Keeping pace with change

technology drivers on current and future platforms.
One of the largest challenges a connector company has to face is the development of products that are not only suitable for today's aerospace and defence platforms, but will also cater for future technology currently being designed by our customers. The ability to solve this problem should increase the return on engineering investment, provide a longer product lifecycle, decrease the risk of obsolescence and increase our alignment to our customers. Hypertac approaches this by the implementation of various strategies. Part of Smiths Interconnect, Hypertac is among the leading suppliers of high reliability, high performance interconnect solutions and electrical/electronic connectors. The Hypertac range includes PCB connectors, modular, rectangular, filtered ARINC and circular connectors. Hypertac connectors achieve outstanding performance through the use of patented Hyperboloid contacts - an advanced design that satisfies the most demanding performance requirements by providing high reliability, a high number of mating cycles, shock and vibration immunity, low contact resistance and low insertion and extraction force. Coming into contact Hypertac's integrated approach to customer relationships ensures that we have multi-level interdependent interaction. Our engineering team directly engages with our customer's engineering team to encourage the exploration of new ideas and technology in strict conjunction with the commercial team's needs and buying preferences. This helps to build a thorough understanding of the customer's organisation and its commercial and technical preferences. Our customer's technology drivers on current and future platforms are pivotal to ensuring that all technology synergies are encapsulated into the connector design and any technical differences are clearly understood. These differences are then put into our new product development process to see if we have common connector building blocks or specific technologies from another tried and tested programme, possibly from our industrial product technology that can be integrated into the connector design. At times, an entirely new design has to be created or a new technology has to be explored to meet customer requirements. Every major platform and specific avionics line replaceable unit (LRU) has different input/output requirements e.g. signal, power, high-speed differential transmission pairs, optical and RF. This wide variation, both in quantity and types, explains why most connector companies tend to have high mix-low volume manufacturing policies because it's very difficult to cater for every customer's specific requirements. In terms of next generation avionics, weight, space and cost are core considerations when designing avionic boxes, but additional new technology drivers such as higher signal speeds, modular PCB Cards and increased power requirements are also changing the approach to traditional LRU rack and panel design. There is a growing need for the use of EMI shielded and ruggedised PCB cards that are slotted into avionic racks. Avionic card technology has progressed considerably with the trends in miniaturisation and ruggedisation of electronics. Avionic boxes that were produced over 10 years ago featured up to 16 card files whereas now only 6-8 are used, a reduction of 50% in cards and space. Box complexity is also increasing and, by using modular programmable cards, two boxes can now be consolidated into one. The conclusion is that more traditional LRU casings will be replaced with ruggedised shielded cassettes or modular programmable cards, thus saving valuable space, reducing weight and minimising costs. However, these cassettes still need EMI/RFI Protection and possibly transient protection depending on where they are situated within the aircraft. Hypertac is able to design, manufacture and deliver a fully integrated interconnect solution (FIIS) system, which involves machining the connector and the EMI shielded cassette box lid together as one piece and integrating the filter and suppression components, whilst offering the modularity of power, high-speed transmission, RF and signal inserts. Feel no fret A common problem on all aerospace platforms is fretting corrosion. This is caused by micro-level movement of all components within a traditional avionic box and means that the connector receptacle fitted to a motherboard and the plug mounted to a daughterboard will move by a fraction of a millimetre, resulting in movement of the pin and socket, eventual wear and removal of the gold plating. The resulting corrosion can lead to a high-resistive connection with the possibility of complete failure. Hypertac's high endurance contacts feature the well-proven hyperboloid contact technology that provides low and stable contact resistance, reduced mating and de-mating forces, immunity to fretting corrosion during vibration and proven electrical, mechanical and environmental performance. The integrity and high reliability of the Hypertac design provides system installers with unrivalled performance, low maintenance costs and minimal cost of ownership. Hypertac's approach to state-of-the-art design is bound within a strategy that allows the company to develop modular inserts that cater for both today's and tomorrow's requirements, such as high density PCB signal inserts to - and even below - a 1mm pitch combined with impedance matching for high-speed differential transmission lines, coaxial contact inserts up to 20GHz, twin-axial and quadrax contacts up to 3.5GBts and power contacts up to 50A. Evolution in PCB circuit design and manufacturing means that our customers have moved from the more traditional through-hole solder and press-fit termination technology to surface mount and spring probe technologies. Modularity in the design phase is critical to designing PCB connectors that not only have the ability to have multiple contacts fitted but also offer a choice of termination style. The modularity in our PCB connector design means tooling up a design is undertaken only once and, with the possibility of modular injection mould tooling, it allows any custom variation to be produced with little or no additional tooling investment. This is a massive leap forward, commercially and technically, ensuring that we meet the latest high-speed circuit design and achieve greater levels of power whilst at the same time remaining competitive in our market to ensure that older generation aircraft requirements - as well as the ever-changing needs of current and future aircraft - are successfully and efficiently met. www.hypertac.com