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Card Edge Connector
Industrial, IT Datacom
The BR0981X52XXXX from CONSHARE is a 98-position, PCIe Gen4 (16 GT/s) SMT card edge connector built for add-in cards on standard 1.57 mm PCB. The two details that set it apart are in the name: a full-width latch that locks the card into the housing, and an overhanging shell that guides the card edge home on insertion. Together they solve a problem most connectors ignore — keeping a card seated through years of fan vibration, field service, and rough handling.
Datasheet numbers only earn their keep when you know what they mean for your layout. Here is what this connector's electrical ratings translate to in practice:
Parameter | Rating | What it means for your design |
|---|---|---|
Contact resistance | 30 mΩ max | A stable, low-loss path on every pin pair, so insertion loss at 16 GT/s stays predictable |
Current rating | 1.1 A per pin min | Signal pins draw almost nothing, so the budget is available where you actually need it — power and sideband pins |
Insulation resistance | 1,000 MΩ min | No leakage drift between adjacent pins, even after dust and humidity settle in |
Dielectric strength | 500 V DC / 1 min | Comfortable margin above anything the PCIe rails realistically see |
The 1.00 mm pitch and phosphor bronze terminals keep the signal path short and consistent from pad to mating interface. For a Gen4 lane running at 16 GT/s, that consistency is what saves you from adding extra equalization or re-timing margin you did not plan for. If you are validating a new board, you can treat the connector as a known good — one variable fewer in the link budget.
The overhanging shell does the first job: it funnels the card edge into the contact area, so operators do not have to be precise on every insertion. The latch then takes over. When the card clicks in, the latch holds the mating force — not the contacts. That is the difference between a connector that survives five years in a rack and one that develops intermittent failures after the first re-seat. The 0.15 N minimum extraction force per contact pair adds up across 98 positions: enough retention to shrug off vibration, not so much that field technicians fight to pull a card out.
SMT connectors live or die by coplanarity, and this one is built to be well behaved:
Flat tails with tight 0.70 mm ± 0.05 tolerance spacing sit flat on the pads for consistent solder fillets
The housing is LCP with 30% glass fill — UL 94V-0 rated, black, and dimensionally stable through lead-free reflow peaks
Tape-and-reel packaging feeds straight into pick-and-place, no manual loading step
The 1.57 mm card thickness acceptance matches standard PCIe add-in card stock, so you are not asking board shops for anything exotic
Operating temperature spans -25 °C to +85 °C, which covers rack, workstation, and test-floor environments. Durability is rated at 50 mating cycles — for a card edge connector, that is the spec that tells you the gold is doing its job.
Gold thickness is the single biggest lever on connector cost, and most buyers over-spec it out of habit. The BR0981X52XXXX is offered with a full plating ladder, so you can match the finish to the actual insertion count of your product:
Option | Contact-area finish | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
A | Gold flash | Install-once modules and internal cards that will rarely, if ever, be removed |
B / C | 3u" / 5u" min Au | Standard service cycles — occasional re-seat during debug or upgrade |
D / E | 10u" / 15u" min Au | Frequent swapping: GPUs, accelerators, storage trays, test fixtures |
G | 30u" min Au | Long-life systems and harsh environments where re-termination is not an option |
Two details worth noting on every option: the solder tails always carry 80u" min tin over 30u" min nickel underplating, so solderability does not change with your gold choice. And because the whole terminal is nickel-underplated, the gold sits on a barrier layer that stops copper migration — the failure mode that shows up as a black, high-resistance film on cheap connectors after a few hot seasons. If your purchasing team only remembers one thing, make it this: pay for gold where it slides, not where it solders.
This is a card edge socket for boards that get handled, swapped, or shipped:
Server and storage — riser cards, NVMe adapters, and mezzanine modules that ride through fan vibration in a rack for years
Workstation accelerators — GPU and compute cards that users re-seat when drivers misbehave (or when the IT team is told to "just reseat it")
Test and measurement — bench fixtures and burn-in boards where cards come in and out daily, which is exactly the duty cycle the 30u" option is priced for
Industrial PCs and edge gateways — equipment that ships, gets bolted into a cabinet, and is expected to still be working at the next service interval
For the product page itself, use a high-resolution shot of the latch side with a card partially inserted — that is the angle that shows the retention feature buyers are actually searching for. Name the file pcie-gen4-98p-smt-connector-latch-overhang.jpg and set the alt text to "PCIe Gen4 98-pin SMT card edge connector with latch and overhang, CONSHARE BR0981X52XXXX" so the image reinforces the same keywords as the copy.
Key dimensions are marked as inspection priorities on the drawing, and that is not decorative: every lot is checked against those critical points before release, with material compliance verified against RoHS and, where specified, halogen-free requirements. Parts ship with the documentation trail a quality engineer actually wants, not just a packing slip.
The BR0981X52XXXX ordering code is built for options, not exceptions. Pin count, contact plating (A through G), environmental grade (RoHS / general purpose / halogen-free), packaging, and color are selected in the part number itself — so a variant is a code change, not a re-engineering project. Additions like a dust cap or Mylar cover can be fitted for storage and shipping protection when boards sit in inventory before final assembly.
Because the option matrix stays inside one tooled platform, standard configurations ship from stock or on a short production cycle, and the tape-and-reel format means the connector arrives ready to load. For a line down, that is the difference between a schedule slip and a non-event. Engineering samples for layout validation are available before you commit volume.
Standard 1.57 mm add-in card stock. The latch and overhang are dimensioned around that thickness, so stay with it unless your mechanical team has a specific reason not to.
Match the finish to how many times the card will actually be mated over the product's life. Flash gold is fine for install-once; every re-seat plan pushes you up the ladder. The solder tails are tin regardless, so your choice does not affect assembly yield.
Yes. It is supplied on tape and reel, the SMT tails have controlled coplanarity, and the LCP housing withstands lead-free reflow without distortion.
The part number carries an environmental code — R for RoHS, H for halogen-free, G for general purpose. All materials are RoHS-compliant by default; specify the code you need at ordering.
Yes. A cap and a Mylar cover option are both available for inventory storage and transit protection, and they can be specified without changing the connector's mechanical footprint.
-25 °C to +85 °C, which covers rack, industrial, and test environments. If your application sits outside that window, talk to CONSHARE engineering — the same platform can be evaluated for extended-range material options.
