New Connector Search: A High-Speed Mated Set In Seconds

What do these movie series have in common:  Toy Story, the Bourne Series, Mission Impossible, the original Spiderman, and The Godfather? They are all movies where, in many peoples’ opinions, the sequel was just as good as or better than the original. What does that have to do with Samtec? Glad you asked!

A Historic September

OK, that’s a bit of hyperbole. But last Fall Samtec introduced the Solutionator® Flex Stacking tool, an online connector search tool that provides you the mated connector set that meets your connector board stacking design requirements. Let me say that again – the tool gives complete part numbers of the two mating connectors that meet your design specifications.

Almost every other connector search on the planet leads you to one connector, and then you still have to search to find the other half of the mated set. In other words, you have to do at least two searches.  And after these two searches, you still have to figure out the stack height of the mating connector system. And that can be, putting it mildly, a major hassle. With the Solutionator tool, you can literally locate the best mated connector set for your board stacking application in a matter of seconds.

The Flex Stack Solutionator was a hit. Designers loved its simplicity and the breadth of solutions. In January we came out with the first sequel.

A New High-Speed Connector Search Tool

We just unveiled the new High-Speed Board-to-Board Solutionator. As the name suggests, this online tool provides a mated connector set for high-speed board stacking applications. Like the original, the new one gives you complete part numbers of the two mated high-speed connectors that meet your design specifications.

How It Works

It’s simple. You provide specifications for one or more of the following attributes, and the program gives you a list of mated connected sets that meet your design criteria:

Select a connector type —  you can choose an array, two row (traditional “mezzanine”), edge card, or backplane.

Select an orientation – there’s parallel (traditional “sandwich” style board-to-board), perpendicular (right angle, or 90°), or coplanar (horizontal, or 180°).

Select the pitch, or connector centerline.  If you’re unsure, you can select several pitches.

Select the number of positions. The offering is dependent on the connector type and orientation previously selected. This way you will only see the pin counts available for the connector sets that match your previously selected criteria.

Select the connector stack height.  Again, the choices available to you are dependent on the previous design criteria you selected.

BTW, I recommend completing as many search attributes as possible and being as specific as possible. The more specific your request, the quicker it is for you to identify the best solution.

The Solutionator tool lists the mated connector sets that meet your design requirements. Did I mention you get a mated connector set? Anyway, in the example below, you’ll notice there are two mated connector set options, available with different gold plating thicknesses.

When you select one of the connector sets in the image above, the tool takes you to a screen like the one shown below. You can see the full part numbers of the mating connector set, standard book pricing, you can download 2D or 3D models, you have access to prints, catalog pages, and PADS libraries, and you can order free samples.

Notice that both connectors are in the Samtec Reserve^™ program. This means a quantity of these connectors can ship tomorrow.

Another Solutionator Connector Search On The Way?

The Solutionator Flex Stacking tool and High-Speed Board to Board Solutionator are the first two installments of several new Solutionator tools. Coming soon is a Solutionator for Micro Rugged products.

We’ll also be updating the Mated Set Screen you see in the final step to be much more robust and easier to use. Look for that sometime this summer.

Coming Soon to Samtec.com

Here is what we’re currently working on, and a few other updates that are coming soon!

• Continued upgrades to our e-commerce experience throughout the website
• Updated capabilities to manage profiles online
• A brand new checkout experience
• A new way to build optical cable systems online
• A new mated-set screen in our Solutionator tools
• And more!

Keep an eye out for these updates and more coming soon.

Drop your email address in the form below if you want to stay in the loop with these updates, as well as the rest of our blog content.

If you have any feedback or suggestions for our web team, feel free to send an email at eHelpDesk@samtec.com.