The challenge: Within the hand-held market, high hertz forces and effective repeatability are important factors to maintain product reliability. A customer approached ITT looking for these benefits in a small form-factor. They were interested in an improved VSWR with reduced real-estate space and beryllium-free materials. The customer contacted ITT based on their strong history as a supplier of over 4 billion standard contacts without a single field failure.

The engineered product solution: ITT met the customer's challenge with the UCZ product series. Selecting titanium copper alloy in lieu of the industry-standard beryllium copper was key in the product's development. Titanium copper alloy allows the user a beryllium-free contact verses a RoHS compliant connector that does not sacrifice electrical or mechanical performance. Once the alloy was tested and achieved positive results, the thickness and required radii were determined to achieve high hertz forces, maximum deflection, and low contact resistance.