Unitary RF connector with ground contact tabs arranged in crown, for a board-to-board connection and a ganged connector including a plurality of such unitary connector, for a multiple board-to-board connection

Abstract

The present application relates to a unitary RF connector (1), intended for example to link two printed circuit boards (PCB1, PCB2), the unitary RF connector extending along a longitudinal axis (X), the connector being a unique piece with an electrically insulating block which serves as a rigid support for both flexible conductive elements whose central portions are rigidly respectively held therein for the central contact and on the outer wall of the block for the ground contact, and with an arrangement as crown for the plurality of free ends of the ground contact.

Claims

1. A unitary RF connector extending along a longitudinal axis (X) and comprising: a first electrical insulating body which is rigid; a conductive strip forming a central contact retained within the first insulating body; which comprises at, at least one of its free ends, a first tab being configured as a spring able to flex toward one of the end face of the insulating body taking any closer position when acted upon by a pressure force of a complementary connection element; a ground contact comprising a conductive body which is closed on itself and retained around the insulating body and, at, at least one of the free end of said conductive body, at least three second conductive tabs, each second conductive tab comprising a single unfolded segment, extending oblique relative to and towards the outside of the conductive body, each second conductive tab being configured as a spring able to flex toward the conductive body taking any closer position when acted upon by the pressure force of the complementary connection element, the at least three second conductive tabs being arranged in a crown shape, around the conductive body.

2. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, comprising a second electrical insulating body surrounding at least partially the conductive body while being retained around this latter.

3. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, wherein the second insulating body comprises at least one pillar and which height being determined to protect the second tabs against the over flexion.

4. The unitary RF connector according to claim 2, comprising a protection insulating part which is arranged and maintained on the top of the second insulating body, said protection insulating part comprising peripheral cutouts or through holes over the entire height of the part and a central through hole which let through respectively the flexible ground tabs and the flexible central tab.

5. The unitary RF connector according to claim 4, comprising individual supports which are protruding from the top face of the second insulating body, beneath each flexible ground and central tabs.

6. The unitary RF connector according to claim 4, wherein the second insulating body comprises pins which are protruding from its top and which serve to guide the protection part above the insulating body.

7. The unitary RF connector according to claim 4, wherein the height of the protection part or of the pins is such that it protects each flexible ground and central tabs.

8. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, wherein the cross-section, transversely to the longitudinal axis (X), of the first electrical insulating body and of the conductive body of the ground contact is a regular pentagon, said ground contact comprising five second conductive tabs arranged in a crown shape, each of the second conductive tab extending from a side of the pentagonal conductive body.

9. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, wherein both free ends of each of the ground and the central contacts are each configured as a spring forming the first and second conductive tabs intended to come into electrical contact by the pressure force with a conductive track of one of a first printed circuit and a second printed circuit.

10. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, wherein only one free end of each of the ground and the central contacts is configured as a spring forming the first and second conductive tabs intended to come into electrical contact by the pressure force with a conductive track of a first printed circuit board, while the other one free end of each of the ground and the central contacts is rigid forming the first and second conductive tabs intended to be soldered to a conductive track of a second printed circuit board.

11. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, wherein the central contact is formed by a metal strip that is curved at each of its ends, said curved ends constituting the first conductive tabs.

12. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, wherein the ground contact is made as a single piece by being cut out from a metal sheet and being rolled up.

13. The unitary RF connector according to claim 1, wherein the first insulating body is overmolded on the central contact and the ground contact is assembled around the insulating body.

14. The unitary RF connector according to claim 2, wherein the second insulating body is overmolded or assembled around the ground contact.

15. A connection module, intended to be used to link two printed circuit boards comprising at least one unitary RF connector according to claim 1.

16. The connection module according to claim 15, comprising at least a stack of two identical unitary RF connectors wherein each of the flexible tabs of the central contact and of the flexible tabs of the ground contact of one connector is in flexible contact with a corresponding flexible tab of the other connector.

17. The connection module according to claim 15, comprising at least one holder comprising a frame closed on itself with at least one opening in which each unitary connector is accommodated according to a floating mounting.

18. The connection module according to claim 17, wherein the second insulating body of each connector is directly floating mounted into the holder.

