The Si-Fly cable assembly from Samtec lets you mount connectors to a board while going under cooling components.
High-speed digital ICs such as microprocessors, GPUs, ASICs, and electrical-to-optical converters need clean signals, and they generate lots of heat. To minimize the PCB traces where signals travel, engineers need to mount cables as close to the IC as possible. Because of the heat issues, these semiconductors also need heatsinks that are often larger than the device package’s footprint. That pushes the cable away from the semiconductor package, which can create signal-integrity issues. Samtec’s Si-Fly cable assemblies have connectors that can fit under an IC package. You can mount the Si-Fly assembly all around your device.
The Si-Fly cable assembly consists of a board-mounted connector and a connector on the cable. When mated, the connectors need 4.35 mm of clearance but need 8.44 mm clearance for mating.
Available in a two-row, 16-pair design, the Si-Fly uses 34 AWG twinax cable wire with 92 Ω or 100 Ω impedance. It handles data rates up to 112 Gb/sec for signals that use PAM4 modulation. In the 16-pin configuration, the Si-Fly 896 Gb/sec (×8, bidirectional) or 1.79 Tb/sec (×16, unidirectional). Thus, it can handle signals compatible with PCIe 6.0/CXL 3.2. Operating temperature is -25°C to 85°C.
Filed Under: cable assemblies, Electrical, Featured
