Benefits Of the BNC 90 Degree Connector

BNC 90 Degree Connector

The BNC connector is one of the most common styles of coaxial connectors. The commonality of BNC connectors for a very wide range of applications including RF, networking, audio/visual, and a wide range of test and measurement applications are why there are a vast number of BNC variations, such as BNC 90 degree connector.

The BNC coaxial connector is so common because of the bayonet style locking mechanism that doesn’t require any tooling and can be performed rapidly. BNC connectors are often designed to work to 4 GHz, though that exceeds the original design specification, which is 2 GHz. Though originally designed for military use, the BNC connector, either the 75 ohm or 50 Ohm variety, has widespread consumer, commercial, industrial, avionics, nuclear, and other uses.

BNC connectors, including the BNC 90 degree connector, are attached to coaxial cable in the same way as other coaxial connectors. This can be done through clamping, solder attachment, or crimping, typically. Some BNC connectors are made to allow for two or more types of attachment using the same connector hardware. Each attachment style allows for different ranges of coaxial cable types to be used with the connector hardware. An example of a single attachment style BNC right angle connector is the BNC Right Angle Connector Solder Attachment, which only allows for solder attach instead of the also common clamp/solder or crimp/solder.

Being so common and having a limited frequency range to just a few gigahertz, BNC connectors are relatively inexpensive compared to other types of precision or higher frequency coaxial connectors but may be more expensive than common threaded types of connectors. The advantage of the BNC connector is the quick and toothless mating cycle, which doesn’t require any training or torque wrenches to ensure a proper and reliable connection.

For some test and measurement or interface units that have many ports it is convenient to have connectors that are able to mate at different angles to allow for an uncluttered cable routing and cable management arrangement. With straight BNC connectors, all of the connections must first come out from the port by several inches before the minimum bend radius of the flexible coaxial cable can be achieved. With a BNC 90 degree connector the right-angle portion is usually a fraction of an inch and can enable much cleaner cable management and prevent excessive cable stick out from the front of the back interface of a rack mount or bench top unit.