 , a middle shield  3 , four indicators  5 , and a metal shell  4  enclosing the insulative housing  1  and the internal modules  21 ,  22 . 
     The insulative housing  1  has a front wall  11 , a top wall  13 , a bottom wall  14 , two opposite side walls  19 , and a middle wall  12  located between the side walls  19 . The bottom wall  14  extends backwardly beyond the middle wall  12 . The top wall  13  extends backwardly from the front wall  11  and is terminated around the middle wall  12 . Each side wall  19  has a top section terminated around the middle wall  12  and a bottom section extending backwardly beyond the middle wall  12  and along the bottom wall  14 . The insulative housing  1  defines first opening  15  and second opening  16  recessed backwardly from the front wall  11 , and a receptacle  18  located behind the openings  15 ,  16 . The first opening  15  and the second opening  16  are aligned in a transverse direction. Each opening  15 ,  16  is configured to receive a modular plug connector (not shown) therein. The middle wall  12  extends parallel to the front wall  11  and has a plurality of grooves  121  defined thereon to communicate the openings  15 ,  16  with the receptacle  18 . The insulative housing  1  also has a separating or partition wall  17  dividing the first and second openings  15 ,  16  along a transverse direction. The separating wall  17  extends rearwardly beyond the middle wall  12 . The separating wall  17  defines a receiving slot  171  extending therethrough along a front-to-back direction. 
     The internal modules includes a first internal module  21  corresponding to the first opening  15  and a second internal module  22  corresponding to the second opening  16 . The middle shield  3  is disposed between the first and second internal modules  21 ,  22  for shielding the EMI (electromagnetic interference) therebetween. The middle shield  3  is assembled and retained to the separating wall  17 . The middle shield  3  has a front section inserted into the receiving slot  171  and a rear section located behind the separating wall  17 . The middle shield  3  divides the receptacle  18  into two module receiving cavities each receiving one internal module  21 ,  22 . Each internal module  21 ,  22  is inserted from one receiving captivity to one corresponding opening  15 ,  16 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 4-5 , the middle shield  3  has a conductive plate  31  and an insulative sheet  32  affixed thereto. The conductive plate  31  could be a metal plate, and the insulative sheet  32  could be a rubber tape. The insulative sheet  32  faces to the internal module  21 ,  22  for insulation between the internal module  21 ,  22  and the conductive plate  31 . The conductive plate  31  includes an upper projection  313  and a lower projection  314  to engage with the separating wall  17 , and the insulative sheet  32  is disposed between the upper and lower projections  313 ,  314 . The conductive plate  31  has a first surface  311  facing to the first internal module  21  and a second surface  312  facing to the second internal module  22 . The insulative sheet  32  includes a first insulative tape  321  pasted to the first surface  311  and a second insulative tape  322  pasted to the second surface  312 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , the metal shell  4  defines a through-hole  40  extending through a top wall thereof along a top-to-bottom direction. The conductive plate  31  has a top riveted hook  310  inserted across the through-hole  40  and riveted to the metal shell  4 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 5-6 , each of the first internal module  21  and the second internal module  22  has a horizontal PCB (printed circuit board)  212 , a set of mating contacts  211  connecting to a front section of the PCB  212 , a set of mounting contacts  214  connecting to a rear section of the PCB  212 , and a plurality of magnetic components mounted on the PCB  212 . The mating contacts  211  electrically connect with the mounting contacts  214  through the PCB  212  and the magnetic components. The magnetic components include a plurality of transformers  213  mounted on a top face of the PCB  212 , a plurality of common mode chokes (not shown) mounted on a bottom face of the PCB  212 , and a plurality of resistors and capacitors (not shown) mounted on one of the top and bottom faces. Each transformer  213  has a toroid core  2131  and a plurality of conductive wires  2132  winding therearound. The PCB  21  has two rows of conductive pads  211  for connecting ends of the conductive wires  2131 , a plurality of conductive through-holes  212  for the mating contacts  211  and mounting contacts  212  to insert therein. The mating contacts  211  are assembled with an insulative body  81  to form a mating contact module, which is mounted onto a top side of the PCB  21 . The mounting contacts  214  are insert molded with an insulative carrier  215  to form a mount contact module, which is mounted to a bottom side of the PCB  212 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 7 , each mating contact  211  has a top horizontal portion  91  inserted into one groove  121 , a mating portion  92  extending backwardly and downwardly, a camber portion  95  connected between the mating portion  92  and the horizontal portion  91 , a vertical portion  93  assembled to the insulative body  81 , and an oblique portion  94  connected between the horizontal portion  91  and the vertical portion  93 . The mating portion  92  is exposed within a corresponding opening  15 ,  16  to mate with a modular plug connector. The oblique portion  94  could decompose the plug insertion force and prevent the mating contact  211  from withdrawing backwardly when the modular plug is inserted into the opening  15 ,  16 . In this embodiment, the vertical portion  93  is retained by and in a spacer  51  so as to reinforce the structural strength thereof. 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , the insulative body  81  includes a positioning post  811  extending downwardly to insert into a positioning hole  210  of the PCB  21 , a side projection  812  protruding outwardly to mount within an engaging slot  191  of a side wall  19  of the insulative housing  1 , and a plurality of receiving slot  813  extending along the top-to-bottom direction to receive the vertical portions  93  of the mating contacts  211 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-2 , the metal shell  4  has a front shell  41  and a rear shell  42  locking thereto. The rear shell  42  has two bottom grounding taps  421  located two opposite sides of the rear shell  42 . The PCB  212  has two grounding pads (not labeled) located at a rear bottom face thereof to connect corresponding grounding taps  421 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , the electrical connector  100  also includes a pair of insulative tape  6  disposed between the internal modules and the side walls of the metal shell  4 . 
     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.