US3660803A

US3660803A - Electrical connectors

Info

Publication number: US3660803A
Application number: US864591A
Authority: US
Inventors: Frank E Cooney
Original assignee: NCR Corp
Current assignee: NCR Voyix Corp; National Cash Register Co
Priority date: 1969-10-08
Filing date: 1969-10-08
Publication date: 1972-05-02
Anticipated expiration: 1989-05-02

Abstract

A connector comprised of a body member formed with a longitudinal slot along the upper surface thereof for receiving a circuit card. A plurality of contact elements, arranged in sets of four, are disposed within the body member along the longitudinal slot. In each set of contact elements the upper portions of two of the elements are disposed to form a pair of adjacent coplanar contacts accessible on one side of the longitudinal slot, the upper portions of the other two of the elements are disposed to form an opposing pair of adjacent coplanar contacts accessible on the other side of the longitudinal slot, and the lower portions of the four elements are disposed so as to form four contacts accessible on the lower surface of the body member in openings formed therein so as to be aligned in a direction transverse to the longitudinal slot.

Description

I United States Patent 1 ,6 0,803 Cooney 1 May 2, 1972 [54] ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Inventor: Frank E. Cooney, Manhattan Beach Cam.- 885,040 l2/l96l Great Britain ..339/l76 MP [73] Assignee: The National Cash Register Company, Primary Examiner-Marvin A. Champion Dayton, Ohio Assistant E.\-aminerLawrence J. Staab [22] Filed: 0c. 8, 1969 Attorney-Louis A. Kline and Joseph R. Dwyer [2l] Appl. No.: 864,591 [57] ABSTRACT A connector comprised of a body member formed with a lon- [52] US. Cl ..339/ 176 MP, 339/17 LM gitudinal slot along the upper surface thereof for receiving a [5 1] Int. Cl. ..H05k 1/07 circuit card. A plurality of contact elements, arranged in sets Field Of Search 17 l7 L 7 of four, are disposed within the body member along the lon- 3 /l M. 7 M 176 M 1 2. 7 S gitudinal slot. in each set of contact elements the upper portions of two of the elements are disposed to form a pair of ad- References Cited jacent coplanar contacts accessible on one side of the longitudinal slot, the upper portions of the other two of the elements UNITED STATES PATENTS are disposed to form an opposing pair of adjacent coplanar 2,911,612 11/1959 Jackson et al. ..339/176 con cts ces i le n h her i of the l ng slot, 2,946,033 7/ I960 Wirth ....339/ l 7 and the lower portions of the four elements are disposed so as 3,l60,455 l2/l964 Mayon et al ....339/l7 to form four contacts accessible on the lower surface of the 3,188,598 6/ l 965 Pferd ..339/1 7 body member in openings formed therein so as to be aligned in WAY/[l2 a direction transverse to the longitudinal slot.

2 Claims, 1 1 Drawing Figures PATENTEDHAY 2 m2 3. 660, 8 O3 SHEET m 4 INVENTOR FRANK E. COONEY aY al ms ATNEYS PATENTEDMY 21972 3,660,803

SHEET 2 0F 4 INVENTOR FRANK E. COONEY lslm- 52m W mau- BY may J @Z. 7 153b 3 ms ARNEYS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to connectors for printed circuit cards and more particularly relates to adaptor type connectors which provide for connecting printed circuit cards to closely spaced contacts provided on associated equipment.

Since the widespread use of printed circuitry and modular electronic units, a wide variety of connectors have been provided for interconnecting printed circuit cards supporting electronic components electrically connected by thin conductor foil adherent to the printed circuit cards. The modular electronic units are essentially building blocks for electronic devices such as computers and other like devices. By interconnecting the modular units in a certain logical order a complete electronic system may be constructed. Since the modular units have a high packaging density, the printed circuit cards on which the modules are mounted must be packaged with a correspondingly high density in order to interconnect the modules efficiently and to provide power and ground potential to them. Furthermore, in order to achieve high circuit speeds on the order of l to 2 nanoseconds in a circuit made up largely or entirely of integrated or hybrid integrated circuit modules and associated components, there is a strong dependency not only in the speed of the module itself but even more so in the manner in which the modules are interconnected. Since electric signals travel approximately one foot in one nanosecond it is readily seen that the manner of interconnecting the modules to associated equipment contributes materially to the circuit speeds and indeed may be the limiting factor.

