Multiconductor electrical cable terminations and methods and apparatus for making same
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorAlexander W. Hasircoglu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Cables having interspersed co-planar signal and ground wires are terminated at a planar circuit board by stapling the cable to the circuit board with a bus member, mechanically and electrically connecting the signal wires to signal wire termination sites which are downstream from the bus member, folding the ground wires back over the bus member, and mechanically and electrically connecting the ground wires to the bus member.
Claims11
The method of terminating an electrical cable at a planar circuit board, the cable having a plurality of interspersed co-planar signal and ground wires embedded in a substantially planar insulating sheath, and the circuit board having a plurality of signal wire termination sites disposed in a longitudinal array on a first major surface of the circuit board, the lateral spacing of the signal wire termination sites corresponding to the lateral spacing of the signal wires in the cable, the method comprising the steps of:
- cutting the cable insulation transverse to the longitudinal axis of the cable adjacent the end of the cable to be terminated;
- sliding the severed end portion of the insulation along the wires away from the remainder of the insulation to expose a portion of each wire between the severed end portion and the remainder of the insulation;
- positioning the cable relative to the circuit board so that the plane of the cable is parallel to the plane of the circuit board, so that the longitudinal axis of the cable is substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the signal wire termination site array, and so that the exposed portion of each signal wire traverses a respective one of the signal wire termination sites;
- placing a bus member across the cable insulation upstream of the exposed portions of the wires;
- securing the bus member to the circuit board to clamp the cable to the circuit board;
- cutting the signal wires between the signal wire termination sites and the severed end portion of the insulation;
- folding the severed end portion of the insulation back on the portion of the cable upstream of the bus member so that the exposed portions of the ground wires pass over the top of the bus member;
- cutting the ground wires at the bus member;
- mechanically and electrically connecting each signal wire to the associated signal wire termination site;
- and
- mechanically and electrically connecting each ground wire to the bus member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.