Everything You Need to Know About Flat Flexible Connectors and Ribbon Cables for Computers

Flat flexible cables are an essential component for every computer; after all, they connect essential computing hardware with each other flawlessly. Although they don’t look like wires, they are basically a collection of wires that have been designed to take up less space while having better power transfer capabilities than a single wire. Flat cables are found in compact devices such as smartphones and computers.

Flat flexible connectors usually come in white color, although technicians will often come across white color replacement ones such as blue or black ribbons. They transfer a very low amount of power, unlike regular power cables that supply external power to computing devices. Flat flexible cables connect printed circuit connections such as those found in microchips, transistors, and motherboards. Ribbon cables, on the other hand, are much thicker and carry more power, and are used for external power connections such as in servers and mainframe computers. They consume minimal space and also neatly group all required wires for a chip into a single ribbon, making them highly efficient. Other benefits of using flat cable connectors are their ability to eliminate wire coupling issues and high-quality EMI/RFI suppression.

Despite being an essential component of computing devices, they were not originally used to connect microchips. In fact, there were no microchips available when the very first ribbon cable was invented in 1956. It was generally used to connect electrical equipment as flexible cables provided better cable management capabilities than regular round cables. With the invention of computing devices and data reading devices, many firms of the early 1960s and 1970s began using flat cables for mainframe computers, card readers, and punching devices. Other manufacturers slowly began developing their own flat cables, hence a set of standardized designs was designed so that cables made by different manufacturers can be compatible with one another. Today, almost all computing devices such as computers, smartphones, servers, printers, and scanners use some form of flat flexible cables in them.

Flat flexible cables are of two standardized types: Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 cables have exposed contacts on the same side at both ends so that they can be used without folding the cables. Type 2 cables have exposed contacts on the opposite ends at both sides, so they have to be applied by twisting the cables. Based on the description, we can conclude that Type 1 cables are usually for shorter connections whereas Type 2 cables are for longer connections.

Flat flexible connection cables often have some form of extra plastic attached on each ends so that the cables can be detached and attached easily from and to the chip pin connectors. They also help secure the cables tightly in place.

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