Modeling and Analysis of Electrical-Thermal Performance of the Contact Surface of Coaxial Connectors at High Frequency and High Power

In high frequency and high-power signal transmission, the quality of the signal is negatively impacted by high temperatures of the contact surfaces in coaxial connectors. The voltage-temperature (V-T) relation is often used to calculate the maximum temperature of electrical contacts, but the measured temperature may not match the theoretical value for high frequency and high-power signal transmission. In this study, a model of the temperature distribution of the contact surface of a coaxial connector was developed. Finite element analysis (FEA) simulations were performed to evaluate the influence of the power and frequency on the temperature of the contact surface, and the electrical and thermal performances of sample coaxial connectors were analyzed. Experiments were conducted to measure the contact temperature for various power and frequency levels. By comparing the measured contact temperature of the test samples with the values calculated using the V-T equation, it was found that the equation may not yield accurate predictions for connectors operating at high frequency and high power. These results show significantly improved predictive capability in high frequency and high power.