Calculation of the electrical parameters from 3D visualisation data of non-disassembled contact interfaces

Abstract

Electrical contact is an essential factor that should be considered to achieve better performance and long term reliability for the design of devices. In this work, an electrical contact interface is visualized as a “3D Contact Map” using X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) which acquires 3D views of the sample keeping the features intact. The “3D Contact Map” contains information on where the electrical contact spots in a 3D surface profile are located with each voxel relating to 5 μm × 5 μm × 5 μm volume at the interface. Contact analysis techniques are developed and implemented with a suite of tools in Matlab in order to calculate electrical parameters (voltage, current, resistance) of each contact spot and contact asperity located between the conductors of a single pole switch rated at 16A AC.