Electric connector

Abstract

The invention provides an electric connector. The electric connector comprises an insulating shell, at least one terminal assembly fixed on the insulating shell and a plurality of shielding sheets, the terminal assembly comprises an insulating strip and a plurality of terminals which are fixed on the insulating strip and are arranged in a row along a first direction, the plurality of terminals comprise a plurality of grounding terminals and a plurality of signal terminals, two adjacent signal terminals form a differential terminal pair, and the plurality of differential terminal pairs and the plurality of grounding terminals are distributed at intervals in a staggered manner; the electric connector is characterized in that a plurality of shielding sheets are fixed on the insulating strip, the shielding sheets are respectively arranged on two sides of each differential terminal pair along the first direction, and each shielding sheet is perpendicular to the first direction. The shielding sheets are arranged on the two sides of each differential terminal pair, so that electromagnetic shielding is carried out between different differential terminal pairs, signal crosstalk between the differential terminal pairs can be reduced, the stability of high-frequency signal transmission is improved, and the high-performance data transmission requirement is met.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of conductive connection devices, and in particular to an electrical connector. Background Art

[0002] At present, many computer motherboards are equipped with electrical connectors, which can be used to plug in cards such as graphics cards and memory sticks to expand the functions of the computer. In the related art, the electrical connector includes an insulating shell and two rows of terminal components arranged in the insulating shell. The two terminal components are arranged opposite to each other, and each terminal component has multiple signal terminals and multiple ground terminals. However, there may be signal crosstalk between different terminals, which affects the stability of high-frequency signal transmission. Summary of the invention

[0003] In view of the above, it is necessary to provide an electrical connector that has the characteristics of reducing signal crosstalk between terminals and improving the stability of high-frequency signal transmission.

[0004] The present application provides an electrical connector, comprising an insulating shell, at least one terminal assembly fixed to the insulating shell, and a plurality of shielding sheets; the terminal assembly comprises an insulating strip, a plurality of terminals fixed to the insulating strip and arranged in a row along a first direction, the plurality of terminals comprising a plurality of grounding terminals and a plurality of signal terminals, two adjacent signal terminals forming a differential terminal pair, and the plurality of differential terminal pairs and the plurality of grounding terminals being distributed at staggered intervals; it is characterized in that the plurality of shielding sheets are fixed to the insulating strip, each differential terminal pair is provided with shielding sheets on both sides along the first direction, and each shielding sheet is perpendicular to the first direction.

[0005] In some embodiments, each shielding sheet is located between one of the signal terminals and an adjacent ground terminal of the corresponding differential terminal pair.

[0006] In some embodiments, the insulating strip is provided with a plurality of shielding grooves, and the lower ends of the plurality of shielding sheets are respectively inserted and fixed in the plurality of shielding grooves.

[0007] In some embodiments, the insulating shell is provided with a docking slot extending upwardly, the terminal includes an elastic arm extending upwardly from the insulating shell and a pin portion extending downwardly from the insulating shell, and the elastic arm is provided with a contact portion protruding into the docking slot.

[0008] In some embodiments, the electrical connector includes two terminal assemblies and a conductive plug, the conductive plug is fixed between two rows of terminal assemblies, and a plurality of ground terminals are electrically connected through the conductive plug.

[0009] In some embodiments, viewed along the first direction, except for the contact portion and the pin portion, the shielding sheet overlaps with the terminal.

[0010] In some embodiments, the docking groove is provided with opposite inner wall surfaces, the contact portion passes through the inner wall surfaces and protrudes into the docking groove, and the shielding sheet extends to be flush with the inner wall surfaces or adjacent to the inner wall surfaces.

[0011] In some embodiments, the insulating strip is provided with a plurality of contact slots corresponding to the plurality of grounding terminals; a plurality of contact arms are respectively provided on both sides of the conductive plug, and the plurality of contact arms are respectively supported against the corresponding grounding terminals through the adjacent plurality of contact slots.

[0012] In some embodiments, the contact arm is a structure extending obliquely upward.

