Connector brick for cable communication system

Abstract

A connector brick for a cable communication system includes a header frame including end spacers and side spacers defining a header opening. The header frame is configured for mating with a circuit card. A plurality of cable connectors are received in the header opening and connected to the header frame. Each cable connector has cables extending therefrom. Each cable connector has a header holding signal contacts at a mating end of the header and configured for mating with a corresponding card connector of the circuit card. Float mechanisms extend from the header frame. The float mechanisms allow limited movement in at least two directions of the header frame. The float mechanisms allow alignment of the header frame with the circuit card. The cable connectors float with the header frame as a unit for mating with the corresponding card connectors.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The subject matter herein relates generally to connector bricks for a cable communication system.[0002]Communication systems, such as network systems, servers, data centers, and the like, use large printed circuit boards, known as backplanes or midplanes, to interconnect circuit cards, such as daughtercards, line cards and / or switch cards. The communication systems use high speed differential connectors mounted to the backplane and high speed differential connectors mounted to the line cards and switch cards to transmit signals therebetween. The backplane interconnects the various connectors using traces along the circuit board.[0003]As the density of the systems increase and requirements for high speed lines increase, the printed circuit boards continue to become larger and the signal integrity inherently degrades as the signals travel further along the entire channel. At least some systems have replaced the traditional backplanes with cable assembl...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a cable communication system that includes a connector brick and a header frame. The connector brick has a header frame with end and side spacers that define an opening for mating with a circuit card. The opening contains a plurality of cable connectors that have cables extending therefrom and are held by the header frame. The system also includes float mechanisms that allow limited movement in at least two directions of the header frame to align it with the circuit card. This allows the cable connectors to float with the header frame as a unit for mating with the corresponding card connectors. The technical effect of the invention is improved alignment and secure mating of signal contacts between the cable connectors and the circuit card.

Problems solved by technology

As the density of the systems increase and requirements for high speed lines increase, the printed circuit boards continue to become larger and the signal integrity inherently degrades as the signals travel further along the entire channel.

However, aligning the many cable connectors with corresponding openings in the backplane circuit board can be difficult during the assembly process as all of the cable connectors need to be properly positioned simultaneously to load the cable rack onto the backplane.

Additionally, because the electrical connections of the system are made by cable assemblies, there may not be a need for the backplane circuit board, which may be an expensive component to manufacture.

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