PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-9276340-B2
Application Number: US-201414543768-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Interposers for connecting receptacle tongues to printed circuit boards

Abstract:
Connecting structures to mechanically connect to a connector receptacle tongue and a printed circuit board and to electrically connect contacts on the connector receptacle tongue to traces on the printed circuit board. One example may provide an interposer having a housing and a plurality of contacts. The contacts may have a side or tongue connecting portion extending beyond a side of the housing and a bottom or board contacting portion extending beyond a bottom of the housing. The contacts may form a ninety-degree bend. A shield may at least substantially surround a top and the other three sides of the housing.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An electronic device comprising:
 a device enclosure having a connector receptacle, the connector receptacle comprising:
 a recess in the device enclosure, the recess having an opening near a rear of the recess; and 
 a tongue including a plurality of contacts, the tongue emerging from the opening in the recess; 
 
 a printed circuit board supporting a plurality of traces; and 
 an interposer to mechanically attach to the tongue and the printed circuit board and to form electrical connections between the plurality of contacts and the plurality of traces supported by the printed circuit board. 
 
     
     
       2. The electronic device of  claim 1  wherein the connector receptacle consists of the tongue and the recess in the device enclosure. 
     
     
       3. The electronic device of  claim 1  wherein the interposer comprises a plurality of contacts in a housing. 
     
     
       4. The electronic device of  claim 1  wherein the tongue and the printed circuit board are at least approximately orthogonal to each other. 
     
     
       5. The electronic device of  claim 4  wherein the tongue is formed of a second printed circuit board. 
     
     
       6. The electronic device of  claim 5  wherein the interposer comprises a plurality of contacts each having a ninety degree bend and having a side portion extending beyond a first side of a housing and a bottom portion extending beyond a bottom of the housing. 
     
     
       7. The electronic device of  claim 6  wherein the interposer further comprises a shield substantially over a top, second, third, and fourth sides of the housing. 
     
     
       8. An electronic device comprising:
 a tongue for a connector receptacle, the tongue including a plurality of contacts; 
 a printed circuit board supporting a plurality of traces; and 
 an interposer to mechanically attach to the tongue and the printed circuit board and to form electrical connections between the plurality of contacts and the plurality of traces supported by the printed circuit board, wherein the connector receptacle consists of the tongue and a recess in an enclosure of the electronic device. 
 
     
     
       9. The electronic device of  claim 8  wherein the interposer comprises a plurality of contacts in a housing. 
     
     
       10. The electronic device of  claim 8  wherein the tongue and the printed circuit board are at least approximately orthogonal to each other. 
     
     
       11. The electronic device of  claim 10  wherein the tongue is formed of a second printed circuit board. 
     
     
       12. The electronic device of  claim 11  wherein the interposer comprises a plurality of contacts each having a ninety degree bend and having a side portion extending beyond a first side of a housing and a bottom portion extending beyond a bottom of the housing. 
     
     
       13. The electronic device of  claim 12  wherein the interposer further comprises a shield substantially over a top, second, third, and fourth sides of the housing. 
     
     
       14. An electronic device comprising:
 a connecting structure comprising:
 a first housing portion forming a tongue for a connector receptacle; 
 a second housing portion supporting a first plurality of contacts, the first plurality of contacts each including at least one tongue contacting portion at a first end to form a contact on a first side of the tongue and a board contacting portion at a second end; and 
 a third housing portion supporting a second plurality of contacts, the second plurality of contacts each including at least one tongue contacting portion at a first end to form a contact on a second side of the tongue and a board contacting portion at a second end. 
 
 
     
     
       15. The electronic device of  claim 14  further comprising:
 a printed circuit board supporting a plurality of traces connected to openings, wherein the board contacting portions of the first and second plurality of contacts fit in the openings. 
 
     
     
       16. The electronic device of  claim 15  wherein the tongue contacting portions of each of the first and second plurality of contacts is orthogonal to a corresponding board contacting portion. 
     
