About Flexible coax cable: Thanks to evolving technology, consumer products like tablets, PCs, and smartphones run on high internet speeds and carry large memory capacities.
Thus, it has become possible to enjoy high-quality images and videos on these devices and process more information at a higher speed. Of course, such high transmission speeds require special cables to support, and regular FPC or FFC cables won’t work here.
And that’s where flexible coax cable comes to your rescue. Let’s read about them in detail in this blog post.
What is flexible coax cable?
Coaxial cables with an outer diameter equal to or less than 1mm are micro-coaxial cables. Their smaller size, compared to traditional cables, makes them very flexible and occupy less space.
Micro-coaxial cables also have a multilayered structure similar to that of coaxial cables. Its central conductor (7-wire stranded type) is covered with an insulator or dielectric layer, followed by an outer conductor and the jacket.
Their outer diameter usually ranges from 0.22mm to 1.16mm. The outer conductor protects the electric signals from the central conductor from electromagnetic interference.
Normally, a conductor’s size is defined by its AWG or American Wire Gauge standard. Conductors with a large AWG number have smaller diameters, and vice versa.
In micro-coaxial cables, the AWG sizes of the central conductors range from 30 to 46. Here, 30 AWG represents a conductor with a diameter of 0.30 mm, while 46 AWG refers to a conductor with a diameter of 0.048 mm.
Advantages of flexible coax cables:
Such structures give coax cables the following benefits.
High flexibility:
Their use is attributed to their very small size, which allows them to bend in the most compact spaces.
Unlike FFC and FPC cables, it maintains its electrical characteristics even after bending.
Commonly, you would find these cables on devices with hinges so that the cable can be easily moved and routed in the device.
Some examples include rotating cameras, PCs and notebooks.
Further, with the increasing use of high-resolution cameras and screens, the flexible and high-speed transmission characteristics of micro-coaxial cables work perfectly in this environment.
Excellent signal transmission:
Whenever a high-speed signal is transmitted through a cable, the signal may get reflected by the variation in the impedance along the cable length. Thus, it is essential to maintain a constant impedance along the length to prevent signal disturbance.
A number of parameters, such as insertion loss, crosstalk, characteristic impedance, and return loss, are responsible for achieving optimal signal transmission.
Here are some reasons you must pick micro coax cables for high signal transmission.
Reduced Return Loss
The presence of a central conductor, insulating material/dielectric, and outer conductor maintains a matching and stabilized impedance in micro-coax cables, resulting in a low return loss.
Insertion loss reduction:
Compared to FFC/FPC, micro coaxial cables secure more cross-sectional area of the inner conductor when matching a particular impedance, minimizing insertion loss.
Electromagnetic shielding:
Electric signals are susceptible to electromagnetic interference, and the outer conductor acts as a shield. As a result, you experience less crosstalk between the two ends of the signal.
Parts of a notebook computer, micro coaxial cables included.
Top applications of flexible coax cables:
The module boards inside consumer devices transmit signals using micro coaxial cables. Further, some precision equipment used in the industrial, automotive, medical, and aviation industries also uses micro coaxial cables.
Some applications that use micro coaxial cables because of this high flexibility:
- Camera gimbal
- Medical equipment
- Notebook PC hinge component
- Server/data center
- AR/VR headset
- Foldable smartphones
Multi-coaxial cable assembly
Custom flexible coax cable assemblies at Cloom:
At Cloom, you can find micro-coaxial cable assemblies and interconnects used in motherboards, panels, and other components.
We educate, guide, and help our customers choose micro-coax cable designs that best suit their application requirements.
We are consistently adding new products and features to our micro-coaxial product line.
And we have no limit for order quantities. You can place small or large orders for custom designing of cable lengths, connectors, wire gauges, EMI shielding, and cable jacket types, including:
- Support from famous connector manufacturers, including UJU, JAE, IPEX, ACES and others.
- MMCX, SSMA, SSMP, Murata, IPEX, MHF3/4/5 GPO, GPPO, G3PO, G4PO and various other board-level connectors.
- Different cable assembly configurations, including SMA to MMCX, MHF to SMA, MHF to MHF and G4PO to SMA connectors.
- Direct-to-board connections available for as low as 0.175mm pitch.
- Cable configurations range from 30-36 AWG with 50 ohm impedance.
- Micro coaxial to standard hookup wire transition boards
- Value added services
- Complete solutions from prototype to production
- Micro coax to 28AWG flying leads through the transition board
- Micro coaxial and twisted pair
- Low minimum order quantity (mostly up to 10 pcs)
- Free engineering support
Performances ranges of our assemblies include:
| Performance ranges | |||||
| frequency | Insertion loss | Phase stability | Phase matching | Power conductor capability | Velocity of propagation |
| DC-75GHz | 2dB @ 40 GHz | 1dgree/500lb | Down to 1 psec(differentially driven, far end) | Up to 8 Amps | Up to 90% |
Conclusion:
Cloom provides flexible micro-coaxial cable assemblies that feature mechanical and signal transmission advantages. We can also provide custom solutions according to your requirements. Call us to learn more, and we will be more than happy to help.
