New Industry Products

Card Edge Connectors Handle up to 60 Amps

January 04, 2019 by Paul Shepard

Samtec has added a new signal power card edge connector to its HSEC8 series. The new power card edge connector features a high-speed edge card socket on .8 mm pitch.

The company says that the HSEC8 is its most popular card edge connector series, and one of its biggest selling products series. A recently released option on the HSEC8 is a signal, power card edge combo connector, the HSEC8-PV.

The HSEC8-PV comes with one or two banks of power pins. Each bank includes two power pins, and each bank is rated up to 60 Amps. Samtec designed the through-hole tails on the power pins for .062” (1.60 mm) and .093” (2.36 mm) thick PCBs. The mating card thickness is .062” (1.60 mm).  Optional weld tabs enhance the mechanical strength of the component to the board. Signal pins come in groups of 40, 60, or 80 total pins. This high-speed connector is rated at 28 Gbps.

Like all HSEC8 Series products, the new connector incorporates the Edge Rate® contact. Edge Rate boasts a rugged design that and can be used for high-cycle and high-speed applications.

With some connectors, the mating edge of the contact is the cut edge of the pin. Samtec points out that this design for the contact's mating edge can reduce the life of the connector because repeated cycles against the cut edges of the contact can wear-out the plating.

Unlike some other connectors, the mating surface of the Edge Rate contact is the smooth, milled side of the contact that reduces wear tracks on the contact, thereby increasing the durability and cycle life of the contact system. Also, the thin, narrow, cut edges of the Edge Rate contact are placed side-by-side to minimize the parallel surface areas, thus reducing broadside coupling and crosstalk.

And lastly, the contact features a simple design for higher bandwidth, and the Samtec designed, simulated, and optimized the contact for 50- and 100-ohm systems given the contract pitch and appropriate grounding schematics.