Patents by Inventor Jeffrey Byron McClinton

Jeffrey Byron McClinton has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11916341
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes wafer assemblies coupled to a housing. Each wafer assembly includes a leadframe, a wafer body holding the leadframe, and a ground frame coupled to the wafer body to provide electrical shielding for the leadframe. Each leadframe has signal contacts with mating ends extending from the wafer body for mating with mating signal contacts of a mating electrical connector. The mating ends are twisted 45° to define twisted mating interfaces. Each ground frame has ground shields extending from a ground plate along the mating ends of the signal contacts. The ground shields are twisted 45° relative to the ground plate to define twisted shield zones along the mating ends of the signal contacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS GMBH
    Inventors: Timothy Robert Minnick, Justin Dennis Pickel, Chad William Morgan, David Allison Trout, Jeffrey Byron McClinton
  • Publication number: 20230411910
    Abstract: An electrical connector assembly includes a housing having a mating interface configured to be mated with a hermaphroditic mating electrical connector assembly. The housing includes an electrically conductive commoning member having contact openings. Wafer assemblies are coupled to the housing each having a leadframe, a wafer body holding the leadframe, and a ground frame providing electrical shielding for the leadframe. The signal contacts are terminated to cables. The ground shields are electrically connected to the commoning member. The mating ends of the signal contacts and the ground shields form a hermaphroditic mating interface for mating with the hermaphroditic mating electrical connector assembly.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2022
    Publication date: December 21, 2023
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Michael Streckewald, Margaret Mahoney Fernandes
  • Patent number: 11831095
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes wafer assemblies coupled to a housing. Each wafer assembly includes a leadframe, a wafer body holding the leadframe, and a ground frame coupled to the wafer body to provide electrical shielding for the leadframe. Each leadframe has signal contacts with mating ends extending from the wafer body for mating with mating signal contacts of a mating electrical connector. The mating ends are twisted 45° to define twisted mating interfaces. Each ground frame has ground shields extending from a ground plate along the mating ends of the signal contacts. The ground shields are twisted 45° relative to the ground plate to define twisted shield zones along the mating ends of the signal contacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS GMBH
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, Jeffrey Byron McClinton
  • Patent number: 11749920
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes a housing holding wafer assemblies in a wafer stack each including a wafer body holding a leadframe with signal contacts arranged in pairs and extending between mating ends and mounting ends. Each pair includes a primary signal contact and a secondary signal contact. Each signal contact has a main body extending through the wafer bodies and a mating end extend from the wafer body presented at the mating interface. The mating ends are twisted 45° relative to the main bodies. The mating end of the primary signal contact is arranged at a first side of the main body and the mating end of the secondary signal contact is arranged at a second side of the main body to define a twisted pair interface configured to be mated with the mating signal contacts of the mating electrical connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS GMBH
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, Jeffrey Byron McClinton
  • Publication number: 20230208059
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes wafer assemblies coupled to a housing. Each wafer assembly includes a leadframe, a wafer body holding the leadframe, and a ground frame coupled to the wafer body to provide electrical shielding for the leadframe. Each leadframe has signal contacts with mating ends extending from the wafer body for mating with mating signal contacts of a mating electrical connector. The mating ends are twisted 45° to define twisted mating interfaces. Each ground frame has ground shields extending from a ground plate along the mating ends of the signal contacts. The ground shields are twisted 45° relative to the ground plate to define twisted shield zones along the mating ends of the signal contacts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2021
    Publication date: June 29, 2023
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, Jeffrey Byron McClinton
  • Publication number: 20230187859
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes a housing holding wafer assemblies in a wafer stack each including a wafer body holding a leadframe with signal contacts arranged in pairs and extending between mating ends and mounting ends. Each pair includes a primary signal contact and a secondary signal contact. Each signal contact has a main body extending through the wafer bodies and a mating end extend from the wafer body presented at the mating interface. The mating ends are twisted 45° relative to the main bodies. The mating end of the primary signal contact is arranged at a first side of the main body and the mating end of the secondary signal contact is arranged at a second side of the main body to define a twisted pair interface configured to be mated with the mating signal contacts of the mating electrical connector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2021
    Publication date: June 15, 2023
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, Jeffrey Byron McClinton
  • Publication number: 20230057831
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes wafer assemblies coupled to a housing. Each wafer assembly includes a leadframe, a wafer body holding the leadframe, and a ground frame coupled to the wafer body to provide electrical shielding for the leadframe. Each leadframe has signal contacts with mating ends extending from the wafer body for mating with mating signal contacts of a mating electrical connector. The mating ends are twisted 45° to define twisted mating interfaces. Each ground frame has ground shields extending from a ground plate along the mating ends of the signal contacts. The ground shields are twisted 45° relative to the ground plate to define twisted shield zones along the mating ends of the signal contacts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2021
