Page:Gametronics Proceedings.djvu/91

 VI A HOME VIDEO GAME CARTRIDGE CONNECTOR

SYSTEM–INTERCONNECTION CONSIDERATIONS

AND TECHNIQUES

ROBERT M. BOGURSKY

Product Engineering Supervisor

Burndy Corporation,

Norwalk, Connecticut

The Electronic Game market has recently begun its second generation with the introduction of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System. (See Figure 1). This system is the industry's first microprocessor-based ROM cartridge game. It revolutionizes TV Games by supplying the consumer with a microcomputer which extracts game information from a cartridge and routes it to a video processor chip for display on the TV screen. By changing cartridges, the user now has unlimited game possibilities. This differentiates this system from first-generation types which have fixed capabilities.

By placing a cartridge containing a printed circuit board and associated electronic components in the consumer's hands, game manufacturers are now presenting electrical connector engineers with some new and challenging requirements. As other products evolve out of the widespread use of microprocessors, and programming possibilities increase by giving the consumer a printed circuit board in a cartridge, a new class of electrical connectors will likely emerge.

Standard printed circuit board connectors currently available do not satisfy all the requirements of a consumer connector. Design conflicts exist between the needs for ease of use, long term reliability after many mating cycles, resistance to abuse, and low cost.

It is the intent of this paper, therefore, to review the basic requirements and problems associated with providing a consumer-operated printed circuit board connector. Furthermore, it describes the interconnection techniques Burndy used in the Fairchild Video Entertainment System Cartridge Connector to show how these problems were solved to achieve a successful system. The cartridge system and rotating interconnection feature described in this paper were conceived and designed by the Exetron Division of Fairchild, Inc.

The technology and materials used to provide reliable connections after many mating cycles at the printed circuit board interface, as well as the Gas Tight High-pressure base metal connections used elsewhere in the system, are discussed.

Fairchild's Video Entertainment System.