Customer demands continue to skyrocket for devices that are smaller, more powerful and easier to use. The components that are used to make these devices, therefore, must also follow the same course of innovation. In this article, learn about the latest connectivity solutions from Molex, featuring increased functionality and miniaturized design.
There is a huge demand for miniaturized devices. From the latest automotive technology to the innovations of the smart factory, users and consumers are demanding more functionality, greater performance, and smaller size from a huge range of equipment.
To keep pace with the demands for increased functionality and miniaturized design, components have been forced to shrink, and the current generation of board-to-board connectors offers a pitch of 0.5mm or less. With such low-profile applications becoming common, the problem facing designers is how to achieve the smallest possible connector package while still delivering realistic performance.
The Practical Limits
There are practical challenges associated with fine-pitch connectors. The first is mechanical strength. For a connector with a fine pitch of 0.5 mm, the contacts themselves need to be smaller still to allow sufficient space between one contact and the next. These are usually manufactured using a stamping process, which forms the contact from a flat sheet of metal. Contacts with a thickness of less than 0.5 mm are delicate and need special handling.
A connector also requires an insulator body that will maintain the separation between each contact and provide them with protection to prevent damage during use. These insulators are molded from a range of plastic materials which need to be very thin to be useful in fine-pitch connectors. With both contacts and connector housing manufactured from such thin materials, designers must ensure that they remain robust enough for everyday use.
When the time comes to populate the PCB with components, the connector needs to be placed with a very high level of accuracy. If the contact pitch is just 0.5 mm, then the tolerances for placement are even smaller. Accurate placement is also very important if the connectors provide the link between two parallel boards.
The incredibly fine pitch of the PCB traces and contacts also has implications for the electrical signals that they carry. With parallel traces so close together, there is the danger of crosstalk – the interference of one signal trace caused by another. With higher-speed communications becoming common, the study of Signal Integrity (SI) becomes hugely important.
High-speed signals transmitted through cables, connectors and PCB traces all have the potential to interfere with each other. The closer these channels are, the more they can impact each other, and this tendency grows with higher transmission speeds. Manufacturers must understand these interactions when designing fine-pitch connectors.
These small connectors also need to deliver power to cater to the needs of the latest generation of compact devices. In more conventional designs, power and signal connectors can be mounted separately. This can be useful for thermal management purposes to ensure that heat is more evenly spread, and it separates the sensitive signal parts of the circuit from the power. However, as PCBs become smaller, there is less room to mount separate connectors, and the precision required in their installation becomes greater. This is especially true in instances when they are to be mated at the same time to a parallel or mezzanine PCB where the tolerance for assembly errors becomes very small.
Innovative Solutions
Manufacturers are therefore faced with the need to create the latest generation of connectors that can deliver power and high-speed signals in a single package that is both small and practical.
Molex has spent years developing low-profile connector solutions for the cellphone and wearables markets. Their latest innovations push the boundaries of fine-pitch connectors. The Quad-Row connector delivers up to 36 contacts in a package that is just 3.2mm in length and 0.6mm high. It achieves this small size in a deceptively simple way by employing 4 rows of contacts on a 0.35mm pitch and staggering each row to produce an effective pitch of just 0.175mm. The result is a more manageable footprint for the PCB designer, and greater tolerance during manufacture. The power element at each end of the connector can deliver up to 3 Amps of current at 50 volts, and also provides the mechanical strength to make Quad-Row a practical solution in demanding conditions.
Designers also require fine-pitch connectors that can deliver the high speed required by the Internet of Things. Small connectors lack the internal space for features such as shielding against electromagnetic interference (EMI). This is important in maintaining the superior signal integrity needed for 5G communication. To overcome these challenges, the 5G25 series connector offers industry-leading SI performance to deliver to high-frequency (25 GHz) needs. Molex’s proprietary contact-shielding and isolation of RF terminals preserve a high level of SI performance needed for mission-critical 5G applications.
Electronic devices are getting smaller. Connector manufacturers like Molex are developing solutions that will not only deliver the speed and power capability that the next generation of miniaturized devices needs, but also will be small enough for designers to make the most of the latest technology. Molex and Arrow provide the partnership to deliver miniaturized, innovative solutions to customers, and share a commitment to deliver superior choice for the designer of tomorrow's technology.
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