    Publication date: February 23, 2023
    Inventors: Timothy Robert Minnick, Justin Dennis Pickel, Chad William Morgan, David Allison Trout, Jeffrey Byron McClinton
  • Patent number: 11283222
    Abstract: A header assembly includes a header housing and contact modules coupled to the header housing each having a frame assembly with a signal leadframe and a dielectric frame. The dielectric frame includes mating portion extensions at a front of the dielectric frame. The signal leadframe includes mating portions extending forward from the mating portion extensions. Each contact module includes a ground shield having ground shrouds providing electrical shielding for the mating portions. Each ground shroud includes shroud walls forming a shroud cavity receiving the corresponding mating portion extension. Each ground shroud includes a shroud transition to vary a depth of the shroud cavity along a length of the ground shroud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY SERVICES GmbH
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Douglas Edward Shirk, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Wei Peng, Justin Dennis Pickel, Timothy Robert Minnick, Edward Lee Hengst, Karen Elizabeth Benjamin
  • Publication number: 20220059974
    Abstract: A header assembly includes a header housing and contact modules coupled to the header housing each having a frame assembly with a signal leadframe and a dielectric frame. The dielectric frame includes mating portion extensions at a front of the dielectric frame. The signal leadframe includes mating portions extending forward from the mating portion extensions. Each contact module includes a ground shield having ground shrouds providing electrical shielding for the mating portions. Each ground shroud includes shroud walls forming a shroud cavity receiving the corresponding mating portion extension. Each ground shroud includes a shroud transition to vary a depth of the shroud cavity along a length of the ground shroud.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2020
    Publication date: February 24, 2022
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Douglas Edward Shirk, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Wei Peng, Justin Dennis Pickel, Timothy Robert Minnick, Edward Lee Hengst, Karen Elizabeth Benjamin
  • Patent number: 11217944
    Abstract: A header assembly includes a header housing having a header cavity. The header assembly includes header signal contacts received in corresponding signal contact channels having mating ends arranged in the header cavity for mating with the receptacle assembly. The header assembly includes header ground contacts received in corresponding ground contact channels. Each header ground contact includes shield walls forming a shield cavity receiving header signal contacts to provide electrical shielding for the header signal contacts. The shield walls include an end wall extending between first and second side walls. Each header ground contact includes a mating protrusion that extends outward relative to the shield cavity from the corresponding shield wall. The mating protrusion is configured to engage a conductive insert of the receptacle assembly used to electrically common each of the header ground contacts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY SERVICES GmbH
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Douglas Edward Shirk, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Justin Dennis Pickel
  • Publication number: 20210242632
    Abstract: A header assembly includes a header housing having a header cavity. The header assembly includes header signal contacts received in corresponding signal contact channels having mating ends arranged in the header cavity for mating with the receptacle assembly. The header assembly includes header ground contacts received in corresponding ground contact channels. Each header ground contact includes shield walls forming a shield cavity receiving header signal contacts to provide electrical shielding for the header signal contacts. The shield walls include an end wall extending between first and second side walls. Each header ground contact includes a mating protrusion that extends outward relative to the shield cavity from the corresponding shield wall. The mating protrusion is configured to engage a conductive insert of the receptacle assembly used to electrically common each of the header ground contacts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2020
    Publication date: August 5, 2021
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Douglas Edward Shirk, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Justin Dennis Pickel
  • Patent number: 10910774
    Abstract: A contact module includes a dielectric holder holding signal contacts having mating portions extending forward of the dielectric holder. A shield structure is coupled to the dielectric holder providing electrical shielding for the signal contacts. The shield structure has first and second ground shields having corresponding mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder. The shield structure has ground blades extending between the first and second ground shields having mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder at least one of above or below the mating portions of the signal contacts. The ground blades electrically connect the mating portions of the first ground shield and the mating portions of the second ground shield immediately forward of the mating end of dielectric holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY SERVICES GmbH
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, John Joseph Consoli
  • Patent number: 10763622
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes a front housing and a contact module received in a cavity of the front housing having a frame assembly including a dielectric holder holding signal contacts. Each signal contact has a mating end and a terminating end. A ground shield is coupled to the dielectric holder for shielding the signal contacts. The ground shield has a ground pad at the mating end, mating beams extending from the ground pad for mating with corresponding header ground shields of a header connector and ground beams between corresponding mating beams for mating with corresponding header ground shields.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2020
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY CORPORATION
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Michael James Horning, John Joseph Consoli
