International Business Machines Corporation

Thomas J Dudek

Brian Samuel Beaman

Da-Yuan Shih

Fuad Elias Doany

George Frederick Walker

Alphonso Philip Lanzetta

William J Tkazyik

Basil D Washo

Benedicto U Messina

George M Jordhamo

Edward C Hallee

Joel A Weiner

A flex circuit card with an elastomeric cable connector assembly is provided for transmitting high speed signals between two or more printed circuit boards in a high performance computer system. The flex circuit card connects a cable assembly to a printed circuit board. A conductor trace in the flex circuit card extends into an elastomeric end and terminates with a ball shaped contact which is angled to wipe against mating pads on the printed circuit card for making electrical contact. The cable assembly uses multiple wires attached to a plurality of elastomeric connectors. At least one elastomeric connector is attached to each end of the cable assembly and each elastomeric connector has a plurality of contacts which are used to mate with a plurality of pads on the surface of the printed circuit board. The elastomeric connector described in the present invention provides a high density, cable-to-board interconnection that is perpendicular to the surface of the printed circuit board.

Flex circuit card elastomeric cable connector assembly

A static dissipative electrical cable which eliminates the build-up of triboelectric charging by having a carbon loaded outer jacket which is a semiconductor for draining off triboelectric charges. In one embodiment, the jacket material is a 1 megohm/ft semiconductive extrudable Teflon polyfluorinated alkoxy (PFA) resin static-dissipative polymer of low carbon-black loading (3-4% by weight) having very stable electrical/mechanical properties against temperature excursions, thermal/environmental shock and aging. The cable is designed with a double-clad aluminum/mylar foil shield that allows electrical commoning between inner and outer clads of the foil and control of the interface between semi-conductive static-dissipative jacket and the foil shield to yield a jacket-to-ground wire resistance value between 100 kilo-ohms and 50 megohms. The latter insures adequate draining of triboelectric charges to ground, while maintaining a high resistance path to any ground loop current from neighboring cables or frame ground.

Static dissipative electrical cable

A connector for terminating wires and cables is constructed of two mating thermoplastic members. One of the members carries a pattern of conductive material which forms edge contact pads, signal lines, ground lines and a ground buss interconnecting all ground lines. The other thermoplastic member is formed to include a series of ribs that parallel and contact the ground lines and ground buss. The surface of the thermoplastic member carrying the ribs and the ribs are plated with a copper layer and when assembled with the mating member forms grounded tunnel-like passages enclosing the signal lines and into which the signal conductors of the wires or cables extend to terminate on the signal lines.

Input output connector with coaxial shielding and strain relief

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Poughkeepsie, NY, United States of America

Thomas J Dudek