High Speed Connector Market is Humming

Board mounted connectors designed for multi-gigabit applications are continuing to evolve as the market sorts out what it really needs. This process has taken longer than many connector suppliers had anticipated. While sales of high-speed backplane and mezzanine connectors continue to grow at a decent pace, the total annual value of this segment still lags what was anticipated just a few years ago.

Connector suppliers and users offer a variety of reasons for this less than robust growth including the 2000 to 2003 communications industry meltdown — lack of industry standards, user resistance to changing from well established interconnect technology, lack of supporting high-speed chips, and inexperience in modeling multi-gigabit channels using frequency domain data (S-parameters). The transition from megahertz to gigahertz design is not a trivial issue and requires a careful rethinking of every element in the entire channel, making extensive signal integrity support from component suppliers essential.

The transition from wide parallel busses to high-speed, low-voltage differential signaling required the creation of a new generation of connectors. Data lines operating at less than one Gb/s can be handled by open pin field connectors with the appropriate signal to ground ratio. As signal speed increases, more dedicated ground pins become necessary to control noise and loss resulting in reduced overall signal density. The solution was the introduction of controlled impedance connectors specifically designed to optimize differential signaling. Products from a variety of major manufacturers were introduced in late 1990s that incorporated internal shield structures that established controlled impedance paths through the connector as well as provided signal isolation between adjacent pairs. Suppliers such as, AMP, FCI, Robinson Nugent and Teradyne were early innovators in this new arena.  The market for high-speed connectors has since proven to be a challenge from both technical and business perspectives.

To a large degree, the 2+ Gb/s backplane and mezzanine connector market is dominated by U.S. based connector manufacturers. The telecommunications segment is driving the market for multi-gigabit connectors, and recently is being focused on servers that demand the throughput offered by serial switched fabric architecture.

Suppliers, such as Harting, entered the market early but changed direction and withdrew. Others, such as Winchester Electronics, developed entirely new interfaces, introduced them to the market with much fanfare, gauged market response, and put their design back on the shelf. Other major suppliers such as Teradyne, (now Amphenol TCS), FCI Electronics, Molex, and Tyco Electronics have gone on to become the current leaders in the high-speed backplane connector market.

Developing the technical expertise necessary to design connectors capable of supporting 10+ Gb/s signaling is an expensive and time-consuming process. Experienced designers, advanced test equipment, and software tools necessary to develop effective high-speed connectors requires resources that may not be available to many connector manufacturers. Connectors cannot be treated as a stand alone device. They must be evaluated as one of many elements in a high-speed channel, which requires close collaboration with high performance chip vendors, advanced PCB material suppliers as well as leaders in circuit simulation and design tool software.

Extensive customer support well beyond publishing a catalog and data sheet is an essential aspect of commitment to the high-speed connector market. Large potential customers often have extensive internal resources available to evaluate competitive interfaces, but medium to smaller users must rely heavily on performance data, simulation results, and often one-on-one design help to successfully implement a new connector scheme. Industry leaders in the high-speed connector segment have invested deeply in expanding their signal integrity departments and have recently moved into making SI tools available on-line to their registered customers. The identification of emerging product needs, designing and tooling these new products as well as providing an exceptional level of customer support requires a long –term resource commitment that many second tier suppliers simply cannot make. Today, committing to be a leader in the high-speed connector market is more of a strategic decision than a decision for producing short-term revenue.

Today, three connector families share the bulk of the market for high-speed backplane connectors.

Amphenol TCS with its acquired Teradyne basket of high-performance products features the GbX™ connector as its flagship interface.

FCI Electronics introduced the AirMax VS® connector, which created a paradigm change by eliminating internal shield assemblies. The concept of shieldless high-performance connectors changed not only the way engineers thought about the design of these interfaces, but it also significantly lowered the price point for the entire market.

Tyco Electronics offers the Z-Pack™ HM-Zd connector family, which is one of the relatively few high-speed connectors to be defined in a backplane industry standard.  The Advanced TCA architecture calls out the use of a Zd type connector in zone 2 as the high-speed interface.

