Patent Application
20060211298
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to the field of electronic systems, and more particularly, to an electrical component connector.
Computing systems are made up of many electrical components coupled together by connectors. These connectors may contain conductive traces or “interfaces” to couple one or more contacts of an electronic component or device to one or more contacts of another electronic device. When coupling devices, the connector needs to accurately align the interfaces to the device's contacts to provide acceptable levels of reliability and communication speed or “throughput.”
Types of computing systems where reliability and throughput are a high priority are computing systems used in typical telecommunication and data centers. These computing systems need a high level of reliability and/or throughput to meet demanding communication or data storage requirements. The equipment used in these computing systems may be designed in compliance with the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG), Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) Base Specification, PIGMG 3.0 Revision 1.0, published Dec. 30, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as “the ATCA specification”).
ATCA compliant equipment may include modular platform backplanes to receive and couple to interconnects and/or carrier boards. Carrier boards may also be designed to couple to and receive one or more front accessible modules. These carrier boards and front accessible modules may also be compliant with other specifications. One such specification is the Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) Specification, PIGMG AMC.0, Revision 1.0, published Jan. 3, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as “the AMC.0 specification). Carrier boards designed in compliance with the AMC.0 specification are hereinafter referred to as “AMC carrier boards” or “AMC/ATAC carrier boards.” Front accessible modules and connectors designed in compliance with the AMC.0 specification are hereinafter referred to as “AMC modules” and “AMC connectors,” respectively.
A typical AMC module has contacts which are closely spaced or have a small pitch (approximately 0.75 millimeters (mm)). The contact spacing and pitch along with the mechanical dimension deviations/tolerances permitted by both the ATCA and AMC specifications lead to difficulties in obtaining an accurate alignment between AMC module contacts and AMC connector interfaces when coupled. Additionally, AMC module contacts may be designed to operate at a given impedance for a given configuration. Since high frequency (e.g., greater than 1 GHz) input/output (I/O) signals are typically routed from AMC module contacts to AMC connector interfaces, an inaccurate alignment may create an impedance mismatch for the given configuration. Consequently, the impedance mismatch may affect the signal integrity once the AMC module is operational. This may result in an unacceptable level of reliability and/or throughput for an AMC module coupled to an ATCA/AMC carrier board in a telecommunication or data center computing system.
The invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:
Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to an electrical component connector. The connector includes a first mating portion to receive a contact for a device and a second mating portion to receive a contact for another device. The connector also includes a flexible circuit to couple the device's contact to the other device's contact. The flexible circuit includes a first end partitioned near the middle and a second end to couple to the other device's contact. The first end of the flexible circuit includes a twist to each partition. The twist is to increase a range of movement along three axes of movement in which the first mating portion receives and couples the device's contact to the first end of the flexible circuit. The range of movement is increased without a proportional increase in movement of the first and second ends of the flexible circuit. A connector housing is connected to the other device to contain the first and second mating portions.
The horizontal (or longitudinal) module edges of AMC modules 120, 130 and 140 are guided via a set of guide rails 112 disposed on opposing sides of carrier board 100. Carrier board 100 also includes a power connector 108 via which power is provided to carrier board 100 from an ATCA backplane (see
In general, ATCA/AMC carrier boards may have various configurations. Configurations may vary depending on the type of AMC modules the carrier board is designed to receive and couple. For example,
As described in the AMC.0 specification, AMC connectors may be referred to as basic or extended connector types. The term “basic” is associated with AMC connectors that are equipped with interfaces to receive and couple to an AMC module with contacts on only one side. The term “extended” identifies the connector as having interfaces to receive and couple to AMC modules with contacts on both sides. AMC connectors 104A-D, for example, may include either basic or extended connector types or a combination of both connector types.
Similar to AMC connectors, AMC modules on the vertical (or latitudinal) module edge may have contacts on a single side (basic) or on both sides (extended). For example, contacts 122 may be basic type contacts with contacts on one side of AMC module 120 or may be extended type contacts with contacts on both sides of AMC modules 120.
AMC modules 120 and 130 are depicted as single-width modules and AMC module 120 includes contacts 122. Module 140 is depicted as a double-width AMC module and includes contacts 142. As mentioned previously, the accurate and/or precise alignment of an AMC module's contacts to interfaces in an AMC connector is needed to avoid an impedance mismatch. For example, although AMC module 140 is double the width of single-width AMC modules 120 and 130, contacts 142 are coupled and received into only one AMC connector. This typically occurs in ATCA/AMC carrier board implementations where mechanical dimension tolerances may not allow for an acceptably accurate alignment of two sets of contacts on one double-width module. Thus, when AMC module 140 is coupled to carrier board 100 it is received and coupled through contacts 142 to only AMC connector 104D. Consequently, AMC connector 104C would not be utilized in the typical ATCA/AMC implementation depicted in
Flexible circuits 210 and 220 are depicted in
In an alternative embodiment, flexible circuits 220 and 230 may be partitioned into individual flexible circuit partitions. As a result, one or more partitions at flexible circuit portions 214 and 224 may couple to a given contact of a device received and coupled to mating portion 230 and one or more partitions at flexible circuit portions 218 and 228 may couple to a given contact of another device received and coupled to mating portion 240.
In one embodiment, a flexible circuit may include a plurality of flexible film circuits and/or coaxial cables. A flexible circuit partition may include one or more of these flexible film circuits and/or coaxial cables. Each flexible film circuit or coaxial cable may include, but is not limited to, a conductive material surrounded by an insulating material and/or a shielding material. The conductive material may couple the contacts of a device received and coupled to mating portion 230 to the contacts of a device received and coupled to mating portion 240. This conductive material may also provide the medium via which I/O signals, power, etc. are routed between the two devices.
