Compliant high density edge card connector with contact locating features

Claim 1

In an arrangement for electrically connecting closely-spaced circuit elements disposed on two printed circuit boards, said arrangement including: a first printed circuit board; and a second printed circuit board having a mating edge and a surface with a linear array of aligned contact pads adjacent said edge; a connector including an elongated dielectric housing with a cavity formed along its length with an opening for receiving said second printed circuit board mating edge and a plurality of terminals mounted in the housing to form a closelyspaced linear terminal array, each terminal adapted to engage a contact pad when the second printed circuit board is inserted into the cavity through said opening; and means for mounting the connector to said first printed circuit board; the improvement comprising: a pitch-controlling contact locator means cooperating between said mating edge and said connector, said contact locator means including: a resilient supported spring member disposed in said connector cavity generally at the midpoint of said terminal array, said spring member being resilient in a vertical direction and substantially rigid in a horizontal direction; and a mating cutout disposed in said mating edge generally at the midpoint of the array of contact pads and adapted to engage said spring member with two points of contact when the second printed circuit board is inserted into said cavity; whereby a connector arrangement exhibiting corrective compliance for circuit to terminal mating misalignments introduced by dimensional tolerances and board warpage is provided.

Claim 11

A method for providing improved centerline mating between terminals and contact pads in a high density edge card connector arrangement including a linear array of closely-spaced terminals in a connector housing adapted to mate with a corresponding linear array of closely-spaced contact pads disposed on a surface of an edge card adjacent a mating edge, said method comprising: (a) providing a pitch-controlling, contact locator generally at the midpoint of said linear terminal array, said contact locator comprising a resilient supported spring member being resilient in a vertical direction and substantially rigid in a horizontal direction; (b) providing a mating cutout in the mating edge generally at the midpoint of the array of contact pads, said cutout being adapted to engage said spring member with two points of contact; (c) positioning the edge card in said connector so that the mating cutout engages said spring member with two points of contact and said contact pads electrically engage said terminals; and (d) retaining said edge card in mating engagement with said connector, whereby substantially compliant, reliable ultra-low pitch edge card connector is provided.

Claim 12

A method for providing improved centerline mating between terminals and contact pads in a high density edge card connector arrangement including a linear array of closely-spaced terminals in a connector housing adapted to mate with a corresponding linear array of closely-spaced contact pads disposed on a surface of an edge card adjacent a mating edge, said method comprising: (a) providing a pitch-controlling, contact locator generally at the midpoint of said linear terminal array, said contact locator comprising a resilient supported spring member being resilient in a vertical direction and substantially rigid in a horizontal direction; (b) providing a mating cutout in the mating edge generally at the midpoint of the array of contact pads, said cutout being adapted to engage said spring member with two points of contact; (c) positioning the edge card in said connector so that the mating cutout engages said spring member with two points of contact and said contact pads electrically engage said terminals; and (d) retaining said edge card in mating engagement with said connector, whereby substantially compliant, reliable ultra-low pitch edge card connector is provided.