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I came upon some old Nortel phones and took apart one of the sidecars. The PCB is connected to the buttons and LCD displays using four sets of styrofoam-looking ribbon cables. They look like gross pink and black licorice candies. What is this sort of connector called? Just looking at one, you can't even tell that it's got multiple conductors. But I checked with a multimeter and it does. They adhere rather poorly to the PCB (maybe because the phone is about 18 years old).

Back of PCB

The Meridian M7324 sidecar and a phone

MZS
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    google `zebra strip` – jsotola Apr 07 '18 at 01:39
  • @jsotola beat me by 30s! – Daniel Apr 07 '18 at 01:40
  • it is a multi-conductor strip .... it is not designed to adhere ... it only has to touch – jsotola Apr 07 '18 at 01:41
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    Possible duplicate of [What are rubbery, conductive strips called on the sides of an LCD screen?](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/157647/what-are-rubbery-conductive-strips-called-on-the-sides-of-an-lcd-screen) –  Apr 07 '18 at 01:44
  • correct term is `elastomeric connector` .... few here ... https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XElastomeric+connector.TRS0&_nkw=Elastomeric+connector&_sacat=0 – jsotola Apr 07 '18 at 01:49

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It's called an Elastomeric Connector. They are made with alternating insulating/conductive regions, side-to-side, so that they conduct only in the vertical direction.

Matching pads on the board contact the conductive parts of the elastomeric block. Compressing the block between the boards compresses the surface to the contacts on the boards and makes a board-to-board connection.

The plastic shell makes sure that the connector does not buckle when the block is compressed.

connectors

(From http://www.zaxisconnector.com/images/Elastomeric-Connector-Collage-Compressed.jpg)

crj11
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