[0013] In some embodiments, the electrical connector further comprises a shielding bar, which is located between the two rows of terminal assemblies and is fixed to the insulating shell and the conductive plug.

[0014] Through the electrical connector provided in the present application, shielding plates are arranged on both sides of each differential terminal pair to perform electromagnetic shielding between different differential terminal pairs, thereby reducing signal crosstalk between differential terminal pairs, thereby improving the stability of high-frequency signal transmission and meeting high-performance data transmission requirements. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the structure of an electrical connector provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0016] Figure 2 An exploded view of the electrical connector provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0017] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the structure of the terminal assembly and the shielding sheet provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0018] Figure 4 This is a schematic cross-sectional view of the electrical connector provided in an embodiment of the present application along line AA.

[0019] Figure 5 A partial cross-sectional view of an electrical connector provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0020] Figure 6 A top view of the terminal assembly and shielding sheet provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0021] Figure 7 The schematic diagram is an exploded view of the shielding sheet and the insulating strip provided in the embodiment of the present application at a first viewing angle.

[0022] Figure 8 The schematic diagram is an exploded view of the shielding sheet and the insulating strip provided in the embodiment of the present application at a second viewing angle.

[0023] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the structure of a conductive plug provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all of the embodiments.

[0025] In various electrical devices or equipment, multiple devices or equipment need to be connected and communicated through various electrical connectors. For example, a computer and a peripheral device need to be connected through an electrical connector based on the high-speed serial computer expansion bus (Peripheral Component Interconnect-express, PCIe) protocol. In order to maintain the high-frequency transmission performance of PCIe, the existing technology usually solves the problem of signal interference by adjusting the layout position of the signal terminal pair, for example, increasing the spacing between two adjacent pairs of signal terminal pairs, or increasing the spacing between two adjacent pairs of signal terminal pairs to arrange the ground terminal, etc., but the improvement effect is not good.

[0026] To this end, the present application provides an electrical connector, which has the technical effect of improving the stability of high-frequency signal transmission and meeting high-performance data transmission requirements.

[0027] like Figure 1 and Figure 2 As shown, the electrical connector is applied to electronic equipment, and the electrical connector can be mounted downward on an external circuit board, and the electrical connector can be plugged into a board to establish an electrical connection between the board and the circuit board. In the example of the present application, the electrical connector can be a PCI-e connector, and the board can be a graphics card. The plugging direction of the board is shown in the Z-axis direction in the figure.

[0028] The electrical connector includes an insulating shell 10, a plurality of short-zone terminals 20, a plurality of long-zone terminals 30, a shielding sheet 40, a conductive plug 50 and a shielding strip 60. The short-zone terminals 20 and the long-zone terminals 30 are arranged along a first direction, which is the length direction of the insulating shell 10. The Y-axis direction in the figure indicates the first direction. The short-zone terminals 20 include two rows of terminals, which are fixed to one end of the insulating shell 10. Each row of terminals is arranged along the length direction of the insulating shell 10, and the two rows of terminals are arranged oppositely along the width direction of the insulating shell 10. The upper end of the terminal is located in the insulating shell 10 for board contact, and the lower end of the terminal is exposed from the bottom of the insulating shell 10 for circuit board welding. The short-zone terminals 20 include power terminals, detection terminals, and low-speed signal terminals, which do not transmit high-speed signals. The short-zone terminals 20 are directly inserted and fixed in the insulating shell 10.

[0029] The long area terminal 30 includes at least one terminal assembly 31. In this embodiment, there are two terminal assemblies 31, both of which are fixed to the insulating shell 10. Each terminal assembly 31 is arranged along a first direction, and the two terminal assemblies 31 are arranged opposite to each other along a second direction. The second direction is the width direction of the insulating shell 10. The X-axis direction in the figure indicates the second direction. Figures 3 to 5 As shown, each terminal assembly 31 includes an insulating strip 311 and a plurality of terminals 312 fixed to the insulating strip 3111 and arranged in a row along a first direction. A plurality of shielding sheets 40 are fixed to the insulating strip 311. The long area terminal 30 mainly transmits high-speed signals, and the shielding sheet 40 is added to avoid signal interference between terminals.

