Complete Guide To Selecting Board-to-Board Connectors

Anyone who’s ever looked inside an previous desktop pc and unplugged a ribbon cable is accustomed to the humble pin header. This connector is a simple but effective approach to attach two boards together in a stacked association. In reality, it’s so fashionable that it’s been used to build add-on shield boards for in style platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi, both of which have seen success outdoors the maker area. In a current engagement with a client, I used to be shocked to see how they’d stacked up multiple Raspberry Pi boards to run some critical gear, which exhibits the importance of board-to-board connectors in some of these modular systems. Though pin headers are easy, it doesn’t mean they aren’t helpful. However, they aren’t the only possibility, and there are a lot of board-to-board connector choices for top pace/high frequency programs, or for high voltage/high power methods. These connectors find their approach into techniques as various as military equipment to medical gear. If you’re taking a modular design strategy to your next hardware platform and it is advisable link multiple boards together easily, consider board-to-board connectors as an alternative of cables.

There are lots of cost-efficient choices available on the market that can ensure signal integrity and rugged design in a variety of methods. Board-to-board connectors are available quite a lot of sizes and styles to give a modular feel to a multi-board PCB system. Pin headers: Most designers are acquainted with the 1-row or 2-row pin header association with 1 mm pitch. There are variations on this model, together with stacked pin headers. Pin headers could be shrouded and keyed (even multi-keyed) to ensure pinouts match when boards are linked. Mezzanine connectors: This type of board-to-board connector joins two parallel printed circuit boards in a stacked configuration. There are many mezzanine connector SMT PCB connector types. Note that a pin header can be utilized as a mezzanine connector. If you cherished this article and you would like to receive far more details pertaining to High-speed PCB connector – go to anotepad.com – kindly visit our web site. Edge card connectors: This model connector is most commonly recognized for its use in RAM sticks and COMs/SoMs. Really, it can be used for any board-to-board connection along a board edge, whether with a customized or standardized pinout.

Backplane connectors: This type of connector deserves its own class, each resulting from its need to accommodate high data rates and very rugged building. Standardized connectors: Some connectors could also be developed to satisfy very particular trade requirements past edge connector types for add-in playing cards. Standards organizations which have outlined particular connector types embody VITA (for PCB header connector backplanes), PCI-SIG (PCIe cards), IEEE (e.g., 1386 customary for mezzanine), JTAG, Pc/104 (sq.-submit pin headers), and others. There are numerous other connectors that don’t fall into one of the above categories. The picture under exhibits an instance of some typical products that fall inside these classes. The image above is only a subset of all of the completely different board-to-board connectors accessible on the market. Obviously, there are various variations on these connectors with different pin/pad counts, key/shroud styles, mounting kinds (SMD vs. When you’re wanting by a vendor’s webpage or filtering by a parts search engine, there are a couple of different ways distributors will categorize their components.

Within these several types of board-to-board connectors, they could also be classified as ruggedized, excessive pace, excessive frequency, excessive present/high power, or another designation. This is essentially advertising converse as there is no such thing as a common definition of a high speed connector, excessive power connector, and many others. One vital exception is backplane connectors, which are strictly defined within the ANSI/VITA requirements, where particular types pair with totally different media (copper, fiber, or coaxial cable). Another extremely standardized connector model is the IEEE 1386 mezzanine connector. As is the case with many different components, vendors will target specific industries with their products and can try to focus on specific functions in these industries. In consequence, you’ll see types of board-to-board connectors that might be extremely ruggedized with onerous plastic shielding as they goal areas like automotive, aerospace, industrial programs, or energy products. Normally, you possibly can often find a ruggedized version of a regular connector that has the same pinout, mounting model, and pitch as its much less rugged variant.