Simple measurement of the transfer impedance of a connector

A small and inexpensive workbench setup is developed to determine the transfer impedance of shielded electric connectors. The primary incentive was the need for a fast, simple, accurate and sensitive method to judge changes in prototypes of small shielded twin lead telecommunication connectors, which are to be combined to large arrays on printed circuit boards. The injected current is directly measured by a sensor integrated in the setup. The induced voltage is determined by a spectrum/network analyzer. The overall sensitivity is 3 muOmega; the frequency range is up to 1 GHz. Calibration does not require special samples. The authors present the measurements of a special coaxial cable with a small hole in the solid shield which provides a mutual inductance of 0.1 pH. Practical connectors are also investigate