Anti-contaminant component socket

Details Anti-contaminant component socket Anti-contaminant component socket

1999-05-18

2003-02-11

Patel, Tulsidas (Department: 2839)

Electrical connectors

With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in...

Including compound movement of coupling part

C439S145000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06517371

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed, in general, toward data processing systems. In particular, the present invention is directed toward component sockets, such as, for example, Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) sockets, utilized in data processing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the early days of personal computers (“PC”s), microprocessor central processing units (“CPU”s) and other major electronic components thereof were soldered directly to a circuit board. Although this was a cost-efficient mounting method as far as manufacturing was concerned, there were several major drawbacks. First, heat generated during the soldering process sometimes overheated the components, rendering them useless or limiting their lifetime. Although soldering techniques improved over the years, such overheating remained a concern. Second, if the component was found faulty during a later-performed test, the component had to be unsoldered from the circuit board and a new one resoldered in its place, again with the risk of heat overexposure during soldering. As the components grew more integrated and sophisticated, pin count increased, increasing heat delivered to the component during soldering and greatly complicating component replacement.
Because of the above-discussed deficiencies of direct solder-mounting of components, low insertion force (“LIF”) sockets were developed. LIF sockets were designed to be directly soldered to the circuit board in lieu of a component. LIF sockets provided a plurality of apertures on an upper surface thereof for receiving the component pins. Each of the apertures contained a spring-loaded contact that frictionally gripped each pin as it was inserted. The combined frictional force of all of he spring-loaded contacts on the component pins retained the component in the socket and provided for good electrical contact between the component pins and those on the LIF socket.
As component size and pin count continued to grow, however, LIF sockets became problematical. Each spring-loaded contact in the LIF socket required a certain amount of spring force to maintain good electrical contact. However, as pin count grew, the total spring and frictional force also grew. At some point, the combined frictional force of all of the spring-loaded contacts made insertion or extraction of the component from the LIF socket difficult. Sometimes, the required insertion force bent or folded slightly misaligned component pins, placing the entire component at risk. If the insertion or extraction force was not applied uniformly, pins were at risk of being bent or broken. The design of many-apertured LIF sockets required keeping individual aperture friction to a minimum to keep total insertion or extraction force to a practical level. However, a sufficient amount of spring-loading in each aperture was needed to maintain reliable electrical contact. Often, a special-purpose component removal tool was required for extracting many-pinned components (particularly microprocessor CPUs) from LIF sockets.
Today's PCs are often designed to operate with improved components as they are developed. For example, as an improved microprocessor becomes available, a user wishing to increase PC performance need only replace the existing microprocessor with an upgraded model. Unfortunately, many users lack the dexterity, gentility, strength and confidence necessary to install many-pinned components in LIF sockets. Thus, the many users that would benefit from the increased performance of a component upgrade are deterred from undergoing the transition.
In response to the user's concern, PCs are beginning to be equipped with zero insertion force (“ZIF”) sockets to eliminate a need for the user to apply substantial insertion or extraction forces to upgrade components. Like LIF sockets, ZIF sockets are designed to be directly soldered to the circuit board. ZIF sockets also provide a plurality of apertures on an upper surface thereof for receiving the component pins. Unlike LIF sockets, the apertures do not contain spring-loaded contacts, but accept each component pin without substantial frictional resistance. An arm is rotatably mounted to the ZIF socket. Rotation of the arm causes a relative translation of portions of the ZIF socket with respect to each other. The portions place the component pins in a mechanical shear or bind within the apertures. The mechanical bind brings about a good electrical contact for each of the component pins. The combined mechanical bind of all of the apertures presents a substantial retention force to hold the component in the ZIF socket. Unlike LIF sockets, ZIF sockets do not need to sacrifice individual aperture retention force and concomitant electrical contact integrity to keep total insertion or extraction forces to an acceptable level. Thus ZIF sockets therefore typically have high retention forces relative to LIF sockets.
As has been indicated above, there are typically two positions for the ZIF style connector mentioned above: “open,” and “closed.” Both positions are achieved by manipulation of the lever arm of ZIF style connectors.
The open position of the ZIF style connectors is to allow the pins of whatever data processing system component is inserted into the ZIF socket. The closed position of the ZIF style connectors is to secure the component within the ZIF style socket such that good electrical connection is achieved. Typically, to achieve the closed position, a lever arm is actuated to force the pins of the data processing system component (e.g., a microprocessor) to slide within the connector and causes the pins of the inserted component to wipe against the electrical contacts within the apertures of the ZIF style sockets.
ZIF style connectors are most often used in the manufacturing of data processing systems and/or components used in data processing systems. During manufacturing, it is common for contaminants to be present. One such contaminant is flux, which is a material commonly utilized to achieve efficient connection between the parts in the data processing systems. Depending on its condition (e.g., oxidized or non-oxidized) the a contaminant , such as flux, can function as either an electrical connector or an electrical insulator.
With respect to the ZIF style connectors, irrespective of whether the connectors are in their open or closed positions, their apertures containing electrical connections are open to the environment (meaning that contaminants, such as flux, can enter those apertures).
When such contaminants enter the ZIF connector apertures, they often coat the electrical contacts within the apertures. It has been found empirically that the wiping action and the normal force generated is typically not adequate to remove contaminants, such as flux, from the electrical contacts within the apertures. The practical result of the foregoing is that one or more electrical connections within the ZIF socket are disrupted.
During testing, such disrupted electrical connections often manifest themselves as symptoms such as NO POST, where such symptoms indicate either a poor electrical connection or a bad electrical component. The common response to such symptoms in the art is to manually remove and reinsert the component until a good connection is established between the data processing system component and electrical connector. In the event that a good electrical connection cannot be achieved, it is common to discard one or both the socket and connector.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that the foregoing described method takes time and often results in discardment of otherwise good components due to such contamination. It is therefore apparent that a need exists in the art for a method and apparatus which will decrease the likelihood of such foregoing-described contamination.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It has been discovered that a method and apparatus can be devised which, among other things, will decrease the likelihood that apertures, and thus the apertures corresponding electrical compon

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