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Card Edge Connector
Industrial, IT Datacom
Choosing the wrong connector height isn't just a mechanical mismatch — it derails your signal integrity budget before the first prototype boots. This connector family spans three distinct stack heights, each engineered for a specific PCB spacing scenario inside server racks and storage enclosures.
Variant | Stack Height | Part Number | Best Matched Scenario |
|---|---|---|---|
TYPE 1 | 1.57 mm | CUGZ168B11A47 | Blade-to-backplane tight-packing |
TYPE 2 | 1.93 mm | CUGZ168B11B47 | Mid-gap daughter card routing |
TYPE 3 | 2.36 mm | CUGZ168B11C47 | High-density dual-socket risers |
The 1.57 mm option keeps your blade chassis footprint at minimum — you're trading mechanical breathing room for maximum slot density. The 1.93 mm sits in the middle where most OEMs land: enough clearance for thermal expansion without wasting rack space. The 2.36 mm gives you room to route thicker dielectric layers or double-sided component placement near the connector zone.
The Au30u'' (30 micro-inch gold) contact finish isn't a marketing number — it's the threshold where contact resistance stays flat across thousands of insertion cycles. Below 30μ", gold plating wears through to the nickel underlayer within a few hundred mate/demate operations, and resistance spikes unpredictably. At 30μ", CONSHARE's contacts hold stable resistance values well past the 500-cycle mark that most server maintenance schedules demand. If your field teams swap blades quarterly, this plating depth is what prevents intermittent link drops that show up only under vibration or thermal cycling.
Impedance discontinuity at the connector boundary is the single biggest contributor to return loss in GEN Z channels. These three variants share a common contact geometry tuned to the SFF TA-1002 impedance target, so your PCB trace transition doesn't need a radical redesign just because you switch from TYPE 1 to TYPE 3. The matched impedance path through the contact spring, housing entry, and PCB launch point keeps reflections below the threshold that triggers re-training in 56G PAM4 links.
Every dimension on this connector family carries the same tolerance grade: ±0.50 mm on single-decimal places, ±0.25 mm on two-decimal, and ±0.15 mm on three-decimal dimensions. That's not a blanket spec — CONSHARE enforces it per critical feature on the production floor. Stack height dimensions, which directly control your impedance window, are measured and recorded per lot. When you request a first-article inspection report, you get actual measured values, not "pass/fail" checkboxes. This traceability matters when your signal integrity simulation assumes a specific mating height and you need to confirm the physical part lands within that model's tolerance band.
Standard variants (all three part numbers listed above) ship from CONSHARE's ready stock — no 8–12 week wait for a production run that delays your board spin. For custom plating, housing color, or pin-count modifications, CONSHARE turns prototype samples in under 15 business days. Full production quantities follow within 4 weeks after sample approval. Compare that to the industry average of 6–10 weeks for any deviation from catalog specs, and you see where CONSHARE's manufacturing flexibility directly compresses your NPI timeline.
Not every server chassis obeys the SFF TA-1002 reference layout. CONSHARE opens the following modification paths on this connector family — and each one follows the same tolerance regime as the standard product:
Custom Item | What You Can Specify | Prototype Lead Time |
|---|---|---|
Contact plating thickness | 10μ" to 50μ" gold, selective or full dip | ≤ 15 business days |
Housing material color | Natural, blue, black (ultra-low creep formulations) | ≤ 15 business days |
Pin/signal mapping | Reassign differential pairs to match your ASIC pinout | ≤ 15 business days |
Tail length & PCB footprint | Adjust solder tail geometry for your specific via field | ≤ 15 business days |
Customization isn't a separate workflow at CONSHARE. It runs on the same production line with the same inspection gates, which means your modified part carries the same dimensional pedigree as the catalog variant your simulation was built around.
GEN Z 4C+ connectors carry a keyed housing that prevents reverse insertion — but the key only works if your PCB stencil aligns the solder tail pattern correctly. A 180° rotated footprint still lets the connector sit flush on the board, and you won't discover the error until signal mapping fails at system integration. Verify the pin-1 marker on your Gerber matches the connector's visual key before you commit to production panelization.
If a connector needs removal after soldering, don't use a hot-air rework station set above 260°C. The housing's glass-filled liquid crystal polymer starts dimensional creep above that threshold, and your stack height shifts enough to alter impedance by several ohms. Use a controlled-temperature soldering iron with a wide tip to heat the tail pads individually, and never apply lateral force while the solder is molten — that shifts the contact spring geometry permanently.
Yes, mechanically. The housings share the same envelope width and keying direction. Electrically, make sure your trace impedance target matches both stack heights simultaneously — the contact impedance path is common across all three, but the PCB via transition varies with tail length.
Under the Au30u'' plating specification, CONSHARE's qualification data shows stable contact resistance through 500 cycles. For environments that exceed this (e.g., test lab fixtures), request the 50μ" plating option under the customization program.
The GEN Z 4C+ form factor includes provisions for optical fiber inserts in designated bays. The copper-only variants listed here (CUGZ168B11A47/B47/C47) carry all signal lanes as electrical contacts. If your design calls for hybrid copper-plus-optical, contact CONSHARE for a custom pin map that allocates specific lanes to fiber ferrules while retaining the copper pair geometry for the remaining channels.
