The Electrical Contact Resistance of Two Rough Surfaces with Varying Phase Conductivity

Author

Dickrell, Daniel J., III ; Sawyer, W.G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL

fYear

2008

Firstpage

185

Lastpage

189

Abstract

Electrical contact materials deposited via thin-film processes enable the structuring of interfaces that optimize electrical contact performance. The performance gains are accomplished by structuring the contact material such that a conductive pathway is always present in the composite, a phenomenon related to the percolation threshold. The relationship between film composition and percolation threshold was explored by combined three-dimensional contact area and resistance modeling as well as experimental efforts. An optimal composite structure was found based on deposition parameters and compositional phase selections.

Keywords

electrical conductivity; electrical contacts; electrical resistivity; thin films; compositional phase selections; conductive pathway; electrical contact resistance; film composition; percolation threshold; rough surfaces; thin-film processes; three-dimensional contact; varying phase conductivity; Conducting materials; Conductive films; Conductivity; Contact resistance; Electric resistance; Performance gain; Rough surfaces; Sputtering; Surface resistance; Surface roughness;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Contacts, 2008. Proceedings of the 54th IEEE Holm Conference on

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1901-2

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1902-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOLM.2008.ECP.42

Filename

4694943