19. Use of the unitary RF connector according to claim 1, to transmit RF (radiofrequency) signals or HSDL (High Speed Data Link) signals.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Other advantages and features of the invention will become more apparent upon reading the detailed description of exemplary implementations of the invention, given by way of non limiting illustration, and with reference to the following figures, in which:

(2) FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a unitary connector according to a first embodiment of the invention, without the outside surrounding insulating body

(3) FIG. 1B is another perspective view of the unitary connector of FIG. 1A;

(4) FIG. 2A is a perspective view of a unitary connector according to a first embodiment of the invention, with the outside surrounding insulating body

(5) FIG. 2B is another perspective view of the unitary connector of FIG. 2A;

(6) FIG. 3A is a perspective view of a unitary connector according to a second embodiment of the invention, without the outside surrounding insulating body

(7) FIG. 3B is another perspective view of the unitary connector of FIG. 3A;

(8) FIG. 4A is a perspective view of a unitary connector according to a second embodiment of the invention, with the outside surrounding insulating body;

(9) FIG. 4B is another perspective view of the unitary connector of FIG. 4A;

(10) FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a unitary connector according to the first embodiment of the invention, with the outside surrounding insulating body;

(11) FIG. 6 is a perspective view similar of two unitary connectors according to the first embodiment of the invention, which are stacked on top of each other with their flexible conductive tabs in mutual contact;

(12) FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a connection module comprising a holder in which a unitary connector according to the invention is floating mounted intended to be used with a plurality of similar connection modules for a multiple parallel board-to-board interconnection;

(13) FIG. 7A is a cross-sectional perspective view of the connection module of FIG. 7;

(14) FIG. 8 shows a matrix in which a plurality of holders with their connectors according to the invention are inserted;

(15) FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a unitary connector according to a third embodiment of the invention, with an outside surrounding insulating body and with a protection part which is arranged and maintained on the top of said outside insulating body;

(16) FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the part of the unitary connector according to FIG. 9, without the protection part which has been removed;

(17) FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the protection part of the unitary connector according to FIG. 9;

(18) FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a variant of the connector according to FIG. 9, with a different design of the outside surrounding insulating body but with the same protection part on the top of the insulating body;

(19) FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the part of the unitary connector according to FIG. 12, without the protection part which has been removed;

(20) FIG. 14 is an exploded perspective view of a variant of the third embodiment of the unitary connector according to the invention, with an outside surrounding insulating body and with a protection part which is arranged and maintained on the top of said outside insulating body;

(21) FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the part of the unitary connector according to FIG. 14, assembled together with the protection part;

(22) FIG. 16 is another perspective view of the part of the unitary connector according to FIG. 14, assembled together with the protection part;

(23) FIGS. 1A and 1B and show a first embodiment of a unitary radiofrequency (RF) connector 1 extending along a longitudinal axis X and comprising firstly a first electrical insulating body 2 which is rigid. This unitary connector 1 is intended to make a board-to-board connection between two printed circuit boards (PCB1, PCB2).

(24) A metal strip 3 forming a central contact comprises a central portion 30 which is retained inside the insulating body 2 and at the two free ends of the strip, two tabs 31, 32 which are arranged outside the insulating body. Both free ends 31, 32 of the central contact 3 are each incurved toward an end face 21, 22 of the insulating body 2. One free tab 31, is flexible such as it is configured as a spring. The other end tab 32 is rigid and curved at right angle.

(25) Advantageously, the flexible tab 31 and the rigid tab 32 of the central contact strip 3 may comprise an embossment forming a contact point.

(26) A conductive body 4 is closed on itself and retained around the first insulating body 2.

(27) At one free end of said conductive body 4, five conductive tabs 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 are extending oblique relative to and towards the outside of the conductive body 4.

(28) Each of the five conductive tabs 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 is configured as a spring able to flex toward the conductive body taking any closer position when acted upon by the pressure force of one of the PCB1, PCB2.

(29) According to the invention, the five conductive tabs 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 are arranged in crown, around the conductive body 4.

(30) In an advantageous way, each flexible five conductive tab 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 of the ground contact comprises an embossment forming a contact point. This contact point defines a precise electrical contact with a contact of a complementary connection element, such as a conductive track of a PCB. It also avoids any scratch with the PCB.

(31) At the other free end of said conductive body 4, five other conductive tabs 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 are extending oblique relative to and towards the outside of the conductive body 4.

(32) Each of the other end tab 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 is rigid and curved at right angle.

(33) According to the invention, the five conductive tabs 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 on one end and the other five conductive tabs 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 are arranged in crown, around the conductive body 4.

(34) The conductive body 4 and all the conductive peripheral tabs 40 to 44 and 45 to 49 forms the ground contact of the connector 1.

(35) Due to the arrangements in crown, the space distance between two adjacent tabs is reduced compared to the connectors according to the prior art. Typically, for a working frequency of around 15 GHz, the distance D, shown on FIG. 1A, between the two ends of adjacent tabs, is 2.8 mm, compared to the 3.6 mm distance in a connector according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,352B1 patent.

