Overmolded Lead Frame With Moving Dielectric Web for Stable Impedance
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
High-speed connectors experience signal integrity degradation due to impedance mismatch and positional tolerances, which limit their ability to maintain consistent transmission line impedance as contact beams deflect during mating.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a dielectric web between adjacent electrical contacts that moves with the contacts, allowing for improved impedance matching by maintaining a constant distance between them, and using a dielectric housing with strategically placed air gaps to reduce crosstalk and enhance signal integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If additional space is provided between walls and contacts for positional tolerances, then ease of manufacture is improved, but transmission line impedance matching deteriorates due to wider air gaps
Solution Approach 1:
A dielectric web is introduced as an intermediary element between the contact beams and the housing walls. This web fills the air gap created by positional tolerances and provides a controlled dielectric environment that maintains consistent transmission line impedance despite variations in contact position during deflection.
Solution Approach 2:
The dielectric web is designed to be flexible and move together with the contact beams as they deflect during mating. This dynamic configuration ensures that the web continuously fills the space between adjacent contacts, maintaining impedance matching throughout the range of motion rather than being fixed in position.
2Ease of operation
If contact beams are allowed to deflect freely during mating, then ease of operation is improved, but signal integrity deteriorates due to changing transmission line impedance
Solution Approach 1:
The dielectric web acts as a mediator that moves with the contact beams during deflection, maintaining a consistent dielectric environment around the transmission line. This ensures that the electrical characteristics remain stable even as the contacts move into their mated position.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent controls the dielectric properties and physical dimensions of the web to compensate for the geometric changes that occur during contact deflection. By carefully selecting the web's material properties and configuration, the transmission line impedance is maintained constant despite the changing physical state of the connector during mating.
3Reliability
If ground contacts are added to separate signal paths, then signal integrity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The dielectric web serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides electrical isolation between adjacent contacts, maintains transmission line impedance, accommodates positional tolerances, and reduces crosstalk. This multi-functionality achieves signal integrity improvement without adding separate ground contacts or other complex structures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the impedance control and isolation functions from traditional ground contacts and housing walls, concentrating these functions in the dielectric web. This eliminates the need for additional ground contacts in some configurations, actually reducing device complexity while maintaining or improving signal integrity.
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 solution achieves a differential insertion loss of less than −1 dB and near-end and far-end crosstalk below −50 dB across a wide frequency range, significantly improving signal integrity in high-speed applications.
Implementation Method 1
The dielectric properties of the plastic may be chosen to reduce the potential impedance mismatch along the length of the contact beam 102a
Data Source
AI summary
An electrical connector includes first and second adjacent electrical contacts that each define respective first and second mating ends, the first mating end of a first one of the first and second adjacent electrical contacts defines a first contact surface, the second mating end of a second one of the first and second adjacent electrical contacts defines a second contact surface electrically isolated from the first contact surface; and a dielectric material positioned between the first and second adjacent electrical contacts. When a mating connector applies a force to the first contact surface and the second contact surface, the first and second mating ends and the dielectric material all move in a first direction.