Vlt Corporation

Gary C Keay

Patrizio Vinciarelli

Fred M Finnemore

Scott William Nowak

Charles I McCauley

Basil Thompson

Michael B LaFleur

Charles Steven Skoolicas

Power converter body

Power converter

A circuit board has a hole that is large enough to accommodate a portion of an electronic component. Contacts are arranged along a side wall of the accommodated portion of the component. Other contacts are mounted on the board and exposed along the periphery of the hole. The contacts on the component (the first contacts) and the contacts on the board (the second contacts) are arranged to effect electrical contact between the first contacts and the second contacts for a range of positions of the component along a direction perpendicular to the board. A connector for making electrical connection includes a connector body supporting the second contacts in a manner that provides mechanically compliant sliding contact between the first contacts and the second contacts when the component is mounted, and a mechanism that enables the connector to be attached to the board by surface mount soldering.

Mounting electronic components on circuit boards

The invention features an apparatus, which allows a power converter module to be easily connected and disconnected from an external device and includes an electronic component. The apparatus includes a connector for making an electrical connection to a terminal on the power converter, a component interface subassembly which provides for making connections to the electronic component and an enclosure which encloses the electronic component and the connector. The component interface subassembly may include a thermally conductive plate which provides a low thermal impedance path for removing heat from the electronic component. The electronic component may be an OR diode or a MOSFET which may be connected in series between the power converter output and the external device. The apparatus may be attached to a heat sink for efficient removal of heat.

Power converter connector assembly

A connector for a pin includes a support ring, and a contact ring of fingers that are (i) connected to and integrally formed with the support ring, (ii) held in a space within the support ring, (iii) define a channel within the contact ring for receiving the pin, (iv) are resilient with respect to the outer support to apply radially inward forces on the pin, and (v) have a curved inner profile to increase the surface area in contact with the pin. A resilient element may be placed in the space between the support ring and contact ring.

Adapter

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Merrimack, NH, United States of America

Gary C Keay