The features and advantages of the connectors of the present invention can be appreciated by discussing the problems encountered in providing connectors for electronic computer equipment such as a memory stack comprised of a plurality of memory planes, for example. In such equipment, the terminal pins provided in a row along the edge of each of the planes in the stack are so closely spaced that the adjacent positioning of typical single or dual readout connectors for mating with the terminal pins in-each row only allows printed circuit cards to be inserted into the connectors on the memory stack on .200 centers, for example, which is not sufficient for certain components to be assembled onto the circuit boards without interfering with the positioning of the adjacent circuit boards. Furthermore, when a plurality of the circuit boards are too closely positioned, in an assembly, it is difficult to direct cooling air through the assembly. Accordingly, in order to provide for connecting printed circuit cards to such equipment, intermediate card connectors are usually provided between headers connected to the tenninal pins in the memory stacks and the printed circuit cards to facilitate increased spacing of the circuit cards. Such an arrangement requires a plurality of intermediate card connectors, each provided with a set of terminal pins, to be soldered on each of the printed circuit cards in a position normal to the plane thereof. Each printed circuit card is then positioned so that one of its card connectors is plugged into each of the headers associated with the respective memory stacks. Additional intermediate card connectors are provided on each circuit card for connecting the card to input and output jumper boards. In order to replace a defective header or portion of a memory stack when using this arrangement it is necessary to remove all of the cards with their associated card connectors from the assembled memory stacks. This results in a time consuming and expensive procedure with regard to the maintenance and operation of the memory stack. Furthermore, since each printed circuit card is required to be connected by its intermediate card connectors into a plurality of headers associated with the plurality of memory stacks, the problem arises that the headers might be relatively misaligned thereby preventing the intermediate card connectors from being inserted into the headers and raising the probability of damage to the printed circuit card in the event it is forced into the headers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention relates specifically to circuit connectors which are adapted to connect closely spaced contacts of associated equipment to printed circuit cards having conductor foil on both sides of the cards thereby enabling the circuit cards to be inserted into adjacently positioned connectors with sufficient spacing between the card surfaces to permit modular components to be mounted thereon. The connector enables the printed circuit cards to be connected to closely spaced pins on the associated equipment without the use of intermediate card connectors. This improves maintenance and accessibility of the memory stack and of the circuit connector itself. For each printed circuit card, a single connector is utilizedwhich engages, for example, two memory stacks comprising eight memory planes each and an input and output jumper board. The printed circuit card engages the circuit connector without any misalignment problems since each card engages only one circuit connector which in turn engages several memory stacks.

More particularly, the circuit connector of the present invention comprises a body member provided with a longitudinal slot on the upper surface thereof in which a printed circuit card is inserted such that the upper portions of first and second opposing pairs of contacts provided on opposite sides of the longitudinal slot engage correspondingly positioned pairs of terminal tabs on either side of the card, while the lower portions of the first and second opposing pairs of contacts are linearly aligned in a direction transverse to the longitudinal slot for engagement with parallel rows of four terminal pins provided on each of the memory planes of the memory stack and each of the input and output interconnecting jumper boards. The inherent advantage of this method is that an assembly of adjacently positioned connectors are able to contact the terminals of the memory stack without the circuit cards inserted in the slots of the connectors being as closely spaced as required previously thus making it possible to provide more circuitry on the printed circuit card thereby allowing a higher packaging density and a faster data processing system performance.

These features as well as other features and advantages of the present invention are more specifically described in the following detailed description and drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of an electronic assembly utilizing the connectors of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing how the connector of the present invention provides for interconnecting a pluggable circuit card to an array of terminal pins provided in the assembly.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the connector of the present invention taken generally along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view looking up under the connector and showing a set of four contact elements positioned for assembly into openings provided in the body thereof;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the connector showing the contact elements assembled in the body thereof; 7

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a pair of the contact elements shown in FIG. 5 disposed with their contact surfaces in coplanar relationship;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of another embodiment of the connector of the present invention showing the contact elements assembled in the body thereof;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a pair of the contact elements shown in FIG. 7 disposed with their contact surfaces in coplanar relationship; 1