  • Publication number: 20200176934
    Abstract: A contact module includes a dielectric holder holding signal contacts having mating portions extending forward of the dielectric holder. A shield structure is coupled to the dielectric holder providing electrical shielding for the signal contacts. The shield structure has first and second ground shields having corresponding mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder. The shield structure has ground blades extending between the first and second ground shields having mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder at least one of above or below the mating portions of the signal contacts. The ground blades electrically connect the mating portions of the first ground shield and the mating portions of the second ground shield immediately forward of the mating end of dielectric holder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2020
    Publication date: June 4, 2020
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, John Joseph Consoli
  • Publication number: 20200144772
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes a front housing and a contact module received in a cavity of the front housing having a frame assembly including a dielectric holder holding signal contacts. Each signal contact has a mating end and a terminating end. A ground shield is coupled to the dielectric holder for shielding the signal contacts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2018
    Publication date: May 7, 2020
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Michael James Horning, John Joseph Consoli
  • Patent number: 10594085
    Abstract: Electrical contact includes a base portion and a mating portion having a leading end of the electrical contact. The mating portion includes a contact finger coupled to the base portion and extends between the base portion and the leading end. The contact finger has an engagement surface that is shaped to define a primary contact zone. The electrical contact also includes a resonance-control protrusion shaped to define a stub-contact zone. The stub-contact zone is positioned at the base portion or between the base portion and the primary contact zone. The primary contact zone and the stub-contact zone are configured to engage another contact. The stub-contact zone is configured to impede electrical resonance along a stub portion of the other contact.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 17, 2020
    Assignee: TE Connectivity Corporation
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Chad William Morgan, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Douglas Edward Shirk
  • Patent number: 10574000
    Abstract: An electrical connector includes a front housing and a contact module received in a cavity of the front housing having a frame assembly including a dielectric holder holding signal contacts. Each signal contact has a mating end and a terminating end. A ground shield is coupled to the dielectric holder for shielding the signal contacts. The ground shield has a ground pad at the mating end, mating beams extending forward from the ground pad for mating with corresponding header ground shields and tie bars extending between corresponding mating beams.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Jeffrey Byron McClinton
  • Patent number: 10566740
    Abstract: A contact module includes a dielectric holder holding signal contacts having mating portions extending forward of the dielectric holder. A shield structure is coupled to the dielectric holder providing electrical shielding for the signal contacts. The shield structure has first and second ground shields having corresponding mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder. The shield structure has ground blades extending between the first and second ground shields having mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder at least one of above or below the mating portions of the signal contacts. The ground blades electrically connect the mating portions of the first ground shield and the mating portions of the second ground shield immediately forward of the mating end of dielectric holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2020
    Assignee: TE CONNECTIVITY CORPORATION
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, John Joseph Consoli
  • Patent number: 10476210
    Abstract: A contact module includes a dielectric holder having first and second sides extending between a mating end and a mounting end. The contact module includes signal contacts held by the dielectric holder along a contact plane. The contact module includes a first ground shield coupled to the first side of the dielectric holder and providing electrical shielding for the signal contacts and a second ground shield coupled to the second side of the dielectric holder and providing electrical shielding for the signal contacts, the ground shield having skewer openings. The contact module includes ground skewers having posts extending from the first ground shield through the dielectric holder. The posts are electrically connected to the first ground shield and extend into corresponding skewer openings of the second ground shield to electrically connect the first ground shield to the second ground shield.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignees: TE CONNECTIVITY CORPORATION, TYCO ELECTRONICS JAPAN G.K.
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Justin Dennis Pickel, Tetsuya Katano, Masayuki Aizawa, Masaaki Iwasaki, Teruhiko Matsudaira
  • Publication number: 20190305486
    Abstract: A contact module includes a dielectric holder holding signal contacts having mating portions extending forward of the dielectric holder. A shield structure is coupled to the dielectric holder providing electrical shielding for the signal contacts. The shield structure has first and second ground shields having corresponding mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder. The shield structure has ground blades extending between the first and second ground shields having mating portions extending forward of the mating end of the dielectric holder at least one of above or below the mating portions of the signal contacts. The ground blades electrically connect the mating portions of the first ground shield and the mating portions of the second ground shield immediately forward of the mating end of dielectric holder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2018
    Publication date: October 3, 2019
    Inventors: David Allison Trout, Justin Dennis Pickel, Jeffrey Byron McClinton, Timothy Robert Minnick, Chad William Morgan, John Joseph Consoli