  The ITER Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) system is designed to couple
to the plasma 20 MW of RF power from two antennas in the 40-55 MHz frequency
range during long pulses of up to 3600 s and under various plasma conditions
with Edge Localized Modes. Radio-Frequency (RF) contacts are integrated within
the ITER ICRH launcher in order to ensure the RF current continuity and ease
the mechanical assembly by allowing the free thermal expansion of the Removable
Vacuum Transmission Line coaxial conductors during RF operations or during
250{\textdegree}C baking phases. A material study has been carried out to
determine which materials and associated coatings are relevant for RF contacts
application in ITER. In parallel, RF tests have been performed with a new
prototype of Multi-Contact (r) LA-CUT/0,25/0 contacts made of silver-coated
CuCrZr louvers. During these tests on a RF vacuum resonator, currents between
1.2 kA and 1.3 kA peak have been reached a few tens of times in steady-state
conditions without any visible damage on the louvers. A final 62MHz pulse
ending in a 300s flat top at 1.9kA resulted in severe damage to the contact. In
addition, a test bed which performs sliding test cycles has been built in order
to reproduce the wear of the contact prototype after 30 000 sliding cycles on a
3 mm stroke at 175{\textdegree}C under vacuum. The silver coating of the
louvers is removed after approximately a hundred cycles whilst, to the
contrary, damage to the CuCrZr louvers is relatively low.
