High Speed Electrical Connector Dielectric Inserts
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-frequency electrical connectors face performance degradation due to cavities in the connector housing, which cause signal reflections and crosstalk, especially when tie bars are severed during manufacturing, leading to impedance discontinuities and resonances.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating dielectric inserts to fill cavities in the connector housing, ensuring consistent dielectric properties and minimizing impedance changes, thereby reducing crosstalk and improving signal integrity across the frequency range.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If tie bars are severed during manufacturing to assemble the connector, then the connector can be manufactured and assembled, but cavities are created in the housing that cause impedance discontinuities and signal reflections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the harmful cavities created by severing tie bars by extracting the problematic air spaces and replacing them with dielectric material. The housing is designed with recesses that receive dielectric inserts, effectively taking out the harmful air cavities and replacing them with beneficial dielectric fills that maintain impedance continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The dielectric inserts act as intermediary materials between the housing walls and the signal conductors. These inserts mediate the electromagnetic field environment, providing a consistent dielectric constant that prevents impedance discontinuities and signal reflections, thereby protecting signal integrity during the manufacturing process.
2Reliability
If dielectric inserts are added to fill cavities, then signal integrity is improved by reducing impedance discontinuities, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the housing structure with the dielectric inserts by integrating them into a unified assembly. The recesses in the housing are specifically designed to receive and hold the dielectric inserts, combining the structural function of the housing with the electrical function of the dielectric material into a single integrated component system.
Solution Approach 2:
The dielectric inserts are placed locally at specific positions where cavities exist in the housing, rather than uniformly throughout the entire housing. This localized approach addresses impedance discontinuities only where they occur, maintaining signal integrity without unnecessarily complicating the entire housing structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The use of dielectric inserts maintains consistent dielectric constants around signal conductors, reducing impedance discontinuities and enhancing high-frequency performance by minimizing signal reflections and crosstalk, thus improving the overall reliability of the electrical interconnection system.
Implementation Method 1
Incorporating dielectric inserts to fill cavities in the connector housing, ensuring consistent dielectric properties and minimizing impedance changes
Implementation Method 2
The use of dielectric inserts maintains consistent dielectric constants around signal conductors, reducing impedance discontinuities and enhancing high-frequency performance by minimizing signal reflections and crosstalk
Data Source
AI summary
An electrical connector designed for high speed signals. The connector includes one or more features that, when used alone or in combination, extend performance to higher speeds. These features may include compensation for tie bars that are used to hold conductive members in place for molding a housing around the conductive members. Removal of the tie bars during manufacture of the connector may leave artifacts in the conductive members and/or housing, which may be addressed by the features. The conductive members, for example, may include regions, adjacent tie bar locations, that compensate for portions of the tie bar that are not fully removed. Alternatively or additionally, a housing may include openings around tie bar locations such that a punch may be used to sever the tie bars. These openings may be filled to avoid performance-affecting artifacts.