Electricity: measuring and testing – Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components – Of individual circuit component or element
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-09
2003-03-18
Cuneo, Kamand (Department: 2829)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components
Of individual circuit component or element
C324S754090, C324S757020, C324S756010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06535010
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a checker head and a method of manufacturing the checker head.
2. Discussion of the Background
One example of a conventional checker head is shown in
FIG. 9. A
checker head
70
shown in
FIG. 9
has a structure wherein a lot of arrangement of a contact pin
71
, a push spring
72
, a pull spring
73
and a conductive wire
74
being disposed in a straight line are penetrated through four bakelite boards
81
-
84
laminated. Of course a penetration hole to pass the contact pin
71
and so forth is made for each Bakelite board
81
-
84
. And the contact pin
71
has a nail-shape, and whereof edge protrudes from the Bakelite board
81
of the front. In addition, the penetration hole of the bakelite board
81
has a diameter smaller than that of a bakelite board
82
, and then the protrusion of the contact pin
71
is regulated by a brim part of the contact pin
71
being contact with a step part of them.
The conductive wire
74
connected with a circuit tester is inserted into the inside of the pull spring
73
, and is soldered as shown in FIG.
10
. The push spring
72
is assembled in a compressed state in a checker head
70
, and pushes the contact pin
71
toward the upper part and the pull spring
73
toward the lower part in FIG.
9
. By the pushing pressure of the push spring
72
, a contact pin
71
and the pull spring
73
(besides, the conductive wire
74
) are connected electrically. In particular, when the tip of the contact pin
71
is pushed to a test pad
97
of a printed circuit
96
that is an inspected object, the pushing presser is increased, and then the electrical connection becomes more certain as the push spring
72
is compressed more. In this state, an electricity signal (a voltage or a current) can is put to the test pad
97
from the circuit tester, or an electricity signal of the test pad
97
(the same) can be detected with the circuit tester.
However, above described conventional checker head
70
includes the following problems. In the first, an assembling operation of the pull spring
73
and the conductive wire
74
(
FIG. 10
) and a soldering operation are included in its manufacturing process. These operations are inefficient remarkably because of being done in manual operations. In addition, they are easy to make a mistake, and then the yield is low. In the second, the conductive wire
74
must be a material that can be pushed into the pull spring
73
. Because of this, a large conductive wire cannot be used, so that a large current cannot be coped with. In the third, the pushing presser of each contact pin
71
against the test pad
97
is easy to become nonuniform. The reason is because a foreign material is easy to come into when the pull spring
73
is assembled in the Bakelite board
83
in the manufacturing process, and then the spring pressure becomes nonuniform. In the fourth, because there are two kinds of springs, and besides, four pieces of Bakelite boards are used, the parts count is too many, and the burden of the manufacturing control is too big.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention, a checker head includes a front plate, a rear plate, an intermediate plate, an electro-conductive contact pin, a conductive wire and an electro-conductive spring. A front through hole is formed in the front plate which has a front surface configured to face an object to be inspected. A rear through hole is formed in the rear plate to correspond to the front through hole of the front plate. An intermediate through hole is formed in the intermediate plate to correspond to the front and rear through holes. The intermediate plate is sandwiched between the front plate and the rear plate. The electro-conductive contact pin has a front tip part and a rear brim part which has a diameter larger than that of the front through hole. The front tip part protrudes from the front surface of the front plate and is configured to contact the object to be inspected. The contact pin is positioned such that the rear brim part is located in the intermediate through hole. The conductive wire is inserted into the rear through hole of the rear plate and bonded to the rear plate. The clectro-conductive spring is provided in the intermediate through hole between the conductive wire and the rear brim part of the contact pin in a compressed state. The spring electrically connects the contact pin and the conductive wire. One end of the conductive wire which contacts the spring and a front surface of the rear plate which faces the an intermediate plate are on a same plane.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method of manufacturing a checker head includes inserting a conductive wire in a rear through hole of a rear plate (Process 1). The conductive wire and the rear plate are bonded together (Process 2). A portion of the conductive wire protruding from a front surface of the rear plate which faces an intermediate plate is removed (Process 3). A spring is inserted in an intermediate through hole of the intermediate plate. An electro-conductive contact pin is inserted in a front through hole of a front plate from a rear surface of the front plate facing the intermediate plate such that a front tip part of the contact pin protrudes from a front surface of the front plate. The rear plate, the intermediate plate and the front plate are connected to sandwich the intermediate plate between the front and rear plates and to compress the spring between the conductive wire and the contact pin.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5410260 (1995-04-01), Kazama
patent: 5990697 (1999-11-01), Kazama
patent: 64-71141 (1989-03-01), None
patent: 3-85456 (1991-04-01), None
patent: 6-138146 (1994-05-01), None
patent: 6-196535 (1994-07-01), None
patent: 6-317624 (1994-11-01), None
patent: 11-281674 (1999-10-01), None
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/463,995, filed May 09, 2000 pending.
Cuneo Kamand
Ibiden Co. Ltd.
Nguyen Tung X.
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