Connector design eliminates fretting corrosion

The Micro-MaTch contact concept is essentially different from other systems available. By its design, the traditional failure mode in tinplated connections, fretting corrosion, is prevented. Due to an additional positioning spring in the female part, relative movements caused by vibrations/thermal expansion between male and female contacts are absorbed. By preventing movements on the contact spot, a gas tight connection can be guaranteed under all circumstances.

The contact spring is located in the board connector and not in the cable connector, which is usually the case. The counterpart, incorporated in the cable connector, is a simple pin, either with an insulation displacement section, suitable for the mass termination of cable or with a kinked solder leg to be soldered onto a pc board. The separation of these two basic functions of the contact system (contact force generation and wire termination), enables the independent optimisation of both functions and also leads to relatively simple contact shapes. Because of their shapes, contacts can be post-plated, leaving no bare edges in the contact and wire slot area.

The contact spring system features an additional spring member (the positioning spring), which compensates positional tolerances. In this way the contact spring can be fully optimised for its basic function, so that the relatively high contact force, required for tin plated contact systems, can be guaranteed under all circumstances.

Wire connectors are supplied on-tape and are suitable for mass termination of 28 AWG (0.08mm² to 0.09mm²) ribbon cable. Board connectors are also supplied on-tape. A full range of application tooling from hand tools to fully automated equipment is available from TE Connectivity.