COVER STORY
designer needed 16 pins and wires leaving the back of the board. The designer used a newer design that
employed a Nano-sized pin to socket system that had been proven in military quality testing. The weight and ease of connection and disconnection met the requirements. The case-study on how to customise or tailor a connector and cable design to specifically meet your instrument:
Step number 1: List your specific needs, such as size, shape, weight, number of wires, kind of signals and how you want the connector to mount or latch onto your electronics. One high-speed, digital communication system for dismounted soldiers required rugged, light weight cable and connectors that were easy to attached in the battlefield. The combination of two power pins and remaining USB-signal pins were needed. Omnetics design team included an electrical engineer and mechanical engineers working with the defence designers. First steps included reviewing current proven products and materials. Some solid-model were shared on-line. In a short time, prototypes were constructed, adjusted for signal speed and sent to testing. This product family solved the problem of wearing a communication cable on the soldier on the ground in the battlefield. Step number 2: Go to the Omnetics website and scan through our military quality standards to find the closest design that fits your needs. Include your electrical performance needs. Step number 3: When designs look close to what you want request 3-D models, they are very quick to make. Rapid 3-D parts come from the solid models you think are correct. Step number 4: When the models look good, ask for a one-only real product from
our specialty machine and prototype group. - We can provide priorities in our prototype lab. That process helps us understand design and manufacturing sequences, and can improve the product. In this example, a wired design was changed to a multi-line flex circuit assembly that significantly reduced cost and assembly time. Reliability appears to be higher than a wired model would be on this high impact test circuit.
Flexible circuit technology has evolved to provide us rapid design and layouts that meet our needs at Omnetics. Both Micro and Nano-sized connector and pin out systems match the flex circuit industry and we have surface mount, through hole, as well as edge card connections available for customized layouts.
Step number 5: finalise the cable design requirements, such as current and voltage levels, exterior jackets, shielding etc. Do you need limpness, lots of bends, exterior exposure, how many connectors and leads? In this case multiple transducer measurements are needed to give the
system user both the shock and vibration of high collision crashes on machines like automobiles.
More often we see demands for ultra- miniature transducer sensors that can measure and or resist issues up to hypersonic speeds in defence devices. Remember to consider cable shielding and or the advantages of micro-coax to contain the signal. A key to good performance in higher speed digital is to manage impedance of the complete cable line, and to match the electrical length so both sides of the signal reach termination at the same time. Step number 6:When ready, request
electrical test and data from early models and or order a low volume production run for full level testing and Q.A. modeling and assurance. In many cases early work with the electrical design team can help identify existing cable designs, such as Fire Wire, that will handle the higher speed digital signaling. When needed the electrical designer may specify placing digital signals on higher impedance coax signals to protect the signals from EMI or Cyber issues. Note that the higher speed digital signals will run on separate sets of differential signal pairs and often have their individual drain wire included within the shielded sets of each pair. For high-density single board computers, Omnetics offers standardised Micro and Nano-sized board mount D-connectors and or strip connectors. These are proven in performance during lift-off and in orbital satellites for communication systems that beam signals down to earth.
Omnetics is a full service connector design company and can adapt your unique design needs to fit the application. Please see our website and or contact the regional sales representatives or more directly the sales staff (
sales@omnetics.com).
Omnetics
www.omnetics.com JULY/AUGUST 2021 | ELECTRONICS TODAY 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54
