Electrical Connector Ground Structure with Skewer Pockets
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrical connectors lack a robust ground structure for effective electrical shielding, particularly at high speeds, leading to insufficient signal transmission integrity.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a contact assembly with signal and ground contact modules, where ground contact modules provide electrical shielding through a ground leadframe and dielectric body, with skewer pockets and spring fingers engaging ground skewers to electrically connect ground plates, creating a common ground for improved shielding.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional electrical shielding structures are used, then the connector can be manufactured with standard designs, but the electrical shielding is insufficient at high speeds
Solution Approach 1:
The ground structure is segmented into multiple ground contact modules, each with its own ground plate and spring fingers. These modules are distributed throughout the contact assembly to provide localized shielding zones around signal conductors, improving overall electrical shielding effectiveness without requiring a single complex ground structure
Solution Approach 2:
The ground plates are positioned to nest around the signal conductors, creating concentric shielding zones. The ground contact modules are nested within the housing cavity, with ground plates surrounding signal paths. This nested arrangement maximizes shielding effectiveness within the available space while maintaining a manageable structural complexity
2Reliability
If ground contact modules are added to provide electrical shielding, then signal transmission integrity improves, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The ground contact modules are pre-assembled with ground plates and spring fingers attached to ground leadframes before insertion into the housing. This preliminary assembly allows for quality control and positioning to be established early in the manufacturing process, simplifying the final assembly where modules are simply inserted into the housing cavity and automatically positioned
Solution Approach 2:
The spring fingers are designed to automatically engage with signal contact modules upon insertion of the ground contact modules. This self-engaging mechanism eliminates the need for separate adjustment or alignment steps during assembly, as the components self-position and self-connect through elastic deformation of the spring fingers
Data Source
AI summary
A contact assembly includes signal contact modules and ground contact modules arranged in a contact module stack. Each ground contact module includes a ground leadframe having a ground plate and a dielectric body holding the ground plate. The ground plate includes skewer pockets and spring fingers extending into the corresponding skewer pocket. The contact assembly includes ground skewers extending across the contact module stack. The ground skewers are received in corresponding skewer pockets. The spring fingers engage the ground skewers to electrically connect the ground plate to the ground skewers. Each ground plate is coupled to each of the ground skewers. The ground skewers electrically common each of the ground plates together.