Samtec continues to expand its line of shielded interconnects, both board-to-board and cable-to-board systems. These are used in a variety of industries and applications, one being industrial equipment.
Shielded interconnects are a good thing because EMI is a four-letter word for most designers. I do and don’t mean that literally, although I do know there are three types of people in this world: those who can count and those who can’t.
Anyway, not to be Captain Obvious, but most board-to-board connectors have well-designed signal to ground configurations for SI performance, which require low mode-conversions to reduce radiated noise or susceptibility to noise. In the event additional shielding performance is needed, connectors can be encased in a outer metal shield.
Key elements of a shielded cable assembly depend on the design of the cable and connector shields [e.g. shell conductivity & coverage], and the methodology to provide circumferential mating at each interface. The shielding performance is only as good as its weakest link. For this reason, it is crucial the cable assembly solution is a continuous shield from start-to-end.
The following is a quick list of some of our more popular shielded interconnects, and below that is a little more information about our testing capabilities.
Edge Rate® Shielded Interconnects
Samtec is expanding its line of rugged, high-speed 0.80 mm pitch Edge Rate® interconnects. First is a mating set with both socket (ERF8 Series) and terminal (ERM8 Series) strips that are fully shielded. The shield encircles the entire mated connector system (a full 360ᵒ) to minimize the effects of EMI and EMC.
The 12 mm stack with shielding is already released, and 10, 14, and 16 mm stack heights will be available in late December. These shielded systems are available initially in 20, 40, 50 and 60 positions, as well as vertical and edge mount orientations for parallel, right angle, and coplanar applications. Specify the -EGPS option for the shielded Edge Rate system.
Ultra-Micro, Shielded Interconnects
Samtec’s line ultra-micro, hermaphroditic Razor Beam™ interconnects are available with shielded options. The LSHM series is a 0.50 mm pitch system available with a shielding option. The LSHM is available in vertical orientations (with stack heights from 5 – 12 mm) and in right angle designs.
Shielded Interconnects with Integral Ground Planes
Q2™ interconnects have an integral power/ground plane. If used for power it is rated up rated up to 17.7 A. On 0.635 mm pitch, Q2 products have increased insertion depth for
rugged applications, up to 156 signal pins/48 differential pairs standard, and are available in stack heights from 10-16 mm. The QMSS, QFSS series incporate out shielding for EMI protection. Shielded Q2 products include:
- QMSS terminal strip
- QFSS socket strip
- QMSS differential pair configuration
- QFSS differential pair configuration
- QMSS power combo connector
- QFSS power combo connector
- QMSS -DP power combo connector
- QFSS -DP power combo connector
Other shielded interconnects include a high-speed, twinax cable assembly (6QDPS series), a 2.00 mm shielded cable assembly system (ST2M series terminal strip mating with an SS2SD discrete shielded cable assembly), and RF cable assemblies (C28S series, RS316 series), to name a few.
Verifications
Working both in-house at our Harrisburg Design Center and through various partners, Samtec product can be simulated and tested using methods such as:
- HFSS Simulation of Designs
- Total Radiated Power [TRP]
- EMI Mitigation using absorber
- Shielding Effectiveness Testing in Mode Stirred Chamber
- Raw Cable / Cable Assembly Performance
- TRP of Active Devices
- Shielding Effectiveness in Dual Reverb Chambers (see photo to the right)
- Shielded I/O cages
- Power Transfer thru Connector Shields
- OATS Range thru 3rd parties for compliance
A brief example of our shielding tests and results is illustrated in the video below.
Please contact the Signal Integrity Group if you would like more information.