Patent Application
20230135341
Printed circuit boards may have card slots to receive cards enabling functionality, such as wireless capabilities, and the like. The printed circuit boards may therefore have components to receive and retain the cards.
Sometimes, cards for printed circuit boards may have different sizes. For example, 4G and 5G wireless wide area network cards have different lengths. Accordingly, printed circuit boards with fixed components would have different versions of the board to each accept one of the 4G and 5G cards, creating difficulties in managing inventory. To accommodate this, some printed circuit boards may have different sized brackets which may be attached, however this still increases the number of components to be manufactured and tracked, and the brackets may be easily lost. Other solutions involve rotatable or slidable components to accommodate cards of different sizes. However, such solutions rely on the ability of the components to easily move between different positions, and hence may not retain the card in the proper position.
An example printed circuit board has a support bracket which can be installed in multiple orientations to change the length of the card slot for the printed circuit board. In particular, the support bracket has a retaining portion closer to one end of the support bracket so that when the support bracket is oriented in a first orientation, the retaining portion is closer to a fixed portion, such as a connector, a card slot or the like, on the printed circuit board, and when the support bracket is oriented in a second orientation, the retaining portion is further from the fixed portion of the printed circuit board. The retaining portion and the fixed portion define the card slot, and hence the card slot can receive cards of different lengths depending on the orientation of the support bracket. The support bracket and printed circuit board may also have corresponding alignment structures to restrict the movement of the support bracket from the selected orientation.
Together, the support bracket 102 and the fixed portion 104 define a card slot 106 to receive a card on the PCB 100. For example, the card slot 106 may be to receive a wireless wide area network card (WWAN), to enable wireless communications at a computing device in which the PCB 100 is deployed. In particular, the fixed portion 104 defines a first end of the card slot 106 and the support bracket 102 defines a second end of the card slot 106.
The fixed portion 104 may be a card connector and include an opening, including pins, connectors, and the like, to form an electrical connection with the card received in the card slot 106.
The support bracket 102 includes a retaining portion 108 to retain the card in the card slot 106. For example, the retaining portion 108 may be generally cylindrical shaped to mate with a corresponding half-moon shaped recession on the card received in the card slot 106. The mating of the retaining portion 108 and the card may thus serve to retain the card in the card slot 106. Accordingly, the retaining portion 108 of the support bracket 102 defines the second end of the card slot 106.
The support bracket 102 may be installed on the PCB 100 in one of two orientations, as depicted in
As can be seen, in each orientation of the support bracket 102, the card slot 106 may be defined with different lengths, based on the distance of the retaining portion 108 from the fixed portion 104. Accordingly, the PCB 100 may be configured to have a card slot 106 which accepts cards of different lengths. For example, the if the card is a WWAN card, the support bracket 102 may be configured such that in the first orientation, the card slot 106 accepts a 4G WWAN card, having a length of 38 mm, and in the second orientation, the card slot 106 accepts a 5G WWAN card, having a length of 48 mm. In other examples, the card may be a storage drive, such as an M.2 storage drive, having different lengths for different lengths for different storage quantities. Further, both cards or drives may be accepted on the same PCB 100 without acquiring a new PCB when, for example, a user wants to upgrade from 4G wireless communications to 5G wireless communications, or from one storage drive to a higher capacity storage drive.
The base 200 has a first end 206-1 and a second end 206-2 and is generally to support the components of the support bracket 102. In particular, the retaining portion 108 is supported on the base at or proximate the first end 206-1 to allow the retaining portion 108 to have a varying position relative to the fixed portion 104 based on the orientation of the support bracket 102, as will be described in further detail below.
The bracket alignment structure 202 is at the second end 206-2 of the base 200 and cooperates with a board alignment structure (not shown) on the PCB 100, to together form an alignment structure to align the support bracket 102 in one of the first orientation and the second orientation. In the present example, the bracket alignment structure 202 includes guide pins 208-1 and 208-2 extending from the base 200 of the support bracket 102. In particular, the first guide pin 208-1 extends from a first side of the base 200 in a direction opposite the retaining portion 108, proximate the second end 206-1, and the second guide pin 208-2 extends from a second side of the base 200 in a direction opposite the retaining portion 108, proximate the second end 206-1. The guide pins 208-1, 208-2 are to be received in corresponding guide holes of the PCB 100 to align the support bracket 102 on the PCB 100.