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of still another embodiment of the connector of the present invention showing the contact elements assembled in the body thereof;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a pair of the contact elements shown in FIG. 9 disposed with their contact surfaces in a coplanar relationship; and

sor section of a data processing system, for example. This section is shown to include a plurality of printed circuit cards such asprinted circuit card 11 with typical electronic components l4 and 17 mounted on the surface thereof. Further, card 1 1 has terminal tabs 13 printed on both sides of the lower edge thereof. A plurality of the circuit connectors 20 of the present invention are positioned side-by-side and securely held together on a mounting frame 53 by tie-rods 19 passing through openings 12 provided at spaced locations along the sides of the connectors. A laminated spacer 50 is used to insulate the connectors from the mounting frame. Each connector is formed of a body member 18 which is preferably moulded of a high impact plastic. A card 11 is inserted along a longitudinal slot 21 provided along the upper end of the body member 18 of each connector 20.

As shown in the assembly of FIG. 1, the lower end of the body member of each connector 20 engages two memory stacks 60 on an intermediate portion thereof and interconnecting

jumper boards

35 and 41 on the left and right portions thereof. The memory stacks 60 are mounted in the spacing between mounting frames 56. As shown, the planes of the memory stacks 60 and the

jumper boards

35 and 41 are disposed in a direction normal to the planes of the cards 11. Each of the memory stacks 60 is comprised of eight adjacently positioned memory planes 61 and each memory plane has a row of closely spaced terminal pins 63 on the upper end thereof. Connectors 20 are positioned over the memory stack terminal pins 63 and serve to make contact between terminal pins 63 and the electronic components 14 and 17 mounted on the printed circuit cards 1 1.

interconnecting jumper board 41 is used as a power entry point for the section of the data processing system that is shown in FIG. 1. This jumper board which is of printed circuit board construction has power busses 44 mounted on the bottom side thereof which are electrically connected to the rows of terminal pins 42 positioned on its upper side, as shown in FIG. 2. Terminals 47 (FIG. 1) are used to transfer the power from a data processing system power supply to the power busses 44 of the interconnecting jumper board 41 which in turn is connected through the terminal pins 42 shown in FIG. 2 to the contacts in slots 22 of connectors 20 which are disposed to receive the terminal tabs 13 on the edge of the printed circuit cards 11.

The interconnecting jumper board 35 is used as a signaltake-off board and is also of printed circuit board construction with rows of terminal pins.(not shown) on the upper side of the board which are connected by connectors 20 to the terminal tabs 13 provided on the lower edges of the printed circuit cards 11. Flat cable 26 terminates in flat cable connector 23 and represents the means by which the signal is taken out and routed through the remainder of the processor section of the data processing system. 'Flat cable 26 is positioned between cable guide 29 and mounting frame 53 by the use of insulating spacers 32.

Turning now to FIG. 2, the side edge of the printed circuit card 11 is guided by side slot 22 on the ends of the body member 18 of connector 20 such that the lower end of the circuit card 13 provided with the terminal tabs 13 can be inserted into longitudinal slot 21 formed along the upper surface of body member 18 of connector 20. When so positioned the lower end of the circuit card 11 engages the contact surfaces of the

looped ends

78 and 98 of the

contact elements

70 and 90 provided on the sides of slot 21.

Contact elements

70 and 90 are made from a highly conductive material which may typically be beryllium copper. Shown in position below the connector 20 is interconnecting jumper board 41 which has rows of terminal pins 42 extending upward therefrom. The jumper board 41 is mounted on the lower end of each connector, by a set of four of the pins 42 engaging four transversely aligned pin receiving portions comprised of two of the elements 70 and two of the elements 90 as will be more clearly explained in the ensuing description. Positioned below connector 20 adjacent interconnecting jumper board 41 is the associated electronic equipment such as the memory stacks 60 to which the printed circuit cards 11 are to be electrically connected by way of the connector of the present invention. In FIG. 2, three of the memory planes 6] of one of the memory stacks 60 is shown with their rows of terminal pins 63 extending upwards therefrom. The rows are disposed such that four of the pins in each of the rows can be inserted into four of the aligned pin receiving portions of contact elements 70 and provided in each of the transverse rows of openings along the bottom side of each of the connectors 20.

