Meet the Connector: Pin Header A pin header, or header, is a male connector with one or two rows of metal pins attached to a plastic base. Pin headers with more than two rows are available from some manufacturers. The pins are spaced in uniform intervals (commonly 2.54 mm or 0.1 inch apart) but manyRead More

Meet the Connector: PCIe Connectors Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCle), also called PCI Express, is a high-performance and high-bandwidth serial communication I/O interconnect bus standard. Interconnects that meet the PCIe standard include mezzanine and board-to-board connectors, over-the-board solutions, high-speed edge card sockets that support 1, 4, 8, and 16 PCIe links, and PCIe optical cableRead More

This week’s Product Roundup highlights compression connectors from leading suppliers. Compression Connectors for Datacom Applications Amphenol Communications Solutions offers compression-type surface mount connectors for hard disk drives (HDD). These customizable single-piece solutions facilitate read & write functions in traditional low-cost bulk-storage HDDs and helium HDDs. Their small footprint saves PCB real estate. The single pieceRead More

Meet the Connector: QMA Connectors The internal construction of the QMA is identical to the SMA and, like that connector, it delivers excellent performance up to 18 GHz and has the same power handling capabilities. The main difference is in the coupling mechanism. Instead of a threaded coupling, QMAs have a snap-on design with aRead More

The pandemic, geopolitical turmoil, factory slowdowns, and other disruptive factors have impacted the cost of the materials used to make connectors. A conversation with Ron Bishop explains this complicated era. By Connector Supplier and Samtec Inc. Material costs have fluctuated wildly in the past three to four years as COVID-19’s disruptions, tariffs, wars, natural disasters,Read More

To reduce heat and improve speeds, twinax cable assemblies are replacing PCBs in next-generation datacom equipment. The links inside a switch that connect the quad small form factor pluggables (QSFPs) at the faceplate to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) at the heart of the box have become signal superhighways. The capacity and the number of  I/ORead More

This week’s Product Roundup highlights wire & cable assemblies for high-temp applications from leading suppliers. Wire & Cable Assemblies for High-Temp Applications Cicoil’s exclusive, patented extrusion process in combination with its patented Flexx-Sil jacketing is at the heart of manufacturing extreme environment flat cables that retain electrical properties and flexibility over a long life. CicoilRead More

Meet the Connector: Board-to-Board Connectors Board-to-board (BTB) connectors are used to transmit signals between printed circuit boards (PCBs). They are made by many connector manufacturers and come in a variety of styles and materials. BTB connectors are among the commonly used connector types. Their evolution has been influenced by their use in an ever-growing numberRead More

Meet the Connector: BNC Connectors BNC connectors are miniature radio frequency (RF) connectors developed for low-frequency applications. This quick-connect/disconnect circular connector features a two-stud bayonet-style locking mechanism that users twist and snap into position. A tactile snap indicates a secure connection; a reverse motion disconnects the connector pair. The BNC connector famously bears the initialsRead More

This week’s Product Roundup highlights backplane connectors from leading suppliers. Backplane Connectors The LRM Surface Mount Connectors from Amphenol Aerospace meet the high-density needs of today’s integrated electronic modules. The flexible design meets and exceeds the wide variety of user requirements. With multiple different contacts being used in the connectors, mainly digital (brush), thousands ofRead More

Meet the Connector: FFC/FPC Connectors FFC connectors are used to mate ribbon-type flat flexible cables (FFCs) to PCB circuitry in cable-to-board applications. They are also available in cable-to-cable configurations. These connectors have a high-density, very narrow form factor and fit in tight spaces. They are commonly used in consumer applications such as laptops, cameras, computerRead More

This week’s Product Roundup highlights high-speed cable assemblies from leading suppliers. High-Speed Cable Assemblies  Cicoil, a Trexon company, offers a wide range of high-speed standard cable assemblies using an exclusive, patented extrusion process. Cicoil’s process combines multiple elements into a single flat cable and in continuous lengths, including single conductor, shielded conductors, tubing, Cat 5e/CatRead More