Connector Requirements for High-Voltage Healthcare Applications

Simplifying Safety and Security

- By Lou Copley Vice President of Americas Sales, Avnet

Medical connectors need to meet a plethora of industry standards and unique practical requirements. Both are most stringent in high-voltage applications.

Any procedure involving patients being exposed to high voltages is high-risk. Imaging systems based on traditional X-ray, computed tomography (CT), and fluoroscopy (which uses continuous X-rays to produce a video) can generate voltages up to 150kV. Electrosurgical and ablation devices produce high-frequency (hundreds of kHz) signals with peak voltages around 4kV, with probes in direct contact with tissue to cut and coagulate. Catheter-based electrophysiology systems typically operate at approximately 1.5kV. Other examples include surgical lasers based on solid-state or gas lasers; the former require excitation voltages of one to five kV, and the latter up to tens of kilovolts.

Medical connectors need to function effectively in environments where flexible pin configurations, voltage clearance and creepage, and compatibility with both legacy and future platforms are necessary. Some devices now feature smart capabilities, such as trackable connection histories and on-device confirmation of secure mating.

For these applications and more, medical connectors must meet essential requirements such as safety, sterilization, reliability and customization.

SAFETY DEFINITIONS AND STANDARDS FOR MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

Compliance with established industry standards is essential for any company seeking to introduce high-voltage products into the healthcare market, as regulators, hospitals, and notified bodies all require objective evidence that electrical safety risks are being systematically managed. In the medical field, there is no single, universal definition of “high voltage,” but generally, it includes any voltage level that could pose a hazard to patients, users, or service personnel during normal operation or single-fault conditions.