COVER STORY
Solving the need for a connector and cable that must fit your new design
By Bob Stanton, Director of Technology at Omnetics E
lectronic devices are driving our industries to new horizons and are rapidly expanding capabilities and our lives. Changes occurring in image collection and data acquisition techniques drive information routing systems to speed up. Simultaneously, modern signal processing and decision making occurs with nearly zero time delays. We are seeing massive digitisation of data; changing our whole industry with machine-learning robotics, to laser transmitted data and onto fully automated single board computers. Connector and cable systems have expanded from using standard connectors and cables to a new era that is designing modified standard connectors based upon the design specific requirements built on proven military reliability.
New materials and devices are driving changes at all levels to miniaturise, ruggedise and speed up signal processing. Solid-state chips are being built with materials that exhibit rapid exchange charges at very low voltages.
New applications and the need for
tailored connector designs Digitisation has exploded on the scene from medical to defence and onto our orbital space industry. Sensors used in our medical
Connector on Camera
world seemed to begin by offering us EEG and ECG measurements of how our heart works and now is expanding to being applied to nearly every sense and function in our bodies. Designers are building Neuromorphic Computing devices that rely on high speed, parallel processing of the multiple senses of our body signals to mimic the human brain. Our factories are employing image and sense controlled learning-machine computers to assemble automobiles and other equipment. Hyperspectral imaging from orbital surveillance sensors collect digital data from multiple pixel types to collect and process images in three dimensional data as well as exhibiting
various material types inside the image. Our defence industries utilise satellite
constellations that continually scan the earth below and relay massive amounts of digital data loaded onto high speed laser transmission systems that operate far faster than the older microwave radio communications of the past. Remote robots and autonomous weapons roam the battlefield controlled from out of harms-way using high speed digital control and position information. In almost every application above, there
are many spots in the design that can use ruggedised miniature connector and cable systems that exist today. (The advantage of using a standard is that the designer can rapidly get a sample for prototyping and focus on other parts of the system.) In almost every case above, there are also spots in the design that need smaller, tighter fits, unique latching or locking, mixed signals within one cable and even possibly special metal shielding, back-shells, or connection layouts. The process to tailoring a new connector is
straightforward and easy. Note the image of a high density circuit board with a camera lenses mounted on it (left). This is designed for a low weight, rugged robotic arm and can reach into uniquely small spaces. The
12 JULY/AUGUST 2021 | ELECTRONICS TODAY
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