Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-15
2004-08-03
Vu, Phuong T. (Department: 2841)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S787000, C361S788000, C439S633000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06771514
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
The field of invention relates to mechanical packaging for electronic systems, generally; and, more specifically, to a keyed bumper device for electronic card and/or backplane protection.
BACKGROUND
An electronic system is an interworking group of electric “cards” (also referred to as “blades”, “PC boards” and the like). Each card typically has a plurality of semiconductor chips that, together, perform functions directed to the overall functionality of the card. For example, in the case of a networking electronic system, a Line Interface Card (LIC) is typically responsible for receiving streams of information over a copper or fiber optic cable and then converting these streams of information into a data format that is usable by another, “Switching” and/or “Routing” card. Switching and/or Routing cards are generally responsible for identifying, for each received stream of traffic, another LIC (a “transmitting” LIC) that is appropriate for directing the traffic stream over an outbound copper or fiber optic cable.
The Switching and/or Routing card then directs each stream to its appropriate transmitting LIC. In this manner, incoming traffic streams are converted into outgoing traffic streams; and, as a consequence of the overall process, streams of traffic are directed to their proper destination. In order to assemble the electronic system into a cohesive whole, each card (e.g., the receiving LIC, the Switching and/or Routing card, and the transmitting LIC) “plugs into” a backplane unit. The backplane unit (hereinafter, “backplane”) serves as a medium for transporting the various traffic streams between different cards; and, typically, provides some form of mechanical stability for the cards themselves.
FIG. 1
shows a depiction of a mechanical package for an electronic system.
The mechanical package typically includes a box-like structure
100
having a front panel
100
a
with openings
102
,
103
,
104
where cards are inserted. The backplane
101
is usually placed within the box-like structure
100
opposite and facing the front panel
100
a
. From the embodiment of
FIG. 1
, note that ten different cards can be inserted into the mechanical package. That is, a card can be introduced to the electronic system by inserting it through the front panel
100
and sliding it along one of tracks
110
through
119
. Each track
110
through
119
therefore corresponds to a different “card slot” into which a card can be inserted. When a card that is being inserted into a card slot reaches the back of the box
100
so as to meet the backplane
101
, one or more connectors that are affixed to the card should line up and properly mate to one or more corresponding connectors that are affixed to the back plane.
Each of the connectors (whether on a card or on the backplane
101
) typically contains a plurality of electronic connection units (e.g., pins and/or sockets) so that electrical signals can be properly transferred between the card and the backplane.
FIG. 1
shows an embodiment of the backplane connectors for each of the ten card slots that tracks
110
through
119
correspond to. For example the backplane connectors for card slot
106
correspond to connectors
126
,
127
,
128
; and, the backplane connectors for card slot
108
correspond to connectors
131
and
134
. Note that the collection of backplane connectors for card slots
106
and
107
are different than the collection of backplane connectors for the remaining card slots in the electronic system.
Different card connector patterns as between different card slots may naturally arise when certain card slots are reserved for certain types of cards. For example, with respect to the embodiment of
FIG. 1
, card slots
106
and
107
may be reserved for Switching and/or Routing cards while the remaining card slots (that correspond to tracks
110
-
113
and
116
-
119
) may be reserved for LIC cards. Here, given that the Switching and/or Routing cards perform a different function than that performed by the LIC cards, the design of each type of card may drive a different footprint to the backplane
100
. As such, the design and manufacture of the backplane
100
will include card slots
106
,
107
reserved for the Switching and/or Routing cards that are different (with respect to the footprint pattern and/or the types of connectors employed) than those reserved for the LIC cards.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3533045 (1970-10-01), Henschen
patent: 3634816 (1972-01-01), Zell
patent: 4241381 (1980-12-01), Cobaugh et al.
patent: 5872701 (1999-02-01), Hayden, Sr. et al.
patent: 6385053 (2002-05-01), Parizi et al.
Blakely , Sokoloff, Taylor & Zafman LLP
Vu Phuong T.
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