ARCADIAN SALES is the #1 distributor in the world for BEL "MagJack."

Hello, my name is Mike Crudele, President of Arcadian Sales, the world’s #1 distributor for the BEL (Bel Fuse, Bel Power, Stewart Connector, Galaxy Power & APC / Advanced Power Components) family of products. This newsletter contains a brief overview of the advantages of using BEL “MagJacks” (formerly BelMag) vs traditional “discrete” connector / magnetics designs.

Let me begin by suggesting that upon reading this article, you go to the link below to see a general overview of our MagJack offering.
http://arcadiansales.com/products/bel/magjack/

Essentially, a MagJack, or Integrated Connector Module (ICM for short) is a combination of up to 10 discrete components. They include: The RJ45 connector, the impedance matching transformers, 2 LED’s, 4 termination resistors, 1 high voltage capacitor, and often common modes chokes as well. These "MagJacks" can be used in applications that employ 10 base T, 10 / 100 base T, 1000 base T / gigabit and come with or without PoE / VoiP capability.

Today’s ethernet or LAN hardware engineers have two ways to lay these components out on their boards. First, they can do it “discretely.” That is, they can lay out each of the parts I mentioned individually on the board, and this is the way it was typically done up until the late 1990’s. The second, and I believe the better way, to approach this problem, is to use a MagJack, or Integrated Connector Module, from BEL.

The advantages to using a MagJack in an ethernet design are numerous, but I will outline what I believe to be the top five reasons to consider this approach.

1. Maximize Avaliable Space. By combining up to 10 components into one housing, you can literally cut the real estate used on a PCB by more than 50%.

2. Maximize Efficiency…in engineering, purchasing, inventory management, and manufacturing. By using 1 component instead of 10, you can turn designs faster, simplify the purchasing process, streamline inventory management, and reduce manufacturing time.

3. Reliability. Most people don’t realize that magnetics are often the least reliable component on a PCB. That is because the fine copper wire used to produce today’s impedance matching transformers is very fragile. By keeping the magnetics, as well as the other 9 components, inside the RJ45 housing, they are protected from heat and other environmental exposure which can accelerate untimely and unexpected field failures.

4. Noise Reduction. Today’s designers are faced with increased system “noise” manifesting itself in any number of forms, such as EMI, RFI, cross talk and jitter. As communication speeds increase, so do the problems brought on by noise. Using MagJacks is a simple way to reduce system noise. You see, by taking all 10 components, including the noise countermeasures like common mode chokes, and housing them within the RJ45, you reduce the number of exposed components, reduce the number of exposed traces, and reduce the overall signal path, all of which significantly reduces system noise. In addition, by using shielded MagJacks, you can reduce system noise even further.

5. The last reason I’ll give you for using BEL MagJacks, is availability. By designing in BEL MagJacks, particularly the “08” series found in Arcadian Sales “RAPIDs” catalog, you’ll ensure available inventory for prototypes or production at all times. RAPIDs stands for Readily Available Prototypes, Introductory Designs and Samples. Every item in this catalog is available from our stock. I encourage you to check it out, you can find it on our website at arcadiansales.com, or by calling us and requesting a copy at 1-888-925-5967.

I would suggest checking out the following MagJacks, which we find to be the most popular...
10/100 (no PoE) 08B0-1X1T-06-F1
10/100 (with PoE) 0826-1X1T-57-F1
Gigabit (no PoE) 0826-1X1T-23-F1
Gigabit (with PoE) 0826-1X1T-80-F1

I hope you found this information helpful, and I look forward to working with you to design BEL MagJacks into your products. Link below to see an overview of Bel MagJack products
http://arcadiansales.com/products/bel/magjack/

As always, at Arcadian Sales... it’s all about BEL!