Stiffeners for 9U printed circuit boards

There are two approaches that have been implemented. They are described below.

1) This design is suitable for both the main module (9Ux400mm) and transition card (9Ux120mm). It should be located close to the VMEbus connectors on the circuit board. This design is mechanically very strong. However, it takes up a significant amount of real estate on the component side of the board. For most board layouts this will not be a problem. In the case where a printed circuit board is very densely packed near the connectors or in the case where a layout has been implemented without reserving space for this style of stiffener, the altenatives described in the following section should be utilized.

Stiffener for both main and transition modules in postscript format

2) This design was implemented with a goal of minimizing the amount of board real estate that is lost to the stiffener footprint. This is accomplished by locating the stiffener on top of the VMEbus connectors and sharing four of the required six mounting screws for the stiffener with the four screws used to mount the J1 and J2 connectors. Two additional dedicated screws are required to mount these stiffeners. For one of these two screws, the board designer can select between two holes in the stiffener located just above the J3/J5/J6 location. There is one model for the 9Ux400mm main module and another model for the 9Ux120mm transition card. The two models are not interchangable. Both of these models require two metal standoffs to be positioned over the stiffener mounting screws that are located on either side of the J3/J5/J6 connector location.

Stiffener for 9Ux400mm main module in postscript format

Stiffener for 9Ux400mm main module in pdf format

Stiffener for 9Ux120mm transition card in postscript format

Stiffener for 9Ux120mm transition card in pdf format

Last modified April 17, 1998 by demaat@fnal.gov