Coax switch assembly

A switch assembly comprising:

• a circuit board with an upper face and a plurality of conductive traces on said upper face;
• a housing having a lower end for lying on said circuit board, said housing forming a cavity and said housing having an upper end with tapered electrically conductive entrance walls lyinq above said cavity and forming a tapered entrance with an entrance axis and with a lower end lying above said cavity, and including walls forming an opening at the lower end of said entrance said opening leading to said cavity with said cavity having a width and said opening having a width that is less than said cavity width, said entrance walls connected to one of said traces, said tapered entrance walls extending downwardly and toward said entrance axis;
• first and second contacts mounted on said housing, said second contact having a part lying in said cavity and said first contact including a resilient beam which lies in said cavity and which is biased up against said first contact part but which can be resiliently deflected downward out of engagement with said first contact part;
• projection means lying over said beam and projecting up at least partially through said opening, for depressing said beam out of engagement with said first contact when said projection means is depressed.

A switch assembly comprising:

• a housing forming a cavity, said housing having an upper end with electrically conductive walls forming a tapered entrance with an entrance bottom lying above said cavity, and including walls forming an opening at said entrance bottom which leads downwardly to said cavity, with said cavity having a width and said opening having a width that is smaller than said cavity width, said entrance having an entrance axis and said entrance being tapered so it has a progressively smaller diameter at lower locations along said axis;
• first and second contacts mounted in said housing, said first contact including a resilient beam which lies in said cavity and which is biased against said second contact but that can be resiliently deflected downward out of engagement with said first contact;
• a coaxial connector plug with a plug axis, inner and outer contact elements that are coaxial with said plug axis and that have mating ends, with the mating end of said outer element constructed to engage said tapered entrance when said connector plug is pushed to a fully inserted position into said entrance, and said inner element is constructed to electrically connect to said beam and depress said beam out of engagement with said second contact when said connector plug reaches said fully inserted position;
• said outer contact of said coaxial connector plug having a lower end that is of substantially spherical shape, to engage radially opposite sides of said tapered entrance in said fully inserted position despite misalignment of said coax connector axis with said entrance axis.