ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,498,396, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to NHK Spring Co. Ltd. (Yokohama, Japan).
"Probe unit" was invented by Futa Sasaki (Kanagawa, Japan), Hajime Arai (Kanagawa, Japan) and Kazuya Soma (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A probe unit includes: a contact probe that comes into contact with, at both ends of a longitudinal length of the contact probe, each of electrodes that are contact targets; and a probe holder including a main body portion configured to hold the contact probe, the main body portion being insulating. The main body portion includes, formed therein: a holder hole configured to hold the contact probe inserted...