Paddle card assembly for high speed applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9466925-B2
Application number	US-201514637551-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 4, 2015
Priority date	Jan 18, 2013
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

A paddle card assembly is disclosed for use in providing a high speed transmission line for connecting electronic devices together. The paddle card takes the form of a circuit board that has two distinct portions, a base portion to which wires of a cable are terminated, and an extension portion that extends rearwardly toward the cable wire in order to extend between sets of wires. The extension portion has one or more ground plane layers formed therewith and supported thereby and as such, the extension portion places a ground plane in the termination area of the connector, rear of the trailing edge of the paddle card to provide shielding between pairs of wires on opposite sides of the paddle card where the cable shields are cut back. The extension portion may have either a reduced thickness, or wire-receiving channels formed therein which accommodate portions of the wires of the cable.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An improved cable assembly, comprising:
a cable, the cable including a plurality of wires, each wire including a conductor surrounded by an insulative covering and pairs of the wires being wrapped together in an outer shielding member, the conductors of each wire extending past a leading edge of the insulative covering to define free termination ends of the wires, and the outer shielding member having a leading edge spaced rearwardly from the insulative covering free ends;
a circuit board having opposite leading and trailing edges and opposite first and second surface, the circuit board including two distinct portions:
a first portion containing a plurality of termination contact pads for connecting circuitry of the circuit board to the wire free ends, and
a second portion extending from and spaced apart from the circuit board first portion, the second portion extending rearwardly from the termination contact pads, the cable wire free ends terminating to the termination contact pads, wherein the second portion includes a circuit member inserted into the first portion; and

a connector housing enclosing the circuit board and a portion of the cable.

2. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first and second portions have respective first and second thicknesses, the first thickness being greater than the second thickness, so that the circuit board has a stepped profile when viewed from a side thereof.

3. The cable assembly of claim 2 , wherein a difference between the first and second thicknesses permits the cable wires to lie upon the second portion such that the cable wire free ends lie generally flat upon the contact pads of the first portion.

4. The cable assembly of claim 2 , wherein the cable wires are arranged in at least two wire pairs, one cable wire pair disposed along a first surface of the second portion and the other cable wire pair disposed along a second surface of the second portion, the thickness of the first and second portions being sufficient so that the conductors of each cable wire pair lie substantially flat on the first portion contact pads.

5. The cable assembly of claim 2 , wherein wire-receiving channels of the second portion have a depth sufficient so that the conductors of the cable wires lie substantially flat upon the contact pads.

6. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the cable wire shield member is a conductive braided shield, and the braided shield of each wire pairs is terminated to the second portion.

7. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the second portion includes at least one ground plane layer extending from the first portion into the second portion.

8. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the second portion includes a second ground plane layer extending from the first portion into the second portion.

9. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the second portion is integrally formed with the first portion.

10. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the second portion includes wire-receiving channels, the wire-receiving channels accommodating the cable wires.

11. The cable assembly of claim 10 , wherein:
single cable wires are respectively received in single wire-receiving channels; and
the second portion includes at least one ground plane therein, and the wire-receiving channels are formed within the second portion with a depth that exposes the ground plane.

12. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein a portion of the first portion and the second portion are overmolded with a material that fixes the cable wires in place with respect to the circuit board, the overmolded material providing strain relief for the wire free ends.

Assignees

• Molex Llc

Inventors

• Rost Michael
• Bugg Mark Alan
• Schulz Darian Ross

Classifications

• H01R12/53

  connecting to cables except for flat or ribbon cables · CPC title

• H01R12/721

  cooperating directly with the edge of the rigid printed circuits · CPC title

• H01R13/6592 Primary

  the conductive member being a shielded cable · CPC title

• H01R9/032

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01R13/65912

  for shielded multiconductor cable (coaxial cables with one conductor surrounded by shield H01R9/05; flat shielded cables H01R12/594) · CPC title