Molex

Think about it, the trends today in consumer electronics is not “bigger is better.”  Yes, Americans have gone to great lengths to buy bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger dogs, and if you’re a passionate golfer like myself – a bigger driver.  However, when it comes to consumer gaming systems, computers, tablets, notebook PCs, DVRs, smartphones, digital music players, electronics readers or digital cameras; we want them to be smaller, thinner, lighter, more portable, consume less power and last for weeks without a charge. We hate replacing batteries or picking up our favorite device to find that is dead.  Gadget makers are having to pack more features in a smaller or similar footprint with stronger batteries.  We want to take our consumer gadgets with us everywhere and anywhere.  Kids today are filling backpacks when they go on vacation not with books, but with all the consumer devices that they must have with them on a 3-hour flight.  Thank goodness for Molex Evaldi (503700 series) audio earbud headsets Molex Evaldi (503700 series) audio earbud headsets (shown below), so parents don’t have to hear these video soundbites 24/7.

I have seen this trend for coming for the past 10 years. Recently as a Product Manager for Molex’s Micro Products Division, I am front and center on this crusade to help design engineers and marketing minds develop smaller micro board-to-board connectors with more robust features to deliver better mechanical reliability, in the same small PCB real estate.  When people ask what I do, I tell them I sell real estate to guys designing printed circuit boards.  Molex Microminiature connectors add value by consuming less space on the PCB.  If you’re designing connectors for I/O, getting on the edge of the board is like buying oceanfront property in Hawaii.  It’s expensive space, so they need small microminiature solutions from Molex.

Today, Molex micro b-to-b products are the lowest profile in the industry, with a height of 0.70mm and a narrow footprint width of 2.50mm to maximize the board space.  Our SlimStack™ 503304/503308 series (shown below) and SlimStack 503548 / 503552 series HRF products provide you more features in 30% less space.

These microminiature connectors make smartphones thinner and smaller to make portable gaming systems more fun with 3D experience.  Devices come with WiFi-enabled features so kids can send text messages to each other while waiting in the doctor’s office or in school. But what’s next? What are the future needs of the design engineering community to make that next generation consumer gadget?  Do our micro connectors need to be bulletproof, splashproof, waterproof, or drop-proof and even data-proof.  The answer is yes!.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could send bits and bytes at high speed signals through our micro flex connector, board connector or micro coax wire connectors with 100% data integrity and achieve speed up to 6-10 Gbps and minimal insertion loss?

Well, I can tell you that Molex Micro Products Division has an active pipeline in our R&D that is working on new technology solutions to address these needs.  So visit our website and stay in touch as we release new technologies for microminiature solutions.  We are the leaders in this microminiature connector space.

Look at the latest Digital Still Cameras or SLRs that are coming for this holiday season.  Camera techies want more megapixels, more buttons, larger LCD displays, more features for HD video, better zoom or auto-focus capabilities, larger memory card capabilities, and faster read/write speed —  but camera must be thinner and lighter. Did you ever ask yourself, how can they do that? Molex is enabling the technology with solutions like the smallest  micro SD memory card connector (503398 series) micro SD memory card connector (503398 series)with an ultra thin profile height of 1.28mm.  Not to mention the space saving 0.20mm front flip FPC connector (503419 series) that is less than 1mm tall at 0.9mm.  How about our http://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=picoezmate&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=IntroductionMolex Pico-EZmate 78171/78172 series Molex Pico-EZmate 78171/78172 serieshttp://www.molex.com/molex/products/family?key=picoezmate&channel=products&chanName=family&pageTitle=Introduction 1.20mm micro wire-to-board solution that can handle 1.5A per circuit to power the connection for your newest battery pack design?

Molex has developed a marketing campaign with Core-Micro Products-2011,   This is a list of our top 160 series of core products that we want you to design into your next electronic device.  Molex is promoting our Core Micro Products for long term availability with a 10-year commitment for product life cycle., So if you have a long product lifecycle that you must support from concept to launch to maturity and then EOL, Molex Core Micro Products can help.  See brochure 987650-6154 .

Are you not convinced yet that Molex microminiature connectors are the Holy Grail for the consumer electronics market?  Today, you can purchase a 40inch LCD TV that is less than 3” thick, but only weighs as much as a 25 lb bag of potatoes, and can be hung on a wall by your average grandparent (not the Hulk).  These digital TVs today come with HDMI, micro SD, and DisplayPort  connectors from Molex as standard microminiature I/O interfaces, with many of our 0.40mm SlimStack board-to-board, and Easy-On™ FPC flex-to-board solutions on the inside that make it all possible.

So if you were to ask me, how are microminiature connectors from Molex changing the world we live in today?  I would say, just look at what technology or device your kids, grandkids and grandparents are using or viewing today.  Molex microminiature solutions are everywhere inside, enabling these technologies to get smaller, lighter, and better.   They are the “Holy Grail” of the connector industry.  Design them in your next device and you will see why.

