Amp LLC

The Whitaker Corporation

Glenn E Bennett

John E Lucius

John K Daly

David S Szczesny

Frederick H Rider

Roger N Polk

Robert K Grebe

Donald F Urgo

Frank P Dola

Dean A Puerner

Earl R Kreinberg

Paul P Siwinski

Raymond J Look

David A Babow

Frank H Bermier, Jr

Richard E Thurman

Michael Furbacher

Dennis E Petrie

The invention is directed to an electrical connector (10) having a housing (12) with a plurality of contacts (14,114) secured therein. The housing (12) has a top and a bottom surface. The contacts (14,114) extend through the housing (12) and outwardly from the top and bottom surfaces to provide a mating interface between two electrical devices (50). The housing (12) has a flexible member (18) disposed along the top and the bottom surfaces and the contacts (14,114) are secured within the housing (12) by engagement with the flexible membrane (18).

Electrical connector having buckling beam contacts

An electrical connector comprises a generally cylindrical tube member (10) having a tube wall (12) and an electrically conductive body (22) having a plurality of louvers (24) in a generally tubular array. The body and the tube member are nested one within the other, with the louvers having respective sides (28) projecting away from the tube wall for engagement with a complementary connector. The body and the tube member are secured against relative axial movement in at least one direction by at least one extruded projection (40) of the tube wall.

Louvered contact electrical connector

A tappable conductive bus bar (11, 11') has a longitudinal slotted recess (17, 19) receiving at least one louvered spring strip (22, 23). At least one tab (26) is received through a gap (21) in the bus bar (11) to engage the louvered spring strip (22, 23). The bus bar (11) supplies current, with minimum wiring and parts, to one or more tabs (26), and the spacing between adjacent tabs (26) is not critical. Thus, the bus bar (11) is completely tappable.

Tappable bus bar

Terminals having rectangular post sections of very small dimension are secured in housing passageways of an electrical connector, which passageways are molded using core pins larger in dimension than said very small dimensioned terminal post sections, so that the oversized core pins are robust and endure repeated molding cycles. End sections of the core pins have the very small dimension of the terminal post sections and the passageways have constricted end sections which precisely locate the terminal post section along the connector mating face. An increased terminal width at the insertion face creates an interference fit within the passageway for retention. The core pin has a strength rib along most of one side and the forward rib end is tapered to the reduced-dimension pin end section which results in a tapered passageway transition surface to eliminate terminal stubbing during insertion. The rib has tapered side surfaces therealong extending to the adjacent side surfaces of the otherwise rectilinear core pin, and the resulting tapered surfaces along the molded passageway tend to urge the terminal post section during insertion towards the opposing side wall assisting axial alignment of the terminal post section.

Method for making connector for posted terminals

Terminals having rectangular post sections of very small dimension are secured in housing passageways of an electrical connector, which passageways are molded using core pins larger in dimension than said very small dimensioned terminal post sections, so that the oversized core pins are robust and endure repeated molding cycles. End sections of the core pins have the very small dimension of the terminal post sections and the paassageways have constricted end sections which precisely locate the terminal post section along the connector mating face. An increased terminal width at the insertion face creates an interference fit within the passageway for retention. The core pin has a strength rib along most of one side and the forward rib end is tapered to the reduced-dimension pin end section which results in a tapered passageway transition surface to eliminate terminal stubbing during insertion. The rib has tapered side surfaces therealong extending to the adjacent side surfaces of the otherwise rectilinear core pin, and the resulting tapered surfaces along the molded passageway tend to urge the terminal post section during insertion towards the opposing side wall assisting axial alignment of the terminal post section.

Connector for posted terminals

A system for distributing electrical power to side edges (108, 112) of a daughter card (102) upon insertion into a card cage (10) includes a pair of source and return bus bars (118, 116) mounted on at least one of the side edges and electrically connected by arrays of terminals (172) to power circuits of the card, insulated by a cover (120) having a rail (126) for following the guide channels (18, 20) of the card cage at each card location. Rearward ends of the bus bars have blades (122, 124) which are received into receptacle contacts (46, 44) mounted in the card cage above and below the backplane (14), which are mounted at each card location and electrically connected to source and return busses (68, 58) of the card cage. The receptacle contacts (46, 44) are float mounted to be easily incrementally moved upon blade receipt during card module (100) insertion, and also easily incrementally moved after blade mating when power connections are established, to then permit precision adjustment of rear card edge (104) in two dimensions so that card edge connectors (106) thereon become aligned with corresponding backplane connectors (16) for subsequent high density signal terminal mating.