(36) Therefore, the RF signal leaks are notably reduced and hence the RF signal transmission path in the connector 1 is better insulated.

(37) Preferably, the ground contact is made as a single piece by being cut out from a metal sheet and being rolled up.

(38) According to an advantageous variant shown on FIGS. 2A and 2B, it is provided a second insulating body 5 which surrounds the conductive body 4, except of a slot 50 arranged at the location of one of the conductive flexible tab 43 and rigid tab 48.

(39) This slot 50 is related to the process of overmolding. As it is shown, the slot 50 opens outwards and on the conductive body 4 on the entire height of the second insulating body 5.

(40) Preferably, the second insulating body 5 comprises at least one pillar, two pillars 51, 52 on both sides of the slot 50 as shown and one pillar 53 on the other side. The height of said pillars is determined to protect the tabs 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, against the over flexion during the connection.

(41) Preferably also, the first insulating body 2 is overmolded on the portion 30 of the central contact 3, the ground contact 4 is assembled with the insulation body 2 and the second insulating body 5 is overmolded around the ground contact 4.

(42) A RF connector 1 according to the first embodiment shown on FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B makes the interconnection between the two PCB1, PCB2 by soldering only one end of the connector.

(43) It means that the flexible tab 31 of the central contact 3 and flexible tabs 40 to 44 of the ground contact are intended to come into electrical contact by the pressure force with a conductive track of one printed circuit board (PCB1), while the rigid tab 32 of the central contact 3 and rigid tabs 45 to 49 are intended to be soldered to a conductive track of the second printed circuit board (PCB2).

(44) This configuration is shown on FIG. 5, where it can be seen that the signal lines SL1 and SL2 of respectively PCB1, PCB2 are electrically connected by the rigid tab 32 soldered to the conductive track SL2 while the flexible tab 31 is deflected by exerting a contact force onto the conductive track SL1. The ground lines GL1 and GL2 of respectively PCB1, PCB2 are electrically connected by the rigid tabs 45 to 49 soldered to the conductive track GL2 while the flexible tabs 40 to 44 deflected by exerting a contact force onto the conductive track GL1.

(45) The second embodiment of the connector 1 shown on FIGS. 3A, 3B and 4A, 4B differs from the first embodiment in that the rigid tabs at one end of the connector 1 are replaced by flexible tabs which are similar or identical to the flexible tab 31 of the central contact and the flexible tabs 40 to 44 of the other end of the connector 1.

(46) In other words, in this second embodiment, both free ends 31.1, 31.2 of the central contact 3 are flexible and each incurved toward an end face 21, 22 of the insulating body 2. And at both free ends of the conductive body 4, ten conductive tabs 40.1, 41.1, 42.1, 43.1, 44.1; 40.2, 41.2, 43.2, 44.2 are flexible and extending oblique relative to and towards the outside of the conductive body 4.

(47) It can be noted that the surrounding insulating body 5 is similar for the first and the second embodiments.

(48) An advantageous configuration which allows the invention, is shown on FIG. 6. It can be seen a stack of two identical unitary connectors 1.1, 1.2 according to the first embodiment. Each of the flexible tabs 31.1 of the central contact 3 and of the flexible tabs 40.1 to 44.1 of the ground contact of one connector 1.1 is in flexible contact with a corresponding flexible tab 31.2 or 40.2 to 44.2 of the other connector 1.2.

(49) In this configuration also, the rigid tabs 32.1, 32.2 of the central contacts and the rigid tabs 45.1 to 49.1 and 45.2 to 49.2 of the two connectors 1.1, 1.2 are each intended to be soldered to a track of a PCB.

(50) In the embodiments of the connector 1 shown on FIGS. 1 to 13, the cross-section, transversely to axis (X), of the first electrical insulating body 2 and of the conductive body 4 of the ground contact is a regular pentagon, with the five flexible conductive tabs 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 or 40.1 to 44.1, 40.2 to 44.2 and the five rigid tabs 45 to 49 arranged in crown, each of the tabs extending from a side of the pentagonal conductive body.

(51) According to an advantageous variant shown on FIG. 7, it is provided a holder 6 which comprises a frame closed on itself with an opening 60 in which one unitary connector 1 is accommodated according to a floating mounting.

(52) By “floating mounting”, it is to be understood the usual technological meaning, i.e. a mounting allowing a certain displacement in translation of the unitary connector into the frame.