     
       17. The electronic device of  claim 16  further comprising a shield around at least portions of the first housing, the second housing, and the third housing. 
     
     
       18. The electronic device of  claim 14  wherein at least one of the plurality of first contacts and at least one or the plurality of second contacts each includes two tongue contacting portions and one board contacting portion. 
     
     
       19. The electronic device of  claim 14  further comprising:
 a printed circuit board supporting a plurality of traces connected to board contacts on the printed circuit board, wherein the board contacting portions of the first and second plurality of contacts are connected to the board contacts.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application No. 62/003,022, filed May 26, 2014, which is incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND 
     The amount of data transferred between electronic devices has grown tremendously the last several years. Large amounts of audio, streaming video, text, and other types of data content are now regularly transferred among desktop and portable computers, media devices, handheld media devices, displays, storage devices, and other types of electronic devices. Power may be transferred with this data, or power may be transferred separately. 
     Power and data may be conveyed over cables that may include wire conductors, fiber optic cables, or some combination of these or other conductors. Cable assemblies may include a connector insert at each end of a cable, though other cable assemblies may be connected or tethered to an electronic device in a dedicated manner. The connector inserts may be inserted into receptacles in the communicating electronic devices to form pathways for power and data. 
     These receptacles may include a tongue supporting a number of contacts. The contacts may be electrically connected to traces on the tongue. The traces on the tongue may electrically connect to traces on a printed circuit board or other substrate in the electronic device. Often this may be accomplished by mounting the connector receptacle on the printed circuit board. 
     But in some devices it may be desirable to locate a receptacle such that its tongue is located at a different height or Z position from the printed circuit board in the electronic device. For example, it may be desirable to position a receptacle at a mid-height level of an electronic device while it may be desirable to locate a board at a lower-height level of the electronic device. It may also be desirable to be able to rotate a position of a connector receptacle relative to a printed circuit board in the electronic device. 
     Thus, what is needed are interposers and other connecting structures for electrically connecting contacts on a connector receptacle tongue to traces on a printed circuit board. 
     SUMMARY 
     Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may provide interposers and other connecting structures for electrically connecting contacts on a connector receptacle tongue to traces on a printed circuit board where the connector receptacle are at different heights or Z positions or at different angles relative to each other. 
     Embodiments of the present invention may provide electronic devices that may include one or more connector receptacles. These connector receptacles may each include a tongue supporting a number of contacts. These contacts may electrically connect to traces on or in the tongue. The electronic devices may each have a printed circuit board or other substrate, which may support a number of circuits or components joined by one or more traces. The receptacle tongue and printed circuit board may be at different heights or Z positions in an electronic device and may be formed as separate structures for this reason. In other embodiments the present invention, a tongue may be rotated relative to the printed circuit board. In still other embodiments of the present invention, a tongue and printed circuit board may be separate structures for other reasons. In these situations, embodiments of the present invention may provide an interposer or other connecting structure to connect the receptacle tongue to the printed circuit board. These interposers may provide height or angle translation functions such that a tongue of a receptacle may be connected to a main logic, motherboard, or other appropriate board or substrate. 
     An illustrative embodiment of the present invention may provide an interposer having a number of through-hole contacts in a housing. The through-hole contacts may be inserted in openings in a tongue and printed circuit board. The amount of the through-hole contacts that are inserted may be varied in order to adjust for variations in height between the tongue and printed circuit board. 
     Another illustrative embodiment of the present invention may provide an interposer having a number of surface-mount contacts on a top and bottom of a housing. The surface-mount contacts may be soldered to contacts on a tongue and printed circuit board. Surface-mount contacts on a bottom of the interposer may electrically connect to surface-mount contacts on a bottom of the interposer. 
     Another illustrative embodiment of the present invention may provide an interposer having a housing and a plurality of contacts. The contacts may have a side or tongue connecting portion extending beyond a first side of the housing and a bottom or board contacting portion extending beyond a bottom of the housing. The contacts may form a ninety-degree bend. A shield may at least substantially surround a top, first side, second side, and third side of the housing. 
