New Micro Power Connectors: Cable Assembly and Board-to-Board Systems

Mountain Dew to Diet Mountain Dew. M&M’s to Peanut M&M’s. Clorox Bleach to Clorox Wipes. Coors to Coors Light. These are a few well-known and successful brand extensions in the consumer product world.

I would like to think that the new connector brand extension I’m going to tell you about will also become a well-known global household name. But if not, you may still be very interested in learning about a new micro power cable assembly and board-to-board connector options added to our popular mPOWER® line of micro power connectors.

mPOWER Micro Power Connectors

The Samtec mPOWER connector system is a micro, high-power solution with incredible design flexibility for power-only or power/signal applications. Due to the wide variety of stack heights available, mPOWER^® can be easily added to new or existing architectures alongside one of Samtec’s high-speed connector systems for either a unique two-piece power or a signal + power solution.

Here’s a quick overview of what’s new …

New mPOWER Cable Assembly

The new UMPC is a micro power cable assembly. It’s available in up to 10 positions, with current ratings from 16.8 A per contact to 8.8 A per contact (the latter is the rating if all 10 pins are powered).

The UMPC is available with rugged latching options. A plastic latch is available on the top of the cable connector, or two metal latches are available on the side of the connector. Designers can also specify Teflon® cable, in addition to the standard 16 or 18 AWG PVC cable.

Individual components and tooling are also available.

mPOWER Board-to-Board  (Vertical, or Parallel)

We have expanded our offering of two-piece micro power board-level connectors (the UMPT and UMPS series) to now include up to 10 power pins per connector, and we’ve expanded the board-to-board stack heights from 5 mm to 20 mm.

mPOWER Right-Angle (Perpendicular)

A new right-angle (90°) micro power terminal strip (UMPT-RA) is available for perpendicular board-to-board applications.

mPOWER connectors are available with optional weld tabs to increase the mechanical strength of the connector to the PCB, they are rated as Severe Environment Tested connectors, and you can selectively load contacts to achieve specific creepage and clearance requirements.