Carbon contamination of contacts due to organic vapors

Author

Neufeld, Christian N. ; Rieder, Werner F.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Switching Devices & High Voltage Technol., Univ. of Technol. Vienna, Austria

Volume

18

Issue

2

fYear

1995

fDate

6/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

399

Lastpage

404

Abstract

The formation of carbon on the contact surface of commercial relays by thermal decomposition of organic vapors emanating from various organic materials may cause an undesirable increase of the contact resistance of the order of several ohms. A model switch was developed to investigate the influence of outgassing vapors of any organic material on contact reliability. Carbon deposits on contact surfaces cause certain phenomena confirming that the observed characteristic contact resistance increase to a value of the order of several ohms is caused by elementary carbon. Investigations of various organic materials showed that their contact compatibility cannot be derived just from the qualitative knowledge of their emanating vapors, but that the problem is more complex and requires a quantitative approach

Keywords

carbon; contact resistance; electrical contacts; impurities; relays; reliability; surface contamination; switches; C; C contamination; commercial relays; contact reliability; contact resistance; contact surface; elementary carbon; model switch; organic vapors; outgassing vapors; relay contacts; thermal decomposition; Carbon; Contact resistance; Materials reliability; Organic materials; Relays; Surface contamination; Surface resistance; Switches; Thermal decomposition; Thermal resistance;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology, Part A, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1070-9886

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/95.390323

Filename

390323