In this article, we will be discussing the topic of pogo pins and pogo heads. A pogo pin or sometimes called spring-loaded pin is a variety of electric connector that can be found in most of the modern electronic devices and in the electronics testing industry. Due to the pin’s resemblance to a pogo stick, spring-loaded pin is also called pogo pin for this very reason. In most types of pin mechanics, they use a cantilever spring or expansion sleeve unlike pogo pins which utilise a helical spring. Material vise, copper alloys are usually the most common choice to make the springs. As for the barrel and plunger of pogo pins, brass and copper are usually selected as base material and then applied a thin layer of nickel on it. A gold plating is also applied to improve the contact resistivity.
Pogo pins are getting more and more popular in the electronics testing industry nowadays and it is not without reasons. Pogo pins have been created for roughly 5 decades and its functionality has been improving year after year. The first reason for why we are preferring pogo pins in this line of work is the low cost of pogo pins. In comparison, pogo pins are more efficient than the other connectors and the production costs are much cheaper. Almost all connectors face the same problem. They are either very stable but big in size or they are very fragile but small in size. Pogo pins on the other hand have both of two worlds. They are extremely small but their functionality doesn't decrease. Another advantage that the pogo pins have over the other pins is that pogo pins are the most durable among them. Pogo pins are fairly easy to assemble. Most engineers have to worry about the assembly when designing a device. Using pogo pins, they are able to quickly assemble the parts while having much more flexibility compared to using other connectors.
One of the companies that sells pogo pins is TTS Group. One of their products sold is pogo pins aka probe pins. The list of products sold can be categorised into three categories which are pogo pins, test sockets and hand socket lid. There is a wide selection of pogo pins to choose from. In the pogo pin category, there is a Kelvin Probe, Wiping Probe, WLCSP Probe and of course, the High Power Probe. Each of the probes has their own dimensions and their own functions.
The next item on the list is the pogo pin socket. It is confirmed that one of the key elements in developing and testing a semiconductor product is the pogo pin sockets. Everyone plays a different role in this world and so do sockets. Each type of socket provides different parameters in different product testing processes. Pogo pin sockets are most commonly used but if the parameters are too extreme, engineers will have to use another type of connectors to solve this issue.
There are several advantages as to why we use pogo pin sockets. Just like their counterpart, the pogo pin, pogo pin sockets also have high durability. One of the most important things in starting a business is to know what the customer needs. Pogo pin sockets did a very good job in this case as it can be easily adapted to customer needs. Next, pogo pin sockets’ performance are very excellent in their jobs and they are specially suitable for High-Frequency applications. The pogo pin sockets are also small in size which in turn are able to achieve space-saving compared to plugs in their line of work. TTS Group also sells pogo pin sockets and the dimensions of those sockets are listed in their website.