Electrical connectors – Coupling part having handle or means to move contact... – Having open slot for receiving panel circuit arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-20
2004-01-20
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2831)
Electrical connectors
Coupling part having handle or means to move contact...
Having open slot for receiving panel circuit arrangement
C439S079000, C439S260000, C439S497000, C439S736000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06679716
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector capable of connecting, disconnecting or switching an electric signal.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recent semiconductor devices are rapidly integrated, to result in increasing importance of an inspection step for semiconductor devices. Referring to
FIG. 7
showing a conventional inspection step, several stages of boards are arranged between a semiconductor device
127
to be inspected and a test head
121
provided with terminals of a tester. First, a motherboard
122
is arranged immediately above the test head
121
. This motherboard
122
is provided with contacts arranged in response to the arrangement of the terminals on the test head
121
, and remains unchanged regardless of the type of the semiconductor device
127
to be inspected. A female contact terminal (not shown) is provided on an upper portion of the motherboard
122
, to be connected with a male contact terminal (not shown) provided on a lower portion of a performance board
124
located above the same by a cable
123
.
The performance board
124
is formed by a plurality of boards. Connectors
110
are arranged between the boards forming the performance board
124
. A contactor (test board)
125
is arranged on the performance board
124
. Terminals
126
of the semiconductor device
127
to be inspected are directly connected to the test board
125
. In general, a large number of semiconductor chips
127
are inspected at the same time. Assuming that each semiconductor chip
127
is formed with tens of terminals, therefore, the connectors
110
arranged between the boards forming the performance board
124
are provided with thousands of terminals, in order to simultaneously inspect hundreds of semiconductor chips
127
.
The performance board
124
or a socket board is provided between the motherboard
122
and the semiconductor device
127
to be inspected, in order to attain connection with flexibility in response to the type of the semiconductor device
127
to be inspected and the performance to be inspected.
The present invention is directed to the connectors
110
employed for connecting the boards forming the aforementioned performance board
124
with each other, for example. The connectors
110
are provided with thousands of terminals as hereinabove described, and hence particular notice must be taken in order to reliably connect the terminals.
FIGS. 8 and 9
show the structure of each of the conventional connectors
110
employed for connecting the aforementioned boards forming the performance board
124
with each other.
FIG. 9
is a sectional view taken along the line IX—IX in FIG.
8
. The structure of the connector
110
is now described with reference to connection. First, a male connector
110
a
and a female connector
110
b
are mated with each other so that each male connector terminal
102
fixed to a male connector body
101
is located between each pair of female connector terminals
105
fixed to a female connector body. Then, connector terminal switching mechanism parts
107
press the female connector terminals
105
against the male connector terminal
102
for bringing the male and female connectors
110
a
and
110
b
into contact with each other, thereby attaining electrical contact.
Then, a push-up mechanism part
106
moves up to push up the male connector body
101
. Thus, the male connector terminal
102
moves upward in the state frictionally in contact with the female connector terminals
105
. The male and female connector terminals
102
and
105
must essentially be frictionally connected with each other in order to stably maintain electrical connection in an excellent state in a connector having a large number of pins, to which the present invention is directed. Such frictional connection between the connector terminals
102
and
105
is referred to as wiping operation or simply as wiping. A mechanism for this wiping operation is provided around the aforementioned connection part. Thus, a signal line connected to the male connector
110
a
can be electrically connected with a signal line connected to the female connector
110
b.
In the aforementioned connector
110
, the length of the connection part formed by the male and female connectors
110
a
and
110
b
is varied in wiping due to reciprocation of the male connector
110
a
. Therefore, the wiping mechanism provided around the aforementioned connection part must be so formed that the male connector
110
a
is reciprocative to vary the distance between the same and the female connector
110
b
. Consequently, the wiping mechanism provided around the connection part and other mechanism parts are complicated. Considering fluctuation of the width of the connector
110
, a driving source such as a motor necessary for the wiping operation and a gear mechanism for transmitting the driving force must be arranged in an extremely complicated structure. In other words, the gear mechanism is complicated and the number of components for transmitting the driving force is increased. If the aforementioned reciprocation is unallowable, further, the type of the employed connector
110
must be limited.
In the aforementioned conventional connector
110
, the signal lines connected to the male and female connector terminals
102
and
105
respectively are fixed in connectional association. In other words, the male and female connector terminals
102
and
105
must be connected or disconnected with or from each other while keeping fixed connectional association. Therefore, the aforementioned connectional association cannot be changed by mechanically operating the connector
110
, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide a connector enabling wiping operation without changing the distance between a male connector and a female connector.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a connector capable of changing connectional association between a male connector terminal and a female connector terminal by mechanically operating the connector.
A connector according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a male connector having a male connector body and a male connector terminal held by the male connector body, a female connector having a female connector terminal electrically connected with the male connector terminal and a female connector body holding the female connector terminal, a relay connector terminal movably mounted on either the male connector body or the female connector body, and a drive mechanism part bringing the relay connector terminal into contact with both of the male connector terminal and the female connector terminal and performing rubbing.
According to this structure, the distance between the male and female connectors may not be changed in wiping operation. Therefore, mechanism parts around the connector can be simplified. Further, height restriction against the used connector can be loosened. Each of the aforementioned drive mechanism part (wiping mechanism part) and a switching mechanism part described later is formed by a motor arranged around the connector and gears transmitting the driving force thereof. If the distance between the male and female connectors is varied, therefore, the arrangement of the aforementioned mechanisms is extremely complicated. Such complication of the mechanism parts around the connector can be relaxed due to the aforementioned structure. Consequently, components themselves can be simplified and the number of the components can be reduced. Further, the aforementioned mechanism parts can be improved in reliability and durability.
A connector according to a second aspect of the present invention comprises a male connector having a male connector body and at least two male connector terminals held by the male connector body and arranged along a prescribed direction and a female connector having at least two female connector terminals arranged along the same direction as the male connector terminals and
Ito Daisuke
Nakagawa Hiroshi
Shinonaga Naoyuki
Reichard Dean A.
Renesas Technology Corp.
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