Housing-free vertically insertable single-in-line circuit module

Claim 1

A circuit module, which is housing-free and is connected into a circuit board to extend vertically thereto, said module comprising a flat carrier of an insulating material and having a pair of planar lateral surfaces, a plurality of stiff metal terminal pins being permanently attached along one edge of said carrier to form a single row of stiff terminal pins extending comb-like in a plane parallel to the lateral surfaces of the carrier from said one edge, at least one integrated housing-free circuit element carried on said carrier and at least one conductor run connecting said circuit element to at least one of said plurality of terminal pins, metallic grounded cooling sheet having a first portion and a second portion extending at substantially a right angle to said first portion, and bonding means securing the first portion of the cooling sheet to one of the pair of lateral surfaces of the carrier with the first portion substantially covering the one lateral surface and the second portion being along a second edge of the carrier opposite said one edge and extending outwardly from the one lateral surface to form a unitary module with an L-shaped configuration so that said module is mounted on the circuit board solely by means of said single row of stiff terminal pins to form a unitary free standing module with the second portion extending substantially parallel to the circuit board surface.