     Another illustrative embodiment of the present invention may provide an interconnect structure. The interconnect structure may include a first housing portion forming a tongue for a connector receptacle. A second housing portion may support a first plurality of contacts. The first plurality of contacts may each include at least one tongue contacting portion at a first end to form a contact on a first side of the tongue and a board contacting portion at a second end. A third housing portion may support a second plurality of contacts and the second plurality of contacts may each include at least one tongue contacting portion at a first end to form a contact on a second side of the tongue and a board contacting portion at a second end. The tongue contacting portions of each of the first and second plurality of contacts may be orthogonal to a corresponding board contacting portion. A shield may be formed around at least portions of the first housing, the second housing, and the third housing. At least one of the plurality of first contacts and at least one or the plurality of second contacts may each include two tongue contacting portions and one board contacting portion. 
     These and other embodiments of the present invention may provide interposers and other connecting structures that provide height, rotational, or both height and rotational translations. These interposers and other connecting structures may mechanically connect a tongue or other connector receptacle portion to a printed circuit board or other appropriate substrate. These interposers and other connecting structures may also electrically connect contacts or traces on the tongue to traces on the printed circuit board or other appropriate substrate. 
     In various embodiments of the present invention, contacts, shields, and other conductive portions of interposers and other connecting structures may be formed by stamping, metal-injection molding, machining, micro-machining, 3-D printing, or other manufacturing process. The conductive portions may be formed of stainless steel, steel, copper, copper titanium, phosphor bronze, or other material or combination of materials. They may be plated or coated with nickel, gold, or other material. The nonconductive portions, such as the housings and device enclosures, may be formed using injection or other molding, 3-D printing, machining, or other manufacturing process. The nonconductive portions may be formed of silicon or silicone, rubber, hard rubber, plastic, nylon, liquid-crystal polymers (LCPs), or other nonconductive material or combination of materials. The printed circuit boards and tongues used may be formed of FR-4, BT or other material. Printed circuit boards may be replaced by other substrates, such as flexible circuit boards, in many embodiments of the present invention. 
     Embodiments of the present invention may provide interposes and connecting structures that may be located in, and may connect to, various types of devices, such as portable computing devices, tablet computers, desktop computers, laptops, all-in-one computers, wearable computing devices, cell phones, smart phones, media phones, storage devices, portable media players, navigation systems, monitors, power supplies, adapters, remote control devices, chargers, and other devices. These interposes and connecting structures may provide pathways for signals that are compliant with various standards such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) including USB-C, High-Definition Multimedia Interface® (HDMI), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), Ethernet, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt™, Lightning™, Joint Test Action Group (JTAG), test-access-port (TAP), Directed Automated Random Testing (DART), universal asynchronous receiver/transmitters (UARTs), clock signals, power signals, and other types of standard, non-standard, and proprietary interfaces and combinations thereof that have been developed, are being developed, or will be developed in the future. Other embodiments of the present invention may provide interposes and connecting structures that may be used to provide a reduced set of functions for one or more of these standards. In various embodiments of the present invention, these interconnect paths provided by these interposes and connecting structures may be used to convey power, ground, signals, test points, and other voltage, current, data, or other information. 
     Various embodiments of the present invention may incorporate one or more of these and the other features described herein. A better understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be gained by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a side view of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates another interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates another interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a side view of an interposer having a ground shield according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  illustrates another interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 8  illustrates an interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 9  illustrates a transparent view of the interposer of  FIG. 8 ; 
         FIG. 10  illustrates a reverse side view of the interposer of  FIG. 8 ; 
         FIG. 11  illustrates an isolated view of a tongue and interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 12  illustrates another isolated view of a tongue and interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 13  illustrates another connecting structure according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 14  illustrates a transparent view of two housing portions of the connecting structure of  FIG. 13 ; and 
