Patent attributes
A flexible printed circuit (FPC) connector is surface mountable on a printed circuit board (PCB). An edge of an FPC is insertable into a slot in the connector so that contact beams in the connector press on corresponding conductors in the FPC, thereby making electrical contact with the FPC conductors. Each contact beam is mounted on and is coupled to a conductor of a substrate member within the connector. The substrate member has a microstrip design so that the characteristic impedance of a signal path from an FPC conductor, through a contact beam, through a surface mount attachment structure of the connector, and to a conductor in the PCB has only a small variation. The contact beam is not part of a fork-shaped metal clamp that has a spring portion and a radiating stiffening portion, but rather is a beam that presses on the FPC from one side only.
