Hard drive with metal casing and ground pin standoff to reduce ESD damage to stacked PCBA's
First Claim
1. A flash-memory drive comprising:
- an upper metal case made from metal;
a lower metal case made from metal;
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;
a conductive tab that contacts the upper metal case and contacts ground traces on 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 upper metal case is attached to the lower metal case during assembly with the PCBA between the upper metal case and the lower metal case, with the connector passing through an opening between the upper metal case and the lower metal case, the upper and lower metal cases encapsulating the circuit board,wherein the plurality of flash-memory chips are block-addressable and not randomly-addressable.
1 Assignment
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 an opening between the cases. The cases can be assembled with the PCBA by a screw-together or thermal-bond adhesive method. Triple-axis case-grounding tabs draw any electro-static-discharges (ESD) current off the upper case along a primary axis and onto a PCBA ground through a secondary axis that is screwed into the PCBA. An intermediary axis between the primary and secondary axes fits around a PCBA notch while the secondary axis passes through a metalized alignment hole on the PCBA for grounding. When the SATA connector is inserted into a host, the host ground sinks ESD currents collected by the triple-axis case-grounding tabs.
-
Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A flash-memory drive comprising:
-
an upper metal case made from metal; a lower metal case made from metal; 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; a conductive tab that contacts the upper metal case and contacts ground traces on 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 upper metal case is attached to the lower metal case during assembly with the PCBA between the upper metal case and the lower metal case, with the connector passing through an opening between the upper metal case and the lower metal case, the upper and lower metal cases encapsulating the circuit board, wherein the plurality of flash-memory chips are block-addressable and not randomly-addressable. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A method for manufacturing a flash-memory device comprising:
-
soldering flash-memory chips onto both surfaces of a printed-circuit board (PCB) and soldering a controller chip to the PCB; forming a PCB assembly by soldering a connector to an edge of the PCB, the connector for carrying signals from an external computer to the controller chip to instruct the controller chip to read blocks of data from the flash-memory chips; forming an upper case from metal; forming a plurality of triple-axis case-grounding tabs that each include a case-grounding tab, an alignment tab, and a metal standoff pedestal, wherein the triple-axis case-grounding tabs are formed on the upper case when forming the upper case; forming a lower case from metal; fitting the PCB assembly into the upper case wherein an alignment hole on the PCB assembly is aligned over the metal standoff pedestal and wherein a notch on the PCB assembly fits around the alignment tab; for each of the triple-axis case-grounding tabs, screwing a screw along a secondary axis into the alignment hole and into the metal standoff pedestal to secure the PCB to the upper case to make electrical connection from the triple-axis case-grounding tabs through the alignment holes to a ground of the PCB to form a sub-assembly of the PCB assembly and the upper case; for each of the triple-axis case-grounding tabs, screwing a case screw along a primary axis through the lower metal case and into the case-grounding tab to secure the lower case to the upper case and to encapsulate the PCB assembly, whereby the flash-memory device is assembled with triple-axis case-grounding tabs. - View Dependent Claims (22)
-
-
23. A flash-memory device comprising:
-
upper metal case means for partially encasing the flash-memory device with metal; lower metal case means for partially encasing the flash-memory device with metal; 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; triple-axis case-grounding tab means, formed on the upper metal case means, for conducting static-electric currents from the upper metal case means and the lower metal case means to the PCBA, the triple-axis case-grounding tab means contacting the upper metal case means and the lower metal 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 metal case means is attached to the lower metal case means at the primary axis during assembly with the PCBA between the upper metal case means and the lower metal case means, with the connector means passing through an opening between the upper metal case means and the lower metal case means.
-
Specification