Influence of the organic pollution on the reliability of HE9 connectors

Edge connectors are very commonly used in instrumentation and control (I&C). Failures are difficult to explain and to predict. As a consequence the long-term reliability is difficult to demonstrate. We present in this paper the results of studies we carried out on the influence of the organic pollution in the reliability of HE9 connectors that have been used for more than 25 years. We demonstrate that organic pollution is one of the main important factor that influences the reliability and give an analysis method to evaluate its impact.