One-piece compliant probe

Abstract

A one-piece contact probe comprises a plunger member and a compliant spring section contained in and guided for spring biased axial travel in a tubular outer barrel, in which the plunger member, spring section and barrel are jointly formed of a single integral spring metal piece. In the process for making the compliant contact probe a thin bendable sheet metal piece is formed having a generally flat profile defining the plunger section, the spring section and the barrel section in that order along the integral spring metal piece. The plunger section and the integral spring section are bent from the generally flat profile into a generally tubular-shaped compliant plunger member. The barrel section is rounded from its generally flat profile into a curved profile which is then folded back over the compliant tubular plunger member after which bending of the barrel section is completed to form a generally tubular barrel disposed around the internal compliant plunger member. The process avoids the steps of separately manufacturing the compression spring, plunger and barrel of prior art multi-component spring probes and then assembling the individual components into the finished probe. The compliant contact probe of this invention can be used as a test probe (including for high current carrying applications) as well as a compliant connector.