Patents Assigned to FCI
  • Patent number: 11626681
    Abstract: A hybrid edge connector includes an insulative housing with a slot lined with signal terminals, in a signal portion, and power terminals in a power portion. The power terminals may be made with multiple layers, with each layer formed into one or more fingers. Each finger may be configured to make contact with an edge of a card inserted in the slot such that each terminal has multiple contact points to the card and can carry a large current. To support a large current, the card may be a hybrid card, with a signal portion formed using a conventional PCB manufacturing techniques and a power portion formed with one or more blades mechanically coupled to the signal portion. The slot in the connector housing may have different widths in the signal and power portions and the center lines of those portions may be offset with respect to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Rongzhe Guo, Clarence Randall Fry, Chao Zou
  • Publication number: 20230107361
    Abstract: Electrical connectors for very high speed signals, including signals at frequencies at or above 112 GHz, with high density. Such connectors may be formed with fine features molded into portions of the connector housing to support closely spaced signal conductors. The signal conducts may nonetheless be accurately positioned, which leads to uniform impedance and other electrical characteristics that enable high frequency operation through the use of skeletal members that restrain bowing and twisting of housing components that position, directly or indirectly, the signal conductors. The skeletal members may be simply incorporated into the housing components by stamping a metal skeleton from a metal sheet in conjunction with one or more carrier strips. The housing component may be overmolded around the skeleton and then severed from the carrier strips.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2021
    Publication date: April 6, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: James J. Muha, Scott Martin, Douglas M. Johnescu, Gregory A. Hull, Mark E. Lauermann, Jason John Ellison, Jan De Geest, Charles Copper, Mark R. Gray, William Tanis, Steven E. Minich
  • Patent number: 11621511
    Abstract: An electrical power interconnection system is described. The electrical interconnection system may comprise an electrical power connector and a substrate, such as a printed circuit board. The electrical power connector may comprise a housing and a plurality of electrical power contacts supported by the housing. The electrical power contacts may comprise a mounting end, a mating end, and a contact body disposed between the mounting end and the mating end. The electrical power contacts may have planar portions. The mating ends may comprise opposing first second beams defining a slot. The slot may be configured to receive the substrate therein, such that the first beam contacts the first side of the substrate and the second beam contacts the second side of the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Charles Copper, Christopher J. Kolivoski, Hung Viet Ngo, Thomas A. Brungard
  • Patent number: 11616329
    Abstract: A circular power connector that can accommodate plugs of varying diameters includes a plurality of electrical terminals that include a contact beam extending from and monolithic with base, where the contact beam includes a contact portion, and a mounting portion that extends from and monolithic with a base for mounting the terminal to a substrate. The terminals are cylindrically arranged to receive a plug. Alternatively, each electrical terminal includes a frame portion, a first contact beam extending from the frame in a first direction, and a second contact beam extending from the frame in a second direction. Multiple electrical terminals are oriented so that the first and second contact beams for one terminal extend at an angle, preferably perpendicular, to the first and second contact beams of another electrical terminal, in a still further embodiment, an electrical terminal having two halves is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Assignee: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Charles Copper, Thomas Brungard
  • Publication number: 20230088468
    Abstract: An electrical connector is provided with a segmented design supporting multiple connector configurations with commonality across the configurations that simplifies connector selection and qualification. The connector includes multiple segments, each with an insulative housing portion into which may be inserted power terminals in one or more configurations or signal terminals. A first-type power terminal may carry a first maximum power and a second-type power terminals may carry a second maximum power greater than the first maximum power, but the segments may be configured with mating contacts with similar properties. The connectors may have a mezzanine configuration configurable in a stack height selected from a wide range of stack heights, with fine-grained resolution. Terminals in all stack heights may have similar mating and mounting portions, differing only in the height of a body portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Thomas A. Brungard, Steven E. Pressel
  • Patent number: 11600957
    Abstract: An electrical connector including a housing and electrical conductor plating. The housing includes a first member and a second member. The first member is made of plastic and forms at least one first contact receiving channel therein. The second member is attached around the first member, and the first and second members form at least one second contact receiving channel therebetween. The electrical conductor plating is on the first member. The electrical conductor plating includes at least one first section along the at least one first contact receiving channel and at least one second section along an exterior side of the first member at the at least one second contact receiving channel. The first and second sections of the electrical conductor plating are electrically separate from one another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: FCI USA LLC
