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:
Apr. 20, 2004
Filed:
May. 26, 2000
Apurba Choudhury, Rochester, MN (US);
Thomas Wen Liang, Rosemount, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for reliability testing an electrical connector for an unacceptable propagation delay. The propagation delay is detected in a transmitted test signal through the electrical connector in comparison to a reference signal having a known delay. A failure signal occurs in response to the transmitted test signal failing to transition before a corresponding transition in the reference signal. The apparatus and method is extendable to a plurality of conductor paths in the electrical connector, such as a parallel communication digital data bus. Moreover, the known delay in the reference signal is selectable for adjusting an allowable propagation delay criteria for applications with different data rate requirements.