Helium-3 Press Contact Assemblies
Building on the great success of our rotator press contact assemblies, we have developed a similarly low form-factor solution for the PPMS helium-3 refrigerator sample mounts. Combining the single-board overlay of our regular press contact assemblies with the compact probes and screw-down attachment method of our rotator press contact boards, these assemblies extend our renowned ease of sample mounting and exchange to the constrained space environment of the helium-3 refrigerator. As standard, samples up to 2 mm thick can be accommodated.
Our standard resistivity option design features both available measurement channels broken out to the same 2 mm spaced linear arrays of contact pins as our puck-based assemblies. Other layouts are available on request.
| Probe material | Full-hard beryllium copper, gold-plated over nickel |
| Probe type | Round tip |
| Contact resistance | < 100 mΩ |
| Current rating | 2 A continuous, 3 A peak |
| Probe travel | 1.4 mm |
| Spring force | 0.5 N at 0.7 mm travel |
| Durability | 1,000,000 cycles |
| Functional temperature | 0.4 – 350 K |
| PC-HE3-RES | Helium-3 resistivity press contact assembly | £350 |
Note that, unlike the sample puck press contact assemblies, the helium-3 assemblies do not feature replaceable probe tips due to their small size, and are generally significantly less robust than their larger counterparts. While they should survive many measurements, they must be viewed as intrinsically consumable items. A small cross-head screwdriver is the only tool required for sample mounting.