Building Custom Connections

June 13, 2023
Omnetics focuses on custom design and manufacturing of micro-miniature and nano-miniature electronic connectors.

This video appeared in Electronic Design and has been published here with permission.

Check out our AUVSI Xponential 2023 coverage.

Omnetics Connector makes tiny connectors and very tiny connectors that are well-suited for compact applications from drones to medical devices. Scott Pollard shows off some of the company's Micro-D and Nano-D Connectors (see the video)

Omnetics focuses on small-form-factor (SFF) solutions (see figure). Many of these connectors are available as deep-space-qualified with NASA-qualified low outgassing support. 

Links

The video transcript below has been edited for clarity. 

My name is Sam Pollard. I am a Special Projects Engineer at Omnetics, and we at Omnetics are a company that deal with micro- and nano-D connectors. We are at the forefront in high reliability and ruggedized connectors that deal with miniaturization. And from there, we deal a lot with customers that are dealing with large form factors for their designs and learning that they are looking to have a smaller form factor for drones. And because of that, they are looking to go from a micro-sized connector that goes to a nano-sized connector.

By doing so, they have much more high density for their signals and can get the exact same form for reliability that they've used when they're doing their systems and projects. So applications that we use our connectors in is usually a customers’ specifications from there. We have a large portion of our customers in the military and avionics realm, and a lot of customers in the aerospace realm.

We at Omnetics do a lot of customization for customers’ products. With that in mind, a custom design and their current design might use a Micro-D connector. A micro-D connector is a 50,000 center per pin and three amps per contact. Now, if they wanted something to do that, their new design and revocation involves a smaller form factor. They go toward a more high-density connector of a Nano-D, and from there will be a 25 style on center and one amp per contact.

They can get the exact same signal across, but at a much smaller density. And from there, that allows their design to be much more miniaturized for their drone applications. When they want to go even smaller, we go from a range of down to three pins all the way up to 91.

Check out more of our AUVSI Xponential 2023 coverage.

Sponsored Recommendations

Aug. 21, 2025
Explore cascaded amplifiers, revealing how a single driver can dominate performance in a four-parallel setup and how optimized input power can reduce AM-to-PM distortion for maximum...
Aug. 21, 2025
See how an X-band SSB upconverter built with Mini-Circuits components uses IQ mixing to suppress unwanted sidebands and boost spectral efficiency for applications from 5G to radar...
Aug. 21, 2025
Mini-Circuits VP of Engineering Joe Merenda explains additive phase noise (APN) in RF amplifiers, covering theory, measurement, specifications, and small vs. large signal behavior...
Aug. 21, 2025
The new M4SWA4-34DR+ SP4T MMIC switch delivers fast, wideband signal routing from DC to 30 GHz, with superior power handling, quick switching, and cost advantages over SOI devices...