An edge connector connects circuit boards with terminal edges and allows for easy troubleshooting of computer hardware. They use pressure and plated metals for good contact and low resistance. They can also be used for backplanes and have limited current allowance. Grounding straps are used to prevent electrostatic discharge.
An edge connector is a two-sided electrical connector that connects two circuit boards with terminal edges together. It is very common in computer hardware to have a motherboard connected to a variety of motherboards or daughter boards. The edge connector can also connect to a ribbon cable, then to another edge connector that connects to another circuit board.
Electrical connectors use pressure applied between two conductors to maintain low resistance contact. The conductive edges of the boards need good contact with the edge connector contacts, so the edges are usually plated with high-performance metals with good conductivity and good resistance to oxidation caused by moisture in the air. Common metallic coatings are tin, silver and gold.
Edge connectors allow for easy troubleshooting of computer hardware. For example, the common motherboard for the desktop personal computer uses several edge connectors to connect peripherals such as hard drives, video cards, and network interface cards. As a common practice, power connections are made via direct current (DC) power connectors separate from the data and control connectors.
A common use of the Edge Connector is known as a backplane. In computer systems it is common to have a data bus and a control bus. These common connections can be made available to the backplane so that all cards can have connector edges that contact these edge connectors. The result is several nodes on separate circuit boards that have common connections as required.
The allowed currents are usually low due to the limited contact pressure in the on-board connectors. If more current is to be allowed, different terminal positions or pins can be allocated. For example, in power connector edges for the backplane, the common connection can be redundant with up to six or more terminal locations.
Also, the common connection can protrude forward to make contacts before any other edge of the connector engages. This feature prevents damage caused by electrostatic discharge, which occurs when a loose, non-neutral electrostatically charged adapter is first connected to the backplane. The latter is one reason grounded wrist straps are used when handling ballots. Grounding straps can be used to ground a human conductor or to neutralize a charge in a new board.
Edge connectors used for computer boards are designed to plug into the previous connector of the integrated unit electronics or the later interconnect of peripheral components. Both of these connectors include power lines, address and data buses, and other control lines. Switching between different types of computer interface cards, for troubleshooting and testing, is made easy with the edge connectors.
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