Novel wiring harnesses are being implemented by automotive manufacturers to reduce costs, reduce weight, save on material, and improve functionality and reliability. Interconnecting of these wiring harnesses such as 'flat' wiring using convectional connector technology is not always appropriate. This paper highlights the issues of using convectional connecting technology for 'flat' wiring. Fretting is considered to be a major concern. The use of extrinsic conducting polymers (ECP) as the interconnecting material is investigated because of certain advantages to minimise the effect of fretting. However polymer resistively is often high limiting their current carrying capacity. Surface analysis tools are used to characterise ECP terminals and used to build a resistance model of the ECP terminal based on multiple conducting channels. The model is found to give resistance values close to experimental results. The model predicts the effect of normal force, particle size and particle distribution on resistance.
Conducting polymer interconnection of 'flat' wiring or minimise fretting in the automotive application
Leitfähige Polymere zur Verbindung von Flachkabeln und Minimierung der Kontaktermüdung in der KFZ-Elektronik
2002
6 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 15 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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