    Inventor: Charles Copper
  • Publication number: 20230062661
    Abstract: Electrical connectors for very high speed signals, including signals at or above 112 Gbps. Effectiveness of shielding along the signal paths through the mating electrical connectors may be enhanced through the use of one or more techniques, including enabling two-sided shielding, connections between shield members and between shield members and grounded structures of printed circuit boards to which the connectors are mounted, and selective positioning of lossy material. Such techniques may be simply and reliably implemented in high density connector using one or more techniques. An electrical connector may include core members held by a housing together with leadframe assemblies attached to the core members. The core members may include features that would be difficult to mold in a housing and may include both shields and lossy materials in locations that would be difficult to incorporate in a leadframe assembly.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 2, 2022
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Douglas M. Johnescu, Gregory A. Hull, Mark Lauermann, Scott Martin, Jason John Ellison, Jan De Geest, Charles Copper, Mark R. Gray, William Tanis, Steven E. Minich
  • Publication number: 20230062139
    Abstract: A modular connector system with components that can be economically assembled to provide high signal integrity in a harsh environment, such as an automobile. In some connectors, electrical conductors serving as signal conductors may be at least partially encircled by a conductive sheet formed into a tube. The tube may be formed by joining opposite edges of the sheet with tab portions extending from the edges. The tab portions may be bent to extend radially outwards from the cavity and crimped together, providing mechanical integrity to the shield, as well as a tab that polarizes the shield to block incorrect insertion into an insulative housing and can engage with components in the insulative housing to latch the shield in the housing. Other disclosed techniques economically and stably position electrical conductors, which may serve as signal terminals relative to ground structures, electrically and mechanically connect shields, or compensate for impedance variations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2022
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventor: Koen Maddens
  • Publication number: 20230042161
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to a high frequency connector system with reduced stub lengths that provide improved performance at high frequencies. A first connector includes a plurality of mating contacts designed to electrically connect to a second plurality of mating contacts associated with a second connector. The first connector includes one or more elastic members such that when the second connector is mated to the first connector, the one or more elastic members are compressed between the first and second connectors. The first and second plurality of contacts overlap by a first distance when initially mated, but when the connectors are released, the first elastic member biases the second connector away from the first connector such that the first and second plurality of contacts overlap by a second distance smaller than the first distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2022
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventor: Jordan Winey
  • Publication number: 20230026708
    Abstract: A direct mate orthogonal connector for a high density of high speed signals. The connector may include right angle leadframe assemblies with signal conductive elements and ground shields held by a leadframe housing. The leadframe assemblies may each have signal mating ends extending from the signal conductive elements and ground mating ends extending from the ground shield. High frequency performance may be achieved with features on the leadframe housing and on the ground shield. The features may be simple to form yet ensure the positional relationship between the contacts points of the ground mating ends and the contact points of the signal mating ends to sustain forces generated during operating the connector to mate with another connector and/or mount to a board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2022
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Scott Carbaugh, Mark R. Gray, James J. Muha
  • Publication number: 20230013728
    Abstract: Flexible and low cost power interconnects. The interconnect includes a plug with an insulative support and a plurality of electrical contacts mounted to exterior surfaces of the insulative support. The plug may be simply formed with molding and stamping operations. In use, the plug may be connected in an electrical assembly to support one or multiple power circuits in a compact space. A receptacle for receiving the plug may have an opening with sides bounded by rows of independent electrical contacts that may similarly be connected to one or more power circuits within a printed circuit board to which the receptacle is mounted. The plug and receptacle may be configured such that, when the receptacle connector and plug are each mounted to substrates and the connectors are mated, the substrates are spaced 6 mm, 5 mm, or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2022
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Thomas A. Brungard, Steven E. Pressel
  • Publication number: 20230011722
    Abstract: A connector configured to provide signal and power connections reliably and economically in a compact space. The connector may include terminals each comprising a mating portion and a mounting portion opposite the mating portion. The terminals may be arranged with multiple rows of signal terminals and power terminals aligned in one row and on opposite sides of the signal rows. The mounting portions of the terminals may be configured to receive cables in some embodiments, and mount to a board in some other embodiments.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2022
    Publication date: January 12, 2023
    Applicant: FCI Nantong Ltd.
