SOCKET DEVICE FOR CONNECTING CIRCUIT COMPONENTS WITH A CIRCUIT BOARD

• US 3,685,002 A
• Filed: 07/07/1970
• Issued: 08/15/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: James D. Kennedy
• Original Assignee: James D. Kennedy
• Inventors: Kennedy, James D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Champion, Marvin A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lewis, Terrell P.
• Application Number:
  US05/052,958
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• Field of Search: 317/11R,11C,11CC,11Cp,11DH 339/17,18R,18C,18P,75M,75MP,12R,174,217R,252R,256R,256S,15B,151B 174/DIG.3 29/472.5,472.9,473.1,505,515,626-630
• US Class Current: 439/525
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1038 with spring contact pieces H05K7/1046 takes precedence

Abstract

A socket contact device for connecting a circuit component such as an integrated circuit package to a circuit board such as a printed circuit board is disclosed. The device comprises a socket contact having a plurality of interconnected ribbon-like spring segments which are distorted during insertion into apertures in the circuit board. The contact is secured by the multiple spring segment pressures acting within the aperture in the circuit board in such a manner that electrical contact is made between the socket contact and both the upper and lower surfaces of the circuit board. Portions of the interconnected spring segments protrude above the circuit board and are so disposed that they may be received and captivated within an insulative header which may be organized to locate the contacts in a plurality of interrelated positions. Pins coupled to a circuit component are forced to pass (through apertures in an insulative header if used) between opposing spring segments of the socket contact which are thereby distorted to hold the circuit component pin at dual pressure points within the board aperture. Insertion pressures simultaneously enhance electrical conductivity between both surfaces of the printed circuit board and the contact. Since the pins of the component and the socket contact are at least in part contained within the circuit board, a low profile connection is achieved. Neither metal soldering, wire wrapping nor crimping are required. A pair of the interconnected spring segments comprising the socket contact project significantly below the surface of the printed circuit board to provide an isolated, easily accessible test point. The connection has high mechanical strength and vibration resistance. The socket contact and corresponding component lead may be soldered to the circuit board by conventional means after operational testing.

Claims

1. A connector device for connecting a circuit component such as an integrated circuit package with an exemplary horizontal circuit board such as a printed circuit board comprising:

a socket body such as an insulative header having a lower surface, an upper surface, and a plurality of socket body apertures disposed through said socket body from said upper surface to said lower surface being adaptable to guide and receive pins coupled to said circuit components; and

a plurality of socket contacts engaged with the lower surface of said socket body and disposed downwardly from the socket body substantially collinear with said socket body apertures, each of said socket contacts being adaptable for engaging, extending into and protruding through a circuit board from an upper surface to a lower surface thereof, and each socket contact comprising a continuous springy ribbon-like conductive metallic strip of uniform rectangular cross-section with smoothly rounded corners geometrically shaped for contacting both the upper surface and the lower surface of said circuit board and for simultaneously elastically contacting between said last named surfaces opposite side of a circuit component pin such as an integrated circuit package lead when said component pin extends into said circuit board aperture.

2. The socket body defined in claim 1 wherein said plurality of socket body Apertures form two parallel rows adaptable for receiving pins coupled to a dual-in-line circuit component package and wherein the upper and lower surface of said socket body are substantially parallel.

3. The socket body defined in claim 1 wherein each of said socket body apertures communicates with and is centered on a contact groove disposed along the lower surface of said socket body being adaptable for engaging an upper profile portion of said socket contact defined in claim 1 and within which said socket contact may be embedded by such insulative means as polymeric bonding, wedging, filling, thermal distortion or ultrasonic pressure application such as ultrasonic staking, each of said contact grooves comprising:

a straight shallow groove zone symmetrically centered on said socket body aperture; and

a pair of deep groove zones contiguous and collinear with said shallow groove zone, each of said deep groove zones being equally displaced in opposite directions from said socket body apertures; and

a pair of ramp groove zones rising from deep to shallow collinear with said deep groove zones and contiguous with same at the deep end of said ramp groove zones being equally displaced in opposite directions from said socket body aperture.

4. The connector device of claim 1 wherein said conductive metallic strips are bent so as to form a pair of opposing sides substantially symmetrically disposed about a center plain, said sides integrally meeting at the lower end of said socket contacts, said sides extending upward from said lower end with increasing separation to define a wedge shaped lower section, said sides extending upward from the top of said lower section with decreasing separation to a position of least separation wherein said sides are in substantial contact, and upward therefrom with increasing separation to a position adjacent said lower surface of said socket body.

5. A connector device for connecting a circuit component such as an integrated circuit package with an exemplary horizontal circuit board such as a printed circuit board comprising:

a socket body such as an insulative header having a lower surface, an upper surface, and a plurality of socket body apertures disposed through said socket body from said upper surface to said lower surface being adaptable to guide and receive pins coupled to said circuit component, wherein each of said socket body apertures communicates with and is centered on a contact groove disposed along the lower surface of said socket body being adaptable for engaging an upper profile portion of a socket contact and within which said socket contact may be embedded by such insulative means as polymeric bonding, wedging, filling, thermal distortion or ultrasonic pressure application such as ultrasonic staking, each of said contact grooves comprising;

a straight shallow groove zone symmetrically centered on said socket body aperture; and

a pair of deep groove zones contiguous and collinear with said shallow groove zone, each of said deep groove zones being equally displaced in opposite directions from said socket body aperture; and

a pair of ramp groove zones rising from deep to shallow collinear with said deep groove zones and contiguous with same at the deep end of said ramp groove zones being equally displaced in opposite directions from said socket body aperture; and

a plurality of socket contacts engaged with the lower surface of said socket body and disposed downwardly from the socket body substantially collinear with said socket body apertures, each of said socket contacts being adaptable for engaging, extending into and protruding through a circuit board from an upper surface to a lower surface thereof, and each socket contact comprising a continuous springy ribbon-like conductive metallic strip of uniform rectangular cross-section with smoothly rounded corners geometrically shaped for contacting both the upper surface and the lower surface of said circuit board and for simultaneously contactiNg a circuit component pin such as an integrated circuit package lead when said component pin extends into said circuit board aperture.

6. The socket contact of claim 5 wherein said opposing series of spring segments diverge toward a lower opening of said circuit board aperture resulting in slidable pressure points against said lower opening for being received by circuit boards of varying thickness and for making a wiping electrical contact therewith.

7. The socket body of claim 5 wherein said socket body has first and second substantially vertical shearing surfaces on said lower surface to either side of and equidistant from said socket body aperture for shearing a continuous form of socket contacts upon attachment thereto and at which shearing surfaces said socket contact groove terminates.

8. The socket body of claim 7 wherein:

a shearable web is contiguous with and extends from said upper surface of said socket body in planar equivalence thereto and becomes contiguous with two or more identical adjacent socket bodies thereby creating a monolithic plate of interconnected socket bodies as a master form of socket bodies for automated production and from which may be sheared individual socket bodies.

9. The socket body of claim 5 wherein said embedment is by the specific insulative means of ultrasonic pressure application such as ultrasonic staking and wherein:

a tilted pyramidal staking tip one side being contiguous with one substantially vertical wall of said contact groove in said deep groove zone and said ramp groove zone is located at both ends of said contact groove and both walls of said contact groove projecting from said lower surface of said socket body and is operable as an energy riser for the initial-contact phase of ultrasonic staking and as a source of flowable insulative material for displacement into said socket contact groove.