Hybrid connector for both electrical and optical transmission

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9891386-B2
Application number	US-201615095172-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 11, 2016
Priority date	Mar 25, 2015
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

A hybrid plug connector including an insulative housing defining a cavity to receive an optical fiber assembly therein, and a plurality of passageways to receive a plurality of terminals therein. A printed circuit board is located behind the terminals and connected to the terminals. An electrical cable is mounted to a rear portion of the circuit board. The whole optical fiber assembly is received within the housing and is somewhat back and forth moveable along a front-to-back direction for buffering for compliantly coupling with another optical fiber assembly built within the complementary receptacle connector when the plug connector is inserted into the complementary receptacle connector. A lens module is formed on the optical fiber assembly for collimating the light beams from the optical fibers.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A hybrid plug connector comprising:
an insulative housing forming a cavity extending through a front face thereof to forwardly communicate with an exterior in a front-to-back direction;
a plurality of passageways formed in the housing and spaced from the cavity in a vertical direction perpendicular to said front-to-back direction;
an electrical assembly received within the cavity and including a printed circuit board with a plurality of terminals connected thereon, a contacting section of each of the terminals extending into the corresponding passageway and communicating with the exterior in the vertical direction;
an optical fiber assembly received within the cavity; and
a deflectable latch formed upon the housing opposite to the terminals; wherein
the optical fiber assembly is essentially located at a middle level between the latch and the terminals in the vertical direction; wherein
a forwardly exposed lens module is disposed around a front surface of said optical fiber assembly with corresponding convex structures to collimate light beams for light transmission in said front-to-back direction.

2. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each of the terminals defines a strip configuration with bents thereof.

3. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said optical fiber assembly is equipped with a buffering device to be slightly back and forth moveable relative to the housing in the front-to-back direction.

4. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the optical fiber assembly includes a plurality of optical fibers and the lens module includes a plurality of lens units with said corresponding convex structures thereon in alignment with the corresponding optical fibers in the front-to-back direction, respectively.

5. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 4 , wherein said optical fiber assembly includes a base block and a cap pivotally mounted on the base block, and one of said cap and said base block includes a buffering device to have the optical fiber assembly slightly back and forth moveable relative to the housing in the front-to-back direction.

6. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 5 , wherein said front end of the base block slightly protrudes out of the front face of the housing.

7. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 5 , wherein said base block includes a recessed region in which said lens module is disposed.

8. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the convex structures are hidden within the recessed region and behind the front surface for anti-dust consideration.

9. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 1 , wherein an alignment post extends forwardly from the front surface of the optical fiber assembly and beside the lens module in a transverse direction perpendicular to both said front-to-back direction and said vertical direction.

10. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising an anti-dust cover surrounding the housing with a locking structure secure to the deflectable latch in a releasable manner.

11. A hybrid plug connector comprising:
an insulative housing forming a cavity extending through a front face thereof to forwardly communicate with an exterior in a front-to-back direction;
a plurality of passageways formed in the housing and spaced from the cavity in a vertical direction perpendicular to said front-to-back direction;
an electrical assembly received within the cavity and including a printed circuit board with a plurality of terminals connected thereon, a contacting section of each of the terminals extending into the corresponding passageway and communicating with the exterior in the vertical direction;
an optical fiber assembly received within the cavity; and
a deflectable latch formed upon the housing opposite to the terminals; wherein
the optical fiber assembly is essentially located at a middle level between the latch and the terminals in the vertical direction; wherein
the optical fiber assembly includes a base block and at least one cap pivotally mounted thereon, a pair of through holes formed in the base block, and a pair of mating sleeves disposed in the corresponding through holes, and each mating sleeve receives a front GRIN lens and a rear guide-in cylinder.

12. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 11 , wherein said optical fiber assembly is equipped with a buffering device to be slightly back and forth moveable relative to the housing in the front-to-back direction.

13. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the optical fiber assembly includes a plurality of optical fibers inserted into the corresponding guide-in cylinder respectively.

14. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 13 , wherein each of the optical fibers includes an inner core which is delicately received within a corresponding guide-in passage of the rear guide-in cylinder with the front tip of each optical fiber intimately confronting the corresponding front GRIN lens.

15. The hybrid plug connector as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the base block forms a channel between the pair of through holes along the front-to-back direction, and the cap includes two parts each forming a fork structure to sandwich and pivotally mounted to a corresponding portion of the base block beside the channel.

Assignees

• Foxconn Interconnect Technology Ltd

Inventors

• Little Terrance F
• Zhang Yuan
• Yang An Jen
• Chen Paul

Classifications

• G02B6/3882

  using rods, pins or balls to align a pair of ferrule ends · CPC title

• H01R13/6272

  comprising a single latching arm · CPC title

• G02B6/3885

  Multicore or multichannel optical connectors, i.e. one single ferrule containing more than one fibre, e.g. ribbon type (optical ribbon cable G02B6/4403, G02B6/448) · CPC title

• G02B6/3849

  using mechanical protective elements, e.g. caps, hoods, sealing membranes (G02B6/3816 takes precedence; provisionally see H01R13/44) · CPC title

• G02B6/3853

  Lens inside the ferrule (lensed connectors G02B6/32) · CPC title