Myrtle Beach, S.C. - Designed for ever-shrinking consumer electronics products, AVX Corp.'s 6238/6292 Series of low-profile, lead-free, FPC/FFC connectors accept industry-standard 0.3-mm-thick flex circuitry. These flexible-printed-circuit/flat-flexible-cable connectors reduce mounting area by as much as 42 percent compared with currently available products, the company said. At 1 mm high, with a pitch of 0.5 mm, the connectors come in five to 50 multipolar positions for applications that range from digital cameras to laptop computers.
Although AVX and other manufacturers offer FPC/FFC connectors with finer pitch (down to 0.3 mm) and lower profile (0.9 mm), those products typically accept only nonstandard 0.2-mm-thick flex circuits, said Tom Anderson, product manager at AVX's Connector Division.
Since the 6238/6292 connectors return to the standard thickness of 0.3 mm for the flex circuit, they mate with off-the-shelf components, such as displays and keypads. For example, the flex cable in a cellular phone display is generally 0.3 mm thick, Anderson said.
Nobody sells a standard 0.2-mm-flex attached to displays and keypads, which can lead to price and availability issues, he said. So, "even though we can create very low profiles, our end customers had to go back to their display manufacturers and have them make special displays with a thinner flex cable."
Anderson de-scribed the connectors' lead-free contacts as "a continuation of our commitment to manufacturing environmentally friendly products." He noted that major OEMs, particularly global cell phone and PDA customers, are driving the move to leadfree devices. They are already producing most of their assemblies and manufacturing offshore in mainland China and Southeast Asia, which are driving the lead-free initiative with Europe, he said.
The current rating for the new connectors is 0.4 A maximum at 50 V maximum. Available in two configurations, the 6238 (flip-lock) Series offers a bottom contact while the 6292 Series (slide type) provides a top contact connection. Both product lines are equipped with a base partition, and they offer right-angle, zero-insertion-force connections.
Applications include pcb-to-pcb and pcb-to-display connections in laptop PCs, digital audio and video gear, and digital video and still cameras.
Typical pricing for the 6238 Series 20-pin connector is 42 cents each (15 cents each for the 30-pin connectors) in quantities of 10,000. Pricing for the 6292 Series 18-pin connector is 52 cents each (45 cents each for 30-pin connectors) in similar quantities. Samples are available.
Call (843) 946-0414
www.avxcorp.com
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