This live product demonstration shows a Samtec high-speed, high-density connector system running at 56 Gbps PAM4, with excellent performance.
Adam Page, Software Architect at Samtec, walks us through this demonstration, which is powered by a Xilinx® Virtex® UltraScale + 56 Gbps PAM4 VCU 129 FPGA Evaluation Kit.
The demo also includes a Samtec SI Evaluation Kit for the SEARAY™ high-density array products. SEARAY is a 1.27 mm pitch array connector system that allows maximum routing and grounding flexibility.
Signal Path
The differential signals are generated from the Virtex UltraScale+™ on the VCU 129 and travel to a Samtec Bulls Eye® High-Performance Test cable system. This demo incorporates a Samtec Bulls Eye BE40A, which is rated at 50GHz.
The signals travel from the Bulls Eye connector, through 30” (76 cm) of coaxial cable, to a Samtec SEARAY SI Evaluation board. These coax cables terminate to 2.40 mm compression precision RF connectors on the first SEARAY board.
The signals then travel through two adjacent pairs on the mating connector set, then through the second SEARAY board. The two differential signals exit that board through 2.40 mm precision RF connectors, through coax cable, and back to the Bulls Eye BE40A test cable system, and back to the Xilinx chip.
The Results
As Adam mentions, “the results are excellent.” The Slicer Eye and Histogram show wide margins, and we also see excellent Signal-to-Noise Ratio.
We have very low errors, and we see a Pre-FEC bit error rate better than 1 e -14.
Samtec SI Evaluation Kits
This demonstration incorporates Samtec’s SEAX-DV SI Evaluation Kit. Samtec has a variety of Board-to-Board SI Evaluation Kits. These provide system designers and SI engineers easy-to-use platforms for testing many of Samtec’s popular board-to-board connector products.
Samtec SEARAY
SEARAY is a high speed, high density open-pin-field array connector system on a 1.27 mm pitch grid, which allows maximum grounding and routing flexibility.
SEARAY is available with up to 560 single-ended I/Os or 140 differential pairs.
The rugged Edge Rate® contact system is less prone to damage when “zippered” during unmating.
Samtec Bulls Eye
Samtec Bulls Eye test point systems are ideal for high performance test applications because of their compression interfaces, small footprint, and high cycle count capabilities. Bulls Eye test systems are rated at 20, 50, and 70 GHz.
If you have questions about this demonstration, please contact us at [email protected]. And here’s a similar demo that involves a low-profile, high-density connector system also running at 56 Gbps PAM4
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