         FIG. 15  illustrates a transparent view of another housing portion of the connecting structure of  FIG. 13 . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. This figure, as with the other included figures, is shown for illustrative purposes and does not limit either the possible embodiments of the present invention or the claims. This electronic device may be housed in device enclosure  140 . Tongue  110  may be located in an opening  130  in the device enclosure  140 . Contacts  120  may be located on tongue  110 . Contacts  120  may electrically connect to traces on and in tongue  110 . These traces may connect through an interposer or other connecting structure according to an embodiment of the present invention to traces on a printed circuit board in the electronic device. 
     In various embodiments of the present invention, the tongue and board may be at different heights or at angles relative to each other in an electronic device. In these situations, one or more different types of interposers may be used to connect these boards. A connector receptacle according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in the following figure. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a side view of an electronic device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this example, tongue  110  may be located in a recess  130  in housing  140 . Specifically, tongue  110  may be inserted through passage or opening  132  in recess  130  such that contacts  120  may be mated with corresponding contacts on a connector insert (not shown.) More information on these connector receptacles and tongues may be found in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/543,748, titled “Connector Receptacle Having a Tongue,” filed Nov. 17, 2014, which is incorporated by reference. 
     It may be desirable to connect contacts  120 , which may be connected to traces on tongue  110 , to traces on printed circuit board  220 . However, these to boards may be at different heights or at different angles in the device. Accordingly, interposer  210  or other connecting structure may be used to connect contacts  120  and traces on tongue  110  to traces on printed circuit board  220 . Also, while embodiments of the present invention are well-suited to forming electrical connections between tongues and printed circuit boards, embodiments of the present invention may provide interposers and other interconnect structures to form electrical connections between other structures, such as receptacle housings that may support a number of contacts, flexible circuit boards, and other appropriate connector portions and substrates. Examples of specific interposers and connecting structures are shown in the following figures. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention. Interposer  210  may include a number of through-hole contacts  320  housed in a housing  310 . These through-hole contacts  320  may be placed in openings in a tongue and printed circuit board in an electronic device. That is, through-hole contacts  320  may fit in holes or openings on tongue  110  and board  220  in an electronic device and soldered to form electrical connections with traces connected to the holes or openings. Posts  330  may optionally be included for alignment and mechanical support. Housing  310  may be formed of plastic or other nonconductive material. 
     Through-hole contacts  320  may help to provide vertical adjustment to the connections between a tongue and a printed circuit board, such as tongue  110  and printed circuit board  220 . That is, the contacts  320  may be inserted into openings in the tongue or printed circuit board an amount that varies with the vertical offset, or difference in Z position, between the tongue and printed circuit board. This adjustment may be useful in accounting for variations in positions when interposers are used to connect a tongue and board at different angles relative to each other. 
     Through-hole contacts, such as through-hole contacts  320 , may tend to emit more signal noise thereby degrading signal integrity. This may make these through-hole contacts unsuitable for very high-speed applications. In such applications, surface mount contacts may be used. These surface mount contacts may be positioned on either or both ends of contacts, such as contacts  320 . These surface mount contacts may be SMT type contacts, ball contacts, or other types of surface mount contacts. An example of an interposer using ball contacts is shown in the following figure. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates another interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention. This interposer may include ball grid array contacts  420  on a top and bottom surface of housing  410 . These ball grid arrays may be interconnected by pathways  430 . The ball grid array contacts may provide surface mount connections to a tongue and to a printed circuit board. 
