Electronics packaging is becoming more essential for ground vehicles as they rely more on electric power, whether for commercial or military applications. To help with the packaging and integration of sensors and other electronic subsystems into military ground vehicles, TE Connectivity has developed its Mini Modular Rack Principle (MiniMRP) solution to enable efficient use of available space in manned and unmanned ground vehicles. The packaging solution builds upon lessons learned during the development of compact, light-weight electronics packaging solutions for avionics systems and is also a viable electronics packaging approach for next-generation manned and unmanned avionics systems.
The MiniMRP solution reducing packaging volume with a modular, distributed architecture with high-speed copper or fiber-optic communications backplane. Designed to the ARINC 836A standard, MiniMRP components (see the figure) achieve faster data rates with smaller size and weight than current system packaging solutions based on the ARINC 600 packaging standard. The new approach provides easily reconfigurable packaging solutions with minimal disk to interconnections during re-installation and effective thermal dissipation for high-power applications. A wide range of packaging and interconnect options are available in both copper and fiber-optic versions for many different power and data-rate requirements.
Martin Cullen, senior business development manager for TE’s Aerospace, Defense, and Marine division, says: “We’ve built to EN4165 standards with four and five bay connectivity and are excited that TE’s MiniMRP packaging will offer system architects increased flexibility to design optimized electrical subsystems for platform and end-user optimization.” He added: “What truly sets TE’s MiniMRP apart in its design within defense applications is that it is both rackable and configurable.” The electronics packaging approach supports many different system architectures by means of flexible nodal locations, which also enables electronic layouts that can be designed for ease of maintenance.