Patent Publication Number: US-2003224626-A1

Title: Modular connector assembly

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of The Invention  
       [0002] The present invention relates to a connector assembly. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly that can accommodate several connections between a host and various devices within a computer system or computer network.  
       [0003] 2. Description of Related Art  
       [0004] In current personal computer (PC) structures, the main storage devices are usually a hard disk drive and a CD-ROM drive. With the presently available technology, the hard disk drive and the CD-ROM drive are conventionally connected to a host, usually a motherboard, via the Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) standard interface for internal storage devices. Practically, a parallel ATA interface is currently used to connect up to two storage devices to single port of the motherboard in a master/slave configuration.  
       [0005]FIG. 1 is a perspective view that schematically shows a typical cable assembly usually employed to achieve a parallel ATA interface. As shown in FIG. 1, to achieve the parallel ATA interface, a wide ribbon cable  10  conventionally provided with three parallel ATA connectors ( 20 ,  30 ,  40 ) is used to connect one or two devices to motherboard host  55  within the personal computer. Because the parallel ATA standard interface was designed in such a manner that the host  55  can drive up to two storage devices only through a single port, a single parallel ATA connector receptacle  50  is therefore conventionally provided on the motherboard  55 . The parallel ATA connectors ( 20 ,  30 ,  40 ,  50 ) conventionally have forty pins and the ribbon cable  10  has eighty conductor lines.  
       [0006] As PC processor performance has increased, so have the read/write data rates of the storage devices. For illustration, industrial manufacturers projected the hard disk rate to exceed today&#39;s 100 Megabytes per second (MB/s) interface bandwidth by the year 2003. Parallel ATA has kept pace in the past, but is nearing its limit and becomes a performance bottleneck. To replace the parallel ATA interface, the industry is currently developing a Serial ATA interface that will be the next generation of interface for storage devices.  
       [0007] The new serial ATA interface will have a connection structure between the host and the peripheral storage devices that is significantly different from that of the parallel ATA. Therefore, a new connector structure to support the Serial ATA interface is needed.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008] An aspect of the present invention is to provide a single modular connector assembly that can accommodate a plurality of connections between a host and a plurality of peripheral devices.  
       [0009] Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a modular connector assembly that occupies minimal surface area and can be rapidly mounted onto, for example, a host, device, or frame to accommodate a plurality of connections between a host and a plurality of peripheral devices or link a plurality of devices together.  
       [0010] To attain at least the foregoing objectives, the present invention provides a modularized multi-connector module that comprises a body having a plurality of slots therein. Each slot in the body comprises a plurality of signal contacts and is shaped such that the peripheral devices can be connected to a host via a plurality of cables individually plugged in the slots of the modular multi-connector assembly.  
       [0011] The Serial ATA interface will have a separate cable to connect each device with the motherboard of the computer. The Serial ATA signal connector is a 7-pin connector, and while it has fewer pins than the Parallel ATA 40-pin connector, the Serial ATA interface requires a separate connector receptacle for each device. Therefore, a motherboard would have four separate connector receptacles in order to accommodate 4 storage devices.  
       [0012] However, with the present invention, one modular connector assembly is able to allow four separate devices to connect to the motherboard or device. This modular connector assembly also provides a much smaller footprint saving valuable motherboard area. 
     
    
    
     [0013] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.  
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0014] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings,  
     [0015]FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically illustrating a conventional ATA connection interface;  
     [0016]FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically illustrating a modular connector assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention; and  
     [0017]FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a modular connector assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0018] The following detailed description of the embodiments and examples of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings is only illustrative of specific structures and ways of making of the present invention, and does not limit the scope of the present invention. Wherever possible in the description, like reference numerals will refer to like elements and parts unless otherwise illustrated.  
     [0019] In comparison with the current parallel ATA, the new serial ATA is expected to eliminate the performance bottleneck of the current parallel ATA, and offer other advantages including reduction in operating voltages, smaller and easier-to-route cables, and improved data robustness.  
     [0020] With respect to the device connection structure, the serial ATA interface significantly differs from the parallel ATA interface. Instead of being connected to two storage devices via a single parallel ATA connector, the host views the different storage devices as masters on separate ports. Therefore, the serial ATA structure connects each of the storage devices with individual cables in a point-to-point fashion.  
     [0021] Referring to FIG. 2, a perspective view schematically illustrates a multi-connector module suitable for use with, for example, serial ATA interface according to an embodiment of the invention. In view of the requirement of the serial ATA interface for multi-device connection, the present invention provides a modular connector assembly or multi-connector module  100  for multiple device connections to the host  55 .  
     [0022] The multi-connector module  100  comprises a body  105  preferably made of plastic material in which a plurality of slots  110  is formed. Each slot  110  includes therein a plurality of signal contacts  115  that may be defined in accordance with the serial ATA interface specification. Each slot  110  with its signal contacts  115  hence form a serial ATA connector into which a serial ATA cable with a complementary connector (not shown) can be plugged in. The attachment of the multi-connector module  100  onto the host  55  may be achieved by, for example, screw/bolt assemblies  120 .  
     [0023] One advantage of the multi-connector module  100  of the invention is that the surface area taken by an arrangement of several connectors is minimal. Instead of four separate connectors spread across the motherboard, only one modular connector is required. Another advantage is that by gathering a plurality of connectors within a single multi-connector module, the mounting of connectors on the host  55  is performed only one time instead of repeating a same fixing operation for mounting separate connectors. Moreover, a single multi-connector module favorably reduces the number of attachment points. Cumbersome operations such as accurate arrangement of the attachment points on the connector and on the host  55  can be therefore reduced.  
     [0024] Refer to FIG. 3, which is a perspective view illustrating a modular connector assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
     [0025] The multi-connector module  200  comprises a body  205  preferably made of plastic material in which a plurality of slots  210  is formed. Each slot  210  includes therein a plurality of signal contacts  215  that may be defined in accordance with the serial ATA interface specification. Each slot  210  with its signal contacts  215  hence form a serial ATA connector into which a serial ATA cable with a complementary connector (not shown) can be plugged in. The attachment of the multi-connector module  200  onto the host  55  may be achieved by various attachment means  220 .  
     [0026] It is apparent that the above advantages can be obtained for other types of connectors by simple modification of the above multi-connector module of the invention. For example, a similar multi-connector module can be adapted from Serial ATA interface into a universal serial bus (USB) interface on a USB hub or a 1394 interface on a 1938 hub. Manufacturing a single modular connector not only saves time and money, but saves surface area as well. In addition, the above embodiments describe motherboard connections. However, in other embodiments of the present invention, the modular connector assembly is situated on a device or computer frame and accommodates internal and external devices.  
     [0027] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure and operations of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.