For example,
In the present example, the board alignment structure 300 includes guide holes 304-1 and 304-2 in the PCB 100. The guide holes 304-1 , 304-2 are to receive the guide pins 208-1, 208-2 to align the support bracket 102 on the PCB 100. More generally, the board alignment structure 300 and the bracket alignment structure 202 cooperate with one another to form an alignment structure to align the support bracket 102 on the PCB 100.
Further, the board alignment structure 300 and the bracket alignment structure 202 may be configured such that the same structures may be used to align the support bracket 102 in both the first orientation and the second orientation.
For example, the first guide hole 304-1 is to receive the first guide pin 208-2 and the second guide hole 304-2 is to receive the second guide pin 208-2 when the support bracket 102 is oriented in the first orientation, as can be seen in
As can be seen in
As can be seen, the board alignment structure 300 is fixed relative to the fixed portion 104. Further, the spatial arrangement of the retaining portion 108 and the bracket alignment structure 202 at opposing ends 206-1 and 206-2 of the support bracket 102 allows the retaining portion 108 to be located in different positions relative to the fixed portion 104, thereby defining different lengths of the card slot 106. In particular, in the first orientation, the retaining portion 108 is positioned on a first side of the board alignment structure 300, proximate the fixed portion 104. In the second orientation, the retaining portion 108 is positioned on a second side of the board alignment structure 300, distal from the fixed portion 104.
Returning again to
In some examples, the attachment structure 204 may additionally or alternately include double-sided tape to secure the support bracket 102 to the PCB 100. In particular, the double-sided tape may be applied to the surface of the support bracket 102 which contacts the PCB 100. The double-sided tape may additionally assist in maintaining proper alignment of the support bracket 102 in either the first orientation or the second orientation and restricting any additional rotation or sliding of the support bracket.
Referring to
The support bracket 102 may therefore further include a nut step 404 to elevate the retaining portion 108, such that the card 402 is elevated above the screw 400 when the support bracket 102 is aligned in the second orientation. That is, the card 402 rests on the nut step 404 when retained by the retaining portion 108, and the nut step 404 has a sufficient height to elevate the card 402 above the screw 400.
The PCB 502 includes a card slot to receive a card on the PCB 502. The computing device 500 further includes a support bracket 504 to be installed on the PCB 502 to define the card slot. The support bracket 504 is orientable in a first orientation to define a first length of the card slot, or a second orientation opposite the first orientation to define a second length of the card slot. For example, the PCB 502 may be similar to the PCB 100, and the support bracket 504 may be similar to the support bracket 102.
The card slot may therefore receive a first card of a first length when the support bracket 504 is oriented in the first orientation. The card slot may alternately receive a second card of a second length when the support bracket is oriented in the second orientation. For example, the first card may be a first type of WWAN card, such as a 4G WWAN card, having a length of 38 mm. The second card may be a second type of WWAN card, such as a 5G WWAN card, having a length of 48 mm.
Thus, in order to switch between a 4G and a 5G WWAN card, users need not acquire a new computing device 500 or even a new PCB 502. Rather, the support bracket 504 may be changed from the first orientation to the second orientation (or vice versa) to allow the computing device 500 to accept and read the new card.
As described above, an example printed circuit board may have a support bracket which can be oriented in multiple orientations to define differing lengths of a card slot. The PCB may therefore use the same components (i.e., the board itself and the support bracket in one of the selected orientations) to receive cards of differing lengths. Further, the PCB and support bracket may have alignment and attachment structures to maintain the selected orientation of the support bracket, and to affix the support bracket to the PCB.
The scope of the claims should not be limited by the above examples, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.
