Nonlinear phenomena in electrical contacts deteriorate the quality of communication systems with the production of passive intermodulation (PIM). The theoretical evaluation of PIM as a function of the physical parameters of the contact is rather complicated. Standard linear and macroscopic contact models do not take into account all microscopic aspects of the contact responsible for its nonlinear behavior. For the above reason, an accurate analysis of the PIM should be carried out by using microscopic contact models, defined by dozens of parameters, some of which cannot be precisely measured or estimated. This article presents a statistical analysis of the PIM level by taking into account a possible uncertain interval for the physical parameters of the contact. Such statistical interpretation is then used in order to identify the most relevant physical parameters for the PIM generation via a sensitivity analysis, through the use of a surrogate model that speeds up the huge amount of PIM computations. The results of the sensitivity analysis allow us to build a simpler model depending only on few dominant parameters.

中文翻译：

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电接触引起的无源互调的灵敏度分析


电接触中的非线性现象会产生无源互调 (PIM)，从而恶化通信系统的质量。 PIM 作为接触物理参数函数的理论评估相当复杂。标准线性和宏观接触模型没有考虑接触导致其非线性行为的所有微观方面。由于上述原因，需要使用微观接触模型来对PIM进行准确分析，该模型由数十个参数定义，其中一些参数无法精确测量或估计。本文通过考虑接触物理参数可能存在的不确定区间，对 PIM 级别进行了统计分析。然后使用这种统计解释，通过敏感性分析，通过使用加速大量 PIM 计算的替代模型，来识别与 PIM 生成最相关的物理参数。敏感性分析的结果使我们能够构建一个仅依赖于少数主要参数的更简单的模型。