PUSH-PULL MULTI COAX CONNECTOR USED FOR 5G COMMUNICATION REPEATER

Abstract

A multi-core connector used for 5G communication repeater, in which as a 5-core connector, with respect to prior art, an overall diameter is reduced from 32-35 mm to about 24.10 mm; the maximum external diameter is reduced from about 39.73 mm to about 27.70 mm, increasing an adaptive frequency from DC-20 GHz to DC-40 GHz to meet a demand of mmWave; an outer conductor of a female connector and that of a male connector abut against each other, so a gap possibly existed in the prior art is cancelled in a contacting interface, so as to enhance a shielding effect; in order to improve a push-on accuracy and avoid a traditional blind mate, right orientation indicating marks are set on a cylindrical surface of the male connector and that of the female connector, respectively; at least two bayonets are arranged circumferentially on an outer insert guiding surface of a male connector shell, and grooves matched with the bayonets are arranged circumferentially on an inner receptacle guiding surface of a female connector shell; a cylinder surface of a coupling nut is provided with spiral grooves, thus after the bayonets enter the spiral grooves, once the coupling nut is rotated up to an angle, the plug and socket can be clicked.

Claims

1. A multi coax connector used for 5G communication repeater, wherein said connector is a 4-core or 5-core connector; compared with prior art, an overall diameter of said connector is reduced; and a maximum external diameter of said connector is also reduced, making said connector miniaturized with a higher adaptive frequency.

2. The multi coax connector of claim 1, wherein it is a 5-core connector; or compared with a traditional 5-core connector, the overall diameter is reduced from 32-35 mm to about 24.10 mm; the maximum external diameter is reduced from about 39.73 mm to about 27.70 mm, so that the adaptive frequency is increased from DC-20 GHz to DC-40 GHz to meet a demand of a millimeter wave; at the same time, a weight of the multi coax connector is reduced, a material for making the multi coax connector becomes less, and a cost for manufacturing the multi coax connector is lowered, so as to meet future demands of upcoming 5G networks.

3. The multi coax connector of claim 1, wherein, compared with a traditional 5-core connector, an axial contacting interface between an outer conductor of each core female connector and an outer conductor of a corresponding male connector is with a zero gap (i.e. no clearance, fully contacting, or 360 degree uninterrupted contacting); or an axial gap between the outer conductor of each core female connector and the outer conductor of the mated male connector is cancelled, so as to enhance a shielding performance.

4. The multi coax connector of claim 1, wherein marks for indicating a right orientation or ensuring a foolproof connection are provided on a cylindrical surface of a male connector and that of a female connector, respectively, so that, by taking advantage of substantially pre-aligning the male connector and the female connector circumferentially, an accuracy of one-time successful push-on is improved, any misalignment during insertion is prevented, while a traditional blind mate is avoided; in this case, only a little bit of turning, or even no adjusting, one of the male and the female connectors is needed to finish the push-on, which avoids any large torsion of cables behind a turned connector, making the cylindrical multipin connector guiding 5 coaxial lines more convenient to insert into corresponding circular multiport connector guiding 5 coaxial cables on-site, and conducive to ensuring pre-set performance of the connector.

5. The multi coax connector of claim 4, wherein the marks for ensuring right orientation are a color dot, a color scale mark, or a color arrow; preferably, the color is red, blue or yellow.

6. The multi coax connector of claim 1, wherein a chord plane is arranged on a shell of a male connector or a female connector, and the chord plane is in contact with a flat surface provided on a side wall of a D-shaped hole for mounting the connector on a mounting box, so as to destroy a symmetry of the shell of the connector circumferentially, and prevent any unexpected sway of the connector after it is installed on the mounting box, thus fixing the connector circumferentially, making the connector's orientation unique circumferentially, and eliminating human errors on-site.

7. The multi coax connector of claim 1, wherein a positioning pin which is eccentric to deviate from a longitudinal axis of the connector is arranged on an end face of one of a male connector and a female connector, and a positioning hole for mating with the positioning pin is eccentric on an end face of the other one of the male connector and the female connector; the positioning pin and the positioning hole have an automatic alignment mechanism, that is, an inserting tip of the positioning pin has a hemispherical end, and a receiving mouth of the positioning hole has a chamfer or rounding; when the positioning pin and the positioning hole is in engagement with each other, the male connector is circumferentially positioned in an unique orientation relative to the female connector, thus eliminating possibility of any mis-mating between the male connector and the female connector.

