CARRIERS FOR PIN GRID ARRAY

One and two-part carriers (400, 200) for a pin grid array having a body with a plurality of pins projecting from at least one face of the body. Certain ones of the carriers (200) include an outer frame (202) for extending around the perimeter of a separate removable carrier insert on which the pin grid array is releasably supported. The carrier insert has a recessed base (204) for supporting the body of the pin grid array and an array of holes in a grid pattern through which the pins project when the body of the pin grid array is supported on the base. Resiliently flexible retention fingers (206) at opposite ends of the carrier base engage the body of the supported pin grid array to retain it on the carrier insert base. The flexible retention fingers are bendable away from the carrier insert base for releasing engagement with the body of the supported pin grid array when either placing the pin grid array in the carrier insert or removing it from the carrier insert. Resilient clips (210) on opposite inside faces of the frame cooperate with cam surfaces on opposite outer faces of the carrier insert for releasably attaching the carrier insert base to the inside of the outer frame in a snap lock to support the carrier insert inside the frame. Certain other ones of the carriers (400) are of unitary construction, such that the carrier insert base (404) is fixedly connected within the outer frame (402). In some of the carriers, the retention fingers are split into bendable first and second halves so as to engage pin grid array bodies of different thicknesses.