Novel contact materials such as extrinsic conducting polymers can improve contact performance and enable device miniaturisation. This paper presents an investigation of conducting polymer materials used to minimise the effect of fretting slip at the contact interface of connector terminals. Initial experimental studies are presented and a mechanical model is used to describe the polymer interface slip and stick characteristics. For fretting to be minimised the polymer must be sufficiently elastic, with a high coefficient of friction with the contacting terminal, and a sufficient normal force to ensure no slip. Experimental studies of a polymer-tin interface are conducted to characterise contact resistance performance under fretting conditions. A resistance model of the polymer interface is developed.

Electrical properties of contacts between head-tail coupled poly(3-hexylthiophene), PHT and Al (and Au) in planer type and sandwich type diodes of Al/PHT/Au have been studied. The contact resistances are directly evaluated by probing the potential profile of PHT between the metal electrodes using micromanipulators installed in scanning electron microscope. In the potential profile of planer type diode, a large potential cliff is observed at Al/PHT interface and some appreciable potential step is also found at PHT/Au interface. The contact resistance at the Al/PHT interface deduced from the potential profile shows the bias and its polarity dependence, indicating the existing of the Schottky like junction. At forward bias, it is found that the residual resistance at Al/PHT interface limits the diode performance. The residual resistance is supposed to be insulating layer of Al oxide. At larger reversed bias, the contact resistance at Al/PHT decreased abruptly due to the Zener breakdown. The potential profile of sandwich type diode is similar to that of planer type diode. It is found that even the PHT/Au contact shows the ohmic behavior, the contact resistance is significant as to limit the maximum current of the cells.