Electrical connectors – With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in... – Retaining means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-03
2001-05-08
Sircus, Brian (Department: 2839)
Electrical connectors
With coupling movement-actuating means or retaining means in...
Retaining means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06227897
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention pertains to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to systems for facilitating mating and detachment of electrical connectors of the types typically used in computing, networking, and other high bandwidth applications.
As the processing power, storage capacity and throughput of digital data processing devices increases, greater demands are placed on designers to provide high bandwidth digital signal pathways, or buses. The buses of early personal computers, for example, typically permitted the transfer of only eight bits of information at a time. Though small by today's standards, these buses were more than adequate to carry the addressing and data signals used by central processing and memory units of the day. In the course of twenty years, buses capable of transferring 32 or 64 bits of information have become de rigeur in workstations and high-end computing systems.
Buses fixed onto a single piece of equipment typically comprise bands of copper or other conducting material etched into layers of a non-conductive substrate. Where the buses carry information between two pieces of equipment, connectors are used. Typically, these comprise a combination of a plug and a socket that mate to provide both electrical and, where necessary, mechanical coupling. A common example is the 25-pin plug used to connect a printer cable to the parallel port socket on the back of a personal computer.
More compact and higher throughput connectors are often used to connect digital data processing printed circuit boards to one another. The VITA Standards Organization, for example, calls for a 160-pin,
5-
row connector to couple circuit boards that operate in accord with the VME-64 Extensions Draft Standard 1.1-1997. These connectors are small, measuring approximately 3.5″×0.5″, so as not to consume valuable “real estate” on the boards or within their hosts. In switching applications, multiple connectors are typically placed side-by-side, with each coupling a respective bus or bus segment.
The forces required to mate and detach such connectors can be rather large. Insertion of a VME
64
160-pin, 5-row connector into a corresponding socket can require forces up to 40 pounds. In addition to the stresses this places on the boards and other circuit components to which the connectors are mounted, it can make multi-connector connections virtually impossible even for those with the strongest of hands.
An object of this invention, accordingly, is to provide improved systems for coupling electrical components.
Another object of the invention is to provide such systems as are adapted for use with pre-existing connectors, including without limitation the aforementioned VME
64
160-pin, 5-row connectors.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide such systems as are adapted for use with multi-connector configurations.
Still another object of the invention is to provide such systems as consume little real estate on the boards or other electrical components in or on which they are used.
Yet still another object of the invention is to provide such systems as can be used with “interposers” or other such intermediate circuit components.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing are among the objects attained by the invention which provides, in one aspect, a multi-connector system for electrically coupling circuit components, such as printed circuit boards, daughtercards, integrated circuits and the like. The system includes two or more electrical connector sockets, each of which is physically coupled to a first supporting member, e.g., a rigid bar or plate. Two or more electrical connector plugs are also provided, each of which is physically coupled to a second supporting member, again, for example, a rigid bar or plate. The connector plugs and sockets can be, for example, of the VME64 160-pin, 5-row variety or of any other variety and style known in the art. A jacking element, which is physically coupled with both the first and second supporting members, can be manipulated to bring them together and/or to separate them and, thereby, to mate and/or detach the sockets from their respective plugs.
A further aspect of the invention provides a multi-connector system as described above in which the jacking element is a threaded member, e.g., a screw or bolt. In a system according to this aspect, the jacking element is selectively rotated to bring together or separate the supporting members.
Still further aspects of the invention provide a multi-connector system as described above in which the connectors (i.e., the sockets and plugs) are affixed to the respective supporting members, e.g., by screws. A plurality of jacking elements, moreover, can be provided which are coupled to the supporting members about the periphery of the connectors.
In still further aspects, the invention provides a system as described above in which the first supporting member comprises a unitary bar-like member, a “jacking bar,” that is coupled to a plurality of connector sockets, e.g., of the VME64 160-pin, 5-row variety. Such a bar, according to further aspects of the invention, can have a plurality of flanges that facilitate physically coupling between the bar and the sockets. Thus, for example, one or more such flanges can be arranged to receive screws that affix the bar to the socket while others can be arranged to be disposed within the periphery of the socket housings, e.g., to prevent motion thereof.
In a related aspect of the invention, the invention provides a system as described above in which the jacking bar is affixed to each connector socket so as to reside within an outer perimeter defining an area the socket occupies on the circuit component, i.e., to reside within the socket's “footprint.” To this end, the flanges can be arranged to complement the surface contour of the sockets, e.g., so that the bar can be fitted over (and not around) ends of the sockets.
According to further aspects of the invention, the second supporting member can comprise an intermediate circuit element, e.g., an interposer card or other element that facilitates or alters an electrical and/or mechanical interface to the connector plugs.
Still further aspects of the invention provide a kit comprising at least one of a first and second supporting member as described above. The kit can further include a jacking element, e.g., a screw, for use with the supporting members, as well as connectors plugs and sockets.
These and other aspects of the invention are evident in the drawings and in the text that follows.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4935847 (1990-06-01), Welsh
patent: 5426567 (1995-06-01), Opeka
“Hybricon launches high-performance VME 64-bit extension backplanes,” CMP net.
Duverne J. F.
Mercury Computer Systems, Inc.
Nutter & McClennen & Fish LLP
Powsner David J.
Sircus Brian
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