Samtec Releases Industry Leading Ultra-Fine Pitch, High-Density Edge Card

By CIOReview | Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Micro 0.50 mm pitch edge card socket for space and cost savings

NEW ALBANY, Ind. - Samtec announces the release of the industrys first 0.50 mm pitch edge card socket (MEC5) with justification beam. This design meets the demands for decreased size and increased speeds, while also optimizing cost.

The sockets justification beam is designed to shift the card into proper alignment with the contacts. This allows for standard board tolerance on cards that would typically not work with ultra-fine pitch connectors. This optimizes manufacturing costs with a 30-50% PCB cost savings and a high yield for standard cards.

The extreme density of this ultra-fine 0.50 mm pitch edge card socket provides incredible space savings compared to more common 0.80 mm pitch solutions. Available in both vertical (MEC5-DV) and right-angle (MEC5-RA), this socket features up to 300 total I/Os for high-density applications.

In order to meet the industrys demands for speed, the vertical socket is designed for 28 Gbps NRZ/56 Gbps PAM4 performance. Both orientations are designed to handle PCIe^® Gen 4 signaling.

Im excited to announce the release of the MEC5 edge card system as it will add another layer to Samtecs already vast edge card offering, said Terry Emerson, high-speed product manager at Samtec, Inc. The ability to use standard board tolerances, on such a tight pitch, is not something currently found in the industry. This will allow our customers to pass high-speed signals through an incredibly dense connector while keeping the mating PCB at a reasonable cost.

Rated to 1.5 A per contact, this system accepts .062 (1.60 mm) thick cards and features standard alignment pins and card polarization. Choice of through-hole or surface mount rugged weld tabs are available for a secure connection to the board.