Wire spacer for high speed cable termination

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a wire spacer, and particularly to a wire spacer for use in terminating a high speed data transmission cable to a printed circuit board contained in a cable termination connector.

2. Brief Description of the Prior Art

Referring to FIG. 5, a prior art high speed cable termination connector 700 is shown. The connector 700 has a dielectric housing 710 , a conductive shroud 720 , a printed circuit board 740 attached to a rear side of the housing, and a plurality of contacts 730 each having two ends, the forward end being mounted in the housing 710 and the rearward end being soldered to a connection pad on the printed circuit board 740 .

High speed data transmission cables require sophisticated shielding to protect the integrity of the data transmitted. The shielding requirements create many problems during assembly of shielded cable ends. In particular, shielded wires in a cable have to be individually stripped and individually attached to corresponding pads on a rear of a component printed circuit board of a cable termination connector. Problems in organizing the termination of many shielded wires to one small printed circuit board develop. These problems result in greater complexity and cost during assembly of a cable to a cable termination connector.

An apparatus to help organize and simplify the connection of a large number of shielded wires in a shielded cable to a cable termination connector is thus desired.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a wire spacer to help organize a large number of wires in a cable for connection to a printed circuit board in a cable termination connector, in order to reduce cases of miswiring and to decrease production cost;

A second object of the present invention is to provide a wire spacer which can act as a strain relief mechanism to reduce pull stress on wire-PCB solder joints.

To achieve the above-mentioned objects, a wire spacer in accordance with the present invention includes a rectangular, block-shaped, dielectric housing having a plurality of holes defined therein for insertion of shielded wires from a cable therethrough. The wire spacer is used with a cable terminating connector of a prior art design. The prior art connector has a dielectric housing, a plurality of contacts retained in the housing, and a printed circuit board attached by its forward edge to a rear of the housing. Pads adjacent the forward edge of the printed circuit board are electrically connected to the plurality of terminals. The wire spacer abuts a rear edge of the printed circuit board. Wires held in the wire spacer are fixedly positioned and oriented and can be stripped using manual or automatic means, and then can be attached to pads adjacent the rearward edge of the printed circuit board with fewer wiring mistakes. The reliability of this attachment is increased because the wire spacer serves as a strain relief. Production is simplified and becomes more easily automated. Production costs are thereby lowered.

Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an assembled, perspective view of a cable termination connector with a wire spacer in accordance with the present invention, terminating a cable;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the cable and cable connector of FIG. 1, taken along line 2 — 2 ;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the wire spacer of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the wire spacer of FIG. 1 with the wires of FIG. 1 assembled therein, and a printed circuit board to which the wires are to be attached; and

FIG. 5 is an assembled, perspective view of a cable termination connector of the prior art, terminating a cable.

Referring to FIG. 1, a dielectric wire spacer 10 of the present invention is shown being used as part of a termination connector assembly 1 . The termination connector assembly 1 is shown terminating shielded wires 3 of a high speed data cable 2 . Each wire 3 contains a pair of separately insulated conductors (not labeled). The termination connector assembly 1 comprises the dielectric wire spacer 10 of the present invention plus a termination connector (not labeled) comprising a prior art insulative connector housing 20 , a prior art conductive shroud 30 , a prior art printed circuit board (PCB) 40 , and prior art contacts 50 .

Referring to FIG. 2, the housing 20 has a plurality of passageways 21 defined from a front face 22 to a rear face 23 . The PCB 40 has conductive printed circuit traces (not shown) on one or both its surfaces or in its interior, the printed circuit traces being connected between solder pads 43 along a front edge 41 and solder pads 45 along a rear edge 42 of the PCB 40 , as is known in the prior art. The contacts 50 each have two ends, a front end 51 mounted in a corresponding passageway 21 of the housing 20 and a rear end 53 soldered to pads 43 on the PCB 40 . The shroud 30 fits over a front end 25 of the housing 20 for electromagnetic interference (EMI) control.

Referring to FIG. 3, the wire spacer 10 of the present invention has the shape of an elongate, rectangular block and is made from a dielectric material. The block has a front side 11 , a rear side 12 , a top side 13 , a bottom side 14 , a right side 16 , and a left side 15 . A plurality of parallel holes 17 pass through the wire spacer 10 , extending from the front side 11 to the rear side 12 . The holes shown each have an oval shape corresponding to the shape of an outside surface of the shielded wires 3 shown, but could be made in whatever shape corresponded to a shape of an outside surface of other wires. The holes are shown arranged in two rows, an upper row for fixing wires having conductors which attach to an upper surface (not labeled) of the PCB 40 and a lower row for fixing wires having conductors which attach to a lower surface (not labeled) of the PCB 40 . However, the holes could be arranged in any other number of rows desired for making attachment of conductors to one or more stacked PCBs 40 more convenient.

In use, ends (not labeled) of wires 3 from the cable 2 are inserted through corresponding holes 17 so that a length of each wire 3 extends in front of the front side 11 of the wire spacer 10 (see FIG. 4 ). The wires 3 can then be stripped manually or by automatic means. Fixing the wires 3 in the wire spacer 10 makes checking the correct positioning of each wire 3 more easy than when working with free wires 3 . Having the wires 3 in a fixed position with a correct orientation also facilitates automated stripping and connection of conductor pairs (not labeled) to the PCB 40 . These advantages lower production cost of the terminated cable. Additionally, the wire spacer 10 has the added advantage that it provides strain relief for the wires 3 , thus protecting the integrity of the soldered connection between each conductor (not labeled) of each wire 3 and each corresponding solder pad 45 . This increases reliability of the finished cable termination.

Obvious improvements and variations to the present invention wire spacer are also intended to be covered in this disclosure. Alternate obvious uses of the present invention wire spacer are also intended to be covered. For instance, to improve the ability of the wire spacer 10 to function as a strain relief, the wire spacer may be fixedly attached to the rear edge 42 of the PCB 40 . Furthermore, the wire spacer 10 could be effectively used with other termination connector designs. One such design could be a connector in which the contacts 50 are replaced by golden fingers fixed to a front edge of an alternate embodiment PCB, with a front edge of such PCB extending through an alternate embodiment of the housing 20 , allowing connection of the golden fingers to a mating connector.

It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.