8. The multi coax connector of claim 7, wherein the positioning pin provided to deviate from the longitudinal axis of the connector is eccentric on the end face of the male connector, and the positioning hole to be matched with the positioning pin is eccentric on the end face of the female connector; or the positioning hole provided to deviate from the longitudinal axis of the connector is eccentric on the end face of the male connector, and the positioning pin to be matched with the positioning hole is eccentric on the end face of the female connector; or at least two bayonets are arranged circumferentially on an outer insert guiding surface of one end connector shell, and grooves to be matched with the bayonets are arranged circumferentially on an inner receptacle guiding surface of the other end connector shell; on a cylindrical surface of a coupling nut or sleeve, there are provided with at least two spiral grooves, thus after the bayonets enter the spiral grooves, once the coupling nut is rotated up to an angle, the male connector and female connector are locked with each other.

9. The multi coax connector of claim 1, wherein a flange extending radially is arranged on a shell of a core connector in one of a male connector and a female connector, and a spring is arranged between a front surface of the flange and a rear surface of an outer conductor element of the core connector, making a free compression or floating of the outer conductor element.

10. The multi coax connector of claim 9, wherein a full axially contacting interface is added for an outer conductor of the male connector of each core connector and for an outer conductor of the female connector of the core connector, so as to eliminate any possible contacting flaw or preset design gap between the outer conductor interface of the male connector of each core connector and the outer conductor interface of the female connector of the core connector, thus improving a shielding effect.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

[0045] FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are section views of a male connector and a female connector, respectively, of NEX10-5 multi-core connector according to the prior art.

[0046] FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are partial sectional view and end surface view of a female connector of PA-5 multi-core connector according to the invention.

[0047] FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are partial sectional view and end surface view of a male connector of PA-5 multi-core connector according to the invention.

[0048] FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view of the PA-5 multi-core connector in a connecting state between the female connector and the male connector.

[0049] FIG. 5 is a schematic view of an enlarged part X marked in FIG. 4.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0050] As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in the prior art, the NEX10-5 multi core connector includes a male connector M10 and a female connector F10. The male connector M10 has five male connector cores M11 distributed circumferentially, while the female connector F10 has five female connector cores F11 distributed circumferentially. Each male connector core M11 is designed to be inserted into a corresponding female connector core F11.

[0051] In order to meet some industry standards, rather than technical requirements, an overall diameter of NEX10-5 multi core connector is determined to be 32-35 mm, and the maximum overall diameter is designed to be about 39.73 mm. However, it is difficult for those skilled in the art to rationalize and optimize the overall diameter of NEX10-5 connector from a technical point of view, in order to be used to a 5G network relay system, because if so, it would violate from the standards.

[0052] In an outer conductor of each male connector core M11, there is arranged an outer contact surface M12 shaped as a stepped cylindrical tower, while in an outer conductor of each female connector core F11, there has an inner contact surface F12 shaped as a stepped cylindrical tower. In theory, the stepped cylindrical tower outer contacting surface M12 and the stepped cylindrical tower inner contacting surface F12 fully abut against each other (a NEX10-5 threaded version can have no gap in the interface, but users wish to use the push-pull version with merits of quickly and conveniently connecting without any tool). However, for the NEX10-5 push-pull version of the connector, due to flatness and tolerance, etc. objectively resulted from machining, it is hard to avoid a contacting defect somewhere in the contacting surfaces, or even there are adjacent gaps at an end of the stepped cylindrical tower contacting surface M12 or at an end of the stepped cylindrical tower contacting surface F12 in their assembly status due to the flatness and tolerance originally arranged in design or inherently resulted from mechanical machining. This leads to a poor shielding performance (so called isolation, RF leakage, shielding or screening effectiveness) of NEX10-5 connector, so that NEX10-5 is not suitable to be used in a 5G network relay system.

[0053] The male connector M10 has an eccentric socket M13, and the female connector F10 has an eccentric pin F13. However, there is no automatically aligning mechanism between the eccentric pin F13 and the eccentric socket M13.

[0054] The doctrine for developing the NEX10-5 connector is to follow a traditional design rule on standardization of structure and size. An original intention for any product standardization is to reduce a manufacturing cost, a sales cost and a using cost for a product by increasing usage thereof. However, no industry standard for 5G network connector has been widely adopted, and no connector for 5G network base station and/or repeater has been widely used.

