Product category:
PCB Connectors
News Release from: Advanced Interconnections Corp | Subject: Custom socketing systems
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 19 June 2003
Custom solution solves board
interconnect woes
When unique PC board electrical connectivity problems arise, custom socketing systems can solve them reliably and economically.
When unique PC board electrical connectivity problems arise, Advanced Interconnections (AIC) can devise custom socketing systems to solve them reliably and economically For example, consider the case of a major automotive-electronics test equipment manufacturer, which needed to overcome several design challenges involving stackable, socketed PC test boards employed by users to field-configure the manufacturer's rear-end and engine test systems
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 5 Jun 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Novel BGA socket cuts real estate
The Flip-Top BGA socket dramatically reduces PC board space for BGA and LGA device socketing in development, test and production applications.
Speedy supply for removable terminal carriers
Advanced Interconnections Corp can now supply its patented Peel-A-Way PGA, DIP and SIP sockets and adapters and board to board connectors on a three-day lead time on all qualifying orders.
Initially, the manufacturer specified relatively complex and costly conventional FR-4 multilayer test boards with plated through holes and high pin counts.
Assembly was time-consuming; board rejects were too high; and bad boards had to be scrapped.
Especially troublesome was an intermittent electrical "open" problem.
Further reading
Custom boards speed BGA test throughput
Custom-engineered microchip socketed test fixture boards electrically interface test equipment to BGA packages and eliminate the time-consuming need to solder the packages to adapters.
BGA sockets range up to 26 rows square
A new range of 1.00mm pitch BGA sockets in precision moulded wafers offers improved hole-to-hole accuracy, reduced insertion and withdrawal forces and coplanarity within 0.15mm.
This was due to solder from the preforms used on an adapter in the upper through hole board running too far down the extended-length male pins used to plug into a socket on a lower PC board.
The solution devised by AIC involves the innovative application of its patented BGA socket adapter system in an existing, moulded PGA wafer.
The result of combining these proven technologies is a surface mount, interstitial pin grid array (PGA) connector.
This custom SMT PGA socket adapter system: enables the test boards to be produced with fewer layers due to SMT design; eliminates the need for plated through holes; provides a corporate test board solution; and allows more efficient, cost-effective production.
For this application, AIC employs a two-piece PGA connector system (an adaptation of a standard AIC design), comprising a moulded liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) socket incorporating three-finger low-force gold-plated beryllium-copper contacts, and an FR-4 adapter incorporating screw-machined gold-plated brass pins.
Both the socket and adapter feature the company's exclusive eutectic solder ball terminals for superior processing yields.
The socket and adapter are reflow soldered to the circuit board's surface mount pads using BGA solder balls.
This alleviates the need for wave soldering, eliminates the electrical "open" problem previously caused by solder running down the through hole pins, and also permits boards to be reworked if necessary without scrapping them.
AIC's use of surface-mount PGA connectors to facilitate board-to-board connections thus enables the test system manufacturer to simplify assembly, reduce manufacturing costs, enhance product reliability, and increase the yield of good boards by as much as 20% compared with the original production method.
• Advanced Interconnections Corp: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
