Thin hard drive with 2-piece-casing and ground pin standoff to reduce ESD damage to stacked PCBA's
First Claim
1. A flash-memory drive comprising:
- an upper case;
a lower case;
a printed-circuit board assembly (PCBA) that comprises;
a circuit board having wiring traces;
a plurality of flash-memory chips mounted to the circuit board;
a controller chip mounted to the circuit board, the controller chip having a input/output interface circuit for interfacing to an external computer, and a processing unit for accessing the plurality of flash-memory chips in response to commands from the external computer received by the input/output interface circuit; and
a connector mounted to the circuit board, for connecting the controller chip to the external computer;
wherein the upper case is attached to the lower case during assembly with the PCBA between the upper case and the lower case, with the connector passing through an opening between the upper case and the lower case, the upper and lower cases encapsulating the circuit board,wherein the plurality of flash-memory chips are block-addressable and not randomly-addressable;
a conductive pin that contacts the upper case and contacts ground traces the circuit board, wherein the ground traces connect to a chassis ground through the connector when the connector is connected to the external computer;
wherein the conductive pin comprises a primary axis and a secondary axis that are substantially parallel to and offset from each other and substantially perpendicular to a plane of the circuit board;
wherein conductive pin contacts the upper case along the primary axis;
wherein the conductive pin contacts the circuit board around an alignment hole that is centered about the secondary axis,whereby the conductive pin has primary and secondary axes.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A case-grounded flash-memory drive has a printed-circuit board assembly (PCBA) with flash-memory chips and a controller chip. The PCBA is encased inside an upper case and a lower case, with a Serial AT-Attachment (SATA) connector that fits through and opening between the cases. The cases can be assembled with the PCBA by a snap-together, ultrasonic-press, screw-fastener, or thermal-bond adhesive method. Dual-axis case-grounding pins draw any electro-static-discharges (ESD) current off the upper case along a primary axis and onto a PCBA ground through a secondary axis washer that is screwed into the PCBA. The primary axis body of the dual-axis case-grounding pins fits around a PCBA notch while the secondary axis passes through a metalized alignment hole for grounding. When the SATA connector is inserted into a host, the host ground sinks ESD currents collected by the dual-axis case-grounding pins.
40 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A flash-memory drive comprising:
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an upper case; a lower case; a printed-circuit board assembly (PCBA) that comprises; a circuit board having wiring traces; a plurality of flash-memory chips mounted to the circuit board; a controller chip mounted to the circuit board, the controller chip having a input/output interface circuit for interfacing to an external computer, and a processing unit for accessing the plurality of flash-memory chips in response to commands from the external computer received by the input/output interface circuit; and a connector mounted to the circuit board, for connecting the controller chip to the external computer; wherein the upper case is attached to the lower case during assembly with the PCBA between the upper case and the lower case, with the connector passing through an opening between the upper case and the lower case, the upper and lower cases encapsulating the circuit board, wherein the plurality of flash-memory chips are block-addressable and not randomly-addressable; a conductive pin that contacts the upper case and contacts ground traces the circuit board, wherein the ground traces connect to a chassis ground through the connector when the connector is connected to the external computer; wherein the conductive pin comprises a primary axis and a secondary axis that are substantially parallel to and offset from each other and substantially perpendicular to a plane of the circuit board; wherein conductive pin contacts the upper case along the primary axis; wherein the conductive pin contacts the circuit board around an alignment hole that is centered about the secondary axis, whereby the conductive pin has primary and secondary axes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A flash-memory device comprising:
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upper case means for partially encasing the flash-memory device; lower case means for partially encasing the flash-memory device; a printed-circuit board assembly (PCBA) that comprises; circuit board means for connecting chips with wiring traces; a plurality of flash-memory chip means for storing blocks of data, the plurality of flash-memory chip means being mounted to the circuit board means, wherein the plurality of flash-memory chip means are block-addressable and not randomly-addressable; controller chip means, mounted to the circuit board means, for controlling access to the plurality of flash-memory chip means, the controller chip means comprising an input/output interface means for interfacing to an external computer, and processing unit means for accessing the plurality of flash-memory chip means in response to commands from the external computer received by the input/output interface means; and connector means, mounted to the circuit board means, for connecting the controller chip means to the external computer; dual-axis case-grounding pin means for conducting static-electric currents from the upper case means to the PCBA, the dual-axis case-grounding pin means contacting the upper case means at a primary axis, and making electrical contact to the circuit board means at a secondary axis, wherein the primary axis and the secondary axis are parallel to each other and perpendicular to a major surface of the circuit board means; wherein the upper case means is attached to the lower case means during assembly with the PCBA between the upper case means and the lower case means, with the connector means passing through an opening between the upper case means and the lower case means. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification