Power Connectors Align With High-Rel Needs

Emerging Trends
Certain industry trends seem likely to have an impact on future connector developments. One that's already taking hold is the shift to gold plating on power pins. Besides lowering contact resistance, gold allows for a greater number of mating cycles because it requires less contact force. That's partly because the gold acts as a lubricant between contacts. But also, gold plating doesn't corrode. Therefore, the contacts don't have to break through an oxide layer as they do with tin plating.

Down the road, other issues may come to the fore. For example, as current levels continue to rise in the future, power contacts may not only be re-quired at the power supply interface to the system but also at the interconnect to individual cards.

The approach to rating power contacts for the standard 30°C temperature rise may also come under scrutiny. Mike O'Connell of Molex notes that when designing servers, engineers are coming up with new ways to cool the backplane. So rather than being concerned about the 30°C temperature rise, they might instead emphasize the importance of having an electrically stable power interface to ensure balanced current sharing across multiple pins.

The move to lead-free design is another issue that will need to be addressed, says O'Connell. Redesigns of connectors with the new, lead-free solders will require the requalification of these components by connector manufacturers and their customers. Like many other changes in the connector world, such developments will probably be overshadowed by innovations elsewhere in the industry, but are nevertheless crucial to the success of cutting-edge designs.