In FIG. 3 there is shown a sectional view of the connector 20 and contact elements taken generally along line 3-3 of FIG. 2. The looped ends 78 and 98 of

contact elements

70 and 90 are shown but only the pin receiving portions 70b of the contact elements 70 are shown since they are positioned within the inner openings 66 provided in the body member 18 of connector 20 adjacent to the plane of longitudinal slot 21. Thus, interconnecting jumper board 41 is shown in FIG. 3 with terminal pins 42 extending upward therefrom and engaging the pin receiving portions 70!: of the contact elements 70. Likewise, the memory planes 61 of memory stacks 60 are shown with their memory stack terminal pins 63 extending upward into the pin receiving portions 70b of contact elements 70.

The pin receiving portion 70b of contact element 70' engages memory stack pin 63 in the following manner. Pin centering

tabs

71 and 72 are utilized such that memory stack terminal pin 63 properly engages contact element 70 and prevents any wobble of the terminal pin 63 in the contact element 70.

Spring fingers

73 and 74 are resiliently biased such that when terminal pin 63 is pushed up between them a good electrical contact is made. Tongue-like spring portion 75, which may also be provided on the front side of pin 63 as well as the back side shown, is used in the dual function of a centering element, as are tabs .71 and 72, and also of a pin contacting element, as are

spring fingers

73 and 74. An alignment guide extension 76, as shown in FIG. 4 is used to position and maintain the contact element 70 within opening 66 extending into the body of the connector 20 from the bottom thereof. The circuit card engaging portion 70a of contact element 70 is narrower than its pin receiving portion 70b and has a straight ex tension 77 which extends upward from the pin receiving portion 70b on one side of the element. Extension 77 tenninates in a looped end 78, more clearly shown in FIG. 6, which provides a resilient connection between the contact element 70 and the circuit card 11.

In FIG. 4 connector 20 is shown with a pair of contact elements 70 and a pair of contact elements 90 of the present invention disposed with their base areas or pin receiving

portions

70b and 90b aligned for insertion into inner openings 66 and outer openings 69 provided on the bottom of connector strip 20. It should be noted that pin receiving portions 90b are located in the outer positions on either side of the pin receiving portions 701). The upper portions of the four contact elements extend upwards to form opposing rows of spaced contacts which extend in a direction perpendicular to the aligned .base direction. The upper portions or

card engaging portions

70a and 90a of two of the

contact elements

70 and 90 engage one side of the printed circuit card 11 shown in FIG. 1 and the

card engaging portions

70a and 90a of the other two of the

contact elements

70 and 90 engage the other side of the printed circuit card 11. It should now be evident that by the arrangement of the present invention a large number of contact elements can be provided in a very small area in the connector 20.

Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown a sectional end view of connector 20 wherein contact elements 70 are mounted in the inner openings 66 and contact elements 90 are mounted in the outer openings 69 provided on the bottom of the body member 18 of connector 20 such that the base portions of the contact elements are aligned in one direction. The upper portions of the

contact elements

70 and 90 are arranged on either side of the longitudinal slot 21 which extends in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement of the base portions and it can be seen that printed circuit card 11 inserted in slot 21 between the rows of contact elements resides in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the base portions of the contact elements.

FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of a pair of the contact elements shown in FIG. 5, as they are positioned in the body member 18 of connector 20 with their circuit

card engaging portions

70a and 90a aligned in a coplanar relationship. The contact element 70 has previously been described in connection with FIGS. 3 and 4. In the pin receiving portion 90b of angular contact element 90,

pin centering tabs

91 and 92 serve to center the terminal pins of the interconnecting jumper board or memory frame that is being presented to the contact elements. These tabs allow the terminal pins to properly engage the contact element 90 and to prevent any wobble of the conductor pins in the contact element 90.

Spring fingers

93 and 94 are resiliently biased such that when the respective conductor pin is pushed up between them a good electrical contact is made. Tongue-like spring portion 95 is used in the dual function of a centering element as are

tabs

91 and 92 and also of a pin engaging element as are

spring finger

93 and 94.

An alignment guide extension 96 is used to position and maintain the contact element 90 within the opening 69 of the connector strip 20 as shown in FIG. 5. The circuit card engaging portion 900 of contact element 90 has an angular extension 97 which is narrower than its pin receiving portion 90b and extends upward from portion 90b on the side of the element opposite to the side from portion 70a on element 70. Extension 97 terminates in a looped end 98 which provides a resilient connection between the contact element 90 and circuit card 11. This looped end 98 is a resilient part of the circuit card engaging portion 901: of contact element 90 that is folded over and is so formed and stressed that when a card is inserted into the connector strip 20 it bears against the card with considerable mechanical pressure to provide for good electrical contact.

