Through years operation, some of the devices' pins connection gradually become worse and finally burn out due to the high temperature at the connection point. We can check out these risk points via IR scan method. I am trying to have a total solution.
Hello Jy-Jian Chen ,
Have you tried coating the pins with silicone grease? Coating the pins with silicone grease is a standard procedure in automotive electrical and electronic systems. The grease seals out air and moisture, and the thin layer of grease between the pin and its socket, counterintuitively, decreasing the contact resistance.
Regards,
Tom Cuff
Hello Jy-Jian Chen ,
For citations to work on the use of grease on electrical contacts, see p. 154 of my thesis: Research Coherers, a review
. If I have the page wrong, just do a FIND on this document using the term 'silicone'. The beneficial results of using grease on electrical contacts has been known for about 100 years or more.Regards,
Tom Cuff
Dear Jy-Jian Chen ,
I have been using high-power thyristors (SCR's) for many years, and the only way to avoid hot-spot is with the use of conductive paste on the terminals and tightening with specified torque to avoid exposure to air, moisture and imperfect surfaces.
You can use industrial conductive pastes or even those used in microprocessors.
I hope it helped you.
Regards,
Prof. Wiltgen
Hello Jy-Jian Chen ,
I agree with Prof. Filipe Wiltgen that heat sink compound can be used to eliminate thermal hot spots. The white colored, heat sink compounds are a mixture of silicone oil or grease, and ZnO, where the zinc oxide provides the high thermal conductivity; any improvement in the electrical conductivity is actually due to the thin layer of silicon oil or grease, although, zinc oxide is a semiconductor and may also contribute to an increase in electrical conductivity. Today, there are also silver colored, heat sink compounds for use with high clock speed, microprocessor chips. I believe that these heat sink compounds contain micro-spheres of silver suspended in silicone oil or grease, where the silver is both highly thermally conductive and electrically conductive; silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all the metallic elements.
Some heat sink compounds may employ nanoparticle versions of zinc oxide or silver.
What you choose to use (silicone grease, or heat sink compound) depends on things like cost, ease of appplication, cross contamination, limits on leakage resistance due to over-application (e.g., silver heat sink compound), health & safety (e.g., nanoparticle, heat sink compounds), etc.
I also agree that, where it's possible, a torque wrench or screwdriver should be consistently utilized.
Regards,
Tom Cuff
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