Electrical plug type connector having a microstructured contact element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9590340-B2
Application number	US-201214365488-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 5, 2012
Priority date	Dec 16, 2011
Publication date	Mar 7, 2017
Grant date	Mar 7, 2017

Abstract

In an electrical plug type connector having an electrically conductive contact element having a contact surface, the contact surface has a microstructure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electrical plug type connector having an electrically conductive contact element having a base material and a coating positioned on the base material, the coating defining a contact surface of the contact element, wherein the contact surface is comprised of an electrically conductive material having a microstructure forming an at least partially periodic structure, the microstructure having a scale-like structure defining the at least partially periodic structure, and wherein the scale-like structure includes a plurality of three-dimensional scales, and each of the scales overlaps an adjacent scale.

2. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , the contact surface having tin or silver or an alloy of tin or silver.

3. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 2 , the contact element comprises copper or a copper alloy and being tin-coated or silver-coated or coated with a tin/silver alloy.

4. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , the contact surface having projections and recesses.

5. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 4 , a lubricant being arranged in at least one recess.

6. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , the periodic structure in at least one direction having a periodic length in the range between 1 μm and 100 μm.

7. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , the microstructure being produced by means of a laser or electron beam processing operation of the contact surface.

8. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , the contact element being a contact pin.

9. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , the contact element being a contact spring.

10. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , the plug type connector having a plurality of contact elements.

11. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 wherein each of the scales has a circular shape.

12. An electrical plug type connector according to claim 1 , wherein a projection is defined between overlapped portions of adjacent scales.

Assignees

• Tyco Electronics Amp Gmbh
• Te Connectivity Germany Gmbh

Inventors

• Blumenschein Rudi
• Schmidt Helge

Classifications

• B32B15/018

  one layer being formed of a noble metal or a noble metal alloy · CPC title

• H01R13/05

  Resilient pins or blades (carrying separate resilient parts H01R13/15) · CPC title

• B32B15/01

  all layers being exclusively metallic {(making layered metal workpieces by pressure cladding B23K20/22; making coatings with a metallic material characterised by its composition C23C30/00)} · CPC title

• H01R13/03 Primary

  characterised by the material, e.g. plating, or coating materials · CPC title