Electrical transmission or interconnection systems – Switching systems – Plural switches
Patent
1996-05-07
1998-10-13
Shoop, Jr., William M.
Electrical transmission or interconnection systems
Switching systems
Plural switches
307113, 307125, 324500, 324538, 395 27, 327401, G01R 1512
Patent
active
058216405
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an electrical switching assembly.
More precisely, the invention relates to controllable apparatus enabling a pair of input terminals to the switching apparatus to be selectively connected to any one of n pairs of output terminals of the switching apparatus.
There exist numerous occasions on which it is useful to have such an electrical switching assembly available. This applies in particular for automatic electrical test apparatus for determining and verifying the electrical transmission properties between various electrical components which are connected to a main line via branch lines coupled to the main line by couplers. A certain number of electrical installations are to be found having various electronic or electrical components, in particular as constituted by sensors or actuators, that interchange data via a single main line, with this type of connection usually being called a "bus" or a "harness/bus". This disposition is to be found, in particular, in electrical circuits of the kind installed, for example, in space rockets for interconnecting the various sensors or actuators of the rocket. Given the cost of such a rocket and of launching it, it is clearly of great importance for the electrical connection members between its various components to be capable of being fully tested prior to being installed in the rocket or in any similar installation in order to avoid risks of breakdown or faulty operation.
In the special case of space installations, this type of "harness/bus" interconnection must satisfy the standard: MIL-STD-1553B. However, for other types of installation, it is necessary to verify that interconnections comply with standards of the same type.
In general, the various interconnection systems must be tested in different configurations, i.e., in succession, when each of the components connected by branch lines behaves as a sender, when it behaves as a receiver, when an input load is applied thereto to simulate a card, i.e. an electronic circuit, and possibly when one of the receivers or senders referred to below as a "subscriber" is short circuit or open circuit to simulate damage to the installation as a whole in order to test its behavior in such a configuration.
It will easily be understood that when the harness/bus is used to interconnect a large number of components, e.g. about ten, the number of different configurations to be tested in order to be sure that each branch line is properly coupled to the main line is extremely high.
With the means used at present, which are means that are essentially manual and not automatic, the time that would be required for testing all configurations properly becomes prohibitive. Consequently, only a limited number of critical configurations are actually tested. It will be understood, that although such a test procedure is statistically capable of detecting breakdowns or damage of the kind that is the most frequent, it is incapable of ensuring that the interconnection installation will operate properly in all of its possible configurations.
As already briefly outlined, when this system of interconnections and the quality of its operation are critical points for the operation of a rocket or similar equipment where cost is very high, it is advantageous to ascertain in as complete a manner as possible that all of the electrical lines are operating properly before mounting the system in the rocket.
It will also be understood that such an electrical test installation is completely under the control of computer means. It is thus very important for the switching assembly to be convenient for control by computer instructions.
Finally, it can be seen that in order to obtain measurements that are very accurate and repetitive, it is important for the architecture of the switching assembly to avoid introducing interfering effects, and that it must not introduce variations in electrical characteristics depending on the particular electrical path defined through the switch for connecting the pair of input terminals to one of the
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Axo'n Cable S.A.
Paladini Albert W.
Shoop Jr. William M.
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