PariPoser® Cost Primer

Cost is an important factor in evaluating a contact mechanism for a socket or a connector. The cost per contact can range from dollars per contact to pennies per contact. That’s quite a range ! The more expensive contacts (like spring pins) are made with precision machined parts, and require careful assembly. Stamped contacts made from a single piece of metal are usually considered the lowest cost alternative (especially in volume situations). But, PariPoser® material has them all beat.

Unit costs per contact at a quantity of thousands of contacts

The reason for the low cost is the way it’s made.

PariPoser® material is made in large sheets that have millions of conductive columns per sheet.

The costly steps used in most contact manufacturing processes are not needed to make the PariPoser® sheets. There’s no stamping, forming, molding, cutting or crimping. The conductive columns are uniformly formed by a powerful magnet that simultaneously aligns millions of the conductive columns in one operation.

A sheet of elastomer
Aligned columns of conductive particles
Elastomer material is Die Cut to the desired shape

Contact pads as seen through sheet of PariPoser material

The desired shape of the material is then cut out of the sheet and placed into a socket or connector. On average, there’s about 2,000 – 3,000 potential contact pad locations per square inch (300 – 500 per square centimeter).


Are there any more costs ?

Yes.

Each socket or connector has additional parts that contribute to the total costs. A few examples are highlighted below.

A PariPoser® LGA socket with a molded  frame.
A PariPoser® photonics socket with a molded frame, a stamped metal clamp, and a machined metal heat sink.
A large PariPoser® BGA socket with a cooling channel.