Intel Corporation

Ron Flamm

Mark B Trobough

Leonard O Turner

Ashok N Kabadi

Mark C Russell

Glen Patrick Gordon

Michael Zack Eckblad

Brian R Peil

Mark W Anderson

Michael A Lascu

Eryan Eylon

Dan C Plitt

Ronald B Sutherland

Some disclosed embodiments include a retention apparatus having a unidirectional locking member, the unidirectional locking member defining a bore therethrough, a post disposed through the bore of the unidirectional locking member, wherein the post is adapted to be secured to a support base, and a spring adapted to bias the unidirectional locking member against a device to be retained, wherein the unidirectional locking member is adapted to allow movement of the device in a first direction and to inhibit movement of the device in a second direction opposite to the first direction. The retention apparatus may be used to maintain contact between a heatsink and a processor on a motherboard. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

Heatsink retention apparatus

A system to connect cards in a chassis is provided. The system includes a chassis frame having a slot to receive a card. A rocker is coupled to the chassis frame and positioned in a closed state when the card is in the slot. A magnetic element is positioned on the rocker and a sensor positioned to detect a magnetic field generated by the magnetic element. The sensor then determines whether the rocker is positioned an open state or said closed state.

Hot swap system

An apparatus and method for reliably interconnecting a test device with a circuit board designed for fine pitch solder lead surface mounted components is described. The test equipment interface system of the present invention comprises a board interconnect unit, an interposer, and a test device cable. The test device cable is coupled to a test device, which can receive and manipulate signals via the cable. These signals correspond to signals provided by a component being emulated by the present invention. A component being emulated is replaced on the circuit board by the board interconnect unit. The board interconnect unit has leads or pins in a quantity, size, and configuration corresponding to a component being emulated and is typically soldered to a circuit board under test for the purpose of analyzing and debugging the circuitry on the circuit board. The board interconnect unit comprises a lead frame which is attached to a metal body. The lead frame is used to route or convert the pins into an array of contact pads. The contact pads are relatively widely spaced for better access to and connection with an array of electrically conductive spring pins or contact pins of the interposer. Because the lead frame converts the fine dimension pins to a more widely spaced array of contact pads, the corresponding spring pins of the interposer do not have to be manufactured with the precise dimensional tolerances required for the manufacture of the pins.

Interconnection device for connecting test equipment with a circuit

An apparatus and method for reliably interconnecting a test device with a circuit board designed for fine pitch solder lead surface mounted components is described. The test equipment interface system of the present invention includes a board interconnect unit, an interposer, and a test device cable. The test device cable is coupled to a test device, which can receive and manipulate signals via the cable. These signals correspond to signals provided by a component being emulated by the present invention. A component being emulated is replaced on the circuit board by the board interconnect unit. The board interconnect unit has leads or pins in a quantity, size, and configuration corresponding to a component being emulated and is typically soldered to a circuit board under test for the purpose of analyzing and debugging the circuitry on the circuit board. The board interconnect unit features a lead frame which is attached to a metal body. The lead frame is used to route or convert the pins into an array of contact pads. The contact pads are relatively widely spaced for better access to and connection with an array of electrically conductive spring pins or contact pins of the interposer. Because the lead frame converts the fine dimension pins to a more widely spaced array of contact pads, the corresponding spring pins of the interposer do not have to be manufactured with the precise dimensional tolerances required for the manufacture of the pins.

Growing community of inventors

Olympia, WA, United States of America

Ron Flamm