Smiths Connectors Announces Nebula Series for Rugged SATA Applications

By Mike Ball / 29 Jul 2015

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Smiths Connectors NebulaSmiths Connectors, a provider of high-reliability connection solutions, has announced its new Nebula Connector Series for SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) applications. The Nebula Series is a SATA 6.0 Gbps family of connectors designed for high-speed data rates with 100 ohm impedance matching and minimal losses. The connectors utilize the industry standard PCB soldering footprint, ensuring no need to change or modify SATA drive layouts.

Designed for rugged data storage applications within the aerospace, defense and industrial markets, the Nebula Series is differentiated from competitive offerings by its ability to perform in extremely harsh environments. The Nebula Connector employs Hypertac® hyperboloid contacts as the bedrock of its high reliability, providing immunity to shock and vibration fretting and over 100,000 mating cycles. These features combine with current carrying capacity up to 1.5 Amps per contact and low insertion / extraction forces to provide significantly enhanced quality and reliability performance.

Additionally, the pins are protected by recessed contacts within insulators made from high temperature-rated, durable liquid crystal polymers that are resistant to cracking even in extremely harsh operating environments. These features allow for increased mean time between failures of the ruggedized hard drive assemblies by eliminating the connector as the typical first failure component.

Available for direct mounting to PCB, the Nebula Series supports independent function for all its 22 contacts. It also offers optional quarter-turn locking hardware for faster connector securing and to prevent unintentional separation.

The Nebula Connector Series is compatible with the SATA next-generation signal standard, which removes the need for future connector development and qualification. It completely satisfies the stringent requirements established by the US Department of Defense (DoD), and embraced by other defense agencies around the world, for connector companies wishing to support the defense market.

“Manufacturing rugged, reliable interconnect solutions tailored to address the unique demands and requirements of the defense market is one of Smiths Connectors’ core competencies,” said Gabriel Guglielmi, Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Smiths Connectors. “The Nebula Connector Series, with its immunity to shock and vibration, safeguards the flow of data and provides a high reliability SATA connector series surpassing anything currently available in the marketplace.”

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Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact

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