What connector technology is currently driving the medical connector market?

Last Update Time: 2021-09-06 11:56:00

The quality and reliability of electronic equipment is critical to every industry, especially in the medical industry, where life and safety are particularly dependent on the equipment expected to operate. This huge responsibility affects not only the equipment manufacturer, but also each supplier of enabled components. Current medical market trends that promote collaboration between medical device and connector manufacturers include: increased demand for safety and regulatory compliance, lower cost disposable solutions, higher resolution imaging capabilities, and enhanced durability Sex.

Equipment manufacturers rely heavily on the solutions provided by their connector manufacturer partners, which will effectively promote equipment manufacturers to develop the most innovative product designs, while also meeting the size, cost, performance and Compliance requirements. Connector suppliers often use their experience in other areas of the diversified medical device industry, as well as other key connector market areas (including aerospace, aerospace, and automotive industries) to overcome challenges and achieve next-generation medical devices.

Additional functions and integration of functions mean that these devices are more susceptible to electrostatic discharge (ESD). Although electrostatic shock is a common phenomenon, it can be dangerous in a medical environment—causing software to freeze, restart, or malfunction, damage precision circuits, and even cause electric shock to patients and operators. Therefore, in the fourth edition of the IEC 60601-1-2: 2014 standard issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 2014, ESD performance requirements have almost doubled, and it is required to achieve global equipment Regularity. The measured value from the socket housing to the internal electrical contacts, and the minimum voltage that the panel-mounted socket must withstand is 15 kV, which is a significant improvement from the minimum 8 kV specified in the previous version of the standard.

In order to meet the development of new projects with challenging connection requirements, it is recommended to use plastic REDEL SP series connectors. They have advanced features, including eight additional high-density electrical contacts in the same small form factor and tested 25 kV ESD resistors, which not only meet the new IEC standards, but also provide medical device designers with sufficient To accommodate future designs.


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For applications that currently require backward compatibility, the popular REDEL 1P series plastics have reached an ESD rating of 13 kV. Although far exceeding the existing standards, they are still slightly lower than the new standards. The engineering team at LEMO USA quickly found a better solution: simply add a thicker fixing nut to the connector and the customer can meet the requirements of the new standard without costly redesign.

Disposable devices are increasingly favoring medical solutions that are both low-cost and long-term. Medical manufacturers have been injecting new and better functions into their products to keep up with market demand and remain competitive in a highly competitive market. Therefore, this poses a real engineering challenge to the huge cost constraints imposed by disposable components, especially because these devices require advanced performance even if they are discarded after only one use. For example, the need for higher resolution imaging and mapping capabilities requires higher density electrical contacts, but imaging devices are one of many medical device fields that increasingly use disposable devices. Therefore, connector manufacturers must come up with innovative solutions to minimize costs while enhancing functionality.

Compared to reusable equipment  that can be easily disinfected multiple times, minimizing costs is a greater concern in disposable medical applications. From the perspective of the connector manufacturer, attributes such as operational performance and reliability must remain unchanged, and all possible attributes (such as lifetime) must be analyzed to find potential cost-saving opportunities. Strategies include using high-quality but low-cost materials (these materials may not be as mechanically or chemically strong as connectors designed to withstand thousands of steam cycles), or reducing high costs such as reducing the thickness of gold plating Use of materials.

In addition to driving some of the demand for disposable devices, the widespread demand for high-resolution medical imaging capabilities is prompting many medical device manufacturers to adopt fiber optic connection technology. Connector manufacturers with advanced optical fiber contacts that develop telecommunications and industrial applications can apply their expertise to innovation in the medical industry. Fiber technology is very easy to obtain, and transmitting high-speed, high-bandwidth data (such as high-frequency imaging signals) is both safe and effective, but the challenge is to train end users to properly clean the fiber regularly to ensure optimal performance.

The trend of more and more complicated electronic equipment usually leads to higher costs, so manufacturers are always looking for better ways to protect the integrity of high-end equipment to prevent potential hazards, including multiple autoclave sterilization cycles . One of the most effective methods is to increase the durability of the device and its enabling components.

Connector manufacturers can use glass-to-metal or ceramic-to-metal sealed vacuum seals for welding. For a long time, these seals have been used in other industries with high failure costs and have been proven to provide excellent seal integrity. The glass used in these applications is processed at high temperatures and fused around the metal, which effectively makes it resistant to fracture and prevents any kind of liquid or gas from leaking or entering.

According to how many helium atoms can pass through a certain leak rate to test the hermetic seal, they are greatly superior to O-rings, epoxy resins and other traditional sealing technologies. They can also be implemented using a variety of different glass, metal and ceramic materials to achieve a range of different product combinations with different mechanical and insulating properties and costs.

 

If you want to know more, our website has product specifications for connector, you can go to ALLICDATA ELECTRONICS LIMITED to get more information