Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

3m Innovative Properties Company

Robert S Dodsworth

Harry A Loder

John B Scheibner

Ke Zhang

Denis D Springer

Thomas M Cherney

Juang Meng Mok

Chee Tat Ee

Yong Peng Lee

John E Bittner

A flexible circuit incorporating an electrostatic discharge limiting feature, comprising a dielectric substrate selected from polyimide or liquid crystal polymer film having at least one conductive trace coated on at least one surface of the substrate wherein the discharge limiting feature includes a thin conductive polymer coating selectively applied over a at least a portion of the non-critical region of the circuit, said feature reducing the surface resistivity of the circuit to about 10 ohms to about 10 ohms and having tribocharging of less than about 50 V.

Flexible circuit with electrostatic damage limiting feature

A flexible circuit incorporating electrostatic discharge (ESD) limiting features and being suitable for use in the fabrication of hard disk drives for computer applications. Conductive polymer strips are implemented to enhance the static dissipative characteristics of the flexible circuit and to protect magnetorestistive (MR) heads of a hard disk drive (HDD) from damage during the manufacture of the head gimbal assembly (HGA) of the HDD.

Flexible circuit with electrostatic damage limiting feature and method of manufacture

A high speed signal transmission cable including spaced, parallel conductors and an insulation layer comprising blown micro fiber web surrounding the conductors, preferably further including a layer of another dielectric material surrounding the microfiber material.

Blown microfiber insulated cable

An electrical connector system which may be used to prototype electrical circuits utilizing standard integrated circuit packages on a perforated circuit board. A plurality of spring contact elements having oppositely directed resilient jaws are carried in an insulating housing. An insulating contact retainer, carrying a plurality of spring compression reserve wire contact elements, is placed on the opposite surface of the perforated circuit board from the connector housing, with a tail of each contact element extending through a perforation in the circuit board into one set of jaws of a spring contact element aligned with the perforation. The contact leads of an integrated circuit package are similarly inserted into the oppositely directed, spring contact element jaws. Electrical contact to the contact leads of the integrated circuit package is then made through the spring contact elements and the wire contact elements to wires connected by the wire contact elements.

Electrical connector system

A solderless electrical contact comprising a thin resilient flat plate having at least one pair of parallel extended legs defining an open-ended wire-receiving slot, and a method for making the contact. The legs of the contact are similarly coined along the wire-receiving slot, the coining being progressively deeper into the thickness of the flat plate from the open end of the slot toward the closed end thereof to taper the slot from a width adjacent the open end of the slot of less than the thickness of the flat plate to a lesser width adjacent the closed end of the slot. The contact permits effective electrical connection to two small diameter insulated conductors pressed into the wire-receiving slot.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Robert S Dodsworth