Electricity: conductors and insulators – Boxes and housings – Hermetic sealed envelope type
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-27
2003-09-02
Ngo, Hung V. (Department: 2831)
Electricity: conductors and insulators
Boxes and housings
Hermetic sealed envelope type
C361S811000, C174S262000, C174S267000, C174S260000, C174S254000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06613979
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to electronics packaging devices and methods.
2. Background Art
Electrical circuits and components are typically formed or placed on dielectric substrates. Substrates such as silicon, ceramic, FR-4, plastic, and Kapton form a stable, flat, rigid platform and thus reduce the complexity of forming or assembling complex electrical circuits. When the substrate is FR-4 or a similar glass-epoxy dielectric, the term “circuit-board” is commonly used for the assembly consisting of many electrical components affixed to the substrate and interconnected electrically by traces on the surface of the substrate. When moderately flexible dielectric substrates like Kapton are used in a similar way, the resulting assembly is often referred to as a “flex circuit.” For a silicon or similar semiconductor substrate, electrical circuits are etched directly onto the surface of a rigid semiconductor substrate, and the terms “wafer” and “die” commonly apply to the resulting assembly. Electrical components are typically placed on the surface and then soldered in-place to conducting traces usually etched in the surface of the substrate. Finally, these substrates with circuits on board are typically mounted in an enclosure via fasteners through the substrate or direct bonding of the substrate to an enclosure or other similar means which offers mechanical protection.
As a result of the general use of these substrates, however, known methods of packaging electrical circuits create many undesirable constraints for applications where space, weight, and shape are fundamentally important or where it is desirable to have the electronic package change shape, dimension, size, and/or volume during installation or use. For example, existing circuit assemblies (circuit boards, wafers, and flex circuits, hereafter collectively referred to as circuit-boards) cannot be compressed, distended, twisted, or flexed into any desired shape (flex circuits offer a very limited range of flexure only) in order to conform to the location into which they must be placed or to ease their installation. The state of the art for flex circuits is represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,435,740; 5,014,162; 5,220,488; and 5,241,454.
In addition, circuit-boards must be coated after final circuit assembly with a “conformal coat” to protect the assembly from moisture, etc. and to electrically isolate components and traces on the assembly. A circuit-board provides no seal for the place where it is installed; if a seal is required, it is incorporated as a separate part of the place where the circuit-board is installed.
The present invention removes these constraints while it provides additional functionality and advantages for many applications. The present invention further accomplishes the functionality of existing circuit-boards without introducing a substrate. Since it uses no substrate, it does not constrain circuit elements to any plane or surface, and it is extremely flexible, stretchable, distensible, and compressible.
There is an existing commercial and industrial need to prevent harsh environmental factors (such as water/humidity, corrosive solutions, oils, etc.) from passing through electrical connectors into sensitive electrical equipment. Some high-end military standard connectors, like MIL-C-38999 connectors, incorporate silicone rubber interfacial seals to address this market need. Many standard off-the-shelf connectors do not incorporate such seals except as a custom feature or option. Sometimes the need for such seals is only discovered after electrical equipment is sold and used by the consumer in the real-world, and the manufacturer must then retrofit field units and modify units in production to add a seal, usually by changing out connectors. The state of the art for such seals is represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,450,528; 2,451,516; 3,004,170; 4,629,269; and 4,993,964.
There is a similar, and often simultaneous, need for methods and products that filter or attenuate electrical noise, transients, and other disturbances on electrical conductors passing through electrical connectors. There are a wide variety of existing devices to serve this need. Existing devices fall into two basic categories: 1) filtering/transient limiting devices that are added to existing/ordinary-unfiltered connectors; 2) filtering/transient limiting devices that are only applicable for use with special connectors designed to accept them.
Prior art for devices of the add-on sort include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,181,859 and 5,290,191 as well as 5,183,698 and 4,979,904. Prior art for devices of the second category (where the devices are integral parts of special connectors or are where the device is a special connector) include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,194,010; 5,149,274; 5,134,252; 5,092,788; 4,954,089; 4,820,174; 4,729,743; 4,703,984; 4,440,463; 4,407,552; 4,362,350; 4,056,299; 3,905,013; 3,852,700; 3,825,874; 3,780,352; 3,670,292; 3,569,915; and 3,086,188.
The above devices include drawings of parts that “look” similar to the present invention to a casual observer (a bathtub drain cover shares this same look). Inspection of these references reveals that many of the look-alike parts are simply solid metal foils (e.g., variations of the common bathtub drain cover) that act as ground paths for electrical energy, so there is no packaging of electrical parts at all. The remainder of the look-alike parts all share a common thread: they use substrates as their basic design element. None discloses or suggests the possibility of an insulating elastomeric suspension system, nor the combination of an electrical packaging method and an environmental seal method, nor the use of an elastomeric substance to provide the “springiness”required to ensure a reliable reusable electrical contact between the part and the host connector. Furthermore, none realize the utility of a flexible, twistable, distensible, and compressible device that: (1) can accommodate variations in the host connector (such as pin locations, shell diameter, mating tolerances) for an improved fit; (2) eases the installation/removal process since the device can readily change shape as required during the process to minimize insertion and removal forces; and (3) survives large temporary pin misalignments (which commonly occur in the real-world due to severe shock or vibration or other trauma to the connector) without degradation of the contacts, seal, or other features.
Therefore, none of the known existing devices provide the capability to simply retrofit or modify existing (ordinary) electrical connectors to obtain the desired filtering or transient attenuation and at the same time add (or preserve their existing) environmental seal within the connector. Few existing devices provide the “add-on” capability, none provide the “add-on”capability for connectors with common pin misalignments, and none provide (or preserve) the seal capability. None of the known “add-on”devices can adapt to the range of real-world variations and severe treatment encountered in existing connectors, such as misaligned pins, connector manufacturer-to-manufacturer variations, and severe temporary pin displacement caused by vibration, mechanical shock, or other connector trauma. For example, all of the “add-on” devices use either a tight press-fit connection or a spring-finger connection to the connector pins. In the press-fit case, even slight pin misalignment will prevent installation of the device, or will damage the device if it occurs after installation. The spring-finger devices use “springy” metals like BeCu, which by nature are easily permanently deformed (or “sprung” in layman's terms) once bent beyond a narrow operating range, as when a pin is temporarily bent out of position by shock or vibration, or when the device is installed onto misaligned, out of tolerance, or out of place pinb.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION (DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION)
The present invention is of a device and method for suspending, interconnecting, and protecting circu
Foreman Kevin G.
Miller Paul J.
Myers Jeffrey D.
Ngo Hung V.
Quell Corporation
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