(53) The functions of this holder 6 are as follows: retention of one connector 1 according to the invention; guiding the connector 1 before the connection with the complementary connection elements is ensured.

(54) The holder 6 is preferably in plastics material.

(55) The solution of the variant according to FIG. 7 has the two following advantages: the connector doesn't need to be soldered on the PCB, the PCB directly contacts the connector through the elastic petals by pressing; the axial misalignment of the connector is twice the alignment of the connector of FIGS. 1A, 1B and FIGS. 2A, 2B.

(56) FIG. 8 shows multiple parallel connections (16 channels in the illustrated example), with a common guiding spacer 7 in which the plurality of holders 6.1 to 6.16 with their connectors 1.1 to 1.16 are inserted.

(57) FIGS. 9 to 11 show another embodiment of the surrounding insulating body 5. In this embodiment a protection insulating part 8 is arranged on the top of the insulating body 2.

(58) More precisely, the insulating part 8 is mated with interference by indexing and connecting pins 54 protruding on the top face of the insulating body and which are mated into corresponding holes 86 drilled in the protection part 8.

(59) Besides, the protection part 8 includes peripheral cutouts 80 to 84 over the entire height of the part and a central through hole 85 which let through the flexible ground tabs 41 to 44 and the flexible central tab 31. This embodiment allows to mechanically protect the flexible tabs 41 to 44 and 31 in case of an unexpected mechanical effort which would be applied transversally to axis X, either during the B-to-B connection or during any kind of manipulations.

(60) The manufacturing of the protection part 8 and the assembly with the insulating body 5 can be achievable with a current process.

(61) An advantageous variant of the previous embodiment is shown FIGS. 12 and 13 with the same protection 8.

(62) Here, the protection structure is made of individual local supports 55 which are protruding from the top face of the insulating body 5, beneath each flexible ground and central tabs 31, 41 to 44, and which function is to protect these latter against the over flexion during the connection. The pillars 51, 52 and 53 are replaced by pins 54 which are protruding from the top face of the insulating body 5.

(63) In other words, the connector 1 shown on FIG. 12 is combining the protection of over flexion like the connector of embodiment 2A and 2B and the protection against unexpected transversal mechanical forces like the connector 1 of embodiment of FIG. 9.

(64) Moreover, the pins 54 guides the protection part 8 above the insulating body 5. Due to its height, the protection part 8 can also be considered as a pillar in order to protect each flexible ground and central tabs. The height of the pins 54 may also be higher than the height of the protection part and they can be considered as pillars as well in this case.

(65) There are two advantages for such a stack configuration. Firstly, there are larger axial misalignment than the FIG. 2 due to two sides elastic petal contact. Secondly, if the height of the connector is H, and the final user wants the height twice for a B2B connection, that is 2×H, no extra product development nor tooling has to be launched, because of the direct use two connector with heights 31, 40 to 44.

(66) The embodiment of FIGS. 9 and 12 are more protective of the petals 40 to 44 and 31 than the configuration described in FIGS. 2A and 2B.

(67) FIGS. 14 and 15 show a variant of the embodiment with a protection insulating part 9 arranged on the top of the insulating bodies 2 and 5.

(68) According to this variant, the protection insulating part 9 includes over the entire height of the part 9, through holes 90 to 94 instead of peripheral cutouts 80 to 84 of the protection part 8 of FIGS. 9 to 12. Each of the through holes 90 to 94 let through the flexible ground tabs 40 to 44.

(69) There is also a central through hole 95 which let through the flexible central tab 31. This variant allows also to mechanically protect the flexible tabs 40 to 44 and 31 in case of an unexpected mechanical effort which would be applied transversally to axis X, either during the B-to-B connection or during any kind of manipulations.

(70) The insulating part 9 is mated by indexing and connecting pins 54 protruding on the top face of the insulating body 5 and which are accommodated into corresponding holes 96 drilled in the protection part 9. In this variant, the protection part 9 has snap hooks 97 which are protruding on the lower face of the part 9 and which serve to assemble the part 9 to the insulating body 5 by snap hooking the lower face of the part 9, as shown on FIG. 15.

(71) Other variants and enhancements can be provided without in any way departing from the framework of the invention.

(72) For example, if the illustrated embodiments show a number of flexible and rigid tabs for the ground contact in number of five per end of a connector, any other configuration in crown from three conductive tabs can be envisaged in so far as the space between two adjacent flexible tabs is reduced compared to the prior art in order to minimise the RF signal leaks.

(73) The expression “comprising a” should be understood to be synonymous with “comprising at least one”, unless otherwise specified.