Pickering Electronics has announced miniature coaxial reed relays for use up to 3GHz, with the company emphasising low insertion loss (-3dB at 3.16GHz right).
Called series 113RF, single-in-line through-hole relays have a 12.5 x 3.7mm footprint and are 6.6 or 8.9mm tall. Pin pitch is 2mm.
The single 1 Form A (normally-open) contact can switching up to 10W and 500mA, and thay are available with 3V (100Ω) or 5V (300Ω) coils.
“At low levels, the typical life expectancy of Series 113RF reed relays is greater than 250 million operations,” according to the company. They have sputtered ruthenium contacts, are considered to be “instrumentation grade reed switches ideal for automatic test equipment.”
The data sheet elaborates: “The life of a reed relay depends upon the switch load. For an end-of-life contact
resistance specification of 1 Ω, switching a 10V 10mA resistive load, or when ‘cold’ switching, typical life is approximately 250 million. At maximum resistive load, typical life is one million operations. In the event of abuse, like high current due to capacitive in-rushes, this figure reduces considerably.”
An internal mu-metal magnetic screen is included to allow them to be stacked closely without adjacent devices interfering with each other.
