Electrical Switching & Contact Technologies
Electical switching or contact technologies includes the following three categories: Contact Pills / Mechanical Domes / Connectors
Contact Pills
The most important property of a contact pill is its contact resistance and reliability. In addition to offering standard contact pills is Abatek's invention of the new “global automotive standard” contact – the SC-contacts.
Contact resistance
The contact resistance of a contact pill is dependent on the following factors:
- Type of contact pill
- Contact pill size
- Contact pressure: resulting force between contact pill and PCB
- PCB contact material and shape
Contact pill resistance
SC-Technology or (SC-L and SC-M Pills) are strongly recommended instead of Gold- or Low Resistance Pills. The SC-Technology is the today’s best choice to realize low resistance (< 1 Ohm) switch solutions.
SC-Technology offers the best price-performance ration for a very robust contact pill technology against defects/dirt with very low contact resistance. It is the perfect contact pill for all non-sealed PCB's. It combats dust and humidity, and is very robust for rotational actuation - due to its highly conductive and soft & flexible surface.
Contact pills are mainly applied in silicone keypads, and are long stroke applications.
SC-Contact Pills is the “state-of-the-art” contact technology in the automotive industry.
Abatek supports customers with the PCB trace layout to make your application robust and cost efficient.
Mechanical Domes, like Polydomes or Metal Domes, are mainly applied in short stroke applications in combination with a carrier foil like PC-sheets with adhesive layers (Dome Array). Typically with a stroke of 0.3-0.5 mm and a contact resistance of < 1 Ohm or < 100 Ohm, depending on the plating material.
Metal Domes are available in different sizes, shapes, different leg-designs with and without holes for lighting. They are typically plated with Ni or Ag. They have very stable force, a distinctive contact technology with a very good tactile feel and an excellent life cycle (> 1 million actuations).
The perfect combination of all advantages of a metal dome and the advantages of silicone keypad is our proprietary ClickPad Technology. A metal dome directly integrated into a silicone dome without any kind of carrier foil, adhesive tapes or any other additional elements.
Connectors
A connector or zebra stripe, is an electrical connection between two elements like i.e. PCB-PCB or PCB-LCD. Connectors are usually low current, and are available in different sizes and types, known as T-Type, TS-Type and TG-Type.
Connectors are a cost-effective alternative to Crimp- or IDC or hard wiring connections. Connectors are made of layers of conductive and non-conductive silicones. It allows you to make a connection simply by compression, and it also allows you to compensate tolerances in your assembly.