RMQSI Answers Forum › Category: Electrical Component Reliability › Connector Reliability
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Guest Forum User asked 24 years ago

We are using high-quality connectors (e.g. Cannon, AMP) in a military application. All connectors are PCB mounted. Using MIL-HDBK-217F we predict relatively high failure rates, in fact over 50% of

3 Answers
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RMQSI Technical Staff Member Staff answered 24 years ago

Andy,
The MIL-HDBK-217 connector model was updated in 1992 and reflects the latest data up to that point. Our experience is that connectors in general are a substantial source of field problems, especially intermittent failures. A search of RAC data turned up a summarized PC commercial connector failure rate of 9.6 FITS in a ground benign environment. Thus, this is about 25% of the 40 FIT base failure rate shown for PCB connectors in MIL-HDBK-217F, Notice 2
Seymour Morris

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roman katchmar answered 15 years ago

Could you clarify if the 9.6 FIT failure rate is per contact or for entire connector. If for entire connector, is it possible or even necessary to scale this for hi or lo pins counts.

Thank you

Roman

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smorris answered 15 years ago

Roman,
This was for the entire connector. In theory, it should be scaled for pin count but in practice this is very difficult to do because of a lack of good data.
Seymour