Patent Publication Number: US-7217156-B2

Title: RF microwave connector for telecommunication

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates to an electric connector, and more particularly to a RF (Radio Frequency) microwave connector for telecommunication. 
   2. Description of Related Art 
   Please refer to  FIGS. 1A and 1B . A conventional coaxial microwave connector consists of a plug and a receptacle, in which the plug has a female terminal  10 . Two opposite contact plates  11  are disposed at one side of the female terminal  10  and a stop plate  12  is disposed at another side thereof. A slit  121  exists in the stop plate  12 . The contact plates  11  are used to clamp a male terminal of the receptacle. The slit  121  is used to allow the inner wires  131  of a coaxial cable  13  to be passed through it and welded on the upper side of the female terminal  10 , as  FIG. 1B  shows. 
   Please refer to  2 A and  2 B. Another conventional coaxial microwave connector, a plug thereof has a female terminal  20 . Two opposite contact plates  21  are disposed at one side of the female terminal  20  and opposite stop plate  22  and raised plate  23  are disposed at another side thereof, in which a slit  221  exists in the stop plate  22 . The contact plates  21  are used to clamp a male terminal of a receptacle. The slit  221  is used to allow the inner wires  241  of a coaxial cable  24  to be passed through it and welded at the upper side of the female terminal  20 , as  FIG. 2B  shows. 
   The U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,653 entitled “super mini coaxial microwave connector” discloses a plug and a receptacle, in which the plug has a metal housing; the metal housing is connected to an insulator and a female terminal is connected with the hollow portion of the insulator. Please refer to  FIG. 3 . A female terminal  30  has two opposite contact plates  31  and two opposite stop plates  32  and an upper plate  33 . The contact plates  31  are used to clamp a male terminal of the plug and inner wires  361  of a coaxial cable  36  are welded on the upper plate  33  and between the stop plates  32 . 
   The manufacturing way welding the coaxial cable and the female terminal manually mentioned above cannot be replaced with an automatic machine manufacturing way, it is labor and time wasting. 
   Please refer to  FIGS. 4A to 4C . Two opposite contact plates  41  are disposed at one end of another kind of known coaxial microwave connector  40  and a clamping section  42  is disposed at another end thereof. Two contact plates  41  are used to clamp a male terminal of a receptacle. The bottom of the clamping section  42  is formed as an arc shape and a bendable edge  421  is extended upward from one side of the bottom thereof. Inner wires  431  of a coaxial cable  43  are wrapped in between the bottom of the clamping section  42  and the bended bendable edge  421 , as  FIG. 4B  shows. 
   Although an automatic machine can replace manual labor in the manufacturing way clamping the inner wires  431  of the coaxial cable  43  tightly by bending the bendable edge  421  of the clamping section  42  mentioned above is rather labor and time saving, the bendable edge  421  is very long and a more sophisticated and expensive bending facility is needed to bend the bendable edge  421  into a half circle type smoothly to contact closely with another edge of the arc bottom. If the bended radian of the bendable edge  421  is not smooth so that it cannot contact closely with another edge of the arc bottom of the clamping section  42 , this will influence the function clamping the inner wires  431  closely and further influence the transmission quality of the connector and produce a bad product. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   For improving the combination structure of a terminal of a plug of a coaxial microwave connector and inner wires of a coaxial cable, allowing the manufacturing more convenient and cheap and enabling the ratio of bad product rate to be lowered down, the present invention is proposed. 
   The main object of the present invention is to provide a RF microwave connector for telecommunication, enabling a manufacturing combination between a female terminal of a plug and inner wires of a coaxial cable to be easier. 
   Another object of the present invention is to provide a RF microwave connector for telecommunication, enabling a female terminal of a plug to be combined with inner wires of a coaxial cable tightly and not to loose so as to enhance the good product rate. 
