Panasonic commercializes USB 3.1 FFC/FPC connectors

Panasonic Corporation on Thursday announced that it has commercialized USB 3.1 Gen 2-compatible FFC connectors which can achieve a transmission speed of 10 Gbps and it will be starting its mass production from January 2018.

This product can also be used as a FPC connector and will contribute to the cost reduction of high-speed data communication devices.

The new high-speed data communication standard, USB 3.1 Gen 2, was established in response to the growing demand for higher data capacity and transmission speeds.

As the number of compatible devices is anticipated to increase in the future, connectors will become more important since they are key parts in maintaining high transmission speeds and signal quality between boards inside a device.

"Currently, fine coaxial wire connectors and FPC connectors, which comply with the above standard, are used to connect boards. However, the need for FFC connectors that will enable cost reduction has also become evident," Panasonic said.

FFC/FPC connector can be used for connection of the input/output and main boards inside electronic devices, such as notebook PCs and tablets.

The product has many features that enable board to board high speed data transmission including a versatile pitch of 0.5 mm provided between terminals, which facilitate replacement in existing devices and pin assignment (terminal allocation) that corresponds to differential GSSG improving the degree of freedom in circuit design.