The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 25, 1997
Filed:
Jan. 17, 1995
H Scott Estes, Austin, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
The substrate member of a multi-tier circuit board is provided, during the construction thereof, with an integral bar code structure by extending spaced apart, parallel finger sections of an interior metal ground plane portion of a panel structure outwardly past the routing path along which the substrate member is to be separated from the panel structure. After the substrate member is routed from the panel structure it has a peripheral side edge portion upon which exposed end surface portions of the spaced ground plane finger sections are disposed in a mutually spaced bar code array representative of predetermined information relating to the completed circuit board. The ground-seeking probe portion of a conductive scanning device is moved along the bar-coded edge of the substrate member to read and decipher the integral ground plane bar code structure compactly incorporated thereon during the manufacture of the substrate member.