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ELECTRONICS I INTERCONNECT Make the right connections
Molex’s military & aerospace marketing manager, Benjamin Jeffrey reveals how the company’s latest interconnect solutions can help reduce complexity and overcome space and weight constraints.
defence and aerospace market. Its innovative product offerings that address the aerospace and defence market have only taken shape during the last two or three years. Q1: Tell me how your latest interconnect solutions can help satisfy performance demands in maintaining a low height profile, reducing system weight and reducing overall footprint onboard today’s aircraft? At this time, Molex is focusing on solutions primarily inside the avionic boxes and control modules. These include highly efficient board-to-board power connectors such as the EXTreme PowerMass; Copper Flex assemblies and very dense high speed signal connector systems, including I-Trac and Impact. We do not participate in the military style circulars such as 38999 types. The only exceptions to this are in the fibre optic area and RF interconnect, where we do have such products such as LumaCore and custom RF Assemblies. In short, our primary focus is making the boxes smaller and more efficient. Q2: Current civil aircraft designs that have employed greater levels of electrical systems require high capacity power generation. What kind of technology demands does this place on Molex’s connectors? Again, the power connectors we provide in this sector are of the board-to-board type. While Molex has a great reputation for power connectors in other industries, those products are not appropriate for aerospace interconnect outside the box or control modules. Q3: To avoid costly redesigns, what kinds of ‘retrofittable’ or modular solutions can you offer designers looking to maintain the entire working life of the aircraft? It is our belief that the upgrades and improvements to both civil and defence platforms will provide major opportunities for Molex products. The units that control the power, plus system upgrades in the units that consume the power will need denser and more efficient, faster interconnects within the boxes. Q4: Are there any other major trends developing, such as ‘one time’ connections to remove the number of mating cycles, higher power voltages, avoiding sole
A
s a key player in many major markets, including consumer, telecoms, industrial, medical and networks, servers and storage, Molex is a relative newcomer in the
The flight control box: Molex is focusing at solutions primarily inside the avionic boxes and control modules
sourcing specials, or special cables that mix power, signal and fibre? There will be increased use of fibre as needed, which we will be watching as we have significant expertise in this technology. Products that can address this area include our FlexPlane, LumaCore and Fibre Optic EMI adapters, to name just a few. Q5: What other developments do you foresee happening in the future? There is research work going on with carbon nanotubes to be used to replace copper as a conductor for significant weight reduction. The first commercial use has been in medical imaging cables due to the material’s transparency. Research into its application for aerospace is being part funded by the US Air Force who has shown significant interest in the technology. As yet, it is not established how efficient it will be in power applications. Although Molex is not involved with this research,
we’re closely following its progress.
www.molex.com
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