Next month, two Samtec engineers will participate in EDI CON ONLINE, a free annual online training event from the publisher of Microwave Journal and Signal Integrity Journal. In separate talks, Istvan Novak and Kiana Montes, of Samtec will give tips on power distribution and breakout region design. On Wednesday, October 4th at 10:30 Eastern, Istvan Novak will take the virtual stage to teach about PDNs. His Featured Talk is called: Three Design Tips for Power Distribution Networks. Power … [Read more...]
Advantages of Being a Samtec Co-Op
Samtec’s multi-year co-op program is part of our commitment to education and investment in young talent. The program supports different disciplines. This month’s post focuses on the IT and Signal Integrity Group (SIG) engineering co-op programs, capturing thoughts on the advantages of a co-op program from the full-time employees who lead the programs as well as some of the co-op participants. (For more on how the Samtec co-op program is structured, see Real Job Skills from the Samtec Co-Op … [Read more...]
RF Compression-Mount Connectors Enhance Millimeter Wave Designs
Compression mount connectors are a great option for millimeter wave designs because they avoid the problems associated with solder variations. Specifically, the advantages of compression mount connectors (as compared to soldered connections) for millimeter wave designs include avoiding the potential performance degradation of solder reflow, enabling high-performance millimeter-wave frequencies, providing flexibility during PCB design, and offering high reliability [1]. Plus, they can be reused. … [Read more...]
Real Job Skills from the Samtec Co-Op Program
At any given time, Samtec has approximately 80-90 co-ops working in its different global locations. The mission of Samtec’s co-op program is part of its commitment to education and investment in young talent. Samtec co-ops complete real-world projects, gain valuable on-the-job skills, make meaningful contributions to Samtec initiatives, and expand their network as they move through the multi-year program. Many go on to full-time positions within the company after graduation. Program’s Value … [Read more...]
Getting Help with Power Integrity
If you get your power design right, it protects the signal integrity margin and improves power and thermal efficiency. Some connectors combine power blades in addition to digital signal pins, which adds complexity. For these types of connectors, it is important to understand how the blade assignments impact power delivery as well as how the pin and blade assignment could affect signal-to-power and power-to-signal crosstalk. To assist designers with the Samtec AcceleRate® mP UDX connectors … [Read more...]
Why Use Flyover Cable Systems?
Samtec’s Flyover® cable systems are designed to get signals off the PCB in order to improve signal integrity, increase design flexibility, and optimize thermal performance. These products route high-speed signals through low-loss, low-skew twinax cable. They operate across distances that can be up to several feet long while removing the need for clock data recovery circuits (CDRs) or retimers. In a recently published white paper, Samtec Senior Field Applications Engineer, Anthony Fellbaum, … [Read more...]
Validating the Performance of Miniature Array Connectors
Small, complex, and portable applications (in industries such as military/aerospace and medical) require miniaturized, reliable interconnects. As traditional surface-mount and through-hole interconnects reach their limits in terms of density and the number of signals that can effectively be used, many product designers are implementing high I/O array styles of interconnects. In a new white paper from Samtec, “Improved Solder Joint Integrity for High-Density Interconnect Applications,” the … [Read more...]
Women in Microwaves Reception Draws Crowd at IMS
International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2023 in San Diego was a busy event, incorporating an entire week of technical programming for engineers designing RF, microwave, mmWave, and THz systems. Each year, the event hosts a Women in Microwaves networking reception. This year, Samtec was fortunate enough to join Microwaves & RF magazine as the sponsors of the Women in Microwaves (affectionately referred to as “WIM”) reception, which was held at the Hilton Bayfront San Diego hotel on Tuesday, … [Read more...]
Samtec Engineers Win DesignCon Best Paper Award
In late 2022, the technical program committee for DesignCon 2023 announced the DesignCon Best Paper Awards finalists. Now, they have announced the Best Paper Awards winners. This year, papers authored by Samtec engineers were honored by DesignCon Best Paper Awards as finalists and winner. The paper “3D Connection Artifacts in PDN Measurements,” with Istvan Novak and Gustavo Blando of Samtec as part of the authorship team, was recently announced as a DesignCon 2023 Best Paper Award Winner! … [Read more...]
Should I Use a PCB or Cable Backplane?
Selecting a backplane design requires tradeoffs specific to a particular network topology and application. In some cases, the assessment of PCB vs cable backplane is not an “either/or” but a combination approach. This blog post, based on a conversation with Samtec’s Andrew Josephson, Brandon Gore, and Jonathan Sprigler, aims to answer some of the most common questions that come up when deciding should I use a PCB or cable backplane for a high-speed design? How do the two approaches compare on … [Read more...]