A Study of Contact Endurance Switching Life as a Function of Contact Bond Quality, Contact Electrical Load and Residual Stresses for Silver Tin Indium Oxide Composite Rivet Contacts

This work investigates contact endurance switching life as a function of the contact interface bond quality and residual stresses created in the contacts by different electrical loads. Comparisons are made using resistive loads under different DC voltages and currents and also some AC loads. The mechanisms for failure for different levels of power loads and bond quality are explained in terms of thermal and mechanical stress levels and arc energy. This work covers machine made composite rivets with silver tin indium oxide material directly bonded to ETP copper. It also shows how liquid metal embrittlement of the contact can result from long duration switching endurance.