A CONNECTOR PLUG

Abstract: A connector plug for insertion into a socket at a time when the plug or the socket is electrically live, comprises a conductive guide pin (11) having an outboard portion provided with a resistive coating (13) insulated (by 15) from the pin in order to impede surge currents in a circuit path which includes the pin when it is inserted into a mating socket. The outer end of the resistive coating can have a higher resistance than the remainder of the resistive coating in order to impede the occurrence of arcing when the plug is inserted into the socket.

Description: The invention relates to a connector plug and a circuit board having a connector plug formed or mounted thereon. One of the problems associated with connector assemblies, particularly those for attaching circuit cards to circuit boards, relates to the insertion or removal of the circuit cards to or from a circuit board connector without removing power from the system. Such problems include both power and logic circuitry problems such as current surges, arcing transients and high-frequency noise during connection/disconnection of the connector assemblies. It is essential that means be provided whereby individual connector elements can be coupled or uncoupled without interfering with the normal operation of the associated system. This problem of connector coupling or decoupling to or from an active circuit or power source is known in the art as the "hot plug" problem. One solution of the "hot plug" problem involves logic generation of a ramp-up voltage in a card initiated by a long pin on the card which makes gradual contact with its mating socket before the remaining card pins make contact. The ramp-up voltage slowly charges the card capacitors. This technique, however, requires complex logic and timing circuitry and manual dexterity in inserting the card at the correct speed. U.S. -A- 4,079,440 discloses a printed circuit board having at least two connector plugs for power supply, one longer than the other. The mating connector plugs are connected to each other through an impedance element whereby, during insertion of the board to a power line, the longer connector plug makes initial contact with the power line before the shorter one; during withdrawal of the board from the line, the longer connector plug breaks contact with the line later than the shorter one. The invention seeks to provide a simpler solution to the "hot plug" problem. A connector plug for insertion into a socket at a time when the plug or the socket is electrically live, according to the invention, comprises a conductive guide pin having an outboard portion characterised in that the outboard portion is provided with a resistive coating insulated from the pin in order to impede surge currents in a circuit path which includes the pin when it is inserted into a mating socket. How the invention can be carried out will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a simplified illustration of a single taper (ie single resistance) resistive contact pin; Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a simplified illustration of a dual taper (ie two resistances) resistive contact pin; and Fig. 4 is a graph of time vs. current and power for the embodiments of Figs. 1 and 3. Before a detailed description is given of embodiments of the invention, the environment and problems associated with "hot plug" connectability will be briefly described. The "hot plug" problem previously described occurs when, for example, a printed circuit card is plugged into a powered or live circuit board. The first problem is a current surge in the card as the board attempts to charge the decoupling capacitors in the circuit card. A second problem is arcing at the individual pin connections, producing a high frequency noise which is widely distributed throughout the system including the signal lines, resulting in errors being introduced into the system. Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate in schematic form a resistive pin for incorporation in a plug (not shown) embodying the invention. The resistive pin also functions as a guide pin and includes a pin 11 made of conductive material such as copper, precious metal plated copper or preferably copper-clad Invar®. An outer layer of resistive material 13 is insulated from the conductive surface of pin 11 by an insulating layer 15, the preferred insulator comprising glass ceramic. The resistive and insulator layers 13 and 15 terminate a little way before the inner end of the pin, permitting the low resistance end of pin 11 to make final contact during pin insertion. In practice, pin 11 would be formed in or mounted on a circuit board designed for attachment to a circuit card. Since one pin is required for each voltage plane, the simplest configuration would require a minimum of two pins for the two voltage planes, although only one of the pins need be resistive. The voltage planes might comprise, for example, a +5 volt and ground plane levels respectively. In practice, these pins are longer than the standard I/O connector pins of the card, and function as guide pins for the circuit card assembly. The resistive pin should have a low overall resistance to charge the card capacitors over its insertion length without generating excessive low-frequency noise on the associated power bus (not shown). As previously described, one of the problems associated with "hot plug" technology is current surge as the the power bus attempts to charge the decoupling capacitors across the card planes when a circuit card is inserted into a "hot" circuit board. Since only a low resistance pin is required to prevent current surge, as described above, the resistance of the pin can vary about a nominal value of 2 ohms. Such a resistance layer can be provided by precious metal thick-films. The preferred embodiment of the invention utilises thick-film paladium gold for the two ohm coating. The card capacitors are thus slowly charged as the pin is inserted, while the low ohmic connection when the pin is fully inserted permits complete charging of the capacitors. A separate function which may be provided by the long resistive guide pin is to degate the logic and turn off the drivers before the remaining connector pins make contact with the circuit board. After the card is seated, the logic can be turned on by means of a conventional I/O pin. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the length of the resistive guide pin is between 2.5 and 3.8 cm (1 and 1 1/2 inches) compared with a conventional connector pin length of 5 to 7.5 mm (0.2 to 0.3 inches). The diameter of the resistive pin is not critical and may or may not correspond to the diameter of the I/O pins. While the low ohmic resistance of the pin limits the current surge during connection of the card to the board, it does not solve the problem of high frequency noise radiated throughout the card and board resulting from arcing of the pin during insertion. It was determined that a range of resistance between 60 and 100 ohms would be required to eliminate this condition. However, such resistance values would be too high to permit properly charging the card capacitors and would not solve the current surge problem. The embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3 solves both problems. Referring now to Fig. 3, there is illustrated therein a dual taper resistive power pin for precharging cards as they are being plugged into a powered board as well as solving the high frequency noise problem. The pin illustrated in Fig. 3 comprises a high resistance initial contact area, shown as area a in Fig. 3, to eliminate the high frequency noise. The resistance of area a, while not critical, is a nominal 60 ohms. As the pin is inserted to point 23, the resistance of the card ramps to a much lower resistance valve, again a nominal 2 ohms, at which value the decoupling capacitors can be charged, preventing current surge. At point 25, the resistance for the remainder of the pin is substantially zero ohms. This construction combines the elimination of high frequency noise while simultaneously providing a low resistance to permit charging of the cards. Again, as in the single taper resistive pin, the low resistance permits charging of the decoupling capacitors, while the higher resistance eliminates the contact spark with its resultant high frequency noise. The 60 ohm resistance value illustrated as area a may comprise a coating of ruthenium oxide, while the 2 ohm resistance comprises a coating of paladium gold. Area c comprises a copper clad Invar® coating for minimum resistance value. In operation, as the pin is inserted into and slides along its mating connector 19, the pin resistance changes from maximum (60 ohms) through 2 ohms to zero (or a few milliohms), charging the card capacitors gradually and completely before normal power pins make contact. The connector socket is of conventional construction and accordingly details thereof have been omitted. Thus "hot plugging" is accomplished completely transparent to the user, and without disturbing other circuitry which is in operation at the time. Referring briefly to Fig. 4, a family of curves of time versus power and current are shown for the single and dual taper resistive pins. Power and current coordinates are shown in terms of watts and amperes respectively, while the time coordinate is shown in terms of seconds. Curve 31 illustrates the power consumption of the single resistance pin as it varies from two ohms to zero. At zero resistance, illustrated at point 32, the pin is fully inserted within the connector socket. The maximum power occurs upon insertion, drops fairly rapidly to about 50% maximum and then trails exponentially to zero at point 32. Curve 33 illustrates the current characteristic of the single taper resistive pin. As expected, the variation is slight during insertion until 0.01 seconds, the assumed time required for full insertion and zero resistance, are in effect, at which time the current falls to zero due to current supplied by the normal power pins. Curve 35 shows the power characteristic of the dual taper pin, which rises to a maximum value during the initial insertion as the resistance approaches the 2 ohm area 23, then drops to zero substantially as curve 31 from which it is slightly displaced by the initial insertion time. Curve 37 shows the current charging characteristics of the dual taper pin which are again similar to those of curve 33 after the initial charging period but displaced from curve 33 by the initial charging period. The invention can be applied to both the conventional connector block assemblies and to zero insertion force (ZIF) connector blocks. The invention is suitable for application to high or low density circuit boards and printed circuit cards. While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described as comprised of a dual taper resistive pin, it is obvious that various combinations of more than two resistance values or a logarithmic taper pin may be preferred for specific applications.

