Standard footprint and form factor RJ-45 connector with integrated signal conditioning for high speed networks

摘要

A two-row, eight-port modular connector comprises a lower row with a four-bay insulative housing that accepts four RJ-45 style jacks from its front, and a short-height gang of four separate molded inserts from the opposite side. The four-bay insulative housing and each molded insert are essentially the same as a standalone four-port, single-row modular connector so that the single-row modular connector can be quickly and easily converted to the eight-port, two-row modular connector. Such a conversion would include an upper row four-bay insulative housing that also accepts four RJ-45 style jacks from its front and a tall gang of four molded inserts that have forward extensions of their spring contacts so they can reach from behind far enough forward over the lower first row. A three-piece Faraday shield comprises a lower middle part that covers the rear of each of the four first-row lower-row molded inserts, an aft part that covers the rear of each of the four upper-row molded inserts, and a forward part that covers the front and sides of both the four-bay insulative housings and part of the top of the housing. After assembly, the three Faraday shield pieces are electrically connected so that they constitute a continuous shield around the whole of the eight-port, two-row modular connector. Each molded insert includes a signal conditioning circuit that provides a proper electrical coupling between a physical interface device (PHY) or encoder/decoder and an unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable to a high speed computer network. The internal circuit connections for the integrated signal conditioning in each insert are welded, rather than soldered.