[0055] In fact, the 5G network has not yet covered a large enough area with reason as follows. First, those scenes suitable to use 5G are not wide enough. Second, a component cost for deploying the 5G network is high. Third, development of multi-core connector and other components has been confined within an idea, i.e. a standardization doctrine, for a long time, making it difficult for designers to imagine to develop a new multi-core connector for 5G relay system, which is with a low-cost, a better performance, a convenient assembly, preventing from trying any employee's luck, i.e. the traditional blind mating.

[0056] In the United States, millimeter wave solutions were often used before. Customized cables and connectors need to meet the 27/28 GHz for the millimeter wave, so it is difficult for their cost to be greatly reduced. When making design of the second generation connector, the frequency requirements are lowered to adopt SUB-6 (6 GHz) frequency, so as to greatly reduce a commercial cost of the connector. This opens up a business opportunity for implementing the present invention.

[0057] It is easy to understand that the lower a cost for obtaining the connectors, the wider the 5G network can be spread with a same performance or less sacrifice. However, in deploying the 5G communication network, there is not yet a low-cost and good performance multi-core connector product used in the 5G relay system. However, if those connectors originally designed for base stations are directly used in the 5G relay system, a higher cost is incurred for deploying the 5G communication network, thus inhibiting the communication network transformed from 4G to 5G.

[0058] As shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, an additional front plane F21 is included to outer conductor contact surfaces of each female connector core. As long as this plane F21 abuts against an outer conductor contacting surface of the male connector core, any possible remaining gap is eliminated, so that the shielding effect can be improved. A reference sign F22 represents a spiral slot on a connecting sleeve/coupling nut; A reference sign F23 represents a bayonet of the male connector for mating a guiding groove; and a reference sign F24 represents an eccentric positioning hole.

[0059] As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, an additional front plane M21 is provided to an outer conductor contacting surfaces of each male connector core. As long as this plane M21 abuts against an outer conductor contacting plane F21 of the female connector core so as to eliminate any possible remaining gap, the shielding effect can be improved. A reference sign M22 refers to a bayonet or a guiding pin; a reference sign M24 represents an eccentric positioning pin; a reference sign M25 refers to a chord plane; a reference sign M26 represents a clearance elimination spring; a reference sign M27 refers to an outer conductor contacting element of the male connector; a reference sign M28 represents a flange of the male connector housing or shell; and a reference sign M30 is an aligning mark set on an outer cylindrical surface the male connector to ensure foolproof connection.

[0060] In FIG. 4, a reference sign M30 represents the aligning mark set on the male connector to perform a correct insertion; and a reference sign F30 indicates an aligning mark set on the female connector for accurately receiving an insertion. The bayonet/guide pin M22 is locked in the screw groove F22. The portion X will be magnified partially.

[0061] In FIG. 5, it is more clearly shown that the front plane M21 of the male connector core abuts against the outer conductor front plane F21 of the female connector core, and any possible gap left between the two is 0. Therefore, the shielding effect of the PA-5 multi-core connector according to the invention is improved.

[0062] As shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 2A and 3A, according to the first aspect of the invention, the multi-core connector is a 5-core connector or a 4-core connector; compared with a traditional 5-core connector, the overall diameter is reduced from 32-35 mm to about 24.10 mm; and the maximum overall diameter is reduced from about 39.73 mm to about 27.70 mm, thus reducing a weight of the inventive multi coax connector, saving a material for making the inventive multi coax connector, and reducing a cost for obtaining the inventive multi coax connector. The adaptive frequency of the inventive multi coax connector is increased from DC-20 GHz to DC-40 GHz so as to meet the demand of millimeter wave. Those are all very good for popularization of 5G.

[0063] As shown in FIGS. 3A and 4, according to the second aspect of the invention, the multi-core connector is designed to avoid a traditional blind mating, and set marks M30 and F30 on cylindrical surface of the male connector and that of the female connector, respectively, so that at first, the male connector and the female connector can be aligned circumferentially with each other, and then pushing one onto the other, so as to make it more possible to enjoy one-time successful insertion. It enables employees accurately push one connector on the other on site after substantially aligning a relative position between the male connector and the female connector in the circumferential direction of the connector. Therefore, it only needs to turn the female connector slightly, or even it does not need to adjust the female connector circumferentially, to mate with the male connector, so as to avoid a notable torsion of those core cables behind the female connector, and make the connector assembly more convenient. It helps to ensure the desired performance of the connector.

[0064] In FIGS. 3A and 4, the insertion guiding marks M30 and F30 are red dots. However, the marks can be an any color dot, an any color scale mark, or an any color arrow. The color is red, blue, yellow, or any other eye-catching color.