As previously discussed,

contact elements

70 and 90 are inserted into the respective bottom inner openings 66 and outer openings 69 of the body member 18. Since contact element 70 is provided with a straight extension 77 for its looped end 78, it is readily inserted into the opening 66 provided on either side of central separator provided in the body member of the connector. However, since contact element 90 is provided with an angular extension 97 for its looped end 98, a transverse clearance opening 690 is provided into the body member of connector 20 with a tapered surface 69b so located within body member 18, as shown in FIG. 4, that it provides a support for angular extension 97 when contact element 90 is fitted in position within the body member with its card engaging portion 90 a adjacent to and in a coplanar relationship with the card engaging portion 700 of contact element 70. The contact elements are maintained in frictional engagement within their respective openings by means of their

alignment guide extensions

76 and 96, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The pressure exerted by the

contact elements

70 and 90 against the terminal tabs 13 of the printed circuit card 1 l as shown in FIG. 3 is quite critical to the effect of the electrical connection established therebetween. Because of this fact, the

contact elements

70 and 90 are so configured that they uniformly exert high mechanical pressure upon the printed circuit card terminal tabs 13. In order for the

contact elements

70 and 90 to apply uniform pressure against the terminal tabs 13, it is necessary that they not be overstressed. If the

contact elements

70 and 90 are overstressed, they will not only exert a different amount of pressure upon the terminal tabs 13, each time a circuit card 1 1 is inserted, but after several insertions of the circuit card 11, it is highly possible that the contact elements 70 and would fail to establish an adequate electrical connection with the terminal tab 13. The possibility of overstressing the contact elements is quite high in instances where pressure is immediately placed upon the contact elements when inserting the circuit card. Accordingly, the upper edges of the longitudinal slot 21 in the connector 20 extend above the contact elements for initially receiving the inserted circuit card, thus aiding in preventing overstressing of the

contact elements

70 and 90. The thickness of the terminal tabs 13 on the sides of the printed circuit card is controlled such that when the circuit card is positioned in the longitudinal slot 21 the card engaging portions of the contact elements will be urged outwardly a controlled amount which does not overstress the contact elements.

Furthermore, the inner openings 66 and outer openings 69 in the bottom of the connector 20 are accurately located and formed so as to properly position the

pin receiving portions

70b and 90b of

contact elements

70 and 90 for engagement with the terminal pins of the memory stack and the interconnecting jumper boards.

In FIG. 7 there is shown an end view of connector 20 in another embodiment in accordance with the present invention. The body member of connector 20 is also typically made of a high impact plastic and is formed in two parts. The bottom part 25 is moulded first and

openings

101 and 103 are formed so as to receive a set of four contact elements including two of contact elements and two of contact elements 120. These contact elements are inserted into the bottom half of the connector with their base portions aligned similar to the connector described in connection with FIG. 5, and the top half 24 is then typically secured to the bottom part 25 by means of a suitable adhesive or by ultrasonic welding. Contact

elements

110 and 120, which are more clearly shown in FIG. 8, each have pin contact portions l10b and 12% comprised of bowed structures 1 12 and 122 providing a spring connection between the terminal pins of either the interconnecting jumper board or the memory plane and the contact element itself. The circuit card engaging portions 110a and 1200 of the contact elements 110 and that engage the printed circuit card 11 are arcuate shaped

portions

114 and 124 which provide a springlike engagement between the

contact element

110 and 120 and the printed circuit card 11. These arcuate shaped

portions

114 and 124 are extensions from the terminal pin receiving portions 11% and 12% of the

contact elements

110 and 120 and are angularly bent soas to be properly aligned to engage the printed circuit card 11. Due to positioning requirements, arcuate portion 114 has a greater angle than the corresponding portion 124 of the contact element 120. This results from the requirement that the pin receiving portions be aligned in one direction and the card engaging portions be aligned in a perpendicular direction. The portions of the

contact elements

110 and 120 that engage the printed circuit card 11 are

areas

116 and 126.

