High bandwidth connector

• US 8,771,016 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2011
• Issued: 07/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amphenol Corporation
• Original Assignee: Amphenol Corporation
• Inventors: Atkinson, Prescott B., Gailus, Mark W., Hanrahan, Mark G.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, HIEN D
• Application Number:
  US13/034,670
• Publication Number:
  US 20110230096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,230 Days
• Field of Search: 439/607.01, 439/607.02, 439/701
• US Class Current: 439/607.07
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 12/724 containing contact members forming a right angle
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 12/737 Printed circuits being substantially perpendicular to each other for printed connections H05K3/366
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/514 composed as a modular blocks or assembly, i.e. composed of co-operating parts provided with contact members or holding contact members between them
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/6474 by variation of conductive properties, e.g. by dimension variations
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/6477 by variation of dielectric properties
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/6598 Shield material

Abstract

An improved open pin field connector is provided for enhanced performance when carrying high speed signals by selective application of one or more techniques for controlling electrical performance parameters. Lossy material may be positioned adjacent to conductive elements of the connector so as to reduce resonance in pairs of conductive elements and/or to provide a desired characteristic impedance for pairs of differential signal conductors. The lossy material may be shaped and positioned to avoid capacitive coupling that might otherwise increase cross talk. In a right angle connector, the lossy material may have a step-wise increase in thickness to provide comparable loss along longer and shorter conductive elements. Conductive elements may be shaped to balance performance characteristics of pairs selected to carry differential signals regardless of orientation along a row or column. Alternatively, conductive elements may have narrowed regions, covered with lossy portions, for reducing resonance while supporting DC signal propagation.

Claims

1. An electrical connector, comprising:

a plurality of columns, each column comprising a plurality of conductive elements, the plurality of columns aligned in parallel such that the plurality of conductive elements in the plurality of columns are disposed in a plurality of rows, each conductive element having a broadside portion and an edge portion, the edge portion constructed to be narrower than the broadside portion, wherein a first broadside and a second broadside of the broadside portion are joined by a first edge and a second edge of the edge portion, the first broadside and the second broadside each being wider than the first edge and the second edge; and

lossy material disposed adjacent the conductive elements of each of the plurality of columns,

wherein the plurality of columns and the lossy material are configured such that conductive elements provide differential signal conducting paths having a nominal impedance, and the lossy material is positioned such that signal paths formed from adjacent conductive elements in the same column have an impedance no less than 80% of the nominal impedance and signal paths formed from adjacent conductive elements in adjacent columns have an impedance no greater than 120% of the nominal impedance.

2. The electrical connector of claim 1, further comprising:

insulative material, the insulative material having a relative dielectric constant in excess of 3.

3. The electrical connector of claim 2, wherein:

the plurality of columns are aligned in parallel such that the plurality of conductive elements in the plurality of columns are disposed in a plurality of rows, with the conductive elements in the same column being aligned edge-to-edge and the conductive elements in the same row being aligned broadside-to-broadside; and

the insulative material is disposed between adjacent conductive elements in the same row.

4. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein:

the electrical connector further comprises a housing comprising a dielectric material, the housing being configured such that the effective dielectric constant of material between adjacent conductive elements in the same row is higher than an effective dielectric constant of material between adjacent conductive elements in the same column.

5. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein for each of the plurality of columns, the lossy material is disposed symmetrically about a longitudinal axis on each side of the column.

6. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the nominal impedance is 100 Ohms.

7. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the nominal impedance is 85 Ohms.

8. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein:

the electrical connector comprises a plurality of subassemblies aligned side-by-side, each subassembly comprising;

a column of the plurality of columns;

an insulative portion holding the column, the insulative portion having a relative dielectric constant in excess of 2.9 and openings between adjacent ones of the plurality of conductive elements of the column;

the lossy material comprises a plurality of planar members, wherein;

each planar member is disposed adjacent an insulative portion of a respective subassembly of the plurality of subassemblies, and

each planar member comprises a plurality of openings formed therethrough, the openings of the lossy member aligning with the openings of the insulative portion of the respective subassembly.

9. The electrical connector of claim 8, wherein:

each planar member has a stepped profile comprising a plurality of successively increasing steps.

