The dependence of arcing duration and energy in break operations for automotive relays was analysed with breaking current/voltage waveforms. Endurance tests were conducted with AgSnO2, AgNi10 and AgNi0.15 contacts under the loads of resistance, lamp and inductance, respectively, at 14 VDC. The experimental results shows breaking current (or break arc) duration is usually low and stable before welding occurs. The welding may appear suddenly or randomly without any preceding cumulated increases in the arc duration, the quantity of electric charges, nor the arcing energy. The welded contacts may be re-opened in the later break operation and, thereafter, can keep on working normally for many times.

In the paper, we propose a new method for chromatic dispersion measurement of WDM components in both transmission and reflection, employing photonic microwave technology. The dispersion can be determined by measuring the frequency spectrum range change of the microwave notch filter. The method features the advantages of low-cost and simplicity. Experimental results demonstrate that our setup is capable of measuring relative group delay with better than 1 ps time resolution and the measurement results show a good agreement with that measured by the conventional phase-shift technique.