     In various embodiments of the present invention, it may be desirable to attach an interposer to a tongue before attaching the interposer and tongue together as a unit to a printed circuit board. In such case, a higher temperature solder or connecting material may be used to connect the tongue to the interposer. This may ensure that the tongue and interposer remain intact together while the interposer is soldered to the printed circuit board using a lower temperature solder or connecting material. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates another interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this example, spring contacts  520  may be located in housing  510  of interposer  210 . Spring contacts  520  of interposer  210  may compress and form connections when sandwiched between a tongue and a printed circuit board, such as tongue  110  and printed circuit board  220  in the above example. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a side view of an interposer having a ground shield according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this example, tongue  110  may be connected to printed circuit board  220  through interposer  210 . These spring finger arrangement of  FIG. 5  may be used to provide ground shields  610 . Interposer  210  may be formed as any of the interposers shown here, or it may be formed in other ways. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates another interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment of the present invention, tin bars  720  may be located in nonconductive housing  710  of interposer  210 . During soldering, tin bars  4020  may flow forming connections to contacts on a tongue and printed circuit board. Crash bars  730  may be used to secure tin bars  720  in place. 
     In these embodiments of the present invention, the interposers may provide a height translation. In these and other embodiments of the present invention, interposers may provide an angular translation. Examples are shown in the following figures. 
       FIG. 8  illustrates an interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention. As with the other interposers and connecting structures shown, interposer  810  may physically attach tongue  110  to printed circuit board  220  and interposer  810  may electrically connect traces on or in tongue  110  to traces on or in printed circuit board  220 . In this example, tongue  110  may support contacts  120  and may have a connecting portion  150 . Interposer  810  may include a shield  820  having tabs  822 . Interposer  810  may be supported by support structure  824 . Support structure  824  and tabs  822  may be inserted in holes in printed circuit board  220 . In this way, interposer  810  may physically attach tongue  110  to printed circuit board or other appropriate substrate  220 . In this example, interposer  810  may also provide a 90 degree translation, that is, tongue  110  may be at an angle relative to printed circuit board  220 . Interposer  810  may electrically connect traces on or in tongue  110  to traces on or in board  220  through a plurality of contacts. An example is shown in the following figure. 
       FIG. 9  illustrates a transparent view of the interposer of  FIG. 8 . In this example, contacts  910  may provide a right-angle translation between traces on a tongue and another printed circuit board. Contacts  910  may include through-hole portions  912 . Posts  920  may be used for alignment purposes and mechanical support. 
       FIG. 10  illustrates a reverse side view of the interposer of  FIG. 8 . Again, through-hole contacts  1010  and  912  may be used to join traces between a tongue and printed circuit board, such as tongue  110  and printed circuit board  220 . 
       FIG. 11  illustrates an isolated view of a tongue and interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention. Tongue  110  may support contacts  120  and may have a connecting portion  150 . Interposer  810  may connect tongue  110  to a printed circuit board  220  (shown in other illustrations.) 
       FIG. 12  illustrates another isolated view of a tongue and interposer according to an embodiment of the present invention. Again, tongue  110  may support contacts  120  and may have a contacting portion  150 . Interposer  810  may provide a right-angled translation using contacts having through-hole contacting portions  1010  and  912 . 
       FIG. 13  illustrates a connecting structure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Connecting structure  1300  may include tongue  1310  supporting a number of contacts  1320  on each side. Tongue  1310  may further include ground contacts  1330  on each side. Raised portion  1340  may be formed around tongue  1310  and may be arranged to accept an opening on a connector insert, or it may be arranged to fit in an opening in a device enclosure that may house connecting structure  1300 . Contacts  1320  may terminate in board contact portions  1322 . Board contact portions  1322  may fit in openings in a printed circuit board and may connect to traces in a printed circuit board. Housing portions  1350  and  1352  may support these contacts and may be at least partially surrounded by shield  1360 . Shield  1360  may include opening  1364  for accepting tabs  1356  on housing portions  1352  and  1350 . Shield  1360  may further include tabs  1362 . Tabs  1362  may fit in openings and electrically connect to ground traces or planes in a printed circuit board. Posts  1354  may be inserted in openings in a printed circuit board for alignment and mechanical stability. 
       FIG. 14  illustrates contacts and housing portions of the connecting structure of  FIG. 13 . Housing portion  1352  and housing portion  1350  may each support a number of contacts  1320  that may terminate in board contact portions  1322 . Contacts, or tongue contacting portions  1320 , may be at least approximately orthogonal to board contacting portions  1322 . In this way, contacts  1320  may provide a right angle translation between the tongue and a printed circuit board. 
