A cable assembly including an electrical connector with a flexible printed circuit which electrically connects a flat cable to the connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,133,071 B2. The flexible printed circuit is supported by a spacer which is fastened to the electrical connector. The flexible printed circuit comprises a vertical connecting portion for making contact with the terminals of the connector and a horizontal connecting portion connected to the vertical connecting portion by means of a gradient connecting portion. The horizontal connecting portion comprises a plurality of pads for connecting the wires of the flat cable.
The U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,650 B2 describes a connector with a circular plug face comprising a printed circuit board. The circuit board functions as a connecting element between plug contacts of the connector and a connection block having connection contacts configured for connection of a data line connection. The printed circuit board is arranged in parallel to the cross-section of the connector and comprises a plurality of layers in a sandwich configuration, including layers having conductive traces and dielectric layers. Parallel plate capacitors are implemented in the circuit board.
A connector with a circular cross section comprising a flexible printed circuit cable is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,214,713. A base connector has male plug elements embedded in the base and protruding from the upper surface of the base connector and passing through the flexible printed circuit cable in a piercing manner. The plug elements are soldered to the flexible printed circuit cable. A dust cover or cap covers the upper portion of the connector with the solder connection to the flexible printed circuit cable.
The US patent application US 2011/0111628 A1 discloses a cable assembly comprising a printed circuit board (PCB) which is arranged in parallel to the mating direction. A front portion of the PCB is electrically connected to a plurality of contacts of the connector and a rear portion of the PCB is electrically connected to a plurality of conductive wires. A first and a second PCB can be stacked on top of each other. Conductive pads are provided on the PCB to create electrical contact with the plurality of contacts on the front and conductive wires on the rear portion. The distance between two adjacent rear conductive pads is larger than a distance between two adjacent front conductive pads. A similar embodiment is discloses in the U.S. Pat. No. 7,758,374 B2.
A shielded connector assembly comprising a semi-flexible circuit board is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,473. The semi-flexible circuit board comprises opposite rigid end portions and an intermediate flexible portion. Conductor wire or pin connections are made with the rigid end portions and the flexible portion contains conductor paths which extend between the rigid portions. Such semi-flexible circuit boards can be used to convert round to rectangular connector geometries or for making angled connectors. Similar embodiments with more than one semi-flexible circuit board are shown in the international patent application WO 94/16478.
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