This invention relates to a socket and will have application to a carrier socket for a leadless integrated circuit.
During the last several years the integrated circuit (IC) has completely revolutionized the electronics industry. An IC in its miniaturized form is made into a chip which is normally mounted to a carrier. Recently, leadless chip carriers, which are of relatively thin plate forms having multiple pads formed upon their surfaces, have become popular due to their compactness in relation to the dual-in-line carrier package. Leadless chip carriers take up less space on the printed circuit board which is important in modern compact circuit design.
Leadless chip carriers are formed of ceramic materials which have a thermal coefficient of expansion which is not ideally suited for the epoxy/glass material from which printed circuit boards are normally constructed. Therefore, in order to utilize a leadless chip carrier, a receiving device is used to connect the carrier onto a printed circuit board. These receiving devices or sockets are designed to accomodate the differential in thermal expansion of the carriers and printed circuit boards. Sockets are also utilized in testing chip carriers and have been developed to accomodate such carriers for burn-in and similar testing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,377 discloses a socket having conductive elongated contacts for holding the carrier within the socket. A spreader cams the inner edge of the contacts outwardly to allow insertion of the carrier. The contacts are then released to hold the carrier firmly within the socket.