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Mechanc RF & Microwave Components

Test & Measurement Environments

Thermal & Stress Simulation Testing

Environmental testing asks a component to prove it still works after the world has finished with it. Temperature cycling, vibration, humidity and vacuum are applied in sequence or together — and the cabling that carries the measurement into the chamber has to survive the same conditions without becoming the thing that failed.

TVAC
Thermal Cycling
Vibration
Feedthrough
-65 to +165 °C
-65 to +165 °C
Cycling Range
20 g RMS
Vibration
1E-6 Torr
Vacuum
Design Notes

Measuring Inside a Chamber

Five constraints on interconnect that has to work inside the environment being simulated.

01
In-Chamber Cabling
Cable inside the chamber experiences the full profile. Its own loss and phase change with temperature, and that change is superimposed on whatever the device is doing.
02
Feedthrough Integrity
The chamber wall is a pressure and thermal boundary. A feedthrough that leaks under vacuum or condenses under humidity invalidates the run.
03
Separating Cable from Device
A useful test distinguishes device drift from cable drift. That usually means characterising the cable across the same profile first, so it can be subtracted.
04
Mechanical Coupling
On a shaker, anything attached to the device is part of the mass being driven. Cable routing and strain relief change the resonance the test is trying to measure.
05
Cycle Endurance
Qualification campaigns run hundreds of cycles. Cabling that degrades halfway through leaves you unable to say when the device changed.
Reference Data

Typical Chamber Requirements

Test standards and programme specifications govern. These are representative.

ParameterTypical RequirementRelevant SeriesNote
Temperature cycling-65 °C to +165 °CHigh-temperature seriesIn-chamber cabling
VacuumTo 1E-6 TorrLow-outgassing seriesTVAC campaigns
Random vibration20 g RMSRuggedised assembliesMIL-STD-202 Method 214
Phase stabilityCharacterised vs. temperaturePhase-stable seriesSo it can be subtracted
FeedthroughSealed bulkheadBulkhead adaptersBoundary integrity
Cycle enduranceFull campaign lengthQualified assembliesNo mid-campaign change
Our Role

What We Supply for Environmental Test

01
Chamber-Rated Assemblies
Cable and connectors selected for the profile the chamber actually runs, not just for room-temperature performance.
02
Feedthrough to DUT
Runs sized for the chamber geometry with sealed bulkhead transitions, so the boundary stays intact through the campaign.
03
Characterised Behaviour
Assemblies supplied with measured performance so cable drift can be separated from device drift.
Environmental Test Support

Running a Qualification Campaign?

Send us the profile, the chamber geometry and the device interface, and our engineers will propose the interconnect.