Structural optimization of an electrical spring contact

A fundamental technology employed in some area array connector designs is an electrically conductive spring contact that delivers a contact force when deflected. The structural design optimization analysis of a typical spring contact exhibiting such mechanical behavior is discussed with emphasis on the development of a methodology for acquiring the analytical equations necessary for optimizing the design. This includes equations that govern the spring response (deflections, stresses) due to applied loads and equations that define the objective function (function being optimized) and design constraints (limits imposed on the design) in terms of the design parameters. A performance comparison of two computer programs used to optimize a specific spring contact design is presented. One of the programs was written in C programming language and is based on the development of the analytical equations discussed above. The other program is an ANSYS batch program. Results comparing various measures of performance are presented, including computational efficiency, accuracy, starting point sensitivity, and total execution time.<>