Posted to News on 6th Oct 2010, 14:16
Datamate connectors are suitable for most USB 2.0 designs
Harwin reports that independent tests confirm that the company's Datamate connector family - a 2mm pitch board-to-board and wire-to-board product range for high-reliability applications - performs at high speed to make it suitable for many USB 2.0 designs. This means that for a wide variety of applications that must function in rugged environments, Datamate connectors can be used to carry USB 2.0 information while guaranteeing high reliability - even under conditions of extreme shock, vibration, humidity or temperature change.
The tests were undertaken by independent test house, Trimerix, which tested the Datamate connector series for RF and high-speed digital performance against the EIA-364-108 standard to determine both the insertion loss and characteristic impedance. Trimerix Test Engineer, Nigel Gaylard, comments: "I was impressed by the performance of the connector at well above 1GHz. The impedance of the connector was stable at 105ohms, which makes it suitable for a number of differential signalling applications, and - although marginally outside the specification for USB 2.0 - the performance of the connector is without doubt quite sufficient for most USB applications."
These results open up a whole new range of markets for Datamate - and potentially for USB 2.0. Whereas previously if designers had wanted a hi-rel USB 2.0 connection they would have needed to tool special fixtures or housings and maybe select a custom connector, now they can use the appropriate Datamate device - potentially even running power, fibre-optic or coax signals through the same device - while guaranteeing secure data transmission in extreme operating conditions.
