The Effect of Electrical Connector Degradation on High-Frequency Signal Transmission

Electrical connector failures may alter the signal that is being transmitted and is one of the major causes of low communication quality. As the connector degrades, the dc resistance and the impedance characteristics induced by the corrosion products should both be considered. In this paper, the effects of electrical connector degradation on its high-frequency behaviors were experimentally studied and theoretically analyzed. A series of experiments was conducted to test the internal impedance of connectors for different degradation levels using an impedance analyzer. It was found that when the connector initially degrades, it exhibits an inductive characteristic in the application frequency range. As its further degrades, the inductive characteristic will decrease, and as the degradation increases to a certain degree, the connector will exhibit a more capacitance-like impedance. An equivalent impedance model was developed to explain this phenomenon. Analyzing the degraded pin/receptacle pair and calculating the equivalent impedance parameters, it was found that both the resistance and capacitance induced by the corrosion were frequency +dependent. The nonlinear property and frequency-dependent impedance characteristics of the degraded connector may influence signal reflection and insertion loss and cause system malfunctions.