Ribbon cable

The flat cable is a multicore cable in which wires are not bundled circularly arranged in a circular insulating, but are performed in parallel. It is used primarily for connecting multipolar signal cables electronic modules and computers.

For the previously used two-wire, balanced antenna cable ( ribbon cable ) see ribbon cable.

Multicore flat ribbon cables have the advantage that very many veins with little effort by the IDC with a header connector, an Adapter series or other connectors can be connected (eg, D -Sub connectors), rather than strip individually and solder then need to. Also the crosstalk of signals is lower than in the ribbon cable and round cable can be better controlled by the arrangement of the signals and the use of ground lines between critical signals.

Usually a light gray PVC material is used, with a red or black border marks the first conductor. There are also color-coded ribbon cable in which adjacent veins ten different colors according to DIN IEC 62 have. For larger ribbon cables the colors are repeated after appropriate number of cores.

Ribbon cables have up to 96 cores. The spacing of the wires may be 0.5 mm to 2.54 mm. The grid size most commonly used is 1.27 mm (0.05 " ), since it is possible a simple connection with double row post connectors for 2.54mm pin headers.

Ribbon cable can be provided with a shield, usually a wound around aluminum or copper foil.

For aerodynamic reasons the ribbon cable in recent years partly replaced by round cable, flat ribbon cable because the airflow in the chassis much more restrictive than round cable in the PC area.

Special shapes

A special form is the flat round cable in which the ribbon cable is laid curled up in a normal round cable with shielding. To connect can roll it up and squeeze to post links the stripped ends.

Ribbon cables are manufactured as a twisted pair cable, with only the ends like normal ribbon cables are molded while in between that two lines are twisted together.

The ribbon cable is a design that does not use wire, but on polyester coated metal lines whose ends can be plugged directly into this particular connector. International, this design is also known under the name Flat Flex Cable or FFC.

The FPC cable ( Flexible Printed - Circuit ) is a specialized form of a flexible printed circuit board.