Teradyne Connector Systems (TCS) was a division of Teradyne, the renowned maker of test systems. The connector group was formed to design and tool connectors that Teradyne could not find in the market. Semiconductor testing equipment required large boards with very high pin-count connections to the backplane. Backplane connectors that used large moulded housings existed in the late 1980s, manufactured by Berg, AMP and a few others, but they were expensive and very difficult to make. The primary challenge was to mould a single-piece housing the full length of the daughtercard edge that could be up to 18" long. The moulds to make these connectors tended to be two-cavity expandable tools that took many hours of set-up before a batch of a particular length could be successfully run. It was especially difficult to keep these very long mouldings straight and flat enough to meet specifications. True position for all of the pins had to be accurate or the connector could not be placed easily on the boards and mated.
展开▼
