Design of New Gold Alloy
A New Electrical
Contact Alloy With
High Reliability
Based on Gold
Electric contact materials are essential electronic
components in electronic products. Reliability is the most
important performance characteristic for light duty electric
contact materials used in mini relays. In addition to high
electrical and thermal conductivity, gold has high chemical
stability and does not form surface films of oxide, sulfide and
‘brown powder’ in oxygen-, sulfur- and organic vapor-
containing atmospheres, so maintains low and stable contact
resistance. Gold is suitable for applications in light duty
precision contacts, and is rarely replaced by other metals or
alloys under the condition of the power distribution with very
weak electric current of 1-10μA and low voltage of 1-50mv.
On the other hand, however, gold contacts are liable to arc
and form sharp splinters and even to weld, due to its low yield
strength, elasticity and melting point as well as its volt-
ampere characteristic. Therefore the alloying of gold is
necessary to enhance the above properties.
Yuantao Ning, Ying Peng, Hong Dai
Kunming Institute of Precious Metals,
Kunming 650221, Yunnan, China
E-mail: ytning2002@yahoo.com.cn
Received 13 April 2002
A new gold alloy (NSCGA) was designed and prepared
for light duty precision contacts. The microstructure,
mechanical, electrical and applied properties of the
NSCGA alloy were studied. The NSCGA alloy contains
copper, palladium, platinum, nickel and rhodium as
well as gold. The unique structure comprised of two
phases, a gold-rich solid solution as the matrix and a
platinum-rich solid solution as a strengthening phase.
The matrix presents short-range ordering in the
temperature range 200-900°C, which leads to the
specific resistance of the alloy decreasing, and a
modulated structure at low temperatures, which is
responsible for age strengthening. The NSCGA alloy
has low specific resistance, high tensile strength and
high Vickers hardness. Various TO-5 type relays (TO-5
relay is a sealed mini relay with magnetic preservation)
with NSCGA alloy as contacts were prepared and tested
in a special relay factory under industrial conditions.
NSCGA alloy contacts showed stable and low contact
resistance, long loading life and high reliability,
superior to that of an available conventional six-
component palladium alloy. The NSCGA alloy and the
composites with NSCGA alloy as a covering layer and
copper alloys as a base have been evaluated in various
TO-5 type mini relays and other electric products.
Multi-component alloying has been a main trend for the
development of electric contact alloys since the 1970s. In the
1980s, the price of gold was ca. 3-4 times higher than that
of palladium. As a results of this a series of multi-component
palladium alloys were studied and used as contact materials
in weak electric current and light load field. Among them, a
palladium alloy, composition Pd-30 Ag-14 Cu-10 Pt-10 Au-1 Zn
(wt.%) [1-3], had more extensive applications and was also
used in mini relays. Electrical contact materials made of
palladium alloys, however, are often unable to satisfy the
demand for low electric current level and high reliability due
to the formation of insulating polymers from organic vapors.
On the other hand, the price of palladium fluctuates rapidly
and has been much higher than that of gold in recent years.
To satisfy the demand for an electrical contact material with
higher reliability and lower price, a new electrical contact
alloy with high reliability based on gold was studied in the
present work.
The design of the compositions of the new gold alloy
reflected two principles. At first, it should be a multi-
component alloy based on gold in order to ensure high
reliability and good comprehensive properties. Secondly, it
must have high hardness and strength by means of second
phase strengthening in order to have high wear resistance
and long duration of service. More specifically, the alloy is six-
component, composed of gold, copper, palladium, platinum,
nickel and rhodium. The content of gold of a typical alloy is
equal to 61 wt.%, and that of copper, palladium and
platinum is 14, 10, and 10 percent in weight, respectively, in
addition to small amounts (5 wt.%) of nickel and rhodium.
Because the solubility of rhodium in gold is negligible [4],
rhodium must be alloyed to platinum to form a second
phase. The alloy is a new six-component gold alloy
Gold Bulletin 2002 • 35/3
75