Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Karl A Sauter

Douglas W Forehand

A method of locating a socket on a printed circuit board which includes the steps of fabricating a plurality of pads and one or more fiducials on the upper surface of the printed circuit board, optically aligning a drill with the fiducial, and then drilling a socket hole through the printed circuit board at the location defined by the fiducial. A peg of the socket is inserted into the socket hole to align the socket with the printed circuit board. Alternatively, a method for locating holes on a printed circuit board includes the steps of forming a master tooling hole through the printed circuit board, locating a fiducial on the printed circuit board using the master tooling hole as a guide, focusing on the fiducial with an optically alignable drill, thereby aligning the drill, and then drilling a hole through the printed circuit board using the aligned drill. The fiducial is selected to be a material which provides a sharp optical contrast with the area surrounding the fiducial, thereby allowing the drill to be easily and accurately focused on the fiducial.

Growing community of inventors

Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

Karl A Sauter