Sliding contact assembly
OwnerJean-Pierre Le Solleuinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sliding contact assembly includes a printed circuit board having a substrate on which is arranged at least one contact pad. The at least one contact pad is made of several layers including a thin external layer essentially made of gold. The gold layer is deposited on the at least one contact pad through a gold flash type process. The assembly also includes a movable contact element including a support member. The support member has a contact surface provided with a protective coating and the contact surface is biased against the said contact pad when the movable contact element is moved in relation to the contact pad. The protective coating includes a palladium alloy layer. Methods to manufacture a sliding contact assembly are also presented.
Claims25
A sliding contact assembly for low current applications, comprising:
- a printed circuit board including a substrate on which is arranged at least one contact pad made of several layers including a thin external layer essentially made of gold, said gold layer being deposited through a gold flash type process;
- and
- a movable contact element including a support member having a contact surface provided with a protective coating, said contact surface being biased against said contact pad when the movable contact element is moved in relation to said contact pad,
- wherein said protective coating includes a palladium alloy layer.
A method to manufacture a sliding contact assembly, comprising:
- providing a printed circuit board (PCB) substrate with at least one contact pad wherein the upper external layer is made essentially of gold deposited through a gold flash type process,
- providing a movable contact element including a support member having a contact surface to be biased against said contact pad,
- coating said contact surface with a protective coating,
- providing a film of grease material at the contact interface between said contact pad and said movable contact element,
- wherein that said coating step includes forming a palladium alloy layer.
A method of manufacturing a sliding contact assembly, comprising:
- providing a printed circuit board (PCB) that includes a substrate having at least one contact pad, the at least one contact pad being composed of a plurality of layers;
- depositing an external layer in the plurality of layers of the at least one contact pad formed from at least one of,
- (i) gold, and
- (ii) gold alloy
- through a gold-flash process;
- and
- providing a moveable contact element that includes a support member configured to electrically engage with the external layer of the at least one contact pad.
A sliding contact assembly comprising:
- a printed circuit board (PCB) including a substrate having at least one contact pad arranged thereon, said at least one contact pad includes a plurality of layers where an external layer is formed from one of gold and gold alloy deposited thereon by a gold flash process;
- and
- a movable contact element including a support member having a protective coating disposed thereon and formed from one of gold and gold alloy deposited to the support member by the gold-flash process, the protective coating further including a contact surface,
- wherein when the moveable contact element moves relative to the at least one contact pad the contact surface of the support member electrically biases against the external layer of the at least one contact pad.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.