1. An electrical connector comprising:
a plurality of conductive elements disposed in a column, each of the plurality of conductive members comprising a mating contact portion, a contact tail, and an intermediate portion between the mating contact portion and the contact tail, wherein:
the electrical connector is a first electrical connector;
a first mating contact portion of a first conductive element of the plurality of conductive elements comprises a first beam, a second beam and a third beam, the first beam being shorter than the second beam and the third beam;
the first beam of the first mating contact portion comprises a first contact region adapted to make electrical contact with a second mating contact portion of a second conductive element of a second electrical connector at a first point of contact;
the second beam of the first mating contact portion comprises a second contact region adapted to make electrical contact with the second mating contact portion of the second conductive element of the second electrical connector at a second point of contact, the second point of contact being farther from a distal end of the second mating contact portion than the first point of contact; and
the third beam of the first mating contact portion comprises a third contact region adapted to make electrical contact with the second mating contact portion of the second conductive element of the second electrical connector at a third point of contact, the third point of contact being farther away from a distal end of the second mating contact portion than the first point of contact.
2. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the first beam is disposed between the second beam and the third beam.
3. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the first contact region comprises a first protruding portion, and the second contact region comprises a second protruding portion that protrudes to a greater extent than the first protruding portion.
4. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the first mating contact portion of the first conductive element is adapted to apply a spring force to the second mating contact portion of the second conductive element when the first electrical connector is mated with the second electrical connector.
5. The electrical connector of claim 4, wherein the first mating contact portion of the first conductive element is adapted to be deflected by the second mating contact portion of the second conductive element by about 11000 inch when the first electrical connector is mated with the second electrical connector.
6. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the second beam is about twice as long as the first beam.
7. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the plurality of conductive elements further comprises a third conductive element disposed adjacent to the first conductive element, and wherein a third mating contact portion of the third conductive element comprises a fourth beam and a fifth beam, the fourth and fifth beams being roughly equal in length.
8. The electrical connector of claim 7, wherein a first combined width of the first, second, and third beams is greater than a second combined width of the fourth and fifth beams.
9. The electrical connector of claim 7, wherein the fourth beam of the third mating contact portion comprises a fourth contact region adapted to make electrical contact with a fourth mating contact portion of a fourth conductive element of the second electrical connector, and wherein the fifth beam of the third mating contact portion comprises a fifth contact region adapted to make electrical contact with the fourth mating contact portion of the fourth conductive element of the second electrical connector.
10. The electrical connector of claim 9, wherein the fourth beam of the third mating contact portion is disposed closer to the first mating contact portion than the fifth beam of the third mating contact portion, and wherein the fourth beam further comprises a sixth contact region adapted to make electrical contact with the fourth mating contact portion of the fourth conductive element of the second electrical connector, the sixth contact region being farther away from a distal end of the fourth mating contact portion than the fourth contact region.
11. An electrical connector comprising a plurality of conductive elements disposed in a column of conductive elements, wherein:
each of the plurality of conductive elements comprises at least one beam;
the plurality of conductive elements are arranged in a plurality of pairs of conductive elements, each of the conductive elements in each pair having a first width;
the plurality of conductive elements comprises a plurality of wide conductive elements, each of the wide conductive elements being disposed between adjacent pairs of the plurality of pairs; and
each of the wide conductive elements comprises a plurality of beams, the plurality of beams comprising at least one longer beam and at least one shorter beam, the shorter beam being disposed separate from the longer beam and positioned such that when the electrical connector is mated to a mating electrical connector and the wide conductive element makes contact with a corresponding conductive element in mating connector, the shorter beam terminates a stub of the corresponding conductive element comprising a wipe region for the longer beam on the corresponding conductive element.
12. The electrical connector of claim 11, wherein:
the plurality of conductive elements disposed on the column form a plurality of coplanar waveguides, each of the coplanar waveguides comprising a pair or the plurality of pairs and at least one adjacent wide conductive element of the plurality of wide conductive elements.
13. The electrical connector of claim 11, wherein:
the electrical connector comprises a wafer, the wafer comprising a housing, the plurality of conductive elements being at least partially enclosed in the housing.
14. The electrical connector of claim 13, wherein the housing comprises insulative material and lossy material.
15. The electrical connector of claim 11, wherein:
each beam of the plurality of beams comprises a contact region on a distal portion of the beam, and
the contact regions of the beams of each pair of the plurality of pairs and the contact regions of each longer beam of the wide conductive elements are disposed in a line adjacent a mating face of the connector.
16. The electrical connector of claim 11, wherein:
the plurality of beams for each of the wide conductive elements comprises two longer beams and one shorter beam disposed between the two longer beams, the two longer beams being disposed along adjacent edges of the wide conductive elements.
