A spring probe is an electric device that connects the DUI (Device Under Test) with the test machine’s electronics. It is also known as a pogo pin, contact probe, or a test probe.

A spring probe that comes in a compressed height of 2mm is suitable for the board to board contacts, battery contact, high density, and high-frequency applications. It can prove useful on pitches as tight as 0.4mm.

what are the uses of a spring probe

Blind-mating connection compatibility

In some application solutions, aligning a pin to a receptacle can prove difficult because of restricted visibility in the design, also referred to as a blind mate. A misalignment of the pin to receptacle can often lead to damaged contacts, bent pins, missing pr poor connections.

A spring probe pin design allows the plunger tip to come into contact with the conductive surface, probably a PCB (printed circuit board). With a spring probe pin, there is no insertion; therefore, it eliminates any concerns about misalignment or potential damage to the components. It is an ideal solution for blind mating connections.

Board to board connections

The pogo pin offers solutions in a board to board connection between two or more boards. It is reliable in stacking boards with each other with the benefit of the spring movement to accommodate misaligned boards, tolerance stack-ups, and errors in parallelism. From perpendicular boards to vertical or horizontal boards,  a spring-loaded pin is useful.

Test points

Some boards need verification after the final assembly. Spring probes can be useful in high volume automatic test environments as they provide easy access and reliability.

Paired with a remarkable Test Tooling and Solutions Group, a well-designed spring probe with signal integrity expertise can offer excellent electrical performance and high reliability.

Device charging

A pogo pin is a useful tool for charging batteries of portable instruments and handheld devices for data and power transfer purposes. Contact occurs with the pin plunger tip. It allows for blind mating and misalignment when placing the device or battery in the cradle, making it a perfect tool for such an application.

Many options are available in terms of spring force, height, and travel; thus, any system can integrate with it.

Used in cable termination

A spring probe can be useful in wire or cable harness applications. It allows the user to terminate the cable into a spring-loaded pin or press-fit the spring pin into plastic housing. Hence, they create a cable terminated connector with the benefits of a spring-loaded contact as the connection point.

It provides a solution for quick connect applications and blind mating and typically everything associated with cable connectors.

The mechanical ability to resist shock and vibration makes them a useful tool for constant handling and jostling of cables.

conclusion

A spring probe has a high-frequency speed, making it essential for reliable connector solutions in both digital and analog applications.

Paul Petersen