F. Ossart, S. Noel, D. Alamarguy, S. Correia, P. Gendre
{"title":"Electro-mechanical modelling of multilayer contacts in electrical connectors","authors":"F. Ossart, S. Noel, D. Alamarguy, S. Correia, P. Gendre","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318187","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318187","url":null,"abstract":"Electrical contacts are an essential part of electrical circuits and many reliability problems are related to their failure. The present work uses numerical simulation in view of a better analysis of the electromechanical phenomena, in the case of multilayer electrical contacts. We study a ball/plane contact made of bulk CuZn alloy, protected by a thin Sn surface layer. A coupled finite element analysis is performed to calculate the contact resistance of the device: an elasto-plastic model is used to determine the geometry of the contact area, then an electrical model gives the resulting constriction resistance. Results of simulation are compared to experimental data. The respective contributions of the mechanical and electrical phenomena are analysed. The influence of a nickel underlayer is also examined.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89697785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An experimental study of the minimum arc current of silver contacts with different opening speeds","authors":"M. Hasegawa","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318233","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318233","url":null,"abstract":"In order to study the influence of contact opening speed on occurrence rates of break arcs, Ag contacts were operated to break inductive DC load currents from 0.1 A to 0.6 A at 14 V with contact opening speeds of 0.5 mm/s to 10 mm/s in a switching mechanism employing a stepping motor. Occurrence rates of break arcs and their average durations were determined at each current level under the respective contact opening speeds. From the results, irrespective of the opening speed values, the arc occurrence rate was almost 100% at 0.4 A. For all of the contact opening speeds tested, the conventional minimum arc current level can be considered, not as the lower limit for arc ignition, but rather as the threshold level for arc discharges of certain duration to occur at the rate of almost 100%. Moreover, in the current range from 0.2 to 0.4 A, slight differences in the arc occurrence rates were seen with differences in the contact opening speeds. The average arc durations were around 50 mus at the conventional minimum arc current level of 0.4 A, and not influenced significantly by changes in the tested range of contact opening speeds.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88184635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Weibull Analysis of Switching Contact Resistance in Laboratory and Commercial Circuit Breakers","authors":"C. Leung, E. Streicher, D. Fitzgerald","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318195","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318195","url":null,"abstract":"Silver/tungsten powder metal electric contacts are used in circuit breakers because of their combination of high conductivity from silver, and high melting temperature from tungsten. In operations of the circuit breaker, switching arcs erode and oxidize the contact surface to create a high resistance layer that can lead to high temperature at the contacts. This arc erosion product is usually a mixture of silver, tungsten, tungsten oxides and silver tungstate. The formation of this layer and its distribution is modified by the metallurgy and electrical parameters. The measurement of the contact resistance depends on the random location of the contact spot and is therefore highly statistical in nature. Weibull distribution is used to analyze switching contact resistance in laboratory switch apparatus and commercial 20A circuit breakers. This is to understand the statistical nature of the measurement and the correlation to the dynamic contact erosion process.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80033787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Materials Considerations in using Voltage Drop for Power Rating","authors":"R. Malucci, F. Ruffino","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318190","url":null,"abstract":"Voltage drop, and change in voltage drop after aging, are considered in rating the performance of gold plated power contacts. In this case, samples are exposed to high current cycling at current levels that produce very high temperature rises. This created conditions that caused degradation due to thermal aging and possibly electro- migration. It is shown that the failure criterion for gold is similar, but not equal, to tin. Based on these results, it's concluded that loss of metallic contact regardless of plating type is the common factor in the tin and gold performance. Moreover, current density and contact voltage are discussed as basic physical parameters that provide links to aging and failure criteria. The aim is to develop a method using voltage drop for various contact materials to quantify power rating of contacts for reliable use in the field.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82720119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
K. Fukuda, H. Fujita, K. Sawa, M. Tomita, M. Murakami, N. Sakai, I. Hirabayashi
{"title":"A Study on Quenching Characteristics of YBaCuO Bulk Superconductor with Deposited Ag Layer","authors":"K. Fukuda, H. Fujita, K. Sawa, M. Tomita, M. Murakami, N. Sakai, I. Hirabayashi","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318198","url":null,"abstract":"A persistent current switch (PCS) is used for superconducting applications, such as superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system. The authors have proposed a mechanical switch of Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) bulk as a mechanical PCS. In previous reports, in order to investigate the contact characteristics of the switch, 50 A current test was performed and the contact resistance between two contacts was measured by four terminal method. As a result, it became clear that polishing and metal depositing on contact surfaces was effective methods to reduce the residual resistance, and the authors achieved to reduce this resistance to 0.64 muOmega, which was less than our target value of 1 muOmega. This paper focused on the greater current test (above 50 A) in order to perform more practical experiment as PCS used for SMES. In this experiment, the authors examined the characteristics to normal conductive state in the YBCO, which was not obtained by former 50 A current test. As a result, the transfer current is found to have a relationship with the layer thickness of deposited Ag on contact surfaces. The value of transfer current was rose by increasing the layer thickness of deposited silver, but saturated at around 0.60 mum.