10. The electrical connector of claim 8, wherein:

the plurality of columns are aligned in parallel such that the plurality of conductive elements in the plurality of columns are disposed in a plurality of rows, with the conductive elements in the same column being aligned edge-to-edge and the conductive elements in the same row being aligned broadside-to-broadside; and

the plurality of conductive elements in the plurality of columns are disposed and configured to provide a nominal spacing between conductive elements, with the edge-to-edge spacing of the conductive elements within each of the plurality of columns being no less than 80% of the nominal spacing and the broadside-to-broadside spacing of the conductive elements within each of the plurality of rows being no greater than 120% of the nominal spacing.

11. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein:

at least a portion of the plurality of conductive elements each has at least one narrowed segment; and

the lossy material is selectively positioned adjacent the narrowed segments of the portion of the plurality of conductive elements.

12. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein:

at least a portion of the plurality of conductive elements each has at least one gap region ; and

the lossy material is selectively positioned adjacent the gap regions of the portion of the plurality of conductive elements.

13. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the electrical connector is a open pin field connector.

14. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of conductive elements comprises a mating contact portion, a contact tail and an intermediate portion joining the mating contact portion and the contact tail; and

the mating contact portions and the contact tails of the plurality of conductive elements are configured in accordance with an HM standard.

15. The electrical connector of claim 14, wherein the lossy material is electrically floating within the electrical connector relative to all of the plurality of conductive elements in all of the plurality of columns.

16. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein:

each of the plurality of columns is held within a housing to form a wafer, each wafer comprising;

the lossy material comprising;

a plurality of strips of lossy material, each strip of the plurality of strips following a contour of a respective conductive element of the plurality of conductive elements, and

a plurality of regions free of the lossy material separating adjacent strips of the plurality of strips.

17. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein:

different ones of the plurality of strips are separated from a respective conductive element by different distances.

18. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein:

the wafer comprises a wafer for a right angle connector such that different ones of the plurality of conductive elements are different lengths, and

the lossy member is configured to provide a higher rate of loss along conductive shorter conductive elements than along longer conductive elements.

19. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein:

the at least one lossy member comprises a planar lossy member; and

the plurality of regions free of the lossy material comprise slots formed in the planar lossy member.

20. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein:

each conductive element has a contact tail, a mating contact portion and an intermediate portion connecting the contact tails and the mating contact portion;

the contact tail and mating contact portion of each of the plurality of conductive elements in the column has the same shape and the intermediate portion of each of the plurality of conductive elements in the column has the same cross section.

21. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein:

the at least one lossy member comprises a first planar member attached to the wafer on a first side of the column and a second planar member attached to the wafer on a second side of the column, the second side being opposite the first side.

22. The electrical connector of claim 21, wherein:

the wafer further comprises an insulative portion;

the plurality of conductive elements are held within the insulative portion; and

each of the first planar member and the second planar member is held to the insulative member with projections from the insulative member passing through openings in the planar member.

23. The electrical connector of claim 21, wherein:

the first planar member comprises a first plurality of projections, each of the first plurality of projections disposed to a side of a conductive element of the plurality of conductive elements; and

the second planar member comprises a second plurality of projections, each of the second plurality of projections being aligned with a projection of the first plurality of projections such that each of the plurality of conductive elements is surrounded by lossy material of the at least one lossy member.

24. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein for each pair of adjacent conductive elements, the lossy material extends between the conductive elements of the pair.

25. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein the lossy material comprises a lossy insulator and the lossy material contacts each of the plurality of conductive elements in the column.

26. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein the lossy insulator comprises an insulative resin and ferromagnetic particles.

27. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein each of the plurality of strips of lossy material is disposed on the respective conductive element.

28. The electrical connector of claim 27, wherein each of the plurality of conductive elements has at least two strips of lossy material disposed thereon.

29. The electrical connector of claim 27, wherein:

each of the plurality of conductive elements has a first strip of lossy material disposed on a first broadside and a second strip of lossy material disposed on a second broadside.

30. The electrical connector of claim 16, in combination with a plurality of like wafers and a housing portion, wherein each of the plurality of conductive elements of each of the plurality of wafers comprises a mating contact portion that is inserted in the housing portion.

31. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein each of the at least one lossy members is a unitary member comprising the plurality of strips and a plurality of segments interconnecting the plurality of strips.

32. An electrical connector comprising:

a plurality of columns, each column comprising a plurality of conductive elements;

a plurality of insulative regions, each insulative region being associated with a respective column;

lossy material disposed in a plurality of lossy regions, the plurality of lossy regions being adjacent to respective conductive elements in respective columns of the plurality of columns,

wherein for each of the plurality of columns;

the respective insulative region is symmetrically disposed on a first side of the column and a second side of the column about a longitudinal axis; and

a first lossy region is disposed on the first side of the column and a second lossy region is disposed on the second side of the column, the second lossy region having a symmetrical structure about the longitudinal axis with respect to the first lossy region.

