High-data-rate electrical interconnect cables

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9983376-B2
Application number	US-201615131252-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2016
Priority date	Apr 23, 2015
Publication date	May 29, 2018
Grant date	May 29, 2018

Abstract

High-data-rate interconnect cables are disclosed, wherein electrical data signals are transmitted in a conductor assembly made of a thin metal layer surrounding a cylindrical support member. The cylindrical support member can be a high-resistivity conductor or a dielectric, such as a glass optical waveguide that supports the transmission of optical signals. The cylindrical support member can also be a core conductor that supports the transmission of electrical power and low-frequency auxiliary signals. The high-data-rate interconnect cables are self-equalizing, so that a data link transmission system that employs the high-data-rate interconnect cable does not require active equalization.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A conductor assembly for an electrical cable for transmitting electrical signals having a data rate, comprising:
a cylindrical support member made of at least one of: a dielectric material, a metal having a resistivity R greater than 10 −5 ohm-meters and a material having a relative magnetic permeability μ T >100, the cylindrical support member having a body and an outer surface; and
at least one metal layer supported by the cylindrical support member and having a thickness t and that supports the transmission of the electrical signals, wherein the thickness t is less than a skin depth in the at least one metal layer as defined by half of the data rate of the electrical signals, and the outer surface has a root-mean-square roughness that is less than half of the skin depth.

2. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal layer is formed on the outer surface of the cylindrical support member.

3. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal layer has a tubular shape with a round or oval cross-sectional shape.

4. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cylindrical support member has a tubular shape with an inner surface, and wherein the at least one metal layer includes an inner metal layer formed on the inner surface and an outer metal layer formed on the outer surface.

5. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cylindrical support member is made of glass.

6. The conductor assembly according to claim 5 , wherein the cylindrical support member includes an outer surface, and wherein the at least one metal layer is formed on the outer surface.

7. The conductor assembly according to claim 6 , wherein the cylindrical support member is an optical fiber that consists of a glass core surrounded by a glass cladding.

8. The conductor assembly of claim 7 , wherein the at least one metal layer consists of first and second spaced apart metal layers formed on first and section sections of the outer surface.

9. The conductor assembly of claim 8 , wherein the cylindrical support member has a dog-bone cross-sectional shape.

10. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cylindrical support member is made of a polymer.

11. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cylindrical support member is made of at least one of: copper-manganese, copper-nickel and a nickel-chromium alloy.

12. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal layer is made of at least one of: silver, copper, gold, aluminum, zinc, tin and platinum.

13. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal layer has a resistivity R L and wherein R>10·R L .

14. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cylindrical support member has either a circular or an oval cross-sectional shape.

15. The conductor assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal layer is embedded within the body of the cylindrical support member.

16. The conductor assembly according to claim 15 , wherein the at least one metal layer comprises multiple metal layers that define either a coax, a twinax or a quadrax configuration.

17. An electrical interconnect cable, comprising:
at least one conductor assembly according to claim 1 .

18. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 17 , including two or more spaced apart conductor assemblies embedded within a dielectric material.

19. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 17 , wherein the electrical interconnect cable has either a coax, a twinax or a quadrax configuration.

20. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 17 , wherein the support member of the at least one conductor comprises an optical fiber that supports transmission of optical signals.

21. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 17 , wherein the dielectric material in which the two or more spaced apart conductor assemblies are embedded comprises a polymer.

22. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 17 , wherein the polymer comprises a non-polar polymer such as polyethylene, polyisobutylene, poly 4-methylpentent (TPX), poly dimethyl phenyloxide (PPO), polypropylene, polystyrene, and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

23. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 22 , wherein the data rate is in the range from 5 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s.

24. A conductor assembly for simultaneously transmitting electrical data signals and direct-current power, comprising:
a cylindrical core conductor having an outer surface;
a shield layer disposed on the outer surface of the cylindrical core, the shield layer having a relative magnetic permeability μ T >100, a thickness w and an outer surface, wherein the shield layer has a skin depth δs defined by a frequency of the electrical data signals, and wherein the thickness w is in the range δs≤w≤10·δs;
a metal layer of thickness t disposed on the outer surface of the shield layer, wherein the thickness t is in the range from 0.1 μm≤t≤10 μm; and
wherein the core conductor supports the transmission of the direct-current power and wherein the metal layer supports the transmission of the electrical data signals.

25. The conductor assembly according to claim 24 , wherein the core conductor comprises a copper wire.

26. The conductor assembly according to claim 24 , wherein the shield layer comprises either nickel or steel.

27. The conductor assembly according to claim 24 , wherein the thickness t of the thin conductor layer is in the range from 0.1 to 10 micrometers.

28. An electrical interconnect cable, comprising:
at least one conductor assembly according to claim 24 ;
an outer conductor that surrounds the at least one conductor assembly; and
a first layer of dielectric material that resides between the at least one conductor assembly and the outer conductor; and
an outer jacket that surrounds the dielectric layer.

29. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 28 , wherein the at least one conductor assembly comprises a single conductor assembly and wherein the single conductor assembly and the outer conductor define a coaxial cable configuration.

30. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 28 , further including an electromagnetic shield layer surrounding the outer conductor and separated therefrom by a second layer of dielectric material.

31. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 28 , wherein the at least one conductor assembly consists of first and second conductor assemblies in twin axial configuration.

32. The electrical interconnect cable according to claim 28 , wherein the at least one conductor assembly consists of four conductor assemblies in quadraxial configuration.

33. A conductor assembly for transmitting electrical and optical data signals, comprising:
an optical fiber that includes a glass core and a glass cladding immediately surrounding the core, wherein the glass cladding has an outer surface and wherein the glass core and glass cladding define an optical waveguide;
at least one metal layer disposed on the outer surface of the glass cladding, the at least one metal layer having an outer surface and supporting the transmission of electrical data signa

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications LLC

Inventors

• Charbonneau-Lefort Mathieu
• Khrapko Rostislav Radiyevich
• Trutna William Richard
• Walker Richard Clayton

Classifications

• G02B6/4432

  with fibre reinforcements · CPC title

• H01B3/02 Primary

  mainly consisting of inorganic substances · CPC title

• G02B6/02395

  Glass optical fibre with a protective coating, e.g. two layer polymer coating deposited directly on a silica cladding surface during fibre manufacture (G02B6/02052, G02B6/02057, G02B6/024, G02B6/032, G02B6/105, G02B6/14 take precedence; coating on fibre gratings G02B6/02104; multilayer core or cladding G02B6/036; reinforcing splice joints G02B6/2558; optical cables, i.e. comprising protective structures external to the protective coating such as a jacket or plural coated optical fibres G02B6/44; coating of glass to obtain optical fibres C03C25/104) · CPC title

• G02B6/4416 Primary

  Heterogeneous cables · CPC title

• H01B11/22

  Cables including at least one electrical conductor together with optical fibres · CPC title