Technology

Paricon’s Unique Technology

The heart and soul of Paricon’s products is the PariPoser® anisotropic elastomeric fabric.

PariPoser® fabric is comprised of nickel particles that are magnetically aligned in columns in a thin sheet of silicone elastomer. After the silicone is cured and the magnetic field is removed, the particles retain their alignment, supported in place by the silicone elastomer.

Prior to compression, the fabric is conductive along the path of the aligned nickel balls and not conductive along the paths perpendicular to the columns of balls. But when the fabric is compressed between a pair of flat pads, the silicone elastically moves, the nickel particles touch each other with a higher normal force, and the columns become more conductive. The jump in conductivity happens very quickly – after about 0.001”(0.03mm) of compression. Accordingly, a successful contact engagement does not need the traditionally long travel of a spring probe or a plug-in connector.

Elastomers have a unique way of being compressed. When one area is compressed, another area has to bulge. For a PariPoser® fabric application, the bulge area is the interstitial space between the contact pads.

Care has to be taken to provide sufficient interstitial space. For example, the interstitial spaces between PCB pads cannot be filled with solder mask material.

There are multiple columns of nickel particles for every pad (typically, 6-10 columns) That adds an element of redundancy per contact location and lowers the contact resistance.

The contact particles are imbedded in the silicone, so they are protected from fluids or environmental gases. The silicone elastomer also seals the two opposing contact surfaces from each other.

There are nine versions of the PariPoser® fabric, depending on the desired pitch of the pads. The nickel particle size and the overall fabric thickness are selected for the optimum results at each pitch.

The results are spectacular. Published test reports (available upon request) cite the following results for a 0.2mm – 0.5mm pitch PariPoser® fabric: