Circuit board bypass assemblies and components therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10135211-B2
Application number	US-201615541775-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 11, 2016
Priority date	Jan 11, 2015
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

A connector for use in a free-standing connector port for mating with an external pluggable module is disclosed. The connector has terminals that extend lengthwise of the connector so that cables may be terminated to the terminals and the terminals and cable generally are horizontally aligned together. The connector includes a housing and a pair of connecting elements that flank a card-receiving slot of the connector. The cables exit from the rear of the connector elements and from the connector port. The connector elements engage the connector port to fix the connector in place within the connector port.

First claim

We claim:

1. A bipass assembly, comprising:
a device with a first panel and a second panel;
a chip package supported by a support structure, the chip package including a chip supported on a substrate, the chip package including leads extending from the chip to respective first contacts and leads from the chip to second contacts, the first and second contacts positioned at termination areas of the substrate;
a first cable and a second cable, the first cable including a first pair of signal conductors and the second cable including a second pair of signal conductors, the first and second pairs of signal conductors each having a drain wire and a first end and a second end associated therewith, wherein the first cable is terminated to the first contacts and the second cable is terminated to the second contacts;
an entry connector positioned in the first panel, the entry connector electrically connected to the chip package via the first cable; and
an exit connector positioned in the second panel, the exit connector electrically connected to the chip package via the second cable, wherein the second cable is terminated to the second contacts and wherein the entry and exit connectors are configured to mate with respective opposing connectors so as to define, in operation, high data-rate capable transmission lines extending from the chip to the entry and exit connectors.

2. The bypass assembly of claim 1 , wherein the entry connector is an I/O connector and the exit connector is a backplane connector.

3. The bypass assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first and second panels are on opposite sides of the device.

4. The bypass assembly of claim 1 , wherein the entry connector includes:
a conductive, four-sided connector housing having opposing first and second ends, the housing including a plurality of walls contacting each other and defining a connector passage that is hollow and extends completely therethrough between the first and second ends;
a receptacle connector disposed in the connector, the receptacle connector including a body portion supporting a plurality of conductive signal and ground terminals in distinct rows, the body portion defining a card-receiving slot.

5. The bypass assembly of claim 4 , wherein the connector passage includes an interior taper that provides an interference contact with two opposing sides of the receptacle connector to thereby provide an EMI seal between the sides of the receptacle connector and the conductive housing, the receptacle connector further being restrained from linear movement within the passage and further including two EMI seal members extending widthwise along top and bottom sides of the receptacle connector and within the connector passage, the EMI seal members including EMI absorbing material that engages inner surfaces of the connector passage in an interference fit.

6. The bypass assembly of claim 4 , wherein the connector passage includes shoulders that exert a compressive interference engagement force on the body portion in two different directions.

7. The bypass assembly of claim 4 , wherein the receptacle connector includes two connector elements that each support a terminal array, the two terminal arrays being spaced apart from each other vertically and arranged in the card-receiving slot, the connector including a structure that promotes the signal integrity of data signals passing therethrough by way of an impedance transition from bypass cable wires to the circuits of a circuit card of an opposing mating connector.

8. The bypass assembly of claim 7 , wherein the impedance transition is between from about 85 to about 100 ohms within a preselected tolerance level and is accomplished in three adjacent zones, wherein a first of the three zones has a hot melt adhesive surrounding portions of the terminals and wherein a second of the three zones has a liquid crystal polymer surrounding portions of the terminals, and wherein a third of the three zones has air surrounding portions of the terminals.

9. The bypass assembly of claim 8 , further including a ground shield disposed in the connector housing above one of the two terminal arrays, wherein drain wires of the cables are connected to the ground shield.

10. The bypass assembly of claim 9 , wherein the terminals have configurations that vary in width along the length of the terminals to tune the impedance thereof.

11. The bypass assembly of claim 4 , wherein the receptacle connector includes a pair of connector elements, each connector element including a plurality of terminals arranged in a row and axially aligned with the cable signal conductors and grounds, two of the connector elements being stacked together to define two spaced-apart rows of terminals that extend into the card-receiving slot.

12. The bypass assembly of claim 11 , wherein exterior portions of the connector elements are conductive and engage the connector housing.

13. The bypass assembly of claim 11 , wherein the receptacle connector includes a ground plane interposed between the connector elements, and a plurality of cable ground busses which are spaced apart from the ground plane, each of the cable ground busses having a base portion that at least partially extends over proximal ends of signal conductors of the first wire pairs, the cable ground busses further including contact portions extending toward the receptacle connector ground terminals and being terminated to tail portions of ground terminals.

14. The bypass assembly of claim 13 , wherein the cable ground buss contact portions are vertically offset with respect to the cable ground busses so that the cable ground busses are spaced apart from the ground plane and each other, and further extend over part of the terminal tail portions.

15. The bypass assembly of claim 14 , wherein the drain wires of the first wire pairs include free ends extending out of plane of the first wire pair signal conductors, the drain wire free ends further being configured to lie flat upon the cable ground busses in contact therewith.

16. The bypass assembly of claim 13 , wherein the cable ground busses include three contact portions spaced widthwise of the connector element and terminated to ground terminal tail portions such that each contact portion extends lengthwise adjacent a pair of twin-ax cable signal conductors.

17. The bypass assembly of claim 4 , wherein one of the connector housing four sides includes a bottom wall with at least one pair of engagement flaps, one of the at least one pair of engagement flaps engaging an outer surface of a sidewall of the connector housing, and the other of the pair engaging an inner surface of the connector housing sidewall.

18. The bypass assembly of claim 1 , further including a visual indicator bar supported thereon proximate a front end of the entry connector, the visual indicator bar including a plurality of LEDs for indicating operational conditions of a connector port defined by the connector housing, the connector housing having no light transmitting materials extending between its front end and a circuit board to which the connector housing is mounted.

19. The bypass assembly of claim 1 , further including a heat sink associated with the connector housing, the connector housing having an opening disposed in one surface thereof and which receives the base of an elongated heat sink, the base extending downwardly into the hollow passage for contacting a surface of an opposing mating connector inserted therein, and the heat sink base includes a contact member that extends into the connector housing ho

Assignees

• Molex Llc

Inventors

• Lloyd Brian Keith
• Walz Gregory B
• Reed Bruce
• Fitzgerald Gregory
• Isaac Ayman
• Regnier Kent E
• Janowiak Brandon
• Schulz Darian R
• Ahmad Munawar
• Jones Eran J
• Resendez Javier
• Rost Michael

Classifications

• H01R31/005 Primary

  Intermediate parts for distributing signals · CPC title

• H01R13/7175

  Light emitting diodes (LEDs) · CPC title

• H01R13/665

  with built-in electronic circuit (H01R13/70, H01R13/719 take precedence) · CPC title

• G06F1/181

  Enclosures (for portable computers G06F1/1613) · CPC title

• H01R13/6658

  on printed circuit board (H01R13/6666 - H01R13/6691 take precedence) · CPC title