Pickering Electronics has established a High Voltage Reed Relay Resource Center, an online technical reference library for engineers building HV switching systems or developing their knowledge. The digital library draws on Pickering’s 55 years of experience in high voltage reed relay technology and contains resources authored by engineers from the company’s Centre of Excellence for high voltage switching.
Pickering introduced its first HV reed relays in 1970 and has since developed a portfolio of reed relays for high voltage switching applications, including mixed-signal semiconductor testers, cable testers, backplane testers, medical electronics, electric vehicles, solar energy systems, in-circuit test equipment, and high voltage instrumentation.
The company established its Centre of Excellence for high voltage switching as a cross-functional team to consolidate and expand knowledge across design, manufacturing, and test disciplines. This team has created the digital reference library to provide engineers with technical information about HV switching systems.
The High Voltage Reed Relay Resource Center covers the technical aspects of high voltage reed relays, including operational principles, device selection criteria, and application optimization. The resource addresses relay construction, including switch blades, gaps, and magnetic screening. It examines failure modes such as vacuum failure, plating material damage, and breakdown conditions. The center provides information on AC and DC considerations, hot and cold switching characteristics, loads, in-rush current management, and test methodologies. The resource also compares reed relays with alternative technologies such as electromechanical relays and solid-state relays for HV applications.
High voltage switching applications have expanded over the past decade with increasingly specific requirements. HV relays require substantial clearances between component parts to reduce arcing probability, along with contact materials that resist erosion during signal switching. Pickering’s 55-year experience in designing and manufacturing HV reed relays enables the company to address varied application requirements with its portfolio of HV relays.
Pickering’s reed relay manufacturing incorporates instrumentation-grade reed switches rated for billions of cycles, formerless coil construction, and the company’s patented SoftCenter technology for mechanical robustness. Internal or external mu-metal screening allows high packing densities with reduced magnetic interference. Each relay undergoes 100% testing, including dynamic contact wave-shape analysis, for quality verification.
