The Impact of Electrical Contact Degradation on Differential Signal Transmission of High Speed Channel

High-speed backplane connectors are extensively used in digital baseband communication circuits. Connector degradation will affect high speed digital signal integrity and communication quality. In the present work, the effect of electrical contact degradation on the differential signal transmission of high speed channels was evaluated using both experimental testing and simulation studies. The differential signal waveforms of high-speed channels with un-degraded and degraded connectors were studied. A model of a high-speed differential channel with a degraded surface was developed and compared with experimental results. The mixed mode S parameters were also measured. The influence of high-speed connector degradation on differential signal insertion loss and return loss was analyzed, and the differential mode to common mode channel transformation was evaluated.