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79248477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Numerical Analysis of Low-Voltage Circuit-Breakers under Short-Circuit Conditions","authors":"T. Mutzel, F. Berger, M. Anheuser","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318192","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318192","url":null,"abstract":"Short-circuits in electrical networks come along with severe mechanical and thermal stresses not only to loads and systems, but also to the installed protection devices. Combined analytical simulations have been performed for analyzing and optimizing the behavior of low-voltage circuit-breakers. Especially circuit-breakers with electronic tripping units have been scrutinized.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72556000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamic Simulation of Operating Mechanism for Molded Case Circuit Breaker","authors":"Degui Chen, Ruicheng Dai, Jingshu Zhang, W. Tong","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318215","url":null,"abstract":"A dynamic model of the operating mechanism for a low voltage molded case circuit breaker (MCCB) was built based on virtual prototype technology, and then a test was done to verify this model, which showed that simulation results of virtual model were in agreement with test results of real prototype. After adding electric repulsion force to model, the operating time of mechanism was shortened about 2 ms. Using this model, besides the repulsion force, the factors including the stiffness of opening spring, the shape of mechanism parts affected the dynamic characteristics of operating mechanism are analyzed as well, and it also indicates that centroidy coordinates of trip has the greatest influence on angular velocity of operating mechanism. Selecting x and y coordinates of mechanism axes as the design variables, after optimum design, average angular velocity of operating mechanism has risen 15.3%.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78718206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
R. Jackson, W. Ashurst, G. Flowers, S. Angadi, S. Choe, M. Bozack
{"title":"The Effect of Initial Connector Insertions on Electrical Contact Resistance","authors":"R. Jackson, W. Ashurst, G. Flowers, S. Angadi, S. Choe, M. Bozack","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318189","url":null,"abstract":"This work attempts to quantify the effect of repeated initial connector insertions and roughness on electrical contact resistance. Experimental measurements show that the electrical contact resistance increases measurably with repeated insertions. They also show that with repeated insertions the connector spring is plastically deformed, thus causing the force closing the contact across the surfaces to decrease. A multi-scale rough surface contact model was used to estimate the actual electrical contact resistance (ECR) versus applied force curve of the connector. As expected, the multiscale ECR model predicts that the ECR will decrease with applied force. Since the contact force decreases with each insertion of the connector due to plastic deformation, the model will predict that the ECR will also increase with each insertion. When the added resistance from a measurable layer of tin oxide is included, the multiscale ECR model shows fairly good agreement with the experimental measurements.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77221760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effect of Dust Contamination on Electrical Contact Failure","authors":"Ji Gao Zhang","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318186","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318186","url":null,"abstract":"Dust contamination is a major cause of current disruption in electric contacts. It is fast becoming the greatest influence on their reliability. However, due to its complexity, the effect of dust is difficult to simulate in the laboratory; and effective ways to reduce the failure caused by the fine dust particles on contacts still present a difficult and unsolved research problem. Based on the inspection of failed electric contacts, and also on the study of the characteristics of dust particles, this paper describes the composition of the materials in dust, and also the mechanical, electrical, and chemical characteristics of the particles. The conditions required for the dust to cause contact failure are discussed: in particular the effect of micro motion at the contact interface; the selective deposition of dust particles; the adhesion between particles; the chemical and electrostatic attachment of particles to the contact surface; and the creation of high resistance due to particle accumulation.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84923658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"{111} Si Etched Planar Electrical Contacts for Power MEMS-relays","authors":"A. Weber, J. Lang, A. Slocum","doi":"10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2007.4318210","url":null,"abstract":"We present the design of electrical contacts used in a MEMS-relay for power applications. The device is bulk micromachined in single crystalline silicon and bonded to a glass substrate. Anisotropic etching, using aqueous potassium hydroxide solution, is used to fabricate the oblique, complementary, planar and parallel (111) contact surfaces having nanometer-scale surface roughness. The silicon contact surfaces are evaporated with a conductive film. A thermal oxide layer provides insulation between the silicon substrate and the metal contacts. The contacts are capable of make-break switching resistive and inductive loads. The MEMS device has large contact travel, in the order of 30 mum and low contact resistance, in the order of 120 mOmega. Testing has demonstrated current carrying capacity in the order of 3 A and hot-switching of inductive loads, in the order of 10 mH, without low cycle performance degradation over approximately 30 switching cycles.","PeriodicalId":11624,"journal":{"name":"Electrical Contacts - 2007 Proceedings of the 53rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87831259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}