The Impact of Connector Brackets on the CS114 Performance of Digital Interconnects

Conductive susceptibility requirements for many missions require that systems demonstrate full functionality in the presence of the expected conductive noise environment for the mission. The CS114 standard attempts to simulate such environments by subjecting cables to modulated sinewaves, where the modulation is a baseband 1.0 kHz, 50% duty cycle bipolar square wave signal. Oftentimes, connector brackets are inserted along the cable's propagation path when the cable run is long (e.g., 5.0 m). The impacts of these brackets on the response of the cable run to the CS114 excitation is not well known. This paper addresses the performance of a 5.0 Gbps differential digital interconnect in the presence of the CS114 excitation and attempts to disclose how this interference degrades the received differential signal when a connector bracket exists along the propagation path.