IC Sockets for Datacom Test Applications Product Roundup
This week’s Product Roundup highlights IC Sockets from leading suppliers.
IC Sockets for Datacom Test Applications
Mill-Max IC Sockets, supplied by Allied Electronics & Automation, provide a variety of options for making device-to-board connections. These IC sockets utilize the Mill-Max receptacle as the connection between the IC device and the circuit board. The precision-machined receptacle shell is available in multiple variations. Mill-Max offers a wide choice of sockets in several board termination types, including solder-tail, press-fit, surface mount, and wrapost. These sockets allow for upgradeability and field repair and provide versatility for device substitution between models of a product line.
Smiths Interconnect’s DaVinci Series sockets perform reliable IC testing up to 67GHz Analog RF and 56 Gb/s NRZ Digital. A patented design integrates spring-probe technology and a proprietary insulated housing material. The unique IM material used in DaVinci’s construction permits a truly coaxial structure from tip to tip, yielding the industry-leading bandwidths available from a highly compliant contactor. IM is a conductive socket material which is selectively insulated with an exceptionally tough coating. This allows signal probes to be retained in the contactor in a coaxial structure without the use of sleeves or plates to produce matched impedance from one end of the probe to the other. DaVinci products offer exceptional rigidity and dimensional accuracy, and they are impervious to hygroscopic growth.
Ardent Concepts, an Amphenol Company, offers spring-loaded test sockets with exceptional electrical performance for an all-metal solution. This makes them an ideal discrete-node alternative to expensive pogo-style pins. With pitch capability as low as 0.3 mm and force per node as low as five grams, massively parallel interfaces are possible without massive force. Durable multi-GHz BGA socket solutions offer low-loss connection for wireless devices, processors, fPGA, and other high performing devices. The patented technology used for Ardent’s BGA test sockets and LGA interposers is more scalable and less expensive than barrel spring pins.
Ironwood Electronics introduced a new LGA socket addressing high-performance requirements for 1.5 mm pitch LGA464 – CBT-LGA-5037. The contactor is a stamped spring pin with 19 gram actuation force per pin and cycle life of 125,000 insertions. The self-inductance of the contactor is 0.93 nH, insertion loss of < 1 dB at 23GHz and capacitance 0.097pF. The current capacity of each contactor is 4 amps. Socket temperature range is -55C to +180C. Socket also features an IC guide for precise LGA pad alignment through holes in the device. The specific configuration of the package to be tested in the CBT-LGA-5037 is LGA, 47x47mm body size, 30×30 array, and 1.5mm pitch. To use, drop the IC into the socket and close the clamshell lid. Vertical force is applied by the integrated spring-loaded compression plate between the lid and device by actuating the lever from open to close. This socket can be used for device characterization, screening modules, and custom burn-in applications with the most stringent requirements. The CBT-LGA-5037 socket features a unique contact design with outside spring and flat stamped plungers that provide a robust solution for Burn-in & Test applications. They provide excellent electrical signal integrity to meet the requirements of today’s demanding analog, digital, RF, Bluetooth, and medical device applications. The socket is mounted using supplied hardware on the target PCB with no soldering and uses the smallest footprint in the industry, allowing inductors, resistors, and decoupling capacitors to be placed very close to the device for impedance tuning. The clamshell socket lid incorporates a quick installation method so that ICs can be changed out quickly.
Read about other testing products in Testing Equipment and Accessories Product Roundup and datacom products in Datacom and Telecom Connectors Product Roundup.
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