Here’s a live product demonstration of a new high speed connector system which achieves excellent SI results while running at 56 Gbps PAM4. Jean-Remy Bonnefoy, Systems Engineer at Samtec, explains how Samtec partnered with Credo for this active product demonstration.
Credo’s mixed signal 56 Gbps PAM4 Bald Eagle 2 silicon generates two bi-directional channels of QPRBS-31 signal data at 56 Gbps PAM4.
The differential signals travel through 2″ of traces on a MEG4 PCB, to a Samtec Bulls Eye® High-Performance Test cable system. This system uses a Samtec Bulls Eye BE40A, which is rated at 50GHz.
The signals travel from the Bulls Eye connector, through 16” of coaxial cable, to a Samtec AcceleRate®-HP SI Evaluation board. These coax cables terminate to 2.40 mm compression precision RF connectors on the first AcceleRate board.
The signals then travel through the mating AcceleRate-HP connector set — this set has a 10 mm stack height — then through the second SI Eval board. The two differential signals exit that board through 2.40 mm precision RF connectors, through more coax cable, back to the Bulls Eye BE40A test cable system, and back to the Credo Bald Eagle receiver where we can check the performance.
SI Performance
We see wide-open eyes with impressive margins, ranging from 215 to 241 mV. We are generating 56 Gbps PAM4 traffic and still there are no errors.
SI Evaluation Kits
This demonstration incorporates Samtec’s APX6 SI Evaluation Kit. Samtec has a variety of Board-to-Board SI Evaluation Kits which provide system designers and SI engineers easy-to-use platforms for testing many of Samtec’s popular board-to-board connector products.
AcceleRate-HP New High Speed Connector System
AcceleRate HP is a 0.635 mm pitch array with a flexible open-pin-field design. The mated set is low-profile, from 5 mm to 10 mm stack heights, and is standard in four rows with up to 400 total pins.
The mating APM6 terminal and APF6 socket are data rate compatible with PCIe Gen 5 and 100 GbE, with a high density pinout. With added isolation and a high performance breakout the AcceleRate-HP can also target 112 Gbps PAM 4 applications.
Bulls Eye Test Point System
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.
Here’s another demo that utilizes Bulls Eye with a high-density NovaRay® system.
If you have questions about this demonstration, please contact us at SIG@samtec.com.
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