Magnetic and Mechanical Design of
Kunio Hinohara, Tatsuo Kobayashi, Chihiro Kawakita · 1992
Abstruct- Reed switches have hermetically sealed contacts which are entirely free from environmental dust and moisture. Therefore, reed switches are used in various fields of applications which require high reliability. Since the miniature and high density electronic apparatus were developed, the miniaturization of reed switches has been in high demand. The reed switches for the PCB mounted miniature reed relays and the surface mounted miniature reed relays have especially been in high demand. The reed switch which has been used for communication is rather large. The whole length is 46 mm and is composed of a 2% long glass capsule. However, the design of the reed switch itself is almost ideal. This paper discusses the miniaturization limit of the reed switch with respect to the magnetic and mechanical properties. Assuming that the contact rating, the switching current and voltage, the carry current, and the breakdown voltage decrease, it was found that the ultraminiature reed switch with a glass inner diameter of 1.0 mm and a glass inner length of 4.0 mm can be put in mass production by using the existing pmcess technology. Index Terms-Contact, reed switch, reed relay, magnetic design, mechanical design, miniaturization.