33. The electrical connector of claim 32, wherein:

each of the plurality of lossy regions comprises a plurality of strips of lossy material, each of the strips following a contour of a conductive element in a respective column.

34. The electrical connector of claim 33, wherein each of the plurality of lossy regions comprises a lossy member.

35. The electrical connector of claim 34, wherein the lossy member comprises a unitary lossy member comprising a plurality of segments joining the plurality of lossy strips.

36. The electrical connector of claim 32, wherein the plurality of columns comprises a plurality of conductive elements disposed in rows, the plurality of conductive elements having a uniform center-to-center spacing along the rows and along the columns.

37. The electrical connector of claim 36 in combination with a printed circuit board, the printed circuit board comprising a plurality of pairs of traces carrying electrical signal in excess of 8 Gbps, wherein a first pair of the plurality of pairs is connected to a pair of conductive elements along a row and a second pair of the plurality of pairs is connected to a pair of conductive elements along a column.

38. The electrical connector of claim 37, wherein the center-to-center spacing is 2 mm or less.

39. An electrical connector, comprising:

an insulative support;

a plurality of columns of conductive elements, each of the plurality of columns comprising a plurality of conductive elements coupled to the insulative support;

lossy material held by the insulative support adjacent to and separated from a portion of the plurality of conductive elements of respective columns of the plurality of columns of conductive elements,

wherein for each of the plurality of columns;

the portion of the plurality of conductive elements comprises at least a first conductive element, a second conductive element and a third conductive element, and

the lossy material is separated from the first conductive element by a first distance, the lossy material is separated from the second conductive element by a second distance greater than the first distance, and the lossy material is separated from the third conductive element by a third distance greater than the second distance.

40. The electrical connector of claim 39, wherein the first conductive element is shorter than the second conductive element and the second conductive element is shorter than the third conductive element.

41. The electrical connector of claim 40, wherein the connector comprises a right angle connector.

42. The electrical connector of claim 39, wherein the lossy material comprises a plurality of planar members, each planar member adjacent a column of conductive elements.

43. The electrical connector of claim 42, wherein:

the connector comprises a plurality of wafers, each wafer comprising an insulative portion;

conductive elements of a column of the plurality of columns of conductive elements are at least partially disposed within the insulative portion.

44. The electrical connector of claim 39, further comprising:

an insulative portion, wherein the insulative portion has a relative dielectric constant in excess of 3.

45. The electrical connector of claim 39, wherein:

each conductive element comprises a contact tail, a mating contact portion and an intermediate portion joining the contact tail and the mating contact portion, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of conductive elements each has an intermediate portion having at least one narrowed portion; and

the lossy material comprises a plurality of regions of lossy material, each region being disposed on a conductive element of the plurality of conductive elements adjacent a narrowed portion.

46. The electrical connector of claim 45, wherein:

each of the conductive elements has a first region with a first width; and

the at least one narrowed portion comprises a second region with a second width, the second width being between 20% and 50% of the first width.

47. The electrical connector of claim 45, wherein:

each of the conductive elements has a first narrowed portion and a second narrowed portion, the first narrowed portion being adjacent the contact tail and the second narrowed portion being adjacent the contact tail.

48. An electrical connector, comprising:

a plurality of columns, each column comprising a plurality of conductive elements; and

lossy material disposed adjacent the conductive elements of each of the plurality of columns,

wherein the plurality of columns and the lossy material are configured such that conductive elements provide differential signal conducting paths having a nominal impedance, with signal paths formed from adjacent conductive elements in the same column having an impedance no less than 80% of the nominal impedance and signal paths formed from adjacent conductive elements in adjacent columns having an impedance no greater than 120% of the nominal impedance;

wherein the plurality of columns are aligned in parallel such that the plurality of conductive elements in the plurality of columns are disposed in a plurality of rows, with the conductive elements in the same column being aligned edge-to-edge and the conductive elements in the same row being aligned broadside-to-broadside; and

the plurality of conductive elements in the plurality of columns are disposed and configured to provide a nominal spacing between conductive elements, with the edge-to-edge spacing of the conductive elements within each of the plurality of columns being no less than 80% of the nominal spacing and the broadside-to-broadside spacing of the conductive elements within each of the plurality of rows being no greater than 120% of the nominal spacing.