The Application of Pin Header and Female Header Connectors

The market for various high-end electronic products is growing rapidly, and the global production capacity of connectors is continuously shifting to Asia and China, so Asia has become the most promising place for connector development (pin header and female header), and China will become the fastest-growing and the largest connector market in the world. It is estimated that the growth rate of China's connector market will continue to exceed the global average level in the future. In the next five years, the annual growth rate of China's connector market will reach 15%. By 2010, China's connector market capacity will reach 25.7 billion yuan.

The technological innovation of connectors

The main types of military power connectors are FPC connectors and SATA connectors. The supporting fields of the connectors include transportation, communication, network, IT, medical care, home appliances, etc. The rapid development of the product technical level in the supporting fields and the rapid growth of the market strongly drive the development of connector technology. So far, connectors have developed into serialization and specialization products with complete product categories, rich variety specifications, diverse structure types, professional direction subdivisions, obvious industry characteristics and standard system specifications.

Generally, the development of connector technology shows the following characteristics: high speed and digitization of signal transmission, the integration of all kinds of signal transmission, the miniaturization and micromation of product volume, low cost of products, the surface-mount terminating of contact parts, the combination of modules, the convenience of plug and plug, etc. The above technologies represent the development direction of connector technology, but it should be noted that the above technologies are not necessary for all connectors. Connectors in different supporting fields and different using environments have completely different demand points for the above technologies.

At present, the functions of electronic products are becoming more and more powerful and comprehensive, which puts forward higher and more diversified demands for connectors. For example, the transmission rate of electronic devices is getting higher and higher, and in order to meet the transmission and exchange of large traffic data, the requirements of high-speed transmission and digital transmission are put forward for connectors. However, more and more signals such as microwave signal, optical signal, high voltage signal and power signal are needed to be integrated into the same connector to save the space of the equipment and reduce the size of the equipment. Meanwhile, signals are required to be transmitted independently without interference, which determines that the development trend of connector signal transmission integration will be more and more obvious.

The market demand for the centralization and miniaturization of connectors has promoted the innovation in terminal technology. Semiconductor chip technology is becoming the technical driving force for the connector development at all levels of interconnection. For example, with  the rapid development from the chip packaging of 0.5 mm spacing to the chip packaging of 0.25 mm spacing, the pin number of class I interconnect devices (inside IC devices) and class II interconnect devices (the interconnection of device and board) ranges from hundreds of lines to thousands of lines. Press-fit contact technology is widely used in cylindrical slotted sockets, elastic strand pins and hyperboloid spring socket connectors, which greatly improves the reliability of the connector and ensures the high fidelity of signal transmission.

Terminal technology enables connectors to constitute a new connector product, the push-in connector, which is primarily used for system-level interconnection. The biggest advantages are that it does not need cables, is easy to install and disassemble, and is convenient to replace on site. In addition, the insertion speed is fast, the separation is smooth and stable, and high frequency response can be obtained, which is suitable for spacecrafts. The military connector assembly technology is developing from plug-in installation technology to surface-mount technology, and the development trend is towards micro-assembly technology in the future. The adoption of MEMS (micro electro mechanical system) will be the power to improve the connector technology and cost performance.

Application fields of pin headers and female headers

Now pin headers and female headers are applied to more and more fields and industries. What are the main application fields of pin headers and female headers? Here are the details about the answer.

Although pin headers and female headers have the standard of hot plugs, the current pin headers are mostly designed for HDD, and the maximum plugging and pulling time is only about 200 times. If the plugging and pulling time is beyond the limit, the pin PCB connector will deteriorate and the hard disk may even be damaged. The plugging and pulling time of pin headers used for external applications is only about 2,500 times.

Driven by technological progress and cost reduction of pin headers and female headers, the technological strength and industrial position of pin headers will determine the development speed of related enterprises in China, because the emergence of new technology requires electronic enterprises to keep pace with the progress of technologies, and the position of the industry also determines the position of enterprises in the upstream and downstream price negotiations.

In large and medium-sized cities, flat-panel TV has entered the substantive popularization stage, but facing the complex prices, sizes and pin headers, the complicated technological functions and the mixture of high-end and low-end products, many consumers feel confused. Improving the production process of pin headers and female headers not only simplifies the assembly process of electronic products, but also simplifies the mass production process and the maintenance. In case of the failure of an electronic component, the failure component can be replaced quickly for upgrading when it is equipped with pin headers and female headers. With the progress of technology, the component can be updated when equipped with pin headers.

In recent years, the market demand for pin headers and female headers has maintained a high growth rate. The emergence of new materials and new technologies has also greatly promoted the improvement of industrial application level. At present, the development trend of the pin header and female header market is getting better and better, and pin headers and female headers can realize their own value in different fields.

In view of the improvement of miniaturization and intelligence level of pin header and female header technology, it is an inevitable trend to integrate multiple functions on the basis of information acquisition, and the data fusion technology of multiple pin headers and female headers also promotes the development of this technology. The integration of local data resources provided by multiple pin headers and female headers of various or different classes that are distributed in different locations and the adoption of computer technology analysis can eliminate the redundancy and contradiction between the information, provide complementary functions, reduce information uncertainty and obtain the consistent interpretation and description of the tested object, so as to improve the rapidity and correctness of the decision-making, planning and response of the system, and make the system obtain more adequate information. The information fusion occurs at different information levels, including data layer fusion, image feature layer fusion and decision-making level fusion.

Compared with single pin header and female header, the information of multiple pin headers and female headers has the following advantages: fault tolerance, complementarity, instantaneity and economical efficiency. Therefore, multiple pin headers and female headers are promoted and applied gradually. In addition to military applications, they have been applied to automation technology, robotics, marine surveillance, seismic observation, construction, air traffic control, medical diagnosis, remote sensing technology and other aspects.