Electronic circuit card having transient-tolerant distribution planes
First Claim
1. A backplane circuit card for an electronic system, said electronic system having at least one module for plugging into said backplane circuit card, said backplane circuit card comprising:
- a first coupling for insertion of said a first module;
a first power plane for distributing a first voltage among a plurality of system components, said plurality of system components including said first module, said first power plane having a first voltage body and a first island, said first island being associated with said first coupling and being electrically isolated from said first voltage body except at a small area, said first voltage body being electrically connected to said first coupling through said first island; and
a second power plane for distributing a second voltage among said plurality of system components, said second power plane lying parallel to and offset from said first power plane, said second power plane having a second voltage body and a second island, said second island being associated with said first coupling and being electrically isolated from said second voltage body except at a small area, said second voltage body being electrically connected to said first coupling through said second island.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic system contains a backplane circuit card which supplies power to various modules. Embedded power distribution planes each include one or more islands, each island being associated with a respective module. The island is electrically isolated from the body of the power plane except at a relatively small area, called the power ramp. The electronic current path from the power plane to the module goes through the power ramp and the island. Preferably, a pair of adjacent power planes at +48 VDC and 0 VDC are in the middle layers of the backplane with a ground plane on either side. Signal planes carrying circuit patterns for multiple data signals are deposited as additional layers on either side of the ground planes. The pair of power planes are nearly identical patterns, the differences being the location of power connections for the modules. In particular, the islands and power ramps are located in the same places on each power plane. This causes substantially equal but opposite current densities in the power planes, so that transients induced when a module is removed from or inserted into a powered-on system are significantly reduced. The exemplary embodiment is an intelligent redundant array of independent disks (RAID) storage server having concurrent maintenance capability.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A backplane circuit card for an electronic system, said electronic system having at least one module for plugging into said backplane circuit card, said backplane circuit card comprising:
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a first coupling for insertion of said a first module; a first power plane for distributing a first voltage among a plurality of system components, said plurality of system components including said first module, said first power plane having a first voltage body and a first island, said first island being associated with said first coupling and being electrically isolated from said first voltage body except at a small area, said first voltage body being electrically connected to said first coupling through said first island; and a second power plane for distributing a second voltage among said plurality of system components, said second power plane lying parallel to and offset from said first power plane, said second power plane having a second voltage body and a second island, said second island being associated with said first coupling and being electrically isolated from said second voltage body except at a small area, said second voltage body being electrically connected to said first coupling through said second island. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An electronic system, comprising:
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a frame for containing a plurality of electronic modules; a backplane circuit card mounted within said frame, said backplane circuit card distributing electrical power; at least one power supply module for supplying power to said backplane circuit card; at least one power consuming module which receives power from said backplane circuit card; wherein said backplane circuit card comprises; (a) a first coupling for insertion of a first of said modules; (b) a first power plane for distributing a first voltage among a plurality of components of said electronic system, said plurality of components including said first module, said first power plane having a first voltage body and a first island, said first island being associated with said first coupling and being electrically isolated from said first voltage body except at a small area, said first voltage body being electrically connected to said first coupling through said first island; and (c) a second power plane for distributing a second voltage among a plurality of components of said electronic system, said plurality of components including said first module, said second power plane lying parallel to and offset from said first power plane, said second power plane having a second voltage body and a second island, said second island being associated with said first coupling and being electrically isolated from said second voltage body except at a small area, said second voltage body being electrically connected to said first coupling through said second island. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification