Mechanism of contact enhancing chemicals for electrical interconnection

Contact enhancing chemicals, the magic fluids which vanquish intermittent contacts, have been in existence for many years. However, their use has been very limited due to the lack of understanding of their conduction mechanism. In this paper, electrochemical experiments were conducted to reveal the mechanism of conduction through the contact enhancing chemicals. The results have invalidated claims by several manufacturers of contact enhancing chemicals that conduction takes place by means of "tunneling." It has been demonstrated that these novel chemicals function through a rather common conduction mechanism, by serving as an electrolyte for metal dissolution, ionic transport, and metal deposition. Metallurgical examinations have provided direct evidence of the existence of metallic dendrites between mating elements that have been treated with the chemicals, and confirmed the electrochemical reaction mechanism for contact enhancement.