Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation

Charles M Jackson

Elizabeth Twyford Kunkee

Dah-Weih Duan

An exemplary miniature support has upper and lower spaced-apart engagement surfaces each having at least a portion that are parallel to each other. Two supports each with an end supporting the upper engagement surface and another end supporting the lower engagement surface. The two supports have a spring-like property so that the upper and lower engagement surfaces can repeatedly move between an uncompressed state when not engaged to provide an interconnection and a compressed state when engaged between two opposing boards to provide an interconnection between the boards. The connector is preferably made using 3-D printing and may be integrally made as part of a board also made using the same 3-D printing. The support may have upper and lower engagement surfaces and at least one of the at least two supports that are conductive to establish connectivity between the upper and lower engagement surfaces.

Resilient miniature mechanical support that can also serve as an electrical connector

A resilient electrical connector assembly includes a base PCB and stacked layers of interconnected resilient conductive structures where each structure has at least two resilient conductive strips and at least two conductive contacts. One contact is integrated with a conductive path on the base PCB and another contact pad is positioned to establish a conductive path with a target PCB when the latter is mounted parallel to the base PCB. The resilient conductive strips flex due to a compressive force exerted between the base PCB and target PCB on the stacked layers. The resilient conductive structures are formed by depositing metal to sequentially form each of the stacked layers with one contact being initially formed in engagement with the conductive path on the base PCB.

Resilient miniature integrated electrical connector

A system and method for vertically integrating heterogeneous devices into a 3D tile architecture are disclosed. The system uses high precision microelectronics fabrication techniques and known-good-die to achieve high yield to integrate devices to process radio frequency signals at microwave frequencies of approximately 300 MHz to 300 GHz and above. The inventive architecture is based on a high density of small diameter vias to manage the integrity of electrical interconnects and simplify electrical routing.

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Huntington Beach, CA, United States of America

Charles M Jackson