Omron today announced that it has developed an ultra-compact probe pin electroformed through an electroplating process, and commenced its mass production. A probe pin is a contact pin used for inspection of electronic components. The employment of electroforming technology has led to superior characteristics, which are difficult to achieve with the currently available cutting process. Omron’s new probe pin enables a very fine pitch, versatile contact shapes, and a multiple contact point configuration, while being capable of handling a high current load.
A probe pin typically has a cylindrical shape and consists of multiple parts, namely plungers (contacts), a coil spring, and a barrel to house them. Due to this configuration, the conventional probe pin has several drawbacks, which make it difficult to meet a customer’s requirements for fine-pitch, multi-point inspection. Omron overcame these problems by creating a new structure using the company’s proprietary electroforming technology. The result is an electroformed probe pin that has a structure entirely different from that of a conventional probe pin.
