The tailor-made cable manufacturer Ernst & Engbring presents a brand new camera cable. Required was a flat camera link cable for a scanner-like QA station performing a detailed high-speed quality check of fully assembled boards. Before, the imaging QA system for electronics needed 44 symmetrical data lines with 100 ohm impedance for high data rates, long-lengths and operation in a miniaturized drag chain with extremely high acceleration. Conventional cabling already failed mechanically here - in terms of bending strength, flexibility and packaging.

E&E solved the task with an unusual design: The 44 data lines were systematically arranged to guarantee identical electrical specifications for all data pairs performing in the drag chain. The design resulted in a flexible flat cable with only 11 mm thickness. All wire pairs are individually shielded. The new abrasion-resistant clean room-style flat camera link cable from E&E easily withstands accelerations of up to 1 m/s and is rated for 25 million bending cycles in drag chain-operations.

Dividing the pairs into groups also allows for fast and simple installation of the cable in the scanner system. The groups can be easily split up in the unit. Each pair is separately shielded - and allows for optimized installation. In addition to its optimized mechanical performance, E&E's new flat camera link cable provides its users with EMC-benefits.