   Still another object of the present invention is to provide a RF microwave connector for telecommunication, even if using simpler and cheaper machine, a female terminal of a plug and inner wires of a coaxial cable can be combined tightly. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention can be more fully understood by reference to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which: 
       FIGS. 1A and 1B  are schematic views, respectively showing the separation and the combination of a first kind of conventional female terminal and coaxial cable; 
       FIGS. 2A and 2B  are schematic views, respectively showing the separation and the combination of a second kind of conventional female terminal and coaxial cable; 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic view, showing the separation of a third kind of conventional female terminal and coaxial cable; 
       FIGS. 4A and 4B  are schematic views, respectively showing the separation and the combination of a fourth kind of conventional female terminal and coaxial cable; 
       FIG. 4C  is a side view, showing a fourth kind of conventional female terminal; 
       FIGS. 5A and 5B  are schematic views, respectively showing the separation and the combination of a female terminal and coaxial cable of a first preferred embodiment according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 5C  is a side view, showing a female terminal of a first preferred embodiment according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 5D  is a schematic view, showing the combination of a female terminal and inner wires of a coaxial cable of a first preferred embodiment according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 5E  is another side view, showing a female terminal of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIGS. 6A and 6B  are prospective views, respectively showing the separation and the combination of a female terminal and a coaxial cable of a third preferred embodiment according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 6C  is an end view of the embodiment shown in  FIGS. 6A and 6B ; 
       FIG. 7A  is a prospective view, showing the separation of a female terminal and a coaxial cable; 
       FIG. 7B  is side view, showing a female terminal of a third preferred embodiment according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 7C  is another side view, showing a female terminal of a third preferred embodiment according to the present invention; 
       FIG. 8  is a cross sectional view, showing a plug and a receptacle of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 9  is a cross sectional view, showing a plug and a receptacle of a third preferred embodiment according to the present invention; 
       FIGS. 10A and 10B  are schematic views, respectively showing the separation and the combination of a female terminal and coaxial cable of a fourth preferred embodiment according to the present invention; and 
       FIG. 10C  is a side view, showing a female terminal of a fourth preferred embodiment according to the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Please refer to  FIGS. 5A to 5E . A female terminal  50  of a first preferred embodiment according to the present invention has a main body  51 . Two opposite contact plates  52  are extended from the two sides of one end of the main body  51  used for combining with a male terminal. An arc shape of clamping section  53  is disposed at another end of the main body  51  and a groove hole  531  is disposed in the arc face of the clamping section  53 . Two edges  532  and  533  of the clamping section  53  are symmetrically arched. A strip type of raised portion  54  is disposed on the surface of the inner side of the main body  51  close to the clamping section  53  and the raised portion  54  is extended between the contact plates  52 . 
   The design that the two edges  532  and  533  of the clamping section  53  of the terminal  50  are symmetrically arched in the preferred embodiment is suitable for using only a simpler and cheaper manufacturing machine, the edges  532  and  533  can be bended face to face smoothly to clamp inner wires  551  of a coaxial cable  55  stably. The raised portion  54  is used to limit the length that the inner wires  551  is extended into the clamping section  53  when the clamping section  53  is forced to clamp the inner wires  551  of the coaxial cable  55 , i.e. the front end of the inner wires  551  will touch the raised portion  54  and are positioned there after the inner wires  551  is placed in the inner side of the clamping section  53 . Therefore, having the design of the raised portion  54  in the female terminal  50 , that the inner wires  551  reaches the position subjected to clamp can be ascertained when the inner wires  551  of the coaxial cable  55  are processed to clamp. In the process that the inner wires  551  is clamped by the clamping section  53 , the part of the inner wires  551  corresponding to the groove hole  531  is deformed by the force and sunk into the groove hole  531 . When the coaxial cable  55  is exerted by a pull force to cause it to be separated from the clamping section  53 , the inner wire  551  rather not be caused to separate from the clamping section  53  because there is a resisting force yielded from the deformation part of the inner wires  551  sunk in the groove hole  531 . 
