4 ms·
RF guy here: N connectors are widely used in all RF equipment and are vastly superior to BNC connectors. Good luck using a BNC connector above several GHz. The
by ivan1783 8y ago
RF guy here: N connectors are widely used in all RF equipment and are vastly superior to BNC connectors. Good luck using a BNC connector above several GHz. The second best connector used in RF is the SMA. The third most common is the 7/16 which is horrible in my opinion to work with but necessary for large power transfer.
- Junk_Collector 8y agoN connectors are robust, so they get used heavily in military applications and that scale of production makes them relatively cheap and the mil-spec they are produced to ensures that you don't get moding until 20 GHz. They are also huge and a pain to put on. BNC is great for what it was designed for. Fast, reliable, repeatable, connections in the 100's of MHz range. HP/Agilent/Keysight uses a "Precision BNC" connector on their scopes that easily outperforms N-type connectors in frequency response but is rather expensive to produce. SMA connectors are actually pretty crappy but are cheap, small, and ubiquitous. Their size and forgiving PTFE dielectric makes them very forgiving up to 10 GHz or so from a frequency response view point. Really good high frequency connectors are going to be the precision connectors, 3.5mm 2.92mm etc. down to 1.0mm which can go up and over 100 GHz where you should really be using wave guides anyways. These types of connectors are very expensive so you rarely see them in production electronics unless absolutely required.