SMK Toughens Up Those Tiny Micro-USB Connections 137
An anonymous reader writes "If a gadget ships with a micro-USB port, I see it as a plus because it isn't proprietary — meaning I can easily and cheaply buy replacement cables. But the micro-USB ports aren't the strongest connectors in the world, so if the gadget is expensive (a smartphone) and you accidentally bust the port, you're in trouble. And that's easily done. Japanese manufacturer SMK may have fixed the problem, though, with a new double-strong connector design. They started producing them on Friday, and at an output of 500,000 a month, hopefully they'll be shipping with most new gadgets before long."
Re:Wasn't that one of the the points of Micro-USB? (Score:3, Informative)
The issue is that of the connector itself breaking away from the circuit board as they are soldered directly onto the surface of the board. It is very easily done. Solder doesn't have fantastic mechanical strength and solder pads on PCBs aren't that strong either.
Re:Already exists* (Score:4, Informative)
It's not always just to save pennies; a through-hole connector has to go through all of the layers of the board. By using a surface-mount connector you only lose the space on the top layer and can route things in the layers beneath (modulo signal-crosstalk issues).
Re:Already exists* (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sometimes "stronger" isn't stronger (Score:4, Informative)
If you look at TFA, it seems that the connector actually introduces flex where there wasn't any before.