    Inventors: Zelin Yao, Changjiang Zhao, Iuokui Zhang, Xinwei Wang
  • Publication number: 20230006390
    Abstract: A stacked I/O connector for use with a high speed, high density transceiver that generates a large amount of heat. The connector may be formed with a web-like housing into which leadframe assemblies are inserted. The web-like housing may have openings in the front, back, top and/or sides, enabling airflow through the connector with little resistance. Sidewall openings may open into a channel between the housing and a wall of cage, enabling air flowing to cool transceivers inserted into the cage to pass through the connector assembly with low resistance and high cooling efficiency. A cage for the connector may have openings selectively positioned such that air flowing through the cage to cool transceivers mated to the I/O connector may pass through the connector with low resistance, enhancing cooling efficiency. Such a connector may be used with OSFP transceivers to meet signal integrity and thermal requirements at 112GBps and beyond.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2022
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: JASON SI, Ba Pham, Xingye Chen, Sam Kocsis
  • Publication number: 20230006379
    Abstract: A connector that enables electronic assemblies to be efficiently configured for any of multiple power requirements. The connector may have multiple interfaces such that when the connector is mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB), it may receive power through an interface and distribute it to components on the PCB through another interface. The connector may also have an interface that supports a connection to a conductive interconnect, which may distribute power to a second connector mounted to the same PCB. Power may be distributed to components mounted to the PCB without passing through the mounting interface of the first connector. As a result, the current density in the PCB adjacent the first connector is reduced relative to current density required to supply current to all components through the mounting interface of the first connector. The PCB may have fewer layers than a conventional PCB assembly supporting comparable functionality.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2019
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Christopher S. Gieski, Rongzhe Guo
  • Publication number: 20230006393
    Abstract: A high temperature electrical connector, which may be used to connect a temperature sensor mounted in a combustion chamber of an automotive engine to a cable. The connector has a housing made of high temperature material, such as alumina ceramic. Connector terminals may be retained within the housing but may float relative to the housing, to reduce stresses associated with differential thermal expansion of the housing and terminals and reduce transmission of vibration and resultant degradation of connector performance. Compliant portions may extend from an intermediate portion of the terminals to make contact with pads on a sensor substrate inserted into the connector. The terminals may be retained with an end cap, secured to the housing. Retention of the terminals may be aided by pockets in the housing that receive tips of the terminals. Channels, receiving the intermediate portions of the terminals, may open into the pockets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 1, 2022
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventor: CHARLES M. GROSS
  • Publication number: 20220407269
    Abstract: A direct mate orthogonal connector for a high density of high speed signals. The connector may include right angle leadframe assemblies with signal conductive elements and ground shields held by a leadframe housing. High frequency performance may be achieved with members on the leadframe that transfer force between a connector housing, holding the leadframe assemblies, and a portion of the leadframe housing holding the signal conductive elements and the shields near their mounting ends. Core members may be inserted into the housing and mating ends of the conductive elements of ground shields may be adjacent the core members, enabling electrical and mechanical performance of the mating interface to be defined by the core members. The core members may incorporate insulative and lossy features that may be complex to form as part of the connector housing but may be readily formed as part of a separate core member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2022
    Publication date: December 22, 2022
    Applicant: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Jason John Ellison, Douglas M. Johnescu, Gregory A. Hull, Mark E. Lauermann, Scott Martin, Jan De Geest, Scott Carbaugh, Steven E. Minich, Mark R. Gray, Charles Copper, William Tanis
  • Patent number: 11476619
    Abstract: Embodiments disclosed herein relate to a high frequency connector system with reduced stub lengths that provide improved performance at high frequencies. A first connector includes a plurality of mating contacts designed to electrically connect to a second plurality of mating contacts associated with a second connector. The first connector includes one or more elastic members such that when the second connector is mated to the first connector, the one or more elastic members are compressed between the first and second connectors. The first and second plurality of contacts overlap by a first distance when initially mated, but when the connectors are released, the first elastic member biases the second connector away from the first connector such that the first and second plurality of contacts overlap by a second distance smaller than the first distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: FCI USA LLC
    Inventor: Jordan Winey
  • Patent number: 11469554
    Abstract: A direct mate orthogonal connector for a high density of high speed signals. The connector may include right angle leadframe assemblies with signal conductive elements and ground shields held by a leadframe housing. High frequency performance may be achieved with members on the leadframe that transfer force between a connector housing, holding the leadframe assemblies, and a portion of the leadframe housing holding the signal conductive elements and the shields near their mounting ends. Core members may be inserted into the housing and mating ends of the conductive elements of ground shields may be adjacent the core members, enabling electrical and mechanical performance of the mating interface to be defined by the core members. The core members may incorporate insulative and lossy features that may be complex to form as part of the connector housing but may be readily formed as part of a separate core member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Jason John Ellison, Douglas M. Johnescu, Gregory A. Hull, Mark E. Lauermann, Scott Martin, Jan De Geest, Scott Carbaugh, Steven E. Minich, Mark R. Gray, Charles Copper, William Tanis
  • Patent number: 11469553
    Abstract: Electrical connectors for very high speed signals, including signals at or above 112 Gbps. Effectiveness of shielding along the signal paths through the mating electrical connectors may be enhanced through the use of one or more techniques, including enabling two-sided shielding, connections between shield members and between shield members and grounded structures of printed circuit boards to which the connectors are mounted, and selective positioning of lossy material. Such techniques may be simply and reliably implemented in high density connector using one or more techniques. An electrical connector may include core members held by a housing together with leadframe assemblies attached to the core members. The core members may include features that would be difficult to mold in a housing and may include both shields and lossy materials in locations that would be difficult to incorporate in a leadframe assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: FCI USA LLC
    Inventors: Douglas M. Johnescu, Gregory A. Hull, Mark E. Lauermann, Scott Martin, Jason John Ellison, Jan De Geest, Charles Copper, Mark R. Gray, William Tanis, Steven E. Minich
  • Patent number: D975024
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignee: FCI CONNECTORS DONGGUAN LTD.
    Inventors: Hua-Kun Wei, Yi-Lin Liu