[0065] As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, according to the third aspect of the invention, the multi-core connector is provided with a chord plane M25 on a shell of the male connector, to contact with a side flat surface of a connector mounting hole arranged on a wall (not shown) of the connector mounting box, so as to eliminate a symmetry of the male connector shell along the circumferential direction, prevent any accidental sway of the male connector after it is installed on the wall, and make sure a single possible positioning of the male connector in the circumferential direction.

[0066] As shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B, according to the fourth aspect of the invention, a positioning pin M24 deviating from a longitudinal axis of the connector is arranged on the end surface of the male connector, and a positioning hole F24 to be matched with the positioning pin M24 is arranged on the end surface of the female connector. Moreover, the positioning pin M24 and the positioning hole F24 have an automatically aligning mechanism, an inserting tip of the positioning pin M24 has a hemispherical end, while the receiving mouth of the positioning hole F24 has a chamfer or rounding. When the positioning pin M24 and the positioning hole F24 are mutually matched, the position of the male connector relative to the female connector is circumferentially unique, eliminating any possibility of mis-mating connection.

[0067] As shown in FIGS. 3A and 4, according to the fifth aspect of the invention, the multi-core connector is provided with a radial flange M28 on a shell of each core male connector, and a steel spring M26 is arranged between a front surface of the flange M28 and a rear surface of an outer conductor element M27 of a core male connector, permitting a free compression or floating of the outer conductor element M27. In addition, axial contact ends M21 and F21 are added between a male connector outer conductor M27 of each core and a female connector outer conductor of this core in addition to traditional multiple contact surfaces M12 and F12, so as to eliminate a possible gap between each core male connector and a corresponding core female connector, thus improving a shielding performance.

[0068] According to the connector of the invention, the maximum overall dimension can be reduced to about 27.70 mm (FIG. 3A), which is significantly smaller than that of NEX10-5 (FIG. 1A). The maximum overall dimension of the connector according to the invention can be further reduced, but it is preferred to maintain a moderate maximum overall dimension in the invention, because too small dimension of the connector will increase a manufacturing cost thereof.

[0069] According to the connector of the invention, by setting orientation aligning marks for ensuring foolproof connection (FIG. 4), a traditional blind mate is avoided, and an accuracy of a one-time successful connection is improved. The installation workers can accurately mate two connectors on site after aligning circumferentially a relative position between the male connector and the female connector at first as precise as possible. Therefore, when only a small turn of the female connector is required, or even not required, the male connector can be inserted into the female one, which makes an on-site installation more convenient, and avoids a design defect of NEX10-5 multi-core connector, which may need to be inserted with the other end connector by rotating one connector up to a large margin.

[0070] According to the connector of the invention, the positioning pin M24 and the positioning hole F24 have an automatically aligning mechanism, which is a further confirming measure to guarantee the foolproof connection in addition to the two end connectors aligning marks M30, F30.

[0071] In short, compared with the prior art, for the 5-core connector according to the invention, its overall diameter is reduced from 32-35 mm to about 24.10 mm; its maximum external diameter is reduced from about 39.73 mm to about 27.70 mm, which increases the adaptive frequency from DC-20 GHz to DC-40 GHz to meet the demand of millimeter wave. By adopting the steel spring M26 to perform a compression or floating, the outer conductor contact interfaces M21, F21 between the female connector and the male connector are closely adhered to each other, so any possible remaining gap existing in the prior art is cancelled, and a shielding performance is improved. Correct mating marks M30, F30 are set on cylindrical surfaces of a male connector and a female connector, respectively, so as to avoid the prior art blind mating and improve an accuracy of one-time successful insertion. A chord plane M25 is arranged on a shell of the connector, making convenient for fixing the connector along the circumferential direction. At least two bayonets/guide pins M22 are arranged circumferentially on the outer insert guiding surface of the male connector shell, while a guide groove F23 matched with the guide pin M22 is arranged circumferentially on the inner receptacle guiding surface of the female connector shell. The cylinder surface of the connecting sleeve/coupling nut is provided with at least two spiral grooves F22. After the guide pins M23 enter the spiral grooves, once the connecting sleeve is rotated up to an angle, the female connector and the male connector can be firmly locked with each other.

[0072] The patentee of the invention is willing to incorporate the product according to the invention into an industry standard, and is also willing to cooperate with the international well-known connector companies to make new and greater contributions to a global popularization of 5G technology.

[0073] According to the above disclosure, those skilled in the art would be inspired to further modify, enhance and improve the invention. However, all of these will fall into the broad but reasonable scope of protection defined as the attached claims.