Top solutions for ever-evolving drone technology

In the recent past, UAVs were most often associated with the military, where they were used initially for anti-aircraft target practice, intelligence gathering and then, more controversially, as weapons platforms. Drones are now also used in a wide range of civilian roles. Municipalities, architects and real estate developers use drones to inspect buildings for compliance to the latest safety standards. Drones simplify search and rescue (S+R) operations while keeping first responders out of harm’s way.

The list of drone/UAV use is only limited by the imagination of their users. Other everyday applications for drones/UAVs include:

• aerial photography for journalism and film,

• express shipping and delivery,

• gathering information or supplying essentials for disaster management,

• geographic mapping of inaccessible terrain and locations,

• precision crop monitoring,

• unmanned cargo transport,

• law enforcement and border control surveillance,

• storm tracking and forecasting hurricanes and tornadoes.

Development of hundreds of more uses of drones are underway due to the multiple investments pouring into this promising industry every day. The interest in this field keeps on growing.

Technology, features and components

Drones contain a large number of technological components, including:

• electronic speed controllers (ESC), an electronic circuit that controls a motor’s speed and direction,

• flight controller,

• GPS module,

• battery,

• antenna,

• receiver,

• cameras,

• sensors, including ultrasonic sensors and collision avoidance sensors,

• accelerometer, which measures speed,

• altimeter, which measures altitude.

Nexum offers high-quality products, that can be installed in drones, from manufacturer Samtec. Samtec offers a full suite of Precision RF solutions and capabilities. High-level design and development of advanced interconnect systems along with industry leading expertise allows Samtec to offer effective strategies and support for optimizing the entire RF signal channel over the 18-110 GHz frequency range.

Samtec has more ways to connect two or more PCBs than any other connector company. With the industry’s largest variety of board stacking interconnects, and the most design flexibility to solve almost every design challenge, Samtec makes it easy to find the right board-to-board interconnect system.

Samtec offers a number of micro pitch connectors with high-reliability Tiger Eye™ and rugged Edge Rate® contact systems for high mating cycles, high-shock and vibration applications.

High-speed cable assemblies utilize either micro coax for single-ended applications or twinax cable for different signals. Assemblies include future-proof, high-density array, integral ground plane, hermaphroditic, rugged Edge Rate® and high-speed PCI Express® options.

For more information about Samtec’s connection solutions contact our specialist. If you want to learn more about RF solutions in our offer, click here.