In one embodiment, each partition of partitions 212A-I and 222A-I may be rotated and coupled to mating portion 230 to create a twist. This twist may increase the range of movement in which mating portion 230 may receive and couple to a device's contacts. For example the range of movement may be increased along all three axes of movement. A first axis may be up and down, a second axis may be forward and backwards and a third axis may be from left to right. In a three-dimensional rectangular coordinate system with x, y and z axes, up and down may correspond to the y axis, forward and backwards the x axis, and left to right the z axis, although the descriptions of range of movement are not limited in this regard.
As mentioned previously, in one embodiment, flexible circuits 210 and 220 may be partitioned near middle portions 216 and 226, respectively. Accordingly, twisted partition 212A may couple to interface 232 at flexible circuit end 214 and twisted partition 222A may couple to interface 234 at flexible circuit end 224. Additionally, flexible circuit ends 218 and 228 may couple to interfaces 242 and 244, respectively.
In one embodiment, stiffener 246 may facilitate a secure coupling of flexible circuit end 218 to interface 242 and to device 300's contacts 302. Stiffener 248 may facilitate a secure coupling of flexible circuit end 228 to interface 244 and to device 300's contacts 304.
In one embodiment, connector 200 may receive and couple an AMC module with extended contacts (contacts on both sides). For example, interface 232 may couple to partition 212A and may then receive and couple to a contact on one side of an AMC module. Interface 234 may couple to partition 222A and may then receive and couple partition 222A to a contact on the other side of the AMC module. Additionally, interfaces 242 and 244 may receive and couple one or more contacts on an ATCA/AMC carrier board to flexible circuit ends 218 and 228, respectively.
The twist in partitions 212A and 222A may increase a range of movement in which mating portion 230 can receive and couple the AMC module's contact. As described above, the range of movement enabled by the twist may be increased along three axes of movement. This increased range of movement may occur without a proportional increase in movement of partitions 212A and 222A where coupled to interfaces 232 and 234, respectively. As a result, the AMC module's contacts may more accurately couple to interfaces 232 and 234. This accurate coupling may occur even if mating portion 230 is moved along any of the three axes of movement to receive those module contacts.
The increased range of movement enabled by the twist may also occur without a proportional increase in movement of flexible circuit ends 218 and 228 where coupled to interfaces 242 and 244, respectively. The twist may also facilitate interfaces 242 and 244 maintaining an accurate coupling to contacts 302 and 304, respectively, even if mating portion 230 is moving to receive and couple to the module's contacts.
In one implementation, a twist is created by the rotation of a partition along the partition's longitudinal axis. For example, partition 212A may comprise a substantially flat flexible circuit with longitudinal axis 215A. In order to create a twist and yet facilitate a flush and/or secure coupling to interface 232, an end of partition 212A is rotated approximately 180 degrees along longitudinal axis 215A. This rotation occurs, for example, while flexible circuit end 218 is securely fastened to interface 242. Once rotated, the end of partition 212A may be coupled to interface 232 to maintain the shape of the twist.
A twist along a partition's longitudinal axis may be created at either end of a partition and is not limited only to a rotation of 180 degrees. The rotation may be greater or lesser than 180 degrees depending on such factors, for example, as the shape of the flexible circuit partition (e.g., flat) and the relative positioning of the two mating portions to each other (e.g., parallel or perpendicular).
In one embodiment, module 400 includes module contacts 402A and 402B. As shown in
In one embodiment, connecter 200 may be a connector on an ATCA carrier board to receive and couple the contacts on a rear transition module (not shown) to the interfaces in mating portion 230, although the connectors described herein are not limited to ATCA carrier board connectors that receive and couple to the contacts of rear transition modules and/or other modules.
In one embodiment, modules 500A-C are dual-width front accessible modules. Modules 500A-C may each include two sets of module contacts. For example, module 500A includes a first set of module contacts 502A and 502B and also includes a second set of module contacts 504A and 504B. As shown in
In one embodiment, opening 252A may be large enough to allow mating portion 230A to move within connector housing 250A to couple and receive module contacts 502A and 502B to interfaces 232A and 234A (not shown), respectively. The dimensions of opening 252A may be, for example, sufficient to compensate for mechanical tolerances permitted by the ATCA/AMC.0 specifications.
In one embodiment, module 500A may be designed to logically appear as a single module resident on carrier board 300. Even though module 500A is physically coupled to both connectors 200A and 200B, module 500A may be managed as a single module, for example, by control logic (not shown) responsive to carrier board 300. As a result, module 500A may utilize the contacts previously dedicated to enable the management of two modules. For example, contacts via which communications are routed may be reallocated to provide more contacts for I/O and/or other types of communications. Module 500A may also utilize the additional power that can be provided through two connectors as opposed to one connector.
Modular platform 600 is depicted in
In the previous descriptions, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the invention can be practiced without these specific details.
References made in the specification to the term “responsive to” are not limited to responsiveness to only a particular feature and/or structure. A feature may also be “responsive to” another feature and/or structure and also be located within or resident on that feature and/or structure. Additionally, the term “responsive to” may also be synonymous with other terms such as “communicatively coupled to” or “operatively coupled to”, although the term is not limited in this regard.
References made in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with that embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” appearing in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Likewise, the appearances of the phrase “in another embodiment,” or “in an alternate embodiment” appearing in various places throughout the specification are not all necessarily referring to the same embodiment.
While the invention has been described in terms of several embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described, but can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative of, rather than limiting the scope and coverage of the claims appended hereto.
