Angled Electrical Receptacle with Shielded Modules for Skew Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrical connectors face challenges in minimizing electrical interference, such as crosstalk, and maintaining excellent electrical performance due to the lack of effective shielding and ground contact configurations, particularly in modular designs with angled receptacles.
Innovation Solution
The use of modular electrical connector receptacles with pairs of signal conductors spaced by intervening grounded conductive shield plates, featuring protruding beams that overlap signal conductors and provide multiple points of contact for ground connections, reduces crosstalk and ensures reliable electrical performance by avoiding ground stubs and enhancing mechanical compliance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If signal conductor pairs are placed closer together to increase density, then productivity is improved, but electrical interference such as crosstalk increases
Solution Approach 1:
Grounded conductive shield plates are introduced as intermediary elements between adjacent signal conductor pairs. These shield plates act as mediators that block electromagnetic fields from coupling between neighboring signal pairs, thereby preventing crosstalk while allowing signal conductors to be positioned in close proximity for high density.
Solution Approach 2:
The connector receptacle is divided into multiple modules, with each module containing signal conductor pairs separated by grounded conductive shield plates. This segmentation isolates electromagnetic fields within each module, preventing interference from propagating to adjacent modules while maintaining compact overall structure.
2Device complexity
If a single ground contact point is used, then device complexity is reduced, but electrical performance deteriorates due to ground stubs
Solution Approach 1:
The ground contact configuration is segmented into multiple contact points distributed across the shield plates. Each shield plate contacts the ground at multiple locations, creating a distributed grounding system that eliminates ground stubs and their associated resonant frequencies while maintaining electrical performance.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If beam width is increased for better shielding, then electrical interference is reduced, but mechanical compliance decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The shield plate structure employs local quality variation through strategically placed notches in the ground contact regions. These notches create localized flexible zones that concentrate bending in specific areas, allowing the overall beam to maintain sufficient width for effective shielding while achieving the necessary mechanical compliance through localized geometric modifications.
Data Source
AI summary
An electrical coupler includes a connector receptacle having multiple modules. The modules each include a pair of signal conductors and a ground plane or shield, held together by a dielectric module body. The shields are between the pairs of conductors in adjacent modules, and provide electrical shielding between the pairs of signal contacts of different modules. The signal conductors and the shields may be coupled to a board, such as a circuit board. The receptacle may be an angled receptacle, such as a right angle receptacle. The signal conductors of each pair in the receptacle may have a predetermined amount of skew, having different effective electrical lengths. This may allow signal paths through the receptacle and the board to have a combined electrical path that is substantially the same for the signal conductor pair of one of the modules.