Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-15
2001-03-13
Abrams, Neil (Department: 2839)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
active
06201708
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a backplane slot arrangement and more particularly to a backplane slot arrangement capable of accommodating printed circuit boards wider than a single slot.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Shelf assemblies are often used to house printed circuit boards (PCBs) also referred to as cards. The printed circuit boards are inserted into a card cage assembly engaging a perpendicularly oriented backplane that is also a printed circuit board. Proper engagement provides electrically conductive paths that connect circuits between or among removable printed circuit boards. The card cage and backplane assembly make insertion and extraction of printed circuit boards simple for purposes of replacement, service, etc. Slots in the card cage assembly hold the inserted printed circuit boards in place. In addition, pin connectors at specific locations on the backplane also ensure engagement of the printed circuit boards with the backplane. Because pin connector locations are specific, a volumetric limit is imposed on each removable printed circuit board thus limiting the size of a printed circuit board that can be inserted in a given backplane slot.
Certain applications require “sparing” of circuits to ensure that critical equipment remains functional even in the case of a fault. A fault could occur on a communication access port, processor complex, or other critical resource. Often the single slot practice of sparing or “1:1 or 1+1 protection” is used to ensure that the process continues without an interruption of service. Pairing certain printed circuit board assemblies provides the redundancy needed to support these critical functions.
What is needed is a backplane arrangement that can support insertion of printed circuit boards wider than a single slot while maintaining specific connections between or among slots so that printed circuit boards of varying slot width can be paired with respect to one another.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is comprised of a pin connection arrangement or multiple pin connection arrangements on a backplane printed circuit board. The arrangement(s) allow field replaceable printed circuit boards to be paired with one another while further allowing the printed circuit boards to vary incrementally in width. The printed circuit boards can be one, two, three, on up to ‘n’ slots wide. The backplane provides a direct connection between paired printed circuit boards. The arrangement(s) allow expansion of printed circuit board area and volume while supporting paired applications that require only a single slot per printed circuit board. The backplane can be used for differently sized printed circuit boards. This is accomplished by a series of pin connections on the backplane that link slot pairs (single wide), every other pair (double wide), every third pair (triple wide), and so forth to the desired level of printed circuit board width.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention is a pin connector trace arrangement on a backplane printed circuit board. The backplane spans a plurality of slots of a card cage assembly. The pin connector arrangement is comprised of pin connector traces on the backplane connecting an m
th
slot and an m
th
+n slot. The pin connector traces operatively connect and pair “n” slot width printed circuit boards.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention is an interleaved pin connector trace arrangement for each four slot increment on a backplane printed circuit board. The backplane pin connector traces connect the first and third slots together and the second and fourth slots together. The pin connector traces operatively connect and pair single slot width or double slot width printed circuit boards within a card cage assembly.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4700274 (1987-10-01), Laut
patent: 5603044 (1997-02-01), Annapareddy et al.
patent: 5930119 (1999-07-01), Berding
Bizga Lawrence F.
Lewis Neal W.
Lynch Franklin A.
Moseby John R.
Abrams Neil
Fako J. Erik
Nortel Networks Limited
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