Making Connections: Rugged Small Form Factor Connectors

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Samtec is well known for its plethora of high-performance connectors and cables, including optical solutions. The small-form-factor (SFF) connectors are also used in drones and robots.

Chuck Grantz, Director of Sales for Military and Aerospace with Samtec, highlights some of the company's SFF solutions as well as connectors for VITA 74 VNX modules (see video above).

SFF connections are critical in applications like drones, where size, weight, and power (SWAP) are challenges when designing the system. Samtec provides a range of very small connectors and cabling systems that enable designers to shrink the size of their systems.

Samtec's right-angle SEARAY connectors are used in VNX modules (see video below).

The video transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Samtec is a board-level interconnect company that's providing solutions for a lot of our military and aerospace customers. Drone applications are one very large interest from the standpoint of micro rugged solutions, shielding solutions, high-speed cable solutions, to optical cable solutions.

We have a lot of different form factors that we offer to our customers from the standpoint of size, weight, and power, and making sure that we meet those requirements that a customer may need for small drone to maybe a very large drone to a marine drone that's down in the water that needs sealed requirements as well.

What we have here is some of our Samtec smaller form factors that work perfect within some of our military and aerospace applications. We have our FTSH/CLP series, TFM/SFM series. Our Q strips, our Z-Ray products, overcharge Edge Rate, over to discrete wire solutions as well, which a lot of our customers are looking for that are going to meet their rugged solutions, meet their small form factors, and the speeds that they need from the standpoint of passing that signal from point A to point B.

If they need it to be a little faster signal, we have our HDR cables that have an interface with them that is a shielded interface; coaxial cable running single in-line or differential pair signal from point A to point B. Our AcceleRate product offerings are one of our largest, fastest-growing connector series as well, and then our shielding that we have with our Edge Rate systems and so forth that we offer to a lot of customers from EMI shielding.

They are trying to avoid those issues of, "Hey, I've got a large antenna in my product box. I need shielding." We can do that. And then that lends perfectly with the high-data-rate cables as well. Our VNX SEARAY product series, our optical cable, our RF solutions that you will have as well.

So we can see the SEARAY product series, these fit in like drawers into the VNX box. A four-inch tube, VNX solution. That is a standard solution. Samtec has optical cables. We have some connectors for RF solutions as well, and then our SEARAY products that we also offer on our VNX.

Those solutions that our customers are looking for, we are showing here at the show and we're making sure that, you know, "hey, Samtec do you have something product-wise for our interconnect, that passes that signal from point A to point B and a different form factor." Whatever you're looking for to make sure we meet their requirements. And that's why we're here today.

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