A novel model of failure rate prediction for circular electrical connectors

The reliability of electrical connectors has critical impact on electronic systems. It is usually characterized by failure rate prediction value according to standard MIL-HDBK-217 (or GJB-299C in Chinese) in engineering practice. Given to their limitations and mislead results, a new failure rate prediction models needs to be presented. The presented model aims at the mechanism of increase of film thickness which leads to the increase of contact resistance. The estimated failure rate value can be given at different environmental conditions, and some of the factors affecting the reliability are taken into account. Accelerated degradation test (ADT) was conducted on GJB599III series electrical connector. The failure rate prediction model can be simply formed and convenient to calculate the expression of failure rate changing with time at various temperature and vibration conditions. This model gives an objective assessment in short time, which makes it convenient to be applied to the engineering.