In FIG. 9 there is shown an end view of still another embodiment in accordance with the present invention wherein a connector 20" is shown with pairs of contact elements and positioned in aligned openings 151F and 153 provided in the body of the invention. These contact elements which are more clearly shown in FIG. 10 are inserted into the connector 20" from the top, and upon insertion,

tab members

132 and 142 are bent over onto the bottom surface of the connector to hold the contact elements in place. This insures a good frictional relationship between the contact elements and the connector 20 and restrains their movements in the connector. Each of the

contact elements

130 and 140 has a pin receiving portion l30b and 14% which have bowed

portions

134 and 144 of an hour glass shape to act as a terminal pin contact and also to serve as an anti-wobble arrangement such that the terminal pins are not movable when inserted into the respective contact elements. The printed circuit card 11 engages the

contact elements

130 and 140 at

card engaging portions

130a and 140a which are generally N-shaped and provide a spring-like engagement between the contact elements and the circuit card 11.

Legs

137 and 147 of the N-shaped portions extend upward from the pin receiving portions and connect to

resilient areas

138 and 148. The angle formed by leg 137 and resilient areas 138 is greater than the angle formed byJeg 147 and resilient area 148 in order that the pin receiving portions 1301: and 14% of the elements are aligned in one direction and the

card engaging portions

130a and 140a are aligned in a perpendicular direction. The portions of the N-shaped card engaging areas that engage the printed circuit card 11 are

areas

139 and 149. FIG. ll illustrates a modification to the contact element shown in FIG. in that it provides pin terminals 151m and 152m on the lower portion 153b and l54b thereof in place of the pin receiving portions. The

card engaging portions

130a and 140a of the contact elements are the same as those shown in the embodiment of FIG. 11. Cleats 155 are provided on each of the pin terminals 151 and 152 to securely hold the terminals in the openings provided in the body of the connector. With this modification in the lower portion of the contact elements, the connector 20" is able to mate with associated equipment provided with rows of pin receiving contacts.

It is understood that various other omissions, substitutions and changes in the form and details of the systems illustrated and in their operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A connector for establishing a connection between a circuit card and rows of terminals on associated equipment disposed in a direction normal to the plane of said circuit card, said connector comprising: a body member having a top portion and a bottom portion, said body member provided with a longitudinal slot along the top portion thereof and a plurality of transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion thereof, said transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion thereof having in each row a set of two outer contacts and a set of two inner contacts, a plurality of contact elements, said contact elements each having an upper portion and a lower portion, the upper portions of a first group of said contact elements forming longitudinally adjacent coplanar contacts on one side of said longitudinal slot, and the upper portions of a second group of said contact elements forming an opposing pair of longitudinally adjacent coplanar contacts on the other side of said slot, and the lower portions of each of the contact elements of said first and second groups of contact elements are positioned in one of a plurality of transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion of said body member, said contact elements in said body member being so arranged such that the upper portions of said first group of saidcontact elements on one side of said longitudinal slot forms a group of two which confronts the upper portions of said second group of said contact elements so as to form an upper set of four adjacent contacts and arranged such that this upper contact configuration is transformed at the lower portion of the said contact elements into a row of aligned contacts which are situated in a row perpendicular to the longitudinal slot, and further arranged wherein for each row of aligned contacts the two lower outer contacts are connected to upper portions which are on opposite sides of the longitudinal slot and the two lower inner contacts are connected to upper portions of said contacts which are located on opposite sides of said longitudinal slot.

2. A connector for establishing a connection between a circuit card and rows of terminals on associated equipment disposed in a direction normal to the plane of said circuit card, said connector comprising: a body memberhaving a top portion and a bottom portion, said body member provided with a longitudinal slot along the top portion thereof and a plurality of transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion thereof, a plurality of contact elements, said contact elements each having an upper portion and a lower portion, the upper portions of a first group of said contact elements forming adjacent coplanar contacts on one side of said longitudinal slot, and the upper portions of a second group of said contact elements forming an opposing pair of adjacent coplanar contacts on the other side of said slot, and the lower portions of each of the contact elements of said first and said second groups of contact elements positioned in the openings comprising one of the transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion of said body member;

