METRRA Shielded Cable Connector Tester (SCCT)

Shielded cables are used as a primary hardness feature in nearly all EM hardened systems. In certain cases, such as High Intensity RF (HIRF) hardened commercial aircraft, shielded cables are the only hardening feature relied ypon. Therefore, if the cable shield is degraded, then the hardness of the entire system may be jeopardized. A number of test techniques and products have been developed and are available for the purpose of testing and evaluating the shielding effectiveness of shielded cables. However, none offer a practical and cost effective solution for rapid evaluation of a large number of shielded cables during system maintenance. The proposed project will demonstrate the feasibility of using non-linear effects in conjunction with wideband processing techniques to provide a non-invasive shielded cable transfer impedence measurement technique.