Adjustable tooling pin for a card test fixture

Abstract

An adjustable tooling pin for a bed-of-nails test fixture used for testing circuit boards (cards) is provided which allows the tooling pin, and thus the card, to be precisely realigned while the card is still mounted in the test fixture. The adjustable tooling pin mechanism comprises a pivot bushing having a channel running from end-to-end into which a slide bar fits. The tooling pin projects from the end of the sliding bar in the z-direction such that a card may be located over the tooling pin. A locking screw fits through an aperture in the sliding bar and the pivot bushing and is threadably engaged into a threaded insert in the test fixture top plate. Hence, the tooling pin, and thus the card, are radially adjustable in the x-y plane by turning the pivot bushing and by sliding the sliding bar along the pivot bushing channel. This adjustable tooling pin is especially beneficial for modern card technology which requires electronic card assemblies to be densely populated, with the test pads located on 25 mil (0.063 mm), 40 mil (0.101 mm) and 50 mil (0.127) drill centers, and test pad diameter of 0.020″ (0.0508 mm).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.