Battery connectors designed to prevent end-user contact damage

Specially designed to prevent end-user damage to the contacts in electronic devices with pluggable modules that vertically mate with a base unit, a new series of low-profile battery connectors has been introduced by AVX. The 9155-800 Series vertical-mate, 2mm-pitch battery connectors feature ultra-robust and reliable gold-plated beryllium copper (BeCu) contacts that deliver excellent electrical and mechanical performance for more than 5,000 mating cycles, in addition to a novel contact geometry designed to deflect cleanly and easily when a module or mating connector is vertically pushed into position. The contact geometry of the 9155-800 Series allows for full vertical engagement in pluggable module applications, the contact tip incorporates an anti-snag feature to protect the contacts during deflection, and plastic locating bosses and SMT anchor tabs maximize the mechanical stability of the connector in harsh conditions. The features, combined with the superior performance of the BeCu contacts, effectively eliminate the potential for end-users to inadvertently damage the contacts in a variety of consumer, medical, industrial, and harsh environment applications, including: handheld and portable devices that require docking or cradling, patient monitoring devices, portable medical electronics, Internet appliances with battery backups, and industrial devices that utilize pluggable or programmable modules. “Traditional battery connectors with right-angle contact geometries require pluggable modules to be inserted at an angle and then rotated down into position,” said Tom Anderson, connector product manager, AVX. “Although seemingly insignificant, the additional step required to successfully mate these connectors increases the potential for miss-mating by half. So, since exposed contacts in battery charging and other similar applications can be damaged by miss-mating, we designed our new 9155-800 Series battery connectors to vertically mate without any additional alignment, and to be both compact and electrically flexible enough to provide a broad range of electronic devices with improved connector solutions.” Compatible with both signal and power circuits, 9155-800 Series vertical-mate, 2mm-pitch battery connectors are available with two to six positions, and are rated for 125VAC; 1.5A or 2A, depending on the number of positions (five and six or two to four, respectively); and operating temperatures spanning -40C to +125C. The RoHS-compliant series features black, glass-filled Nylon 46 (UL94V0) insulators, and BeCu contacts with either 0.4µm or 0.8µm gold-over-nickel plating and pure tin tails.