Neoconix, Inc

Peter Tho Nguyen

David Noel Light

Hung-Ming Wang

David Rodney Baker

Dinesh Sundararajan Kalakkad

Dexter Shih-Wei Pao

Disclosed is an electrical connector having a substrate and movable electrical contacts which are mounted to the substrate and extend a distance D from the substrate. A layer of compressible material (such as a foam or elastomeric material) is positioned on the substrate adjacent at least some of the electrical contacts and ideally has an uncompressed thickness slightly greater than the distance D to provide for protection of the electrical contacts. When a mating electrical device such as an electrical connector or other circuit member is mated to the electrical connector with its electrical contacts and its layer of compressible material, the layer of compressible material is compressed to a thickness less than the distance D, allowing the contacts to make a suitable electrical interconnection to the mating electrical device. The compressible material may be selected which has a force-to-compression plot which includes at least one inflection, defining a first region on one side of the inflection where a given increment of force provides a larger increment of compression and a second region on the other side of the inflection where the same increment of compressive force provides a substantially smaller increment of compression. The compressible material can function to prevent damage to the movable electrical contacts from handling, packing, shipping, assembly, testing, connection and/or mating of the connector.

Electrical connector with electrical contacts protected by a layer of compressible material and method of making it

The present invention is an electrical connector in which a substrate (such as a printed circuit board or PCB) includes a plurality of apertures (or vias) and some of those apertures are filled with two materials to improve the characteristics of the electrical interconnection. The preferred process of crating the filled vias includes the steps of plating the vias with an electrically-conductive material to create an electrically-conductive path between portions of the substrate and components associated with the substrate and partially filling the apertures, then filling at least a portion of the apertures or vias with a second or different filling material to seal at least apart of the electrically conductive path through the plating. The second filling material may be chosen to provide thermal compensation for the connection.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Peter Tho Nguyen