Eads North America, Inc.

Racal Instruments, Inc.

Joseph Talbert

Gary Carlson

Frank Landon

Mark M Minot

Timothy Elmore

Daniel Masters

Jeffrey Y Chen

Michael L Stockwell

Allan Knox, Ii

A thermal interface device () includes a base member () and a pocket () which is filled with a thermally conductive material or medium such as diamond dust suspended in a solvent such as propylene glycol or a thermally conductive material such as thermally conductive rubber. The pocket () is hermitically sealed to the base member () in order to keep the thermally conductive material within the pocket. The filled pocket () forms a deformable 'pillow' having a high thermal conductance. The deformable pocket () can contour to the shape of a device it is pressed against such as an electronic device undergoing testing.

Thermal interface device

A thermal system () includes a main pump () which pumps refrigerant to a device under test evaporator cluster (). A system condenser () converts the gaseous refrigerant into liquid and the condenser liquid return is provided to a vapor/liquid separation and storage column (). The thermal system () further includes a sump vaporizer () which forms part of a sump discharge line loop.

Thermal system

A VXI product plug-in is provided herein that is capable of higher component density. The plug-in is configured to occupy two standard size slots of a standard VXI chassis, and includes two sets of three horizontally stacked modules in upper and lower sub-compartments of a front compartment of the plug-in carrier. The six modules have the capability of being populated with 480 switching relays, which provides for a 50 percent increase in the number of switches over the prior art plug-ins. The plug-in carrier includes a rear compartment that houses a VXI bus interfacing circuit, including a mezzanine board, a bridge board, and optionally a controller board, for interfacing the switch modules with a VXI backplane bus. The Plug-in further includes an internal backplane situated within the carrier between the front and rear compartments that provides an interface between the modules and the VXI bus interfacing circuit, and specifically, include a bus that can selectively couple modules together. Other aspects of the invention include an automatic updating scheme for updating the software installed on the controller card so that it has the necessary data and program code to operate new modules, an emergency reset mechanism for opening all relays pertinent to one module, and a mechanism for facilitating the insertion and removal of a VXI plug-in to and from a VXI chassis.

VXI backplane system improvements and methods

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Murrieta, CA, United States of America

Joseph Talbert