Backplane-Daughter Board Connector

The invention relates to a connector for connecting a daughter printed circuit board having an internal ground plane layer to a backplane.

Backplanes are printed circuit boards or metal plates on the upper sides of which daughter boards are detachably mounted perpendicular to the backplanes for easy removal. One way of electrically connecting a daughter board to another daughter board, the backplane, and other circuitry is by a two-piece multiple contact connector consisting of a backplane connector element that is attached to the backplane and a mating daughter board connector element that is attached to the daughter board and fits between upwardly extending sidewalls of the backplane connector element. When the two elements are joined, the plurality of rows of post contacts directed upwardly between the sidewalls of the backplane connector element are connected to a plurality of corresponding downwardly directed forked contacts of the daughter board connector element.

In High Density Plus backplane-daughter board connectors manufactured by Teradyne Connection Systems, Inc., additional flat ground contacts are carried by the wall of the daughter board connector element and are contacted by discrete upwardly directed contact portions of ground contacts carried by the facing wall of the backplane connector element. Projections of the flat ground contacts and the ends of the forked contacts are secured in rows of holes that pass through the daughter board.

Some daughter boards have internal ground plane layers precisely spaced from the signal lines on their surfaces in order to have controlled impedance (to reduce signal reflection caused by changes in impedance) and reduced inductance in the ground path during high-speed switching. The internal ground plane layers have been electrically connected to backplanes through plural mating pairs of forked contacts and post contacts, and also through the flat ground contacts of the High Density Plus connectors.

We have discovered that an internal ground plane layer of a daughter board can be electrically connected to a backplane by using a ground contact that extends along the bottom of the daughter board, overlaps a plurality of signal contacts and directly contacts an aligned upstanding elongated bus bar mounted on the backplane, to provide reduced impedance changes (and thus reduced reflection) and reduced inductance in the ground path in the connector as well as the daughter board.

In preferred embodiments the ground contact is electrically connected to the internal ground plane layer by a conductor printed on the surface of the daughter board along its bottom; there are signal contacts connected to and extending down from both sides of the daughter board, and the ground contact passes between the signal contacts on both sides, eliminating crosstalk between the contacts on opposite sides of the board; there are two internal ground plane layers and two ground contacts on the connector element; and the ground contact has a curved contacting portion at its lower end for engaging the bus bar on the backplane.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment of the invention and from the claims.

The drawings will be briefly described first.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view showing a connector for connecting a daughter printed circuit board to a backplane according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic vertical sectional view, taken at 2--2 of FIG. 1, of the FIG. 1 connector.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown two-piece daughter board-backplane connector 10 including daughter board connector element 12 and backplane connector element 14. Daughter board connector element 12 is connected to multilayer impedance controlled daughter board 15 including two internal ground plane layers 16 and signal lines 18 and signal pads 20 on both of its surfaces. Two rows of signal contacts 22 on each side of daughter board 15 are soldered at their upper ends to signal pads 20 and have forked lower ends within rectangular cross-section passages 24 of plastic members 26. Alternate contacts 22 are bent so as to be divided into two rows of equal length contacts.

Ground contacts 30 (phosphor bronze, spring stock) are mounted between plastic members 26, are spaced by plastic spacer 32, and have gold plating on their curved contacting surfaces 34 that contact elongated bus bar 36 (0.025" thick phosphor bronze, gold plated) of backplane connector 14. Ground contacts 30 overlap a plurality of adjacent signal contacts. Upper portions 38 of ground contacts 30 are electrically connected to conductors 39 printed on both surfaces of daughter board 15 along its bottom. Printed conductors 39 are in turn electrically connected to internal grond plane layers 16 by plated-through via holes 41 (about 0.020" in diameter). As internal ground plane layers 16 are located at a very short distance from the surfaces, the effect of conduction through the via holes on the electrical performance is very small. Plastic members 26 are held together by aluminum stiffeners 40, which are connected together by bolts 42. Post contacts 28 (0.025" square) mate with corresponding forked contacts 22 and have portions underneath insulating members 43 that directly make electrical contact with the backplane (not shown) underneath it. Bus bars 36 similarly have portions extending underneath them that directly make electrical contact with the backplane.

In operation, daughter board connector element 12 and backplane connector element 14 are mated, ground contacts 30 making electrical contact with bus bars 36, and forked signal contacts 22 making electrical contact with associated post contacts 28. Ground contacts 30 and bus bars 36 in effect continue the internal ground plane layers 16, providing reduced inductance in the ground path, owing to large area and short distance of the ground path, through the connector and reduced changes in impedance, thereby reducing signal reflection caused by impedance changes. Ground contact 30 and bus bar 36 also act as a shield between the signal contacts on the two sides of daughter board 15, eliminating crosstalk from one side of the connector to the other. The invention is particularly advantageous in high-speed circuitry applications where the rise times are in the nanosecond or sub-nanosecond range.

Other embodiments of the invention are within the scope of the following claims. For example, aluminum stiffeners 40 need not be used, and plastic members 26 and spacer 32 could be provided as part of an integral component. Also, instead of a single bus bar 36, there could be two spaced bus bars on two metal layers separated by an insulating layer, permitting the bus bars or layers to carry different voltages; the term "bus bar" herein encompasses both bars 36 and metal layers just mentioned.