[0030] The insulating shell 10 is provided with a docking groove 11 extending upward, and the docking groove 11 is used for inserting a board. The docking groove 11 is extended along the first direction, and the docking groove 11 is provided with opposite inner wall surfaces 111, and the inner wall surfaces 111 are the two side groove walls of the docking groove 11. The groove bottom of the docking groove 11 is provided with an embedding hole 14, and the embedding hole 14 is used for the shielding strip 60 to be embedded and fixed. In this embodiment, the insulating shell 10 is provided with two docking grooves 11, which respectively accommodate the short zone terminal 20 and the long zone terminal 30. In different embodiments, the insulating shell 10 can be provided with only one docking groove 11, or multiple docking grooves 11.

[0031] The side of the insulating shell 10 is formed with a receiving groove 12, which passes downward through the bottom of the insulating shell 10. The side of the insulating shell 10 is provided with a plurality of through holes, which respectively pass through the side and bottom of the insulating shell 10, so that the receiving groove 12 and the docking 11 are connected.

[0032] The terminal 312 is partially received in the receiving groove 12. The terminal 312 includes an elastic arm 3121 extending upward from the insulator 311 and a pin portion 3122 extending downward from the insulator 311. The elastic arm 3121 is provided with a contact portion 3123 protruding into the docking groove 11. The contact portion 3123 passes through the inner wall surface 111 and protrudes into the docking groove 11. After the board is inserted into the docking groove 11, the contact portion 3123 can contact the board in the docking groove 11 and establish an electrical connection. When the electrical connector is installed on the circuit board, the pin portion 3122 can be fixed to the circuit board and establish an electrical connection.

[0033] The shielding sheet 40 is partially received in the receiving groove 12. Viewed along the first direction, the shielding sheet 40 overlaps with the terminal 312 except for the contact portion 3123 and the pin portion 3122. The shielding sheet 40 extends to be flush with the inner wall surface 11 or adjacent to the inner wall surface 11. In the present embodiment, the shielding sheet 40 extends to be flush with the inner wall surface 11. In this way, it can be ensured that the position of the shielding sheet 40 does not interfere with the insertion of the board into the docking groove 11. Moreover, after the board is inserted into the docking groove 11, the elastic arm 3121 is pushed by the board, and the elastic arm 3121 will shrink toward the receiving groove 12, so that the elastic arm 3121 moves to a position flush with the inner wall surface 11 or adjacent to the inner wall surface 11, so that the shielding sheet 40 can overlap with the terminal 312 along the first direction.

[0034] Please also read Figure 6 In this embodiment, the multiple terminals 312 include multiple grounding terminals G and multiple signal terminals S, and the insulating strip 311, the multiple grounding terminals G and the multiple signal terminals S are integrally formed by the Insert Molding process. The upper ends of the grounding terminals G and the signal terminals S are located in the insulating shell 10 for board contact, and the lower ends of the grounding terminals G and the signal terminals S are exposed from the bottom of the insulating shell 10 for circuit board welding. The conductive plug 50 is fixed between the two terminal assemblies 31, and the multiple grounding terminals G are electrically connected through the conductive plug 50.

[0035] Two adjacent signal terminals S form a differential terminal pair DP, and the differential terminal pair DP is used to transmit differential signals, which can realize high-speed signal transmission. Multiple differential terminal pairs DP and multiple ground terminals G are distributed in staggered intervals. In addition, each shielding sheet 40 is located between one of the signal terminals S of the corresponding differential terminal pair DP and the adjacent ground terminal G. In this embodiment, two adjacent differential terminal pairs DP are separated by two ground terminals G, and of course, they can also be separated by one ground terminal G.

