Virginia Patent Development Corp.

Tyco Electronics Logistics Ag

Thomas & Betts International LLC

Virginia Plastics Company, Inc.

Stephen B Bogese

Sharon Hancock-Bogese

An improved modular telephone-style jack featuring a guidance system positioned on the lower outer wall so that the guidance system maintains the position of the surface mount solder tails of the contacts of the jack in a controlled fashion. The guidance system consists of a series of substantially linear, parallel ridges which extend outward from the outer wall so that the peak of each ridge is in contact with or immediately adjacent the upper surface of a printed circuit board. The peak of each ridge extends along the upper surface of the printed circuit board for a length that is greater than the length of the solder tail to provide alignment of each solder tail with its corresponding solder paste connection area. Each ridge prevents any solder tail from pivoting such that it could accidentally make contact with either neighboring solder tail. Each ridge further prevents the distance separating neighboring contacts from being reduced to such a small distance that solder could bridge across both contacts. This substantially reduces the risk of an electrical short between two separate signal paths which would render the soldered board unusable with a resultant high scrap cost with the loss of all soldered components. The peak of each ridge further serves to prevent migration and wicking of the solder paste for two separate circuits from joining to each other, thereby shorting the electrical connection between the two separate signal paths. This condition would also render the board unusable. The combination of features of the guidance system allows the solder tails to be formed so that no portion of the solder tail extends beyond the rear wall of the jack. This reverse gull wing configuration of the solder tail provides significant protection of the solder tails as a result of being located entirely under the lower wall of the jack so that the solder tails are not exposed to bending or twisting as normally occurs with j type or gull wing type solder tails or with other solder tail types which extend beyond the main rear wall of the jack.

Surface mount modular jack

An electrical connector which incorporates a printed circuit substrate to accurately modify electrical signals on the cable terminated in the connector. The connector utilizes two distinct sets of contact terminals, the first set acting to terminate the cable and the substrate, the second set acting to terminate the substrate and couple the signals thereon to a mating external jack. The substrate includes circuit components electrically connected between the first and second sets of contact terminals.

Modular electrical plug including a printed circuit substrate

An improved modular telephone-style jack featuring an improved contact configuration. The modular jack directly couples a modular male plug to a printed circuit board. The jack features a contact having a lower linear beam in combination with an glide dimple so that the contact can extend forwardly once its upward movement during mating with a modular plug is restrained. The lower linear beam is lifted during engagement and remains lifted while mated with a contact in a modular male plug. As a result of lifting, the free end of the contact also lifts in a typically unrestrained manner. However, the space above a mounted jack may be limited by multiple boards stacked in close proximity or the jack may be adjacent a mounting bracket located around the jack. If the space above the jack is limited, the contact will only be able to lift to a height less than its unrestrained lifted height. In one embodiment, the glide dimple is an arcuate shape whose open side faces downward so that its uppermost curved surface is tangent to the underside of the cover or upper wall of the modular jack. As the cover lifts in concert with the free end of the contact, when the cover hits a physical stop and thus is restrained from further lift, the glide dimple slides forward along the underside of the cover. The contact extends forward as the contact in the male plug lifts the lower linear beam further to a fully mated position so as to absorb the additional lift via extension in a direction generally parallel with the lower linear beam.

Contact configuration in modular jack

A one-piece flexible strap clamp which may be wrapped in either of two directions about barriers, or about objects of varying shape such as insulators or lugs, or around fences, or about linear objects such as cable, wire, or bundles of cable or wire. The clamp may be installed onto a variety of support surfaces, such as underground support arms, wildlife/animal barriers, dielectric covers, or tubular guards, without the need for any additional fasteners or other mounting equipment or pieces, and is more tamper proof than previous versions.

One-piece strap clamp

A modular plug terminates a multi-conductor cable therein. The modular plug includes a locking bar hingedly attached to the housing and movable from a position outside the cable-receiving opening to a position inside the opening for compressibly holding the cable therein. A plurality of spaced surfaces are formed on the locking bar to define a plurality of different positions of the locking bar in the opening, whereby the cable may be selectively and controllaby deformed according to the position of the locking bar.

Modular plug for variably deforming cable terminated therein

An electrical connector adapted to receive a modular plug comprises a housing having a front portion, a rear portion and an outer wall, a plug receiving opening in the front portion and extending toward the rear portion, the plug receiving opening comprising a rear portion, a plurality of conductors associated with the housing, each conductor comprising a first end portion extending from the outer wall, a first intermediate portion substantially perpendicular to the first end portion, a second intermediate portion substantially perpendicular to the first intermediate portion, and a second end portion extending generally from the rear portion of the plug receiving opening toward the front portion of the housing. A method for assembling the connector comprises substantially, in proper sequence, forming specified bends in conductors associated with the connector and inserting the conductors in the housing.

Modular connector with improved housing and contact structure

The cable comprises one or more layers of insulated conductors disposed in circumferentially spaced relation. At least one layer is surrounded by a flexible shield formed from a inner layer of metallic foil bonded to a layer of flexible plastic. A ground conductor in the form of an uninsulated metal wire or a semi-conductive wire is disposed in the conductor layer directly adjacent to the shield. The ground conductor and the insulated conductors all have approximately the same outside diameter. This promotes intimate contact between the ground conductor and the shield. The cable is used in modular conjunction with a connector which holds the cable in pressurized engagement within a cable receiving opening. The pressure produced by the connector insures that intimate contact between the ground conductor and the shield will be maintained. The connector is designed such that the pressure applied to the cable can be varied.

Round shielded cable and modular connector therefor

A standard miniature modular connector or plug includes insulaton-piercing contact terminals for terminating a plurality of insulated conductors contained within the housing of the plug. A thin, flexible substrate is positioned within the plug and includes at least one conductive path positioned thereon adjacent to one or more of the insulated conductors. The conductive path is positioned so that at least one of the contact terminals pierces a segment of the path on the substrate to provide an electrical connection thereto. The conductive path or segments may be arranged in any desired fashion, for example, to provide an auxiliary, internal circuit path between two of the contact terminals and/or two of the insulated conductors. Two or more individual multi-conductor cables may be terminated in the same plug whereby the conductive path on the substrate may serve as an electrical interconnection between the respective conductors in the two cables. The arrangement may also be utilized to provide a convenient connection between a ground wire and a shielded conductor. In another embodiment, an electrical or electronic component, such as a resistor or an integrated circuit, may be disposed in the conductive path to provide signal modification functions.

Growing community of inventors

Salem, VA, United States of America

Stephen B Bogese