Unidirectional particle damper for printed circuit boards and planar surfaces

Abstract

An apparatus and system for attaining maximum unidirectional response to vibration damping of a printed circuit board (PCB) or other planar surface utilizing a defined travel displacement of a single tungsten (or other material) cylindrical rod in a single or plurality of sealed cylindrical chambers in a particle impact damper (PID). The single tungsten (or other material) cylindrical rod is not weighed down, constrained, encumbered within the chamber; accordingly, providing unrestricted freedom for the cylinder to quickly respond in a unidirectional direction at the first occurrence of excessive vibrational acceleration over 1G. The structure of a single cylindrical particle within a sealed cylindrical chamber also provides a path of minimum distance for the cylinder to travel before colliding with the ceiling or floor of the PID chamber. A plurality of cylindrical chambers can be arranged in a variety of patterns within the PID housing such as desired. The PID housing can be any shape such as a cube, a rectangular cuboid, a cylinder, sphere, triangular tetrahedron, triangular prism, polygon, toroid or any combination of shapes.