Check out the new Samtec Optical Group video. The Samtec Optical Group is an engineering team dedicated to the design, development and application support of high performance micro optical engines, active optical assemblies and high density ganged passive optical panel solutions. Capable of 14 Gbps, 28 Gbps, and soon 56 Gbps, Samtec’s FireFly™ micro on-board optical engines occupy the smallest overall footprint, consume the least amount of power, and enable fast, easy, and low cost fiber … [Read more...]
Bulls Eye® Test Point Solutions Ease Transceiver Characterization
Semiconductor manufacturers are always looking for the best interconnect solution to characterize the high-speed transceivers found on their FPGAs, ASICs and ASSPs. Typically, PCB-mount SMA connectors have been used to breakout the differential transmit and receive signals found in modern transceivers. Below is a Xilinx Spartan-6 FPGA SP623 Characterization Kit which features a number of PCB-mount SMA connectors. This approach worked for decades. Transceiver counts per IC … [Read more...]
The High Speed Camera Never Lies (Neither Does The Frame Grabber Or Software …)
I caught up with Chuck Petersen, Vice President at Epix Inc. Epix designs and manufactures high speed cameras, frame grabbers (boards that are installed into computer slots for image capture from a camera), and software for image capture and processing. The typical Epix customer uses these products for manufacturing assembly line inspections, but they are used in a variety of applications from microscopy to astronomy. Epix just introduced three new versions of the PIXCI® EB1mini, a … [Read more...]
A Look Inside Samtec’s High Speed Cable Tech Center
Check out the new Samtec Cable Group Tech Center video. It’s an overview of the Samtec Cable Group, our R&D and manufacturing Technology Center focusing on precision extruded micro coax and twinax cable used for high speed / high density cable assemblies, including 26-38 AWG, 50/75/85/100 ohm impedance, and systems rated at 28+ Gbps. Cable Options Samtec Cable Group offers a variety of center conductor, dielectric, shielding, and jacket options. Center conductor options include … [Read more...]
Samtec and Amphenol® Aerospace Partner to Address the Growing Need for Rugged Optics
Samtec and Amphenol® Aerospace recently announced a partnership to incorporate Samtec’s FireFly™ optical cable platform with Amphenol® Aerospace’s bulkhead interconnects for rugged optic solutions. Click here to read the official press release. FireFly™ Samtec’s FireFly™ is a mid-board cable and optical interconnect system. FireFly™ is incredibly dense, and it enables chip-to-chip, board-to-board, and system-to-board connectivity using the same connector system for both copper … [Read more...]
Impact Conference: Next Generation High Speed Data Transfer Rates
Scott McMorrow is speaking at the Impact Conference (Boards, Chips and Packaging: Designing To Maximize Benefits) on Tuesday, October 13th. He and a panel of experts are discussing Next Generation High Speed Data Transfer Rates. Quick Overview Of The Discussion The need for more bandwidth is continuing to drive the Internet infrastructure. Rapid growth of server, network and internet traffic is fueling the need for higher data rates. Key contributors to data demand … [Read more...]
Strike Up The Bandwidth Beyond 28 Gbps
Here is a link to an EDN article you need to read. Scott McMorrow, R&D Consultant for Teraspeed® Consulting (a division of Samtec), discusses the migration of high-speed data transfer rates to 28 Gbps and beyond. Here's a quick synopsis. We Can Barely Get To 56 Gbps With Today's Materials It’s hard to give an overview to such an insightful article, but I’ll try to give a quick recap: First, although many in the industry are successfully achieving information transfer rates … [Read more...]
Let’s Get Small … New Samtec Microelectronics Video
Check out the new Samtec Microelectronics Technology Center Video. It’s a an overview of our microelectronics and IC packaging capabilities, including precision die attach, ultra-fine pitch and low profile wire bond, flip chip, underfill, and dam and encapsulation, complete IC-to-board design, and support and manufacturing of IC packaging, substrates, micro high density interposers and micro optical engines. Samtec’s Technology Centers develop and advance technologies and products … [Read more...]
IEEE Working Group To Define High-Speed PCB Measurements
Have you ever received a measured Touchstone file from a vendor and felt the data was bad...or at least it had obvious passivity issues? Have you wanted to measure PCB traces and needed to de-embed the launch effects and found your data suspect? Maybe you wondered if you should trust the measured connector data above 20 GHz as the calibration traces were not the best? Getting high quality measured S-parameter data of embedded microwave structures is not a trivial effort, … [Read more...]
Dissimilar Metals And The Risk of Galvanic Corrosion in Mating Connectors
I am fascinated by the concept of dissimilar metals and galvanic corrosion. I stayed up until 3:45 am last night surfing the web to learn more. Of course I'm lying, but we do field questions about galvanic corrosion. Robbie Huffman, Samtec's Interconnect Processing Engineer, recently shared some information on this subject with our Field Sales Engineers. I hope you find it helpful: When choosing connectors for your application, it is important to choose mating connectors with similar … [Read more...]