By Würth Elektronik ICS 210
Würth Elektronik's PowerBasket power supply terminals are pluggable high-current contacts. With these you can reduce the assembly effort for service technicians or customers: they simply plug in. Due to the design of the contact blades, the insertion/extraction forces are significantly reduced compared to conventional systems. In combination with a position tolerance of up to 0.6 mm, several contacts can be used simultaneously. This enables completely new applications, especially for board-to-board connections. A special contact alloy enables use at higher ambient temperatures with optimum current carrying capacity. PowerBasket high-current contacts are available as press-fit variants, as well as for surface-mount assembly.
In press-fit technology, the PowerBaskets are pressed into the printed circuit board and are not exposed to temperature stress. The manufacturing step simply fits into the process chain and is extremely cost-effective. Several power elements can be pressed in at the same time using the appropriate press-in tools. With the solid press-fit technology, the printed circuit boards must be designed in accordance with the Würth Elektronik ICS Press-Fit specification. Particular attention must be paid to drill diameter and copper thickness. Due to the different layer thicknesses in hot air levelling compared to chemical final surfaces, the final diameters are different.
In surface-mount assembly, the PowerBasket SMD Powerelements are soldered onto the printed circuit board and simply fit into the process chain of an SMT line. Würth Elektroniks' PowerBasket SMD Powerelements can be processed in typical SMT lines and are soldered in convection ovens or with the steam phase system. Due to the heat absorption by the mass of the components, separate tests must be carried out to determine the parameters. In the case of SMT assembly, the printed circuit boards must be designed in accordance with IPC A 600 in the respective valid edition.
The current carrying capacity must always be considered in the context of the overall system. In press-fit technology, the press-fit zone itself has an extremely low contact resistance of 100 µΩ to 200 μΩ. In SMT assembly, the contact resistance is only 250 µΩ to 350 μΩ.
The measurements have shown that for press-fit technology and for SMT assembly the limiting factor is usually to be found in the layout of the printed circuit board or the connection of external supply lines.
PowerBasket SMD high-current contacts have successfully passed the vibration test according to ISO 16750-3. They have been vibration tested according to ISO 16750-3:2012 4.1.2.7.2 Random Test VII. The PowerBasket SMD high-current contacts are in preparation for qualification according to LV214.