[0036] Each pair of differential signal terminals 312 is provided with shielding sheets 40 on both sides along the first direction, and each shielding sheet 40 is perpendicular to the first direction. Thus, the shielding sheet 40 is located between the ground terminal G and the adjacent differential terminal pair DP. The shielding bar 60 is located between the two terminal assemblies 31, and the shielding bar 60 is fixed to the insulating shell 10 and the conductive plug 50.

[0037] By arranging shielding sheets 40 on both sides of each differential terminal pair DP, electromagnetic shielding is performed between different differential terminal pairs DP, thereby reducing the signal crosstalk between the relative differential terminal pairs DP. At the same time, by arranging a shielding strip 60 between the two terminal assemblies 31, the signal crosstalk between the two rows of terminals 312 is reduced, which can play a role in electromagnetic shielding and crosstalk reduction, thereby improving the stability of high-frequency signal transmission and meeting the requirements of high-performance data transmission.

[0038] In this embodiment, the shielding sheet 40 and the shielding strip 60 are both made of metal copper, and the thickness of the shielding sheet 40 and the shielding strip 60 is close to the skin depth of the electromagnetic field. It can be understood that based on the electrical characteristics of high-speed signal transmission, the ambient frequency is relatively high, belonging to a high-frequency environment, and the use of metal copper as a shielding layer can achieve a better shielding effect and reduce hysteresis loss and eddy current loss.

[0039] See also Figure 7 and Figure 8 Each insulating strip 311 is provided with a plurality of shielding slots 313 , and the shielding slots 313 penetrate the side of the insulating strip 311 away from the docking slot 11 , and a distance is left between the shielding slots 313 and the side of the insulating strip 311 facing the docking slot 11 .

[0040] The lower ends of the shielding sheets 40 are respectively inserted and fixed in the shielding slots 313. The shielding sheets 40 extend out of the shielding slots 313 and abut against the insulating shell 10 at one side away from the middle of the insulating shell 10.

[0041] The shielding sheet 40 extends toward one side of the docking groove 11 to be flush with the inner wall surface 11 or adjacent to the inner wall surface 11, and the other side of the shielding sheet 40 extends out of the shielding groove 313 and extends to be flush with the outer wall of the insulating shell 20. In this way, the two rows of shielding sheets 40 located at the two terminal assemblies 31 can support the two sides of the insulating shell 10 from the inside of the accommodating groove 12, respectively. By leaving a distance between the shielding groove 313 and the side of the insulating strip 311 facing the docking groove 11, a certain width can be reserved for the insulating strip 311 at the shielding groove 313 to ensure that the insulating strip 311 itself has sufficient strength. Specifically, the width t of the insulating strip 311 in the second direction is greater than or equal to 0.24 mm, which can ensure that the shielding groove 313 is opened on the insulator to fix the shielding sheet 40, and can also ensure the molding continuity of the terminal assembly 31.

[0042] The insulating strip 311 is also provided with a plurality of contact slots 314 corresponding to the plurality of grounding terminals G, and the contact slots 314 penetrate the side of the insulating strip 311 facing the conductive plug 50. The conductive plug 50 is connected to the corresponding grounding terminal G through the adjacent plurality of contact slots 314. In this way, the contact slots 314 and the shielding slots 313 on the same insulating strip 311 are staggered, and the contact slots 314 and the shielding slots 313 penetrate the two opposite sides of the insulating strip 311 respectively, so as to avoid the insulator being slotted only on one side, so as to balance the deformation range of the two opposite sides of the insulating shell 10 and reduce the warping tendency of the insulating strip 311.

[0043] The conductive plug 50 enters the receiving groove 12 from the bottom of the insulating shell 10 and is embedded and fixed between the two rows of insulating strips 311. The top surface of the conductive plug 50 is provided with an embedding groove 52, and the embedding hole 14 is connected to the embedding groove 52. The shielding strip 60 is embedded and fixed in the embedding hole 14 and the embedding groove 52.

