Connectors are important components of electrical and electronic systems in various applications. Therefore, the reliability and performance of connectors are crucial in the required products. If the connector is not qualified, it may cause system failure or poor performance, thereby affecting productivity, delaying product delivery, causing economic losses, and damaging the company's reputation. Therefore, the correct selection of connectors is a key factor in the success of the final product.
Connector Selection Guide
Before selecting the appropriate connector for an application, users must consider several key factors. Without comprehensive knowledge and practical experience, inexperienced engineers find it difficult to consider numerous factors that must be taken into account. Newcomers and young system designers may also need assistance in selecting the best connectors for products that must operate reliably in harsh environments.
With decades of rich experience accumulated through a wide range of robust and durable applications, as well as professional knowledge mastered in a wide range of connector production processes, Harwin engineers have provided seven factors to consider before choosing the right connector to help designers select the appropriate connector based on specific applications. Factors to consider include vibration, size, design complexity, electromagnetic interference (EMI), data transmission speed, durability, and supply chain reliability. Due to the rapid development of demanding fields such as industry, the Internet of Things, and transportation, designing systems must not only meet current needs but also consider future requirements.
Consider various key factors
In industrial and other heavy machinery applications, systems exposed to high levels of vibration may suffer physical damage and severely compromise signal integrity due to pin misalignment. The connectors designed and developed by major manufacturers such as Harwin can withstand vibrations up to 20G, ensuring the reliability and performance of connectors under harsh conditions.
As connectors become increasingly miniaturized, size has also become an important consideration. The pursuit of compact appearance, surface mount housing, and constantly decreasing pin spacing has also become a routine operation for connector manufacturers. Similarly, with the advancement of technology, the tolerance of connectors for deviations is constantly increasing.
Similarly, with the rapid popularity of electronic devices in modern systems, EMI has always been a problem on printed circuit boards (PCBs) and circuit enclosures in industrial and other similar harsh environments. In addition to addressing EMI issues on printed circuit boards and enclosures, users must also ensure that the selected connectors can reduce existing and future EMI levels. A common method to reduce EMI in connectors is to wrap them with conductive materials to form a shielding layer. In order to form effective shielding, it is also necessary to ground the conductive shielding layer.
In addition, in applications such as industrial automation and data center backplanes that require high-density and high-speed interconnection, insertion loss and crosstalk performance may also be considered important selection criteria.
Durability is also an important characteristic of connectors. Designers must determine the number of insertions of the connector during its service life. Based on these calculation results, designers must determine whether to use standard connectors or specialized high reliability connectors.
Designers must also ensure that connector distributors are reliable and trustworthy, and comply with the Electronic Components Industry Association (ECIA) standards to prevent counterfeit and inferior products from entering the market. Choosing the right connector manufacturer is equally important, as it will affect the quality and reliability of connector products under the harshest conditions, while ensuring that high-quality products can also be obtained in the future.
Harwin is one of the trusted high-quality manufacturers in the market, with its Kontrol series connectors that are durable, reliable, earthquake resistant, and impact resistant. They offer a variety of pin numbers and form factor options, making them suitable for mission critical applications that require strict requirements and eliminate failures.
Harwin continues to expand the Kontrol M55 product portfolio and improve its performance in response to evolving demands. The latest product has a spacing of 1.27 mm, which can save space on densely packed printed circuit boards (Figure 1). The M55 connector is designed to withstand high levels of vibration in industrial and embedded applications. It features a full face design and includes additional fixing tabs, allowing it to withstand vibrations up to 20G for over 12 hours. In addition, these connector products are not only specifically designed for high-strength impact and have passed relevant tests, but also have locking mechanisms to ensure reliable connections. Other key features include a 500 plug life, 3 Gbps data transmission speed, 1.2 A single contact rated current, surface mount (SM) housing, and a wide operating temperature range of -55 ° C to+125 ° C.