   Please refer to  FIGS. 6A to 6C . A female terminal  60  of a second preferred embodiment according to the present invention whose shape is approximately same as the one of the female terminal  50  of a first preferred embodiment mentioned above also has a main body  61 , two opposite contact plates  62 , a clamping section  63 , a groove hole  631  and a raised portion  64 , and the difference between them is in that a corresponding tenon  634  and notch  635  are respectively disposed at the end parts of two edges  632  and  633  of the clamping section  63 . When the edges  632  and  633  are bended, the tenon  632  is caused to buckle into the notch  635 , this helps allowing the edges  632  and  633  to be bended symmetrically accurately and the contact ends to be stayed closely so that the crooked contact does rather not happen. Therefore, the largest clamping force is exerted on the inner wires  551  of the coaxial cable  55  to allow to be combined with the clamping section  63  more stably. 
   Please refer to  FIGS. 7A to 7C . A female terminal  70  of a third preferred embodiment according to the present invention whose shape is approximately same as the one of the female terminal  50  of a first preferred embodiment mentioned above also has a main body  71 , two opposite contact plates  72 , a clamping section  73 , a groove hole  731  and a raised portion  74 , and the difference between them is in that a stop plate  75  is bended upward from the outside end of the contact plates  72  of the main body  72 . The design of the stop plate  75  is used to allow the female terminal  70  to be positioned in the insulator of the plug more conveniently. 
   Please refer to  FIG. 8 . After the female terminal  50  of the first preferred embodiment is combined with the coaxial cable  55 , they are combined in a plug  56 . The plug  56  has a metal housing  561 . The metal housing  561  is combined with an insulator  562 . The hollow portion of the insulator  562  is combined with the female terminal  50  to allow the female terminal  50  not to contact with the metal housing  561 . The receptacle  57  combined with the plug  56  has a metal housing  571  and an insulator  572  is combined at the lower end of the metal housing  571 . The insulator  572  is extended inside of the metal housing  571  and a protruding end, which is combined with a male terminal  573 , is formed at the center part thereof. The lower end of the male terminal  573  is extended outside of the insulator  572  and the metal housing  571 . Engage contact plates  52  of the female terminal  50  of the plug  56  with the male terminal  573  of the receptacle  57  at the two sides thereof to cause two signal terminals to be communicated. Besides, the metal housing  561  is engaged with the metal housing  571  at the outside thereof to cause two grounds to be communicated. 
   Please refer to  FIG. 9 . After the female terminal  70  of the third preferred embodiment is combined with the coaxial cable  55 , they are combined in a plug  76 . The plug  75  has a metal housing  761 . The metal housing  761  is combined with an insulator  762 . The insulator  762  has a recess  763  for receiving the stop plate  75  of the female terminal  70 . The design of the stop plate  75  allows the female terminal  70  to be positioned in the insulator  762  more conveniently. And, the plug  76  is also used for being inserted into the receptacle  57 . 
   Please refer to  FIGS. 10A to 10C . A female terminal  80  of a fourth preferred embodiment according to the present invention whose shape is approximately same as the one of the female terminal  50  of a first preferred embodiment mentioned above also has a main body  81 , two opposite contact plates  82 , a clamping section  83 , a groove hole  831  and a raised portion  84 , and the difference between them is in that a corresponding raised sections  832 ,  833 , recessed sections  834 ,  835  and inclined sections  836 ,  837  are respectively disposed at the end parts of two edges of the clamping section  83 . when the two edges are bended, the raised section  832 , the inclined section  836  and the recessed section  834  of one edge are caused to contact respectively with the recessed section  835 , the inclined section  837  and raised section  833  of another edge, this helps allowing the edges to be bended symmetrically accurately and the contact ends to be stayed closely so that the crooked contact does rather not happen. Therefore, the largest clamping force is exerted on the inner wires  551  of the coaxial cable  55  to allow to be combined with the clamping section  83  more stably. 
   The combination structure of the terminal of the plug of the coaxial microwave connector and the inner wires of the coaxial cable in the present invention is obviously improved to allow the manufacturing to be more convenient, a simpler and cheaper manufacturing machine to be used and the bad product rate to be lowered down. 
   Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.