All three suppliers have been filling out these product lines with optional capabilities including board extenders, stacking versions, power modules and backplane cable interfaces. At the same time, improved modeling and simulation tools, together with major improvements in the signal conditioning capabilities integrated into transmitter and receiver chips, have expanded both the rated bandwidth and useable circuit length of these connectors.  Connectors that were originally rated to perform in circuits operating at 3-4 Gb/s now are being promoted as supporting 10+ Gb/s signaling.

Rapidly changing technology and applications have been the hallmark of the electronics industry and the high-speed connector market is no exception. Leaders in this connector segment are struggling to identify what the market will require in terms of bandwidth, signal density, signal integrity, and form factor over the next 5 years. The potentially conflicting requirements for faster signals, greater signal density, noise isolation, routability, manufacturability, and lower cost pose a real challenge to connector designers. Additional factors such as increasing system demand for power and the subsequent problem of managing the resulting heat, also impact the design of high-speed connectors.

The four market leading suppliers are responding with a virtual blizzard of new product offerings—

Amphenol TCS has added enhanced and reduced performance versions of their GbX product to provide both a migration path, as well as addressing applications that require a mix of both high and medium performance backplane interconnects. The GbX L Series (lower cost/ performance) and GbX E Series (enhanced performance) versions provide greater user flexibility to custom fit their requirements using elements within the same product family.  They have also introduced a series of new products focused on applications that require specific attributes.

The Aptera™ connector is a two-piece edge connector type interface, which is focused on the needs of the data storage industry. Its exceptionally low profile, and facilitates cooling airflow.	The Ventura™ connector fills a market niche for a high density / pin count interface designed to support single ended signaling. A select customer base focused on the large server industry drove the development of this connector.	Amphenol TCS recently introduced the Crossbow™ product family, which includes a unique midplane connector designed specifically for orthogonal architectures. A high-speed backplane connector designed to complement the Matrix midplane configuration is also part of this family. The orthogonal connector is rated to 25 Gb/s.
		Amphenol TCS is also nearing completion of qualification testing of their AirMax VS product, as a licensed second source to FCI, allowing them to sell two of the three leading high-speed interfaces on the market today.

FCI continues to fill out the many variations of their AirMax VS connector including standard and reverse sex versions, board extenders, mezzanine stacking connectors, and cable assemblies. They continue to gauge market interest in a BGA attached header.

Molex has been aggressively marketing their licensed GbX interface, offering extensive design support and use of their GbX FR-408 Reference Backplanes, which allows designers to measure specific circuit performance using a matrix of circuit parameters and PCB materials.

Tyco Electronics has been expanding their Z-PACK family line with the addition of the Z-PACK Max™, which offers high-speed performance in a shieldless interface to address more cost sensitive applications.
A variation of this interface is the Z-PACK Max Orthogonal designed to support cross-connect midplane applications.		Tyco is also in the process of developing their high density Z-PACK HM-Zd HD connector that will provide up to 66 differential pairs per linear board inch.

The global market for high-speed backplane connector sales in the 2 to 10+ Gb/s arena is difficult to measure and forecast due to a variety of factors including the continued use of traditional 2mm connectors in high-speed circuits, the profusion of available interfaces, and the declining price per line driven by high-volume users. Our best estimates at this time indicate the following values.

At this point, it appears that connector industry leaders see the advancement of high-speed interconnect technology as a critical skill that will become invaluable as interconnect performance increases across all future connector categories. The development of next generation backplane connectors such as the Micro TCA utilize what appears to be a standard edge card connection, but in fact is a result of advanced modeling and simulation work. The internal construction of this new connector, as well as the PCB launch embodies design techniques gained from experience in prior high-speed products.

This profusion of new product introductions from both the current market leaders as well as potential new entrants is expected to continue over the next year as manufacturers struggle to identify a market sweet spot for volume production applications as well as recognition as the industry leader. The shifting market dynamics together with evolving technology will continue to provide system designers with an expanding array of packaging options.