I. Kulisic et al., Performance of a shape memory alloy coil-shaped clamp for enhanced normal force in pin-and-receptacle electrical connectors, IEEE T COMP, 23(2), 2000, pp. 227-233
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Material Science & Engineering
Journal title
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON COMPONENTS AND PACKAGING TECHNOLOGIES
Electrical connectors can experience a significant degradation in performan
ce due to fretting corrosion, which is particularly problematic when the co
nnector undergoes vibration, Fretting corrosion can be reduced or eliminate
d if the relative motion between the pin and receptacle is reduced or elimi
nated, One practical means of reducing the relative motion is to increase t
he normal force between the pin and receptacle. Unfortunately, in; creasing
the normal force has traditionally implied increasing the insertion and re
moval forces required for mating and separation of the pin and receptacle.
In this paper we describe a connector in which the normal force between the
pin and receptacle is increased after the connector is mated and decreased
before separation. We implement our approach for connectors that are put i
n service in elevated temperature environments by placing a coiled shape me
mory alloy (SMA) wire around the receptacle part of a standard pin-and-rece
ptacle connector. We experimentally demonstrate the efficacy of this approa
ch by quantifying the increase in normal force between the pin and receptac
le and by showing a substantial increase in connector lifetime in a vibrato
ry environment.