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Card Edge Connector
Industrial, IT Datacom
Anyone who has run a wave-solder line knows the frustration: a through-hole connector that lifts, floats, or leans during reflow of adjacent parts, turning a clean panel into a rework queue. This CONSHARE 98-pin PCIe card slot was engineered around that exact failure mode. The harpoon-style PCB tail anchors each pin inside its plated through-hole before solder ever flows, so the connector holds its position and coplanarity without fixtures or hand-tacking.
For board builders building standard PCIe add-in card interfaces at x8 lane width, that mechanical insurance matters more than any line on a datasheet — it is the difference between a first-pass yield above 99% and a line full of touch-up operators.
Conventional straight DIP pins rely entirely on solder for retention. Between insertion and soldering, they are free to rock. The harpoon opening changes that: each tail splits into a barbed profile that bites lightly into the hole wall on insertion.
What this buys you on the production floor:
Zero-fixture pre-solder positioning — insert, flip the panel, solder. No glue dots, no heat-resistant clamps.
Resistance to pin lean during second-side processing — the barb keeps every tail centered in its hole even when the board travels through handling robots.
Straightforward rework when you do need it — the barb grips, but does not deform the hole wall, so a desoldered connector leaves a clean, reusable PTH.
Pin length on a through-hole slot is not an arbitrary number. At 2.31mm, the tail protrusion is sized so the pin fully enters a standard PCIe CEM footprint hole and presents enough exposed length for reliable wetting in wave or selective solder, without standing so proud that it shadows neighboring joints or snags on conveyor rails. If your stack-up uses thinner or thicker boards than the CEM reference, this length still lands in the workable window for most 1.6mm–2.4mm PCB designs — but confirm your hole spec against the recommended footprint before release, as with any slot connector.
The contact fingers receive a gold flash over barrier plating. For an edge-card interface, this is the pragmatic finish choice: enough noble-metal coverage to keep contact resistance low and stable across insertion cycles and years of vibration, without the cost of heavy gold that a server backplane interface does not need. The solder-side tails remain solderable and are intended for standard leaded or lead-free profiles.
One note worth more than it sounds: a slot connector's real-world contact performance is decided as much by beam geometry and normal force as by plating. CONSHARE tunes both together, which is why the finish spec alone should never be your only comparison point between vendors.
The connector ships in tube pack. For a 98-position through-hole part, tubes do three jobs that bulk bags quietly fail at:
Packaging Concern | Tube Pack (this product) | Bulk Bag |
|---|---|---|
Pin straightness on arrival | Protected — pins never contact each other | Common source of bent tails |
Coplanarity after transit | Maintained by tube channel geometry | No guarantee |
Manual vs. semi-auto loading | Both supported, tubes index directly to fixtures | Manual picking only |
Counting and kitting accuracy | Fixed quantity per tube, easy audit | Count disputes |
If you have ever opened a shipment to find a dozen slots with mashed pin fields, you already know why this row of the spec sheet deserves attention.
Before quoting, run your design through these four questions. They resolve most of the mismatches we see between customer expectations and a 98-pin x8 slot:
Lane width — your add-in card population is x8 native, or the design tolerates a x8 slot for lower-cost cards? If you need x16 card support, a different pin count in the same family applies.
Mounting process — wave, selective, or paste-in-hole reflow? All three are compatible with the harpoon tail, but paste volume and hole fill requirements differ; involve your process engineer early.
Signal generation target — this slot follows the established CEM mechanical envelope; if your platform pushes upper-generation signaling, ask us for the insertion-loss and crosstalk data package matched to your data rate before committing the footprint.
Card retention hardware — if your chassis requires screwless retention or back-mounted brackets, confirm the mounting ear option at inquiry stage — this is a customization we run frequently.
Typical programs that source this slot in volume:
Industrial computing platforms — machine-vision grabber cards, motion-control I/O, and GPU compute in x8 lanes where the card must survive shock and vibration in the field
Edge servers and storage controllers — HBAs, NVMe transition cards, and network adapters in dense 1U/2U chassis
Test and measurement fixtures — PCIe interface cards for ATE racks, where slots are inserted and removed far more often than in a consumer PC, making contact finish and beam durability the deciding factors
Communications equipment — DSP and accelerator modules in basestation and routing hardware, often deployed in thermally demanding enclosures
The common thread: applications where a card cannot be allowed to walk out of its slot, and a solder joint cannot be allowed to crack.
Every production lot passes dimensional verification on pin pitch, tail coplanarity, and harpoon opening profile — the three geometry points that decide whether the connector assembles well on your line. Contact resistance, insertion/extraction force, and solderability sampling are performed per lot, and full measurement reports travel with each shipment on request. This is available to customers as receiving-inspection support documentation, which shortens your incoming QC loop considerably.
Standard configurations ship from running production with short lead times; the manufacturing line runs this platform continuously rather than campaign-by-campaign, which is what lets us hold delivery commitments when connector markets tighten. For scheduled releases against forecast, we operate buffer-stock agreements so your MRP dates do not slip because of a connector line item.
Frequently executed modifications for this platform include alternate packaging (tray or tape per your SMT/DIP line), marking and tube labeling to your part numbering, tailored contact plating thickness for corrosive-environment deployments, and reel/tube quantity splits for kitting. Tell us the constraint; more often than not the answer is a standard process, not a special project.
Yes — that is its function. The barb engages the hole wall on insertion and maintains position and coplanarity through board handling and soldering.
The tails are processed for lead-free soldering profiles. Share your peak temperature and time-above-liquidus values and we will confirm compatibility against the current process window.
Both are available. Sample kits ship with the recommended PCB land pattern and hole specification so your layout team can verify fit before the design freezes.
Tubes index directly into most manual and semi-automatic insertion stations. If your line uses a specific tube width or pitch standard, confirm it at order stage and we will match it.
This platform covers a range of PCIe slot configurations. Send your requirement — pin count, stack height, retention method — and we will map it to the closest standard variant before anything custom is quoted.