17. The electrical connector of claim 16, wherein:
each of the plurality of conductive elements in each of the plurality of pairs comprises two beams.
18. The electrical connector of claim 17, wherein:
the electrical connector comprises a housing,
each of the plurality of conductive elements comprises an intermediate portion within the housing and a contact portion extending from the housing, the contact portion comprising a corresponding beam;
the intermediate portions of the plurality of conductive elements are configured with a first spacing between an edge of a wide conductive element and an edge of a conductive element of an adjacent pair of conductive elements;
the beams of the plurality of conductive elements are configured such that the beams of conductive elements of the pairs have first regions and second regions, the first regions providing a spacing between a conductive element of a pair and an adjacent wide conductive element that approximates the first spacing and the second regions providing a spacing between the conductive element of the pair and the adjacent wide conductive element that is greater than the first spacing.
19. The electrical connector of claim 18, wherein:
the spacing that is greater than the first spacing provides a uniform spacing of contact regions along a mating interface of the connector.
20. The electrical connector of claim 19, wherein:
each of the at least one beams of each of the pairs comprises two beams.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
We claim:
1. A sensing circuit having independent write-back capability comprising:
a sense amplifier which compares an input to a reference signal and generates an output signal; and
a tri-statable write-back block having an enable and an write-back output signal;
wherein the output signal of the sense amplifier is coupled to the write back block.
2. The sensing circuit of claim 1 further including a data buffer receiving the output signal of the sense amplifier.
3. The sensing circuit of claim 2, the sense amplifer including:
a p-channel transistor having a source connected to power and a first drain;
a first and a second leg, each leg connected to the drain of the p-channel transistor and ground, each leg further including,
a first p-channel transistor having a source connected to the first drain,
a second p-channel transistor having a source connected to the drain of the first p-channel transistor at a first node,
two n-channel transistors, connected in parallel, having their drains connected to the drain of the second p-channel transistor at a second node and their sources connected to ground,
a third n-channel transistor, serially connected to the gate of the first p-channel transistor, and
for each leg, the second node connects to the gates of the second p-channel transistor and one of the two n-channel transistors of the other leg;
and
a first n-channel transistor, connected across the first nodes of the first and second legs.
4. The data buffer of claim 2, including:
a first n-channel transistor, having a drain generating a data-out signal, having a gate receiving a control signal; and
a second n-channel transistor, having a drain connected to the source of the first n-channel transistor, a source connected to ground, and a gate receiving the output signal of the sense amplifier.
5. The data buffer of claim 4, further including:
a first p-channel transistor, having a source connected to power, a gate receiving the output signal of the sense amplifier and a drain; and
a second p-channel transistor, connected to the drain of the first p-channel transistor and the drain of the first n-channel transistor, having a gate connected to VDD.
6. The data buffer of claim 4, further including:
a first p-channel transistor, having a source connected to power, a gate receiving the output signal of the sense amplifier and a drain; and
a second p-channel transistor, connected to the drain of the first p-channel transistor and the drain of the first n-channel transistor, having a gate connected to the complement of the gate control signal of the first n-channel transistor.
7. The sensing circuit of claim 1, the write-back block including:
a first p-channel transistor having a source connected to power;
a second p-channel transistor having a source connected to the drain of the first p-channel transistor;
a first n-channel transistor, having a drain connected to the drain of the second p-channel transistor forming the write-back output signal which is connected to the input signal; and
a second n-channel transistor, having a drain connected to the source of the first n-channel transistor, having a source connected to ground;
wherein the gates of the first p-channel and second n-channel transistors receive the complementary output signal (is there an antecedent here in claim 1).
8. A method of sensing of differential data, consisting of:
receiving a differential input signal on an input and a reference input;
amplifying the differential input signal;
buffering the output signal; and
writing-back the data to the input.
9. The method of sensing as defined in claim 8, wherein the steps of writing-back and amplifying occur independently.
10. The method of sensing as defined in claim 8, for a single reception of differential input data and the steps of amplifying and buffering are repeated.
11. A sense amplifer comprising:
a p-channel transistor having a source connected to power and a first drain;
a first and a second leg, each leg connected to the drain of the p-channel transistor and ground, each leg further including,
a first p-channel transistor having a source connected to the first drain,
a second p-channel transistor having a source connected to the drain of the first p-channel transistor at a first node,
two n-channel transistors, connected in parallel, connected to the drain of the second p-channel transistor at a second node and ground,
a third n-channel transistor, serially connected to the gate of the first p-channel transistor, and
for each leg, the second node connects to the second p-channel transistor and one of the two n-channel transistors of the other leg; and
a first n-channel transistor, connected across the first nodes of the first and second legs.