Claims: A connector plug for insertion into a socket at a time when the plug or the socket is electrically live, the plug comprising a conductive guide pin (11) having an outboard portion characterised in that the outboard portion is provided with a resistive coating (13) insulated (by 15) from the pin in order to impede surge currents in a circuit path which includes the pin when it is inserted into a mating socket. A connector plug as claimed in claim 1, in which the resistive-coated portion of the pin has a resistance of about 2 ohms. A connector plug as claimed in claim 1, in which the outer end of the resistive coating has a higher resistance than the remainder of the resistive coating in order to impede the occurrence of arcing when the plug is inserted into the mating socket. A connector plug as claimed in claim 3, in which the outer end of the plug has a resistance of about 60 ohms, the remaining resistive-coated portion of the plug has a resistance of about 2 ohms and the uncoated inner portion of the plug has substantially zero resistance. A connector plug as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4, in which the resistive coating on the outer end of the plug is of ruthenium oxide and the remaining portion of the resistive coating is of palladium gold. A circuit board including a plug as claimed in any preceding claim, formed or mounted thereon and disposed for mating with a socket on a circuit card.

Inventors: BELLAMY, PAUL DEAN, MYERS, WAYNE VICTOR, SIMONETTY, RAYMOND LOUIS, TAYLOR, JORDAN M.
Applicants: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
Application year: 1987
Main classification: H01R13
IPC codes: H01R13, H05K7, H01H1