Apparatus employing flexible diaphragm for effecting substantially uniform force, individual couplings with multiple electrical contacts or the like

摘要

Apparatus having special utility for the electrical interfacing of multi-terminal circuit testing equipment to multi-contact printed circuit boards or the like employs a fluid pressure responsive, resiliently flexible diaphragm for controllably effecting concurrent, individual, substantially equal force engagements between shiftable, rigid contacting elements and corresponding stationary contact points on the unit to be tested, despite possible lack of precise co-planarity of such contact points. The arrangement is space conserving and permits the elimination of expensive and troublesome spring contact pins, the utilization of desirable wirewrap connection techniques in fabricating interfacing assemblies, and the convenient disposition of all points of electrical contact with both the testing equipment and the unit under test at one side of the interfacing assembly. The apparatus would appear also adapted for useful application in various other environments where controlled electrical connections must be concurrently made with substantially equal engagement forces to each of a sizeable plurality of electrical contacts, or even where such separate, substantially equal force engagements with a plurality of contactable structures are themselves the desired primary function to be accomplished, rather than the making of electrical connections thereto. The fluid pressure differential used to control the action of the diaphragm may be created by evacuation of a sealed chamber or by pressurization of a sealed chamber and the latter either through fluid or mechanical techniques.