[0044] The conductive plug 50 is provided with a plurality of contact arms 51, which are distributed on both sides of the conductive plug 50 to form two rows, and the positions of the two rows of contact arms 51 correspond to the positions of the respective grounding terminals G in the two terminal assemblies 31. The conductive plug 50 is overlapped with the respective grounding terminals G in the two terminal assemblies 31 through the two rows of contact arms 51 to form a series loop, which can increase the return path and reduce the resonance intensity. Specifically, the conductive plug 50 can be processed and formed by conductive plastic, and the electrical properties of the conductive plastic can effectively reduce the intensity of the electric field and magnetic field changes caused by the return flow.

[0045] The contact arm 51 is a structure extending upwardly and tilted upwardly in a direction away from the middle of the insulating shell 10. The two rows of contact arms 51 located on both sides of the conductive plug 50 form a V-shaped structure, ensuring that it has a certain mechanical structure, so that the contact arm 51 directly has a pressing force on the ground terminal G, and the conduction stability between the contact arm 51 and the ground terminal G is improved.

[0046] On the other hand, by inserting the conductive plug 50 between the two rows of ground terminals G to establish a series circuit, the interference fit terminal connection structure is replaced, thereby avoiding the possibility of the insulating shell 10 expanding and deforming along its width direction due to the existence of the tolerance zone.

[0047] Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present application and are not intended to limit it. Although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, a person of ordinary skill in the art should understand that the technical solution of the present application may be modified or replaced by equivalents without departing from the spirit and scope of the technical solution of the present application.

Claims

1. An electrical connector, comprising an insulating shell, at least one terminal assembly fixed to the insulating shell, and a plurality of shielding sheets; the terminal assembly comprises an insulating strip, a plurality of terminals fixed to the insulating strip and arranged in a row along a first direction, the plurality of terminals comprising a plurality of grounding terminals and a plurality of signal terminals, two adjacent signal terminals forming a differential terminal pair, the plurality of differential terminal pairs and the plurality of grounding terminals being arranged at staggered intervals; characterized in that: A plurality of shielding sheets are fixed to the insulating strip, and shielding sheets are respectively provided on both sides of each differential terminal pair along a first direction, and each shielding sheet is perpendicular to the first direction.

2. The electrical connector according to claim 1, characterized in that: Each shielding sheet is located between one of the signal terminals of the corresponding differential terminal pair and an adjacent ground terminal.

3. The electrical connector according to claim 1, characterized in that: The insulating strip is provided with a plurality of shielding grooves, and the lower ends of the plurality of shielding sheets are respectively plugged and fixed in the plurality of shielding grooves.

4. The electrical connector according to claim 1, characterized in that: The insulating shell is provided with a docking groove penetrating upwards, and the terminal comprises an elastic arm extending upwards from the insulating shell and a pin portion extending downwards from the insulating shell, and the elastic arm is provided with a contact portion protruding into the docking groove.

5. The electrical connector according to claim 4, characterized in that: The electrical connector comprises two terminal assemblies and a conductive plug block, wherein the conductive plug block is fixed between two rows of terminal assemblies, and a plurality of grounding terminals are electrically connected via the conductive plug block.

6. The electrical connector according to claim 4, characterized in that: Viewed along the first direction, the shielding sheet overlaps the terminal except for the contact portion and the pin portion.

7. The electrical connector according to claim 4, characterized in that: The docking groove is provided with opposite inner wall surfaces, the contact portion passes through the inner wall surfaces and protrudes into the docking groove, and the shielding sheet extends to be flush with the inner wall surfaces or adjacent to the inner wall surfaces.

8. The electrical connector according to claim 5, characterized in that: The insulating strip is provided with a plurality of contact grooves corresponding to the plurality of ground terminals; A plurality of contact arms are respectively arranged on both sides of the conductive plug, and the plurality of contact arms are respectively held against the corresponding grounding terminals through the adjacent plurality of contact slots.

9. The electrical connector according to claim 8, characterized in that: The contact arm is a structure extending obliquely upward.

10. The electrical connector according to claim 5, characterized in that: The electrical connector further comprises a shielding bar, wherein the shielding bar is located between two rows of the terminal assemblies and is fixed to the insulating shell and the conductive plug.

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