Connectors are widely used in electrical systems and are subject to a variety of degradation mechanisms that can negatively impact electrical performance. One major cause of degradation is vibration induced fretting. While there has been considerable work on the effects of general connector degradation and defects on high frequency characteristics, there has been little focused work that specifically considers effects of vibration induced fretting in actual coaxial connector systems.

Accordingly, in the present work, a detailed study of an example coaxial connector with a degraded contact surface was conducted, and the effects on vibration induced fretting are characterized using the high frequency results considering the parameters of resistance, capacitance, and inductance. The contact degradation process caused by the fretting was investigated using theoretical analysis, software simulation, and experimental tests. Simulations were performed to evaluate the high frequency behavior within a frequency range of 0.1 MHz to 1.0 GHz. An experimental investigation was conducted to investigate the effect of degraded contact surfaces on high frequency characteristics and provide validation for the model results. The simulation results were consistent with the measured results for both fresh and degraded connectors. Compared to the fresh condition, the S parameters and S 21 11 parameters of the first and second degradation levels increased and decreased, respectively. These results indicate that contact damage due to fretting in the sample system generally results in the deteri oration of high frequency properties and signal integrity.