Patent ID: 7511368

Claim:
Apparatus for supporting and making electrical connections to an electronic chip, wherein the chip is of parallelopiped shaped with a top and a bottom, the chip having laterally opposite chip sides and longitudinally opposite chip sides, said chip having a plurality of contact pads at said laterally opposite chip sides: a dielectric carrier device frame having laterally opposite side frame walls and a bottom base, said frame walls and base forming a chip-receiving region with an open top; a plurality of spring clips mounted on said frame, each clip formed of a piece of sheet metal having a bend of about 180Â° and having inner and outer tabs at opposite sides of the bend, each clip mounted on one of said frame walls with the inner tab of the clip lying in said region with the outer tab of the clip lying outside the cavity and with the bend lying loosely on the frame wall, and the bend being resilient to transmit forces between the tabs; said chip lying in said cavity, with each of a plurality of said chip contact pads lying against one of said inner tabs of a spring clip to urge the inner tab toward a corresponding one of said frame walls and thereby urge the outer tab away from that frame wall.