Read More From The Connector by Molex: http://www.connector.com/2011/10/bigger-is-not-better-%e2%80%93-molex-microminiature-connectors-are-the-holy-grail-for-consumer-electronics-design-community/#ixzz1t9qB0TtG

You may have already read about my 50:50:50 rule when it comes to the choice using tin plated surfaces versus gold plated surfaces in connectors. This rule says tin is the more economical solution if you have less than 50 contacts (mating forces), if you can live with 50 mating cycles (contact normal forces), and if you do not expect less than 50 milliohms contact resistance over life time. The higher contact normal forces for tin plated surfaces (>2 Newton end of life) result in higher mating forces which limit the amount of contacts in a given connector and the un-noble tin does have a higher contact resistance, compared to gold or nickel palladium.

Besides these basic rules there are some other limitations where gold (or palladium nickel) must be used:

1. For any type of analogue signals, gold is a must because of line noise created by tin plated contacts
2. For any connector being exposed un-mated in the field in an industrial atmosphere
3. For any connector with a contact spacing of less than 1mm because of whisker growth of pure tin-plated non annealed surfaces

Especially the 3^rd item created a lot of confusion in the industry when lead-free tin surfaces were introduced years ago. FFC connectors do have contact spacing below 1mm and the connector industry strongly recommended the use of gold-plated FFC connectors which connect either FPCs or FFCs, however, the cable industry was not yet able to supply gold plated FFC cables. So some designers were forced to mate gold-plated FFC connectors with tin-plated FFC cables, a mortal sin when it comes to reliability!

Gold and tin in one mated connector system is a no go. The behavior of these two platings is not well researched, however, the standard electrode potentials tell you that the contact point will corrode (gold = +1,5V tin = +0,15V – look at your rainwater gutter when copper meets zinc) and the reliability is gone.

Years ago, I asked Molex’s contact physics guru about this subject in a special case and this was his in-depth answer:

I would stay away from the mixed metal contact. It’s never recommended that gold be mated to tin. If it’s unavoidable, than use a lubricant to mitigate the effects due to oxidation and fretting corrosion. This should be tested thoroughly using appropriate thermal cycling and vibration tests. In addition, immersion tin over copper may not be adequate, as significant intermetallic compound formation (IMC) may occur, which would decrease the reliability of the system.

Needless to say, since the system seems fairly well sealed (and assuming outgasing of the package is not an issue), the gold-to-gold system would be expected to be the most reliable (and I assume reliability is very important for safety reasons). On the other hand, a good tin-to-tin system with no IMC issues may work as well (unless fretting corrosion is a problem). Since the system looks fairly well sealed and mechanically stable, fretting may not be a problem. However, to be sure,  testing for fretting should be done. As mentioned above, appropriate thermal cycling and vibration tests should be conducted. As a safety factor, if tin-to-tin is used, I recommend using nickel under plate and a lubricant to reduce the impact of oxidation, fretting corrosion and IMC formation.

In summary, my first recommendation is to use gold-to-gold. Tin-to-tin may work but needs to be thoroughly tested for fretting corrosion, oxidation and IMC formation. Gold-to-tin is not recommended as it is well know that the reliability risk is greatly increased when these dissimilar metals are mated.

Nothing to add to these statements. So when it comes to plating surfaces, prefer gold-to-gold (nickel-palladium-to-gold is tested and accepted in the industry!), use tin-to-tin when cost is an issue, but do not use mixed platings within the same connector system.

About the author

In his role as Director of Technology Marketing, Herbert Endres supports Sales and Divisions in penetrating new markets for existing products, new products for existing customers and new technologies for new markets.

Read More From The Connector by Molex: http://www.connector.com/2011/12/gold-or-tin-versus-gold-and-tin/#ixzz1pfzF0k5N

In this age of acronyms, FMLB or LMFB (or do you say FBLM?) are favorites in the power supply world.  ‘First mate last break’ is a feature that provides for a longer than normal power blade or signal pin. Typical uses are i.e., as a long, or first mate, power blade for grounding the system before the hot power blades are engaged. Or a long signal pin may serve as a warning to the system that the power supply is about to be fully engaged and launching watts at its waiting functions. OTOH (on the other hand), ‘last mate first break’ provides a short pin as a possible warning that the system is about to be shut down.  However, I suspect the uses for these varied mating lengths are almost as varied as the possible variations. People have asked me why we advertise our BYO (build your own) power connectors versus just having every configuration available off the shelf. While it may seem an arbitrary decision by TPTB (the powers that be), FMLB illustrates our true rationale.  There are commonly accepted practices among certain factions, but no real standard logic as to where a long blade or signal pin is positioned. Combine that with the sheer volume of possibilities—two to twenty power blades and up to 60 signal pins. IIRC (if I recall correctly) going back to factorial equations from college days, the result would be such a heap of potential combinations it would make MEGO (my eyes glaze over)! avatar About the author  Ken Stead is a New Product Development Manager With over 20 years of experience in the connector industry, Ken specializes in the development of high-power interconnect systems.  Read More From The Connector by Molex: http://www.connector.com/2011/08/first-mate/#ixzz1eTEN8DM2