Stochastic modeling of coaxial-connector repeatability errors

We propose a new description of connector repeatability errors for coaxial one-port devices. Our approach is based on a stochastic model constructed as a lumped-element equivalent circuit with randomly varying frequency-independent parameters. We represent statistical properties of these parameters with a covariance matrix which is estimated from a small number of repeated measurements (typically 16) of a one-port device under test. We illustrate our approach by modeling connector repeatability errors for 1.85 mm coaxial offset shorts. These results show that our model is capable of reproducing the complicated frequency-dependent behavior of connector repeatability errors for coaxial one-port devices with typically only two or three random parameters.