A Standardized Reliability Evaluation Framework for Connections
The iNEMI Connector Reliability Test Recommendations team recommends work to define test conditions to evaluate the expected degradation of connectors under the stress levels.
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Authored By:
Vince Pascucci, iNEMI Project Chair
TE Connectivity
Mechanicsburg, PA, USA
Shane Kirkbride
Keysight Technologies, Inc.
Colorado Springs, CO, USA
Benson Chan
Integrated Electronics Engineering Center (IEEC) / Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY, USA
Philip Conde
Dell
Austin, TX, USA
Christian Dandl
Rosenberger Hochfrequenztechnik GmbH & Co. KG
Fridolfing, Bavaria Germany
Ife Hsu
Intel Corporation
Chandler, AZ, USA
Bob Martinson
Lotes
Beaverton, OR, USA
Anne Ryan
Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia)
Dublin, Ireland
Summary
The iNEMI Connector Reliability Test Recommendations Project was organized to address the need for a standardized reliability qualification method for connectors. The project team reviewed current standards pertaining to connector reliability and also conducted an industry-wide connector reliability survey to determine common metrics for connector reliability guidelines across the industry.
This paper summarizes their findings and reviews a multilevel interconnect hierarchy and a matrix of application classes defined by the team. It also discusses possible connector reliability test strategies based on the interconnect hierarchy developed.
Conclusions
From the review of existing documents and the survey responses the project team concluded that there is agreement on the need for some common approach to assessing connector reliability. They also concluded that there is sufficient agreement on definition of levels of interconnect and on primary connector test methods to allow a structure of common application classes and related test conditions to support an effort to develop standard reliability testing protocols for connectors.
The iNEMI Connector Reliability Test Recommendations Project team recommends additional work to define specific test conditions to be used to evaluate the expected degradation of connectors used under the stress levels in the defined application classes. This could form the basis for standardized reliability test procedures for each application class. Such a system of standardized testing would allow designers to more easily compare connectors during their initial system design phase.
Initially Published in the SMTA Proceedings
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