Appeal No. 2003-2154
Application No. 09/735,895 Page 2
including such a connector, are also claimed by appellants. The
electrical connector includes a housing with a slot formed
therein and a plurality of conductive contact bands arranged
within the slot. The contact bands include surfaces having
projecting members of a specified height. An understanding of
the invention can be derived from a reading of exemplary claims 1
and 15, which are reproduced below.
1. An electrical connector, comprising:
a housing having a slot formed therein; and
a plurality of conductive contact bands disposed within
said slot, each of said contact bands having a surface with
a roughness defined by a plurality of macroscopic
irregularities, each of said contact bands further having a
plurality of projections, said projections of each contact
band being electrically engageable, at a plurality of
different locations, with a conductive member when the
conductive member is fully inserted into the slot so as to
establish a plurality of electrical contact points between
each respective contact band and the conductive member fully
inserted into the slot;
wherein a width of each said contact band is defined by
a distance across the surface of the respective contact band
and between two opposing longitudinal edges of the
respective contact band; and wherein each said projection
has a peak-to-valley height that is between about 10% and
about 90% of the width wherein said electrical connector is
a card edge connector and, wherein said plurality of contact
bands includes a first set of contact bands arranged on one
side of the slot, and a second set of contact bands arranged
on an opposite side of the slot, each of said projections of
said contact bands of the first set projecting toward the
contact bands of the second set, and each of said
projections of said contact bands of the second set
projecting toward the contact bands of the first set;
wherein each said projecting member has a peak-to-valley
height of about .001 millimeters to about .99 millimeters.
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