Pickering Electronics’ miniature HV reed relay at the heart of IC test system for On Semiconductor

July 14 2020, Clacton-on-Sea, UK: Pickering Electronics, the reed relay company which has pioneered miniaturization and high performance for over 50 years, has announced that it has developed a miniature high voltage relay for use in a new test rig, designed by globally-renowned chip maker, ON Semiconductor.

In switching systems for test and measurement applications, reed relays are often the best solution thanks to their small size, high isolation resistance, hermetically sealed contacts, fast operate time and long-life expectancy. When developing a new test rig, ON Semiconductor – a long-standing customer of Pickering – identified the need for a reed relay with a stand-off voltage of at least 400VDC, which was also small enough to meet its demanding high switching density requirements.

The internal clearance constraints required by the uprated specs would not fit within the package dimensions of other miniature relays in Pickering’s broad portfolio. However, in just seven weeks, Pickering was able to send first prototypes of a device housed in the mini-SIP package with a footprint of 12.5mm x 3.7mm and a height of 6.6mm able to deliver a minimum stand-off of 1500V.

Comments Keith Moore, Pickering’s CEO: “Because Pickering has all elements of relay design and manufacture in house we are able to respond quickly and effectively to custom requests such as this. In this instance, as so many previously, a special design leads to a new standard product, and so we now offer Series131 devices – industry’s smallest high voltage reed relays.”

Featuring a choice of 3, 5 or 12 volt coils, with optional internal diode, Series 131 reed relays are available in the 1 Form A (energize to make) SPST N.O. configuration, and can switch up to 0.7 amps, 10 watts. Devices are ideal for cable testers, mixed signal/ semiconductor testers, backplane testers, high voltage instrumentation, in-circuit test equipment and other HV applications.

Pickering Electronics also manufactures various other miniature high voltage SIL/SIP reed relays. Series 119 types deliver a stand-off voltage performance of up to 3kV on a footprint of 15.1 x 3.7mm (1 Form A) and a profile of 6.6mm, while Series 104s offer the same high voltage performance but with a higher switching power of up to 25W and a higher coil resistance of up to 3000Ω in a package measuring 24.1 x 6.3 x 8.2mm (1 Form A).