     In various embodiments of the present invention, a number of contacts on a tongue may be fixed or determined by an existing interface specification. But it may be desirable to reduce the number of contact portions  1322 . Reducing the number of board contact portions  1322  may reduce the board space consumed by connecting structure  1300 . Accordingly, in some embodiments of the present invention, more than one tongue contacting portion  1320  may be connected together and connected to a single board contacting portion  1322 . For example, tongue contact portions  1410  may electrically connected together. These contact portions may be for power and may connect together to a single power contact portion  1322 . Similarly, ground contacts  1412  may be connected together to a single board contact portion  1322 . Moreover, other tongue contacts, such as tongue contacting portion  1414 , may be present but may not be connected to a board contacting portion  1322 . 
     A third housing portion (not shown) may form tongue  1310 . This third housing portion may attach to housing portions  1352  and  1350  using tabs  1357  and notches  1358 , as shown below. 
       FIG. 15  illustrates a housing portion for the connecting structure of  FIG. 13 . Tongue  1310  may include a number of slots  1520 . Tongue contact portions  1320  may reside in slots  1520 . Raised portion  1340  may be formed on this housing portion. First and second housing portions  1350  and  1352  may be placed together and inserted into opening  1550 . Tabs  1557  on housing portions  1352  and  1350  may fit in openings  1530 , while extensions  1540  may fit in notches  1358  in housing portions  1352  and  1350 . 
     In various embodiments of the present invention, contacts, shields, and other conductive portions of interposers and other connecting structures may be formed by stamping, metal-injection molding, machining, micro-machining, 3-D printing, or other manufacturing process. The conductive portions may be formed of stainless steel, steel, copper, copper titanium, phosphor bronze, or other material or combination of materials. They may be plated or coated with nickel, gold, or other material. The nonconductive portions, such as the housings and device enclosures, may be formed using injection or other molding, 3-D printing, machining, or other manufacturing process. The nonconductive portions may be formed of silicon or silicone, rubber, hard rubber, plastic, nylon, liquid-crystal polymers (LCPs), or other nonconductive material or combination of materials. The printed circuit boards and tongues used may be formed of FR-4, BT or other material. Printed circuit boards may be replaced by other substrates, such as flexible circuit boards, in many embodiments of the present invention. 
     Embodiments of the present invention may provide interposes and connecting structures that may be located in, and may connect to, various types of devices, such as portable computing devices, tablet computers, desktop computers, laptops, all-in-one computers, wearable computing devices, cell phones, smart phones, media phones, storage devices, portable media players, navigation systems, monitors, power supplies, adapters, remote control devices, chargers, and other devices. These interposes and connecting structures may provide pathways for signals that are compliant with various standards such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) including USB-C, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), Ethernet, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, Lightning, Joint Test Action Group (JTAG), test-access-port (TAP), Directed Automated Random Testing (DART), universal asynchronous receiver/transmitters (UARTs), clock signals, power signals, and other types of standard, non-standard, and proprietary interfaces and combinations thereof that have been developed, are being developed, or will be developed in the future. Other embodiments of the present invention may provide interposes and connecting structures that may be used to provide a reduced set of functions for one or more of these standards. In various embodiments of the present invention, these interconnect paths provided by these interposes and connecting structures may be used to convey power, ground, signals, test points, and other voltage, current, data, or other information. 
     The above description of embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form described, and many modifications and variations are possible in light of the teaching above. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Thus, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the following claims.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20141117
Publication Date: 20160301
Grant Date: 20160301
Priority Date: 20140526
Inventors: AMINI MAHMOUD R.
GAO ZHENG
NG NATHAN N.
LEE JASON HWANG
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H01R12/71", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R13/2414", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R24/66", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R12/52", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R2201/06", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R13/2414", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R24/66", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R2201/06", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R12/71", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R12/724", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R12/52", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01R12/724", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 54556740