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:
Jul. 29, 2003
Filed:
Nov. 28, 2000
Fay Chong, Jr., Cupertino, CA (US);
William L. Grouell, San Ramon, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A variably positionable electrical connector provides a direct interface for a disk drive or other electrical device to a printed circuit board (PCB), backplane or motherboard of a computer system. The connector has a base (which may comprise a PCB or backplane) and a housing that slides relative to the base to allow the housing to be positioned according to the spacing between the electrical device's power and signal connectors. The housing includes multiple electrical contacts that receive or engage corresponding contacts of the device. Conductors that are electrically coupled to the computer system extend from the base and include portions that are aligned substantially parallel to a direction in which the housing can slide. The housing contacts slidably engage the parallel portions of the conductors and, as the housing is moved, the housing contacts slidably maintain electrical contact with the conductors. Either or both of the computer system's power and signal connectors that engage the device's connectors may be variably positionable, with the conductors of the variably positionable connector being coupled either to a power supply or a signal source (e.g., processor, bus, memory) as appropriate.