Card edge power distribution system

A bus bar assembly (110) includes a pair of source and return bus bars (118,116) mounted on at least one of the side edges (108,112) of a daughter card (102) and electrically connected by arrays of terminals (172) to power circuits of the card, for use in a system for distributing electrical power to the daughter card module (100) upon insertion into a card cage (10). The pair of bus bars (118,116) is insulated by a cover (120) having a rail (126) for following the guide channels (18,20) of the card cage at each card location. Rearward ends of the bus bars have blades (122,124) which are received into receptacle contacts (46,44) mounted in the card cage above and below the backplane (14), which are mounted at each card location and electrically connected to source and return busses (68,58) of the card cage, with the receptacle contacts (46,44) preferably being float mounted to be easily incrementally moved upon blade receipt during card module (100) insertion.

Card edge bus bar assembly for power distribution system

An assembly (42) includes plurality of receptacle contacts (46,44) mounted to a clevis block (66) between respective pairs of salients (86) and along a shaft (64) extending through the salients. The receptacle contacts (46,44) are incrementally moveable after assembly and thus define a floating separable interface for an array of blade shaped contacts (122,124) when assembly (42) is mounted within a card cage (10) and blade shaped contacts are along rearward ends of bus bars (118,116) mounted on upper and lower edges (108,112) of daughter cards (102) insertable into the card cage, defining a system for distributing electrical power from the card cage to the daughter cards. The receptacle contacts (46,44) are float mounted to be easily incrementally moved upon blade receipt during card module (100) insertion, and also easily incrementally moved after blade mating when power connections are established, to then permit precision adjustment of rear card edge (104) in two dimensions so that card edge connectors (106) thereon become aligned with corresponding backplane connectors ( 16) for subsequent high density signal terminal mating.

Float mounted receptacle contact assembly for card cage

Two flat cables are interconnected to comprise a tap connection or a splice connection by stacking them and pressing together against them an assembly of upper and lower interconnecting structures which include opposing regions of alternating shearing wave shapes and relief recesses. The wave shapes shear the conductors of the cables and extrude the thus-sheared conductor strips into the opposing relief recesses so that newly sheared conductor edges are moved adjacent electrical engagement surfaces defined by vertical edges of the adjacent wave shapes. Dual conductor cables have their respective conductors interconnected by using a pair of assemblies of upper and lower interconnecting structures, each assembly having shearing wave shapes and relief recesses disposed transversely across only the half of the cables within which the appropriate conductors are disposed. The upper and lower structures can include lateral flanges which are riveted together after termination to the cables to lock the upper and lower structures together. A pair of housing members can be latched together to house the assemblies of interconnecting structures terminated to the cables.

Electrical connector and method of interconnecting flat power cables

A monolithic transition adapter terminated to a flat power cable has one or two plate sections extending forwardly from the termination which conclude in an array of first and second alternating spring contact arms deflectable downwardly and upwardly respectively. The spring arms are formed to include free ends having arcuate contact sections convex in opposing directions comprising a lead-in to receive thereinto a blade-like contact member from forwardly thereof, and facilitating the deflection by the mating contact of the spring arms in the respective opposing directions. A monolithic contact member matable with the transition adapter includes a planar body portion having a forward blade contact and a plurality of terminal sections rearwardly thereof such as for interconnecting with a printed circuit board. In one such contact member the blade contact shares providing for an assured lead-in for mating by including a plurality of blade sections in an array of alternating first and second blades angled to define alternating downward and upward ramps to engage respective free ends of the transition adapter's spring arms and initiate the deflection of the spring arms in appropriate opposing directions for mating; this enables the vertical distance between the free ends of the deflected spring contact arms after mating to be minimized, reducing the vertical profile of the mated interface.

Electrical terminals for flat power cable

A high performance controlled impedance low loss low attenuation cable having the characteristics of a shielded twisted pair cable is disclosed. The cable contains a plurality of pairs of associated conductors located in a single plane to give a low profile flat cable suitable for use in undercarpet wiring installations. The cable comprises a plurality of layers of extruded insulating material with a metal foil shield surrounding only associated pairs of conductors. Insulating material having different dielectric constants is employed in conjunction with the encircling foil shield to give the cable the characteristics of a conventional shielded twisted pair cable.

High performance flat cable

An improved miniaturized electro-acoustic surface-wave filter device is disclosed having broad, deep, adjacent channel stopbands from uniform aperture transducers. The device includes two spaced, interdigital electrode transducer structures fabricated on one surface of a piezoelectric substrate. Each electrode structure includes a central finger group and a number of flanking finger groups spaced from the central finger group at predetermined temporal locations. The strengths of the flanking groups are adjusted by controlling the number of finger pairs within a group, the overlap length of the fingers, and the strip/gap ratio of the fingers. Aperture uniformity is maintained in reduced overlap flanking groups through the series weighting technique. The subject device is particularly useful for channel selection in the IF portion of a television receiver.

Growing community of inventors

Glendale, AZ, United States of America

Glenn E Bennett