Anyone who’s ever seemed inside an outdated desktop pc and unplugged a ribbon cable is acquainted with the humble pin header. This connector is a straightforward however effective approach to connect two boards together in a stacked arrangement. The truth is, it’s so fashionable that it’s been used to build add-on shield boards for fashionable platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi, both of which have seen success outdoors the maker area. In a recent engagement with a shopper, I was shocked to see how they’d stacked up multiple Raspberry Pi boards to run some important tools, which exhibits the significance of board-to-board connectors in these types of modular programs. If you liked this article and you would like to obtain more info pertaining to High-density PCB connector supply generously visit our web page. Even though pin headers are simple, it doesn’t imply they aren’t useful. However, they aren’t the only choice, and there are various board-to-board connector options for high speed/excessive frequency programs, or for top voltage/high power methods. These connectors discover their manner into methods as diverse as army gear to medical gear. If you’re taking a modular design strategy to your next hardware platform and it’s essential link a number of boards collectively simply, consider board-to-board connectors instead of cables.
There are a lot of value-effective choices in the marketplace that may guarantee signal integrity and rugged design in a range of programs. Board-to-board connectors are available quite a lot of styles and sizes to present a modular feel to a multi-board High-speed PCB connector system. Pin headers: Most designers are conversant in the 1-row or 2-row pin header association with 1 mm pitch. There are variations on this model, including stacked pin headers. Pin headers will be shrouded and keyed (even multi-keyed) to guarantee pinouts match when boards are related. Mezzanine connectors: Such a board-to-board connector joins two parallel printed circuit boards in a stacked configuration. There are many mezzanine connector types. Note that a pin header can be utilized as a mezzanine connector. Edge card connectors: This style connector is mostly identified for its use in RAM sticks and COMs/SoMs. Really, it can be utilized for High-density PCB connector connector assembly any board-to-board connection alongside a board edge, whether or not with a custom or standardized pinout.
Backplane connectors: The sort of connector deserves its own category, each attributable to its must accommodate high data rates and very rugged development. Standardized connectors: Some connectors could also be developed to satisfy very particular business standards past edge connector kinds for add-in playing cards. Standards organizations which have defined specific connector styles embrace VITA (for backplanes), PCI-SIG (PCIe playing cards), IEEE (e.g., 1386 normal for mezzanine), JTAG, Pc/104 (square-submit pin headers), and others. There are lots of other connectors that don’t fall into one of many above classes. The picture under shows an instance of some typical merchandise that fall inside these categories. The picture above is only a subset of all of the totally different board-to-board connectors available on the market. Obviously, there are lots of variations on these connectors with different pin/pad counts, key/shroud kinds, mounting types (SMD vs. When you’re wanting by a vendor’s webpage or filtering via a components search engine, there are a few different ways distributors will categorize their elements.
Within these several types of board-to-board connectors, they could also be labeled as ruggedized, high pace, high frequency, excessive present/excessive energy, or another designation. This is basically advertising converse as there isn’t any universal definition of a high pace connector, excessive energy connector, and so on. One essential exception is backplane connectors, which are strictly defined within the ANSI/VITA standards, the place specific styles pair with different media (copper, fiber, or coaxial cable). Another extremely standardized connector fashion is the IEEE 1386 mezzanine connector. As is the case with many other parts, distributors will target particular industries with their products and can try to target particular functions in these industries. Because of this, you’ll see kinds of board-to-board connectors that might be highly ruggedized with hard plastic shielding as they goal areas like automotive, aerospace, industrial programs, or energy products. Usually, you’ll be able to normally discover a ruggedized version of a standard connector that has the same pinout, mounting type, and pitch as its much less rugged variant.