wherein each transverse row of openings on the bottom portion of said body member comprises four openings, wherein said contact elements are disposed within said body member such that the upper portions of a first pair of said contact elements form adjacent coplanar contacts on one side of said longitudinal slot, and the upper portions of a second pair of said contact elements form an opposing pair of adjacent coplanar contacts on the other side of said slot, and wherein the lower portions of each of the contact elements of said first and second pair of contact elements are positioned in the four openings comprising one of the transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion of said body member; wherein the top and bottom portions of said body member are separately moulded and secured together after the contact elements are disposed therein; wherein the lower portions of each of the contact elements connected to one of the coplanar contacts on either side of the slot form inner positional contacts on said row and wherein the lower portions of each of the contact elements connected to the other one of the coplanar contacts on either side of the slot form outer positional contacts on said row; wherein at least two of the lower portions of said contact elements positioned in said transverse row of four openings are connected by angular extensions to their respective coplanar contacts formed on the upper portions of said contact elements; wherein the inner two openings of said transverse row of four openings are provided with side clearance openings to enable angular extensions on contact elements having their lower portions in the outer two openings to be inserted into the body member.

1 l II

Claims

1. A connector for establishing a connection between a circuit card and rows of terminals on associated equipment disposed in a direction normal to the plane of said circuit card, said connector comprising: a body member having a top portion and a bottom portion, said body member provided with a longitudinal slot along the top portion thereof and a plurality of transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion thereof, said transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion thereof having in each row a set of two outer contacts and a set of two inner contacts, a plurality of contact elements, said contact elements each having an upper portion and a lower portion, the upper portions of a first group of said contact elements forming longitudinally adjacent coplanar contacts on one side of said longitudinal slot, and the upper portions of a second group of said contact elements forming an opposing pair of longitudinally adjacent coplanar contacts on the other side of said slot, and the lower portions of each of the contact elements of said first and second groups of contact elements are positioned in one of a plurality of transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion of said body member, said contact elements in said body member being so arranged such that the upper portions of said first group of said contact elements on one side of said longitudinal slot forms a group of two which confronts the upper portions of said second group of said contact elements so as to form an upper set of four adjacent contacts and arranged such that this upper contact configuration is transformed at the lower portion of the said contact elements into a row of aligned contacts which are situated in a row perpendicular to the longitudinal slot, and further arranged wherein for each row of aligned contacts the two lower outer contacts are connected to upper portions which are on opposite sides of the longitudinal slot and the two lower inner contacts are connected to upper portions of said contacts which are located on opposite sides of said longitudinal slot.

2. A connector for establishing a connection between a circuit card and rows of terminals on associated equipment disposed in a direction normal to the plane of said circuit card, said connector comprising: a body member having a top portion and a bottom portion, said body member provided with a longitudinal slot along the top portion thereof and a plurality of transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion thereof, a plurality of contact elements, said contact elements each having an upper portion and a lower portion, the upper portions of a first group of said contact elements forming adjacent coplanar contacts on one side of said longitudinal slot, and the upper portions of a second group of said contact elements forming an opposing pair of adjacent coplanar contacts on the other side of said slot, and the lower portions of each of the contact elements of said first and said second groups of contact elements positioned in the openings comprising one of the transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion of said body member; wherein each transverse row of openings on the bottom portion of said body member comprises four openings, wherein said contact elements are disposed within said body member such that the upper portions of a first pair of said contact elements form adjacent coplanar contacts on one side of said longitudinal slot, and the upper portions of a second pair of saiD contact elements form an opposing pair of adjacent coplanar contacts on the other side of said slot, and wherein the lower portions of each of the contact elements of said first and second pair of contact elements are positioned in the four openings comprising one of the transverse rows of openings on the bottom portion of said body member; wherein the top and bottom portions of said body member are separately moulded and secured together after the contact elements are disposed therein; wherein the lower portions of each of the contact elements connected to one of the coplanar contacts on either side of the slot form inner positional contacts on said row and wherein the lower portions of each of the contact elements connected to the other one of the coplanar contacts on either side of the slot form outer positional contacts on said row; wherein at least two of the lower portions of said contact elements positioned in said transverse row of four openings are connected by angular extensions to their respective coplanar contacts formed on the upper portions of said contact elements; wherein the inner two openings of said transverse row of four openings are provided with side clearance openings to enable angular extensions on contact elements having their lower portions in the outer two openings to be inserted into the body member.