Ncr Corporation

Lucent Technologies Inc.

Jan B Goossens

Theodoor A Kleijne

Jan Bakker

Johannes A De Bruin

A connector for a circuit component comprises a rigid support frame having a central aperture into which the component may be placed, and spring means around the support and having a plurality of spring projections which project beyond the support frame for co-operation with perforations in a planar substrate, such as a PCB. The projections may have hook-shaped lower ends which locate against the underside of the PCB. A layer of anisotropically electrically conductive material is located between the component and the substrate. The connector and component together with the conductive layer in position form a substrate-mountable device.

Connector for mounting an electrical component

A security device (10) for protecting sensitive data stored in a resettable memory (110) includes a housing (11) formed of six ceramic plates (P1-P6) each having provided thereon a pair of thin film conductive path segments arranged in a meandering configuration. The thin film conductive path segments are joined together by interconnection devices (30) each including a pair of ceramic studs (e.g. K9, K10) having conductive areas (34, 38) thereon connected by an interconnect block (e.g. N5), thereby forming two complete thin film conductive paths (WMA, WMB) which meander in a closely spaced, parallel manner over the entire inner surface of the housing (11). Interrupting or short circuiting the thin film conductive paths (WMA, WMB) causes reset means (130) to reset the resettable memory (110) thereby erasing the data stored therein.

Data security device for protecting stored data

A security device (10) contains electronic circuitry (84) including a resettable memory (110) which stores sensitive data. The device (10) includes a housing (11) formed by six ceramic plates (P1-P6) each having provided thereon a pair of serially connected conductive path segments formed in separate, superposed layers and arranged in complementary winding configurations. Between the conductive path segments is disposed a conductive sheet. The conductive path segments are serially interconnected by interconnection blocks (N1-N7) and the conductive sheets are serially interconnected by further interconnection blocks (N8-N14). If an attempt to penetrate the housing results in either of the conductive path segments being interrupted or shorted to the conductive sheet, a reset signal is generated to reset the resettable memory (110) thereby erasing the sensitive data stored therein.

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De Bilt, Netherlands

Jan B Goossens