Anyone who’s ever looked inside an old desktop laptop and unplugged a ribbon cable is aware of the humble pin header. This connector is an easy but efficient way to attach two boards collectively in a stacked arrangement. Actually, it’s so fashionable that it’s been used to build add-on shield boards for common platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi, both of which have seen success outdoors the maker house. In a current engagement with a client, I used to be surprised to see how that they had stacked up a number of Raspberry Pi boards to run some crucial tools, which exhibits the significance of board-to-board connectors in most of these modular techniques. Even though pin headers are simple, it doesn’t imply they aren’t helpful. However, they aren’t the only possibility, and there are lots of board-to-board connector options for top velocity/high frequency methods, or for prime voltage/high energy systems. These connectors discover their manner into methods as numerous as army equipment to medical equipment. If you’re taking a modular design strategy to your next hardware platform and you might want to hyperlink a number of boards collectively easily, consider board-to-board connectors as a substitute of cables.
There are various price-efficient choices available on the market that may ensure signal integrity and rugged design in a spread of techniques. Board-to-board connectors are available a variety of styles and sizes to give a modular feel to a multi-board PCB system. If you enjoyed this information and you would such as to get more info concerning High-density PCB connector news kindly go to our own web-site. Pin headers: Most designers are aware of the 1-row or 2-row pin header association with 1 mm pitch. There are variations on this fashion, including stacked pin headers. Pin headers might be shrouded and keyed (even multi-keyed) to ensure pinouts match when boards are connected. Mezzanine connectors: This kind of board-to-board connector joins two parallel printed circuit boards in a stacked configuration. There are lots of mezzanine connector styles. Note that a pin header can be utilized as a mezzanine connector. Edge card connectors: This model connector is mostly identified for its use in RAM sticks and COMs/SoMs. Really, it can be utilized for any board-to-board connection along a board edge, whether or not with a customized or standardized pinout.
Backplane connectors: This sort of connector deserves its personal category, both because of its must accommodate excessive data charges and very rugged development. Standardized connectors: Some connectors could also be developed to meet very particular trade standards beyond edge connector kinds for add-in playing cards. Standards organizations that have defined particular connector types embody VITA (for backplanes), PCI-SIG (PCIe playing cards), IEEE (e.g., 1386 commonplace for mezzanine), JTAG, Pc/104 (sq.-submit pin headers), and others. There are a lot of other connectors that don’t fall into one of many above categories. The picture beneath reveals an instance of some typical products that fall within these categories. The image above is only a subset of all the different board-to-board connectors accessible on the market. Obviously, there are various variations on these connectors with totally different pin/pad counts, key/shroud styles, mounting types (SMD vs. When you’re trying by a vendor’s webpage or filtering by means of a components search engine, there are a couple of alternative ways vendors will categorize their parts.
Within these different types of board-to-board connectors, they may be classified as ruggedized, high speed, high frequency, high present/excessive power, or another designation. This is essentially marketing converse as there is no such thing as a universal definition of a high velocity connector, excessive energy connector, and many others. One vital exception is backplane connectors, that are strictly defined within the ANSI/VITA standards, where specific styles pair with completely different media (copper, fiber, or coaxial cable). Another highly standardized connector model is the IEEE 1386 mezzanine connector. As is the case with many other parts, vendors will target particular industries with their merchandise and will try to target specific applications in those industries. As a result, you’ll see styles of board-to-board connectors that might be extremely ruggedized with hard plastic shielding as they goal areas like automotive, aerospace, industrial programs, or energy products. In general, you may usually discover a ruggedized version of a normal connector that has the identical pinout, mounting fashion, and pitch as its less rugged variant.