Importance

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Abstract

A coaxial contact assembly (10,10', 10') has a cylindrical ground plunger (30) which is fixedly attached to the ground conductor (1b) of a coaxial cable (1,1') through a ground sleeve (28) and mounted in a test head support (4) for sliding movement therein. An inner contact plunger barrel (18) is fixedly attached to the signal conductor (1a) of the coaxial cable either through a signal sleeve (16) for a replaceable inner contact assembly, or directly for a dedicated unit. An inner contact plunger (20) received in the plunger barrel has a contact portion (20c) biased outwardly to extend a selected amount beyond the ground plunger (30) in a given direction by a first spring member (24) while a second spring (36) biases the ground plunger outwardly in the given direction to a preset location. The spring force of the second spring is greater than that of the first spring so that initially plunger (20) will move inwardly independently of the ground plunger upon engagement with a test site until coplanarity occurs after which both the inner and outer contact portions will move together. Contact assemblies may be joined together through a flexible cable to form a double-ended configuration which can accommodate offset as well as in-line mounting. The ground plunger (30) and inner contact plunger barrel (18) are maintained in spaced coaxial relation by use of spaced members (32,34) in one embodiment and a single member having spaced apart portions (32',34') joined by a reduced diameter web (33) in a modified embodiment.

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First Claim