Reliability qualification of optical connectors

The demand of telecom operators for a 15 year lifetime of their systems is imposing a big challenge on component manufacturers. It means that also for optical connectors - which are used in large numbers in DWDM systems - the wear-out region must not be reached even after 25 years. However, how can it be shown that a connector will live for more than 25 years? Different approaches are possible: Collection of field data can supply information on the statistical failure rates at operating temperature. Accelerated aging tests (often simply called reliability tests) try to simulate aging under defined conditions. Our focus is on the reliability qualification according to the PAS (publicly available specification) IEC 62005-9-2 which is based on the co-work of Siemens with the connector manufacturers and assemblers Corning, Diamond, Huber+Suhner, Molex and TycoElectronics. This standard should now be overworked with the help of the results of the first common testing program which has recently been carried out by the Siemens ICN "Center for Quality Engineering".