Overview
- Miniature connectors are required to serve a universe of portable electronics designs that continue to shrink in physical size and yet increase in signaling sophistication. As a result, modern designs are increasingly frail and expensive. With the lead-free mandate compounding the problem, solder/PCB technology has become the limiting factor for product reliability, price and performance.
- Traditional “spring-force” and “cantilever beam” design rules are not suitable for smaller geometry and contribute to signal degradation. As connectors get smaller, traditional “spring” structures are more difficult to manufacture, and the resiliency of their tiny contacts degrades quickly with frequent connect-disconnect cycles (associated with portable devices). Due to unevenly distributed stress in the connector, “cantilever beam” designs also suffer from rapid degradation in resiliency, again leading to poor signal integrity.
- The solution to these issues is the Nexus Torsion Connector, which excels in “micro” applications. Nexus connectors are cheaper to manufacture, provide stronger and more robust connections without degrading resiliency issues, and introduce the possibility of Zero Force Insertion.
Technology& Applications
Micro HDMI, Micro USB, and MiniDisplay Port are just a few examples of the drive to miniaturize the connectors linking the world of portable electronics to the PC and home theatre environments. Nexus Torsion Connect technology will improve all these connections and more.
Torsion Connect technology utilizes a torsion bar — that is capable of twisting along its longitudinal axis — as the conductive element in a connector. The result is a remarkable contact force produced by the torsion bar when electrical contacts are mated. Torsion Connect connectors can be manufactured economically, but also strong enough for repeated connect-disconnect cycles.
Nexus Torsion Connect also tends not to deviate during electrical contact, such that impedance characteristics remain within smaller value range, providing for high frequency signal integrity.
See the Nexus Portfolio Lifecycle Chart.
| Torsion Connect | The torsion bar conductor creates contact force by twisting a torsion section of the bar. Since torsion is applied and reliably delivered from the entire length (longitudinal axis) of the contact beam, torsion systems distribute stress more uniformly and efficiently. This efficiency makes it possible to reduce the size of a connection structure by incorporating a torsion element. |
Nexus Innovators
Joe Fjelstad, the recipient of prestigious awards including the IPC President’s award, has been recognized as one of the most influential persons in the printed-circuit industry. Founder of Verdant Electronics, Mr. Fjelstad has been involved in electronic interconnection technologies for more than 4 decades, and is an international authority and innovator in the field of electronic interconnection and packaging technologies with more than 200 U.S. patents. He is the author of Flexible Circuit Technology and author, co-author or editor of several other books including Chip Scale Packaging for Modern Electronics. He has also authored numerous technical papers and articles. He has been tapped to give keynote presentations at conferences in the North America, Europe and Asia and has presented numerous seminars on PCB, flex circuit and chip scale packaging technologies at industry conferences over the years.
Gary Yasumura has more than 30 years experience as a consulting engineer, design engineer, and engineering manager in Silicon Valley. Before joining Silicon Pipe, he was Director of Electromechanical Packaging at Pemstar Pacific Consultants where he managed and designed products such as wearable computers, medical devices and custom connectors and cables. Prior to Pemstar, Mr. Yasumura was Vice President of Engineering at a startup company, Beta Phase, which specialized in connector designs utilizing shape memory alloys. During his career, he has been involved in every phase of engineering from invention, product conception, product design and simulation, prototyping, manufacturing and quality assurance. Mr. Yasumura holds 12 patents in the electronic connector, high frequency interconnects and microwave circuit-packaging fields. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
Kevin Grundy has over 25 years of experience in semiconductor circuitry technology, and has served as chief executive officer for a number of companies, including NextNet Wireless, a pre-WiMAX wireless supplier purchased by Clearwire Corp., and SiliconPipe, a copper interconnect technology development company with extensive intellectual property. Mr. Grundy was cofounder and SVP of Engineering for Telocity (predecessor of DirecTV Broadband), where he spearheaded the development of the company’s award-winning broadband gateway, a cost-efficient, self-install DSL platform. Mr. Grundy also served as COO for Sezmi Corporation (now part of Kit Digital) which provides cloud-based TV platform and professional services enabling broadband, mobile and cable service providers to deliver a personalized video entertainment service to their customers.