There are applications wherein it is desirable to fixedly mount and terminate a plurality of electrical terminals to a substrate, such as a printed circuit board, in a rectangular or square configuration, with the terminals in a straight line on each side of the square shape. Heretofore, one system for mounting the terminals has involved the use of a square board fixed to the substrate, with the terminals being disposed along the four edges of the board and soldered to appropriate circuit traces on the substrate. Problems are encountered with such systems when one side of the square board is bent. The terminals along the bent side of the board will undergo undesirable stresses, deteriorating or damaging the solder connections between the terminals and the flat substrate. Often, the opposite side of the square board also becomes bent, resulting in additional deterioration or damage to the terminal connections. As a result, the entire board, all of the terminals and, sometimes, the substrate must be discarded, lowering the yield of final products.
Another system has involved the use of four linear terminal supports forming the square configuration, with the electrical terminals disposed along a substantial length of each terminal support. The ends of the linear terminal supports have projections for interengaging the supports in a square configuration. The terminals then are soldered to the underlying substrate. Such a system can be seen in Japanese Patent 2750998. This system also has problems in that the interengaging projections at the corners of the linear supports occupy a substantial space or “real estate” on the substrate, resulting in lowering the density with which various electrical components can be mounted on the substrate.
The present invention is directed to solving these problems by providing a system which is free of any distortion in the linear terminal arrangement and which can effectively increase the parts-mounting density on a given substrate.