A novel concept utilizing conductive polymers on power connectors during hot swapping in live modular electronic systems

Power connectors are often used during hot plugging in a live system. Hot plugging is defined as when daughtercards are cycled with power on. When the power connectors are hot plugged the contact plating becomes degraded over numerous mating cycles due to the arcing phenomenon (high discharge of energy). The arcing causes the plating to degrade or wear away, which would lead to an open circuit or even system fires. In today's high-speed electronic systems it is critical that such failure does not occur because backplanes are not easily assessable for repairs. This paper presents a novel concept that utilizes conductive polymers to discharge the energy when power connectors are hot swapped in live systems. By utilizing this new concept, it eliminates the use of utilizing sacrificial power contacts for hot swapping power connectors in live systems. And in turn prevent the degradation of the contact plating, reduce system failures, and reduce system cost. The power connectors are also tested according to the UL1977 specifications for hot swapping power connectors to validate the design concept.