Electrical contact materials

A contact member of an electronic component, comprising, in combination:

• a shaped substrate for providing electrical contact between mating portions of an electronic component, said contact member having a multilayered plating deposit thereon which imparts to said contact member electrical contact resistance properties substantially the same as other electrical contact materials having a thick gold overlayer that is significantly thicker than 10 microinches, wherein said multilayered plating deposit comprises, in combination:
• a basis metal layer exhibiting excellent electrical conductivity;
• an electroless nickel barrier layer deposit over the basis metal layer, wherein said barrier layer deposit is an electroless nickel deposit selected from the group consisting of a nickel-boron deposit from an electroless bath including a boron deposition enhancer having zirconyl or vanadyl ions and a nickel-phosphorus deposit from an electroless bath including an unsaturated carboxylic acid tensile stress reduction agent;
• and
• a thin overlayer of up to about 10 microinches of a precious metal deposit, said thin overlayer having been laid down onto said electroless nickle barrier layer deposit.

A contact material produced by a process comprising:

• immersing a shaped electrical contact substrate into a bath and laying down a non-noble metal basis metal layer onto the shaped contact substrate;
• depositing an intermediate barrier layer onto the basis metal deposited shaped contact substrate, said intermediate barrier layer depositing step including immersing the basis metal deposited shaped contact substrate into an electroless nickel bath selected from the group consisting of a nickel-boron depositing bath including a boron deposition enhancer having zirconyl or vanadyl ions and a nickel-phosphorus depositing bath including an unsaturated carboxylic acid tensile stress reduction agent;
• immersing said intermediate barrier layer deposited, shaped contact substrate into the bath for laying down a precious metal deposit;
• and
• controlling the precious metal deposition in order to lay down a thin overlayer of precious metal deposit, said controlling step limiting the thin overlayer deposit to not more than about 10 microinches of precious metal.

A process for producing electrical contact materials, comprising:

• immersing a shaped electrical contact substrate into a bath and laying down a non-noble metal basis metal layer onto the shaped contact substrate;
• depositing an intermediate barrier layer onto the basis metal deposited shaped contact substrate, said intermediate barrier layer depositing step including immersing the basis metal deposited shaped contact substrate into an electroless nickel bath selected from the group consisting of a nickel-boron depositing bath including a boron deposition enhancer having zirconyl or vanadyl ions and a nickel-phosphorus depositing bath including an unsaturated carboxylic acid tensile stress reduction agent;
• immersing said intermediate barrier layer deposited shaped contact substrate into a bath for laying down a precious metal deposit;
• and
• controlling the precious metal deposition in order to lay down a thin overlayer of precious metal deposit, said controlling step limiting the thin overlayer deposit to not more than about 10 microinches of precious metal.