Electrical contact reliability: how is it determined?

Abstract

Summary form only given. There are at least two approaches to ensuring reliable connector performance. One is to require that a safety factor be built into the connector which provides some level of assurance of reliable performance. The second approach discussed here is the determination of reliability based on a statistical treatment of test data. To determine contact reliability using this approach, the following issues are considered: first, the active degradation mechanisms must be identified and categorized with respect to their importance in the application of interest; second, appropriate tests, acceleration factors, and exposures must be known, defined, or determined, for these degradation mechanisms; third, failure criteria appropriate to the application of interest must be established; and